Projects

During this project the diversity of the little-known ichthyofauna in the northeastern tributaries of the Congo Basin (Lindi, Aruwimi / Ituri, Itimbiri) will be examined. An inventory will be made of all species present in the collections from this region and from yet unexamined collection material. Distribution maps will be drawn up on this basis, be tested against the existing (raw) distribution maps, and analyzed using GIS software. It will be investigated whether the fish fauna in this region uniformly distributed, or that the different systems exhibit a high degree of endemism, and whether the several waterfalls in the region have an impact on the species composition.
The genetic divergence between closely related species or intraspecific, between populations from different river systems or within the same system (geographic isolation by waterfalls) will be investigated with DNA barcoding. This technique can also be used as a supplementary method to identify problematic species or to discover cryptic species.