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The severe drought that hit the Danube basin in summer 2026 did not end with August. At the end of the month, along the border between Romania and Bulgaria, river discharge had fallen to around 1,600 cubic meters per second, compared with a long-term August average of around 3,900. In the first days of September, several gauges along the Danube continued to record water levels below the reference low-flow thresholds.
But the level of the great river is only the most visible part of the problem. When water decreases, conditions also change in the wetlands, peatlands, meadows and small watercourses that make up the basin’s ecological system. Habitats designed or restored only a few years ago may no longer be able to perform the function they were intended to serve.
FOR THOSE IN A HURRY
• The summer 2026 drought brought the Danube to exceptionally low levels, and its effects are still visible in September.
• In Bavaria’s Große Laber valley, heat and water scarcity are already forcing some restoration measures to be reconsidered, particularly those involving amphibians, wetlands and meadows.
• Restoring an ecosystem in a changing climate does not necessarily mean rebuilding what existed in the past: it means redesigning the relationships that allow it to survive, adapt and evolve.
When a habitat stops working
The Große Laber is a tributary of the Danube that flows through Lower Bavaria. Here, the Capellino Foundation and the Deutscher Verband für Landschaftspflege (DVL) are carrying out a project together with four local Landcare Associations, to restore and connect habitats along the river, working on wetlands, species-rich meadows, watercourses and peatlands, while creating new habitats for threatened species. The project now involves a corridor that, through its extension, aims to reach the confluence with the Danube.
One of the clearest examples concerns the European tree frog. To encourage breeding, small fish-free depressions are created or restored, where water should remain long enough for amphibians to complete the early stages of their life cycle.
The 2026 drought, however, changed the starting conditions. During the spring, many of the monitored depressions dried out too early. Those most exposed to the sun lost their water quickly, while the presence of trees, shrubs and shade allowed other small pools to retain it for longer.
A seemingly simple difference, but a decisive one: a habitat can exist on paper and still be unable to perform its ecological function.
For this reason, some of the planned solutions are now being reconsidered. Digging a new pond is not enough: it is necessary to choose where to create it, understand how long it will be able to retain water and assess the role of the surrounding vegetation. The same applies to peatlands and wetlands, where measures aim to retain water more effectively and reduce losses.
The pressure of drought is also still visible in the latest updates from the field. At the end of August, DVL found far fewer marsh grasshoppers in the areas used as donor populations, presumably because of the extreme drought during spring and summer. To avoid weakening the source population further, only 50 individuals were translocated. During the same period, in Straubing-Bogen, the condition of the meadows was so severely affected by drought that the experts decided not to use one of the planned seed-collection techniques.
The project, therefore, is not simply implementing a plan established in advance. It observes how ecosystems respond and adjusts its interventions accordingly.
Restoration does not mean going back
We tend to imagine nature restoration as a return: rebuilding a forest, wetland or meadow and trying to bring it back to the conditions that existed before it was degraded.
But what happens when the climate has changed in the meantime?
If temperatures rise, rainfall patterns change and periods of drought become more frequent, rebuilding yesterday’s habitat exactly as it was may not be enough for it to function tomorrow. In deeply transformed systems, restoration may also require new configurations capable of recovering lost ecological functions under today’s conditions.
That is what is happening along the Große Laber. Shading a wetland, retaining water for longer, restoring a peatland or creating a network of connected habitats are not separate actions. Together, they rebuild the conditions that allow species to find refuge, reproduce, move and respond to change.
The stability of an ecosystem, therefore, does not mean immobility.
A natural environment works precisely because it changes: populations rise and fall, species move, watercourses reshape the landscape, and droughts and floods bring transformation. What matters is that the system retains enough relationships and ecological capacity to continue functioning, adapting and evolving.
The Great Danube Drought makes this challenge particularly clear. Restoring nature in a changing climate does not mean preserving a snapshot of the past. It means giving nature back the conditions it needs to find a new balance.
