Euro-Fish

The Euro-Fish initiative aims to create a genomic survey of all species of freshwater fishes of Europe in order to understand and avert the loss of biodiversity. Currently, there are believed to be about 600 native species of freshwater fishes in Europe. The European sub-continent is rich in its diversity of natural habitats. But, due to the long period of human settlement and the high density of human populations, the European landscapes have been altered significantly by water pollution due to eutrophication from fertilizers, agriculture, urbanization of large areas, and by dams. Fishes, that are crucial for almost all food chains in all freshwater ecosystems, are more affected and threatened by human activity than other groups of organisms such as mammals and birds. 88% of EU fish stocks are overexploited and severely depleted. For 76% of all European freshwater fish it is not even known what their population dynamics are. In order to better understand and protect Europe’s biodiversity, Euro-Fish plans to assay the genomic resources contained in the native fishes of Europe. This will help not only with better management of fish stocks, but also more generally in the implementation of better protection plans for ecosystems. This is of particular interest since freshwater fish, due to their tight interdependence to their surroundings, are a particularly suitable group in which one can study how climate change affected their distributions and adaptations to changing environmental conditions. The MPI-CBG and the CSBD are contributing to the EURO-Fish initiative together with the University of Konstanz, Germany, the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology & Inland Fisheries Berlin, and the Zoological Research Museum Alexander Koenig, Berlin. The Max Planck Society is funding this ambitious genome sequencing project.