June 2020 – June 2021
Finances by: Landesamt für Natur, Umwelt und Verbraucherschutz des Landes Nordrhein-Westfalen NRW (LANUV)

In a previous research project (Transferring…Control studies), which was finished in 2018, the research group Aquatic Ecology developed a method to transfer stream type specific animals. The approach refers to the current state of knowledge about habitat preferences and drift behavior of the relevant benthos fauna. Natural substrate exposures (NSE) were developed, tested, and used in several experiments to facilitate the transfer of lotic species. The method proved to be an adequate tool for the active transfer of stream type specific benthos species from a so called donor stream into a recipient stream. Experiments carried out soon after the active translocation revealed that NSE-colonizers spread in the recipient by drifting downstream and moving upstream.

In the present research we analyze if previously transferred species established in the recipient stream. Again, we exposed NSE, assuming this method to be an adequate monitoring tool for species which had been transferred.