en: Current Press Releases

The long-standing President of the Thünen Institute, Prof. Dr Folkhard Isermeyer, passed away on 14 January 2025 at the age of 67. With his passing, the Thünen Institute has not only lost its ‘architect’, an excellent scientist and clever strategist, but also a personality who led with trust, an…

The German and European food systems are neither healthy nor sustainable. Too many animal-based and too few plant-based products are consumed. A corresponding adjustment of value-added taxes would benefit human health, the environment and the economy.

The chart shows for Europe: 23 kg less animal products, 10 kg more plant products, 63 million tonnes less CO₂ equivalents, 167,408 fewer deaths and 83 million US dollars less costs.

Limestone quarries are important habitats, especially for endangered wild bee species. This was discovered by researchers from the Thünen Institute, the University of Göttingen and NABU in the Göttingen region.

In a barren quarry, a yellow flower is blooming.

An interdisciplinary research team demonstrated in their new study that harmful phthalates and endocrine disruptors are released from common soft plastic baits

Various rubbery fishing lures that look like fish lie on the palm of one hand.

The eastern Baltic cod stock is in crisis since years. Despite historically low fishing pressure, it is not recovering. A conclusive explanation for this is still lacking. Scientists from the Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnemünde and the Thünen Institute of Baltic Sea Fisheries now…

View from above of a ship's deck and a huge brown patch of blue-green algae on the water

In the discussion about climate change mitigation, technical terms are not always used correctly. This can have unintended consequences.

Bird populations benefit significantly from agricultural fallows, especially in landscapes with medium structural complexity

Eine singende Grauammer in einer blühenden Brachfläche.

The Thünen Institute of Forest Ecosystems publishes for the first time national forest maps of Germany based on current satellite imagery and terrestrial data from the 2012 National Forest Inventory.