Selected publications

A better understanding of water storage dynamics at medium scales, i.e. areas between 10 and 100 square kilometres, could help to better predict and ensure the availability of water resources, even in times of climate change. To this end, the researchers here synthesised findings from several long-term studies and introduced the concept of ecohydrological resilience. 

The paper presents a modeling approach to estimate time-varying travel times from the stream water to the streambed. The modeling is based on fluctuations in electrical conductivity in the surface water and in the porewater. Given the high temporal dynamics of transport in streambed sediments, the model will be a valuable tool for the assessment of reactive transport in streambed sediments.

This study investigated the formation of reactive species during the activation of the chemical oxidant persulfate with biochar and iron in different water types for the removal of organic contaminants. The presence of organic matter and chloride altered the reactive species formed, emphasizing that the water matrix is a critical factor for the application of this oxidation process .

The authors tested the effect of 3 migration velocities as well as oscillating and constant light conditions on the structure and function of the microbial community residing in sediments from migrating ripple and stationary patches: Light oscillation is the predominating environmental factor during ripple migration, resulting in an increased vulnerability of light-dependent photoautotrophs.

The field study compared sediment characteristics as well as multitrophic diversity and function in two vertical layers of migrating ripples and stationary patches in sandy lowland streams. It indicates that migrating bedforms create streambed heterogeneity by modulating the abundance, diversity, and structure of different trophic guilds of microbial communities and their resource acquisition.

This study investigated how organic micropollutants and the algal toxins prymnesins interact as mixtures in water extracts from the Oder River using neurotoxic effects on human nerve cells in vitro. The authors showed that prymnesins dominate the neurotoxic effects, but many of the detected organic micropollutants exacerbate the lethal effect of prymnesins.

The authors have compiled and analyzed the key environmental factors that led to the mass development of the brackish water alga Prymnesium parvum in the Oder in the summer of 2022. The data synthesis shows how multiple stressors combined to allow an alga that normally thrives in stagnant salt water to proliferate en masse in a completely atypical habitat.