Institute

AquaEcology was founded in 2002 and lead since then by:

Dr. Claus-Dieter Dürselen, graduate biologist (PhD, MSc. Biology )

Thomas Raabe, graduate chemist (MSc. Chemistry)

AquaEcology currently employs around 20 people. In addition to biologists and chemists, this team also includes microbiologists and geologists. Our employees are proven specialists in the areas of environmental assessment and planning as well as biological and chemical analysis. This also includes specialized experts in the field of phyto-/zooplankton and macrophyte taxonomy.

The institute is headquartered in Oldenburg (Lower Saxony). Further branches are located in Hamburg and Bremerhaven. All offices are connected to fast internet nodes. In addition, the company has modern, well-equipped laboratories at its disposal.

Office Olden­burg (Lower Saxony): Steinkamp 19, 26125 Oldenburg, 0441-55978-530

Office Ham­burg: Tarpenring 13, 22419 Hamburg, 040-5390-4244

Office BRIG Bremerhaven: Stresemannstraße 46, 27570 Bremerhaven, 0471-3069-8710

AquaEcology was founded in September 2002 by the qualified biologist Dr. Claus-Dieter Dürselen and the graduate chemist Thomas Raabe in the city of Oldenburg in Lower Saxony as a civil law partnership (GbR) and converted into a GmbH & Co. KG in early 2009.

Since then, AquaEcology has grown steadily, now has a two-digit number of employees and two permanent locations. Over the years we have completed numerous projects, contributed to scientific publications and built up a comprehensive level of knowledge in aquatic ecology. You can find an overview of this here: References

In addition to university and research institutions working in the field of aquatic ecology, customers of our institute also include the Federal Environment Agency, the Federal Ministry of Research, the state ministries for the environment and various state offices. They maintain intensive and sometimes long-term measurement programs to monitor water bodies and use the analytical and expert options and expertise of AquaEcology for this purpose.

In the field of assessments of ecosystem compartments according to the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD), the company contributes to the conception and operationality of models and portals that can be used to create the corresponding reports at national and EU level.

In the scientific field, the institute offers various software modules based on Internet portals, which are directly accessible and can be used worldwide: A new web-based software is available for counting organisms, especially phytoplankton, zooplankton and macrozoobenthos, the counting program OrgaCount. This program runs in a server-based network system, but can also be used as a standalone program on mobile devices. All applications for the biological sector are developed on the basis of the basic software biodivDP, an information and database system that has a prominent example in the phytoplankton database Plankton*Net hosted by the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI). The database and software system mybiOSis is developed and hosted by the non-governmental organization “myNature Association” in Timisoara, Romania. The mybiosis.info portal is a local PESI (“Pan-European Species directories Infrastructure”, http://www .eu-nomen.eu/portal/) Focus listed for Romania. AquaEcology has a close cooperation with the myNature Association on the basis of long-term contracts.

AquaEcology is also very active in the area of ​​services for industrial companies and municipalities: Large industrial companies that plan to change the discharge of their process wastewater or would like to carry out other interventions in water systems have extensive water ecological reports drawn up for the necessary environmental impact studies. Municipalities and operators of natural pools have to control the quality of their bathing water and in this context they ask for remedial measures to restore a good ecological condition. AquaEcology has various concepts in its range that are specially tailored to the respective body of water.

Based on the high qualification and extensive expertise of its employees in the field of aquatic ecology, the institute also offers professional knowledge transfer in the form of seminars and training courses for scientific institutions and companies, if desired also in English.

Here you can find out more about our services, software or references. If you have any questions or are interested, please do not hesitate to contact us.

In 2019, AquaEcology moved into a new company building with modern offices and laboratories in the north of Oldenburg. The new building was supported with financial resources from the EU – European Regional Developement Fund (ERDF) – as well as from the state of Lower Saxony (NBank) and has further increased the company’s performance.

Within the frame of the Lower Saxony innovation funding program for research and development in companies and with funds from the ERDF fund for regional development, a research project was funded by the NBank from 2019 to 2021, in wich a device for standardised and automated membrane filtration of drinking water and natural waters for the enrichment of microorganisms was developed. The project was a collaboration with the Steinbeis Innovation Center – Process Engineering Applications in Mechanical Engineering – in Braunschweig and entitled “Development of a system for the automated enrichment of microorganisms in water and aqueous samples”.

In August 2020, AquaEcology opened a new location in Bremerhaven and, together with the Bremerhaven University of Applied Sciences (BIAMOL), developed a prototype for an on-site analysis system for the quick and safe detection of Legionella in industrial and drinking water systems. The system includes the entire analysis section including the evaluation and is easy to use. The development project was funded by the BIS Bremerhaven Economic Development Agency with financial resources from the EU – “Fund for Regional Developement” (ERDF) – and from the “Program for the Promotion of Applied Environmental Technologies PFAU” from the Bremen Senator for Climate Protection, Environment, Mobility, Urban Development and Housing. The funding period was almost 2 years.

By end of 2022, AquaEcology has started a new development project with the company RAST AG in Mannheim: The “KlaeZuMess” project (“Development of a sensor system for determining the inflow volume in sewage treatment plants with focus on partially filled pipes”) deals with the construction of a sensor system that can determine the effective and usable pipe cross-section for partially filled wastewater pipes in sewage treatment plants. This information is relevant for determining the inflow volume in sewage treatment plants, which has so far only been inadequately determined using conventional methods.

This project is also supported by NBank as part of the Lower Saxony innovation funding program for research and development in companies and with funds from the ERDF regional development fund over two years. Both project partners involved are jointly developing a corresponding sensor system with automated data measurement and evaluation.