Selected publications

Wastewater still contains high amounts of trace organic compounds and organic matter after the wastewater treatment plant. These compounds are usually discharged to rivers with the treated water. The study shows that in the hyporheic zone of the river, i.e. the river sediment, degradation of trace organic compounds takes place simultaneously with a change in the composition of organic matter.

The authors compared stable isotopes of water in the plant stem (xylem) and in the soil over a complete growing season at five northern experimental sites to understand where plants get their water from and what the temporal dynamics are of such root water uptake. This paper was a main finding of an ERC Grant.

The authors studied water partitioning in different urban green spaces using stable isotopes. During the warm and dry 2019, evapotranspiration losses of grass and trees were higher than those of potentially more drought-resilient shrub. The study contributes to a better understanding of urban ecohydrological partitioning, which will be essential to sustainably meet water demands of urban green.

The authors applied an integrated modelling approach to address the complex species-specific macroinvertebrate responses to climate and land-use changes. The results indicate the non-linear response of species within the commonly used Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera and Trichoptera taxa to altered streamflow conditions and highlight the need to include the species level responses in such studies.

The authors suggest that lunar illuminated fraction should, in general, never be used in biological studies, as alternative variables such as horizontal illuminance better represent moonlight exposure, and therefore offer a greater chance of detecting the effects of moonlight. They provide a brief explanation of how moonlight varies with season and time of night.

Mixing within confluences is highly variable.This study relates patterns and amounts of mixing to three‐dimensional flow structure at three small confluences. The study indicates that generalization of mixing at confluences remains challenging but that advective lateral fluxes of streamwise momentum related to secondary currents or primary flow greatly enhance mixing at confluences.

Confluences are locations of complex hydrodynamic conditions within river systems. The effects on hydrodynamics and mixing of temperature‐induced density differences between incoming flows were investigated at a small‐size concordant bed confluence.

The authors have investigated whether and to what extent mining products from the Lusatian mining are deposited in the sediments of the River Spree: their signature in the river bed reaches 90 kilometres.