Presentation short abstract

Pollution and its effects in Berlin’s ponds varies widely across space, time, species, and institutional responsibilities. Combining chemistry, ecology, and stakeholder interviews, we map social-ecological linkages to guide improved governance and future planning.

Presentation long abstract

We investigate urban pollution in and around small urban waterbodies using an inter- and transdisciplinary approach in Berlin, Germany. We combine water chemistry, urban ecology, and data on public perception and human–wildlife interactions to understand how water, noise, and light pollution vary across the city and how they affect its multispecies inhabitants. We complement these datasets with interviews with district administrations and other stakeholders, together with publicly available information on wastewater, stormwater, and pond management and history. To integrate these heterogeneous materials, we apply a social-ecological network approach linking pollutants, species groups, infrastructures, and administrative actors. This method helps identify direct and indirect linkages across ecological and institutional domains. Our chemical analyses reveal distinct spatial and temporal differences in pollutants across ponds and small lakes, though it remains challenging to directly link pollution patterns to land use, human activities, or water sources. Ecological surveys show that bacteria, aquatic vegetation, birds, and bats respond differently to pollutants, highlighting how unevenly pollution affects various organisms. Interviews further reveal tensions in governance: as one stakeholder stated, “some ponds are there to be polluted” and function as buffers against urban contamination, while others act as essential stepping stones for biodiversity with exuberant life even in highly urbanized contexts. By linking these social-ecological patterns with institutional structures, our study lays the groundwork for evidence-based improvements in pond governance and supports a participatory scenario process to envision desirable futures for the more than 600 small waterbodies of the German capital.