Founded on May 23, 1940.
Main research trends:
- determining basic mechanisms of freshwater ecosystem functioning, with the purpose of managing their state, water quality and bioproductivity;
- studying redionuclide migration, transformation and biological action on hydrobionts and on chemical pollution of water reservoirs;
- developing scientific principles for assessing and prognosticating the ichthyofauna state under the impact of natural and anthropogenic factors, and methods of its directed formation in various types of water reservoirs to preserve the genetic pool of valuable and endangered species, species diversity and improve fish productivity;
- elaborating ecological&biological fundamentals of hydrobionts cultivation.
Main achievements and developments:
To ensure sustainable development of Ukraine, preserve its water resources and biodiversity of continental reservoirs, the Institute is engaged in international programs and projects. UNDP-GEF ‘The Dnieper basin environment program’ is aimed at ecological restoration of the Dnieper basin on the territories of Byelorus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine.
This program resulted, in particular, in the development of a strategy for maintaining biological and landscape diversity in the Dnieper basin on the territories of Byelorus, the Russian Federation and Ukraine, in a comprehensive current register of ichthyofauna species, including invasive and endangered species. A procedure has been developed to detect and analyze point pollution sources (“hot” points).
Long-term studies of reservoirs of the Ukrainian part of the Danube basin have become the basis for the scheme of biodiversity and bioresource monitoring in the Kilia Danube Delta within the project of large-capacity vessel navigation in the lower reaches of the river.
To promote European integration of Ukraine, modern principles of assessing the ecological status of water objects, proposed by EC Water Framework Directive 2000/60, are gradually implemented in hydrobiological studies. Relying on this methodology, identification of river areas, whose ecological characteristics enable them to be used as references for assessing water-object status, has been proposed for the first time.
Ecological&physiological studies of fish reproduction allow the method of polycyclic reproduction of various species to be developed, which is independent of season and weather.
Advanced techniques of radioecological research permitted the researchers to find patterns in radionuclide distribution, migration and transformation in water ecosystems of Chornobyl exclusion zone, the Dniper basin and NPP cooling ponds, to determine irradiation doses and peculiarities of disordered vital functions of hydrobionts if they inhabit ecosystems with various levels of radioactive and chemical pollution.
The latest achievements of the Institute are related to hydroecology – a biological science that studies water ecosystems as integral systems of interactive components.