Małgorzata Zofia Kowalska, Björn Kröger

Lake Views

Introduction

Lake views. Interdisciplinary research on changing European lakes: social anthropology & palaeontology discuss climate impacts, stonewort, and sustainable knowledge production.

Abstract

European lakes are changing. We, a Polish social anthropologist and a German palaeontologist, have personal histories with lakes – Lake Niedzięgiel in Poland and Lake Stechlin in Germany, respectively – whose character has shifted dramatically in recent years. Since the beginning of 2023, we have been discussing how to relate our scientific perspectives to these lakes and the changes they are undergoing. Here we provide an overview of our conversation, which takes a critical look at dominant practices of knowledge production and considers how we can bring different disciplines into dialogue to make research more responsive to climate change, and therefore more meaningful. We pay particular attention to stonewort: an aquatic macrophyte recognised as an “ecosystem engineer” in the lakes where it forms underwater meadows, but at the same time threatened by pollution and climate change. We conclude that new ways of researching and sharing knowledge are needed if we are to move towards a less destructive and instrumental relationship with lakes and their inhabitants.

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