Selected publications

The study demonstrates that parasitic fungi profoundly modify microbial interactions through several mechanisms (e.g., stimulating bacterial colonization on phytoplankton cells, altering the community composition of bacteria). Hence, fungal microparasites can substantially shape the microbially mediated carbon flow at the base of aquatic food webs which we termed "fungal shunt" . 

In this conceptual paper, the authors argue that micro- and macro-algae represent an underappreciated, yet, important pathway for transporting microplastics and associated pollutants via marine food webs to humans, facilitating potential invasion of pathogens into the human body. For the assessment of human health risks, interactions between microplastics and algae need to be explored.

This study presents a novel model approach for diffusive fluxes of dissolved gases, nutrients, and solutes from concentration profiles measured across the substrate-water interfaces using microsensors. The model offers a robust computational scheme for automatized determination of the interface position and enables precise calculations of the interfacial diffusive fluxes simultaneously. 

The team investigated the aquatic biodiversity in ponds located in different land-use types embedded in an agricultural area. Intensive agriculture erased most differences in aquatic biodiversity between grasslands, forests, and arable fields across all species from microbes to large organisms. Sediments, serveing as a biodiversity archive, reveal that such differences occured in the area.

To determine the drivers of phytoplankton biomass, the authors collected morphometric, physical, and biological data in 230 lakes in different European climatic zones. This summer snapshot of phytoplankton biomass and its drivers supports that light and stratification metrics are better predictors for phytoplankton biomass in nutrient-rich lakes than nutrient concentrations or surface temperature.

The paper reports impacts of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) and ionic silver (Ag+) on an aquatic processing chain of leaves, microbes, shredders and collectors. AgNPs and Ag+ affect multiple links of the processing chain at environmentally realistic concentrations. Shredders respond more sensitively than collectors. Leaf-associated fungal biomass and microbial leaf decomposition are being reduced.

The authors identified limitations to the development of multiple-stressor management strategies and address these within an empirical framework. They give recommendations for the use of empirical models and experiments to predict the effects of freshwater degradation in response to changes in multiple stressors and offer practical advice for management strategies in 3 multiple-stressor scenarios.

The study wanted to determine whether detritivore diversity enhances leaf litter decomposition in streams and how patterns vary across realms, biomes and climates. It indicates a positive relationship between detritivore diversity and decomposition rate particularly in the tropics, whereas at higher latitudes decomposition rate was more strongly correlated with detritivore abundance and biomass.