Selected publications

This study is an important step to establish the use of satellite imagery for inland water quality monitoring. By using in situ measurements of the algal pigment chlorophyll-a from small-sized lowland lakes in Northern Germany, we identified the best performing atmospheric correction and bio-optical algorithm to accurately estimate chlorophyll-a from Sentinel 2 satellite images. 

The authors investigated thermal adaptation of Daphnia from lakes that had been exposed to artificially elevated temperatures for six decades, in comparison to Daphnia that lived in control sites at ambient temperature. Daphnia from heated lakes evolved larger body size, which is contradictory to general expectations and theory. They suggest that large size is adaptive during active overwintering.

The authors investigated how the genetic population structure of northern pike in Germany varies with the type of ecosystem and the integrity of the ecosystem using ecological status assessments of the Water Framework Directive and indices of the wetland quality and trophic state. The study revealed a positive association of the degree of genetic hybridisation with decreasing ecological status. 

In the current era of Big Data, synthesis tools are critical means to handle the deluge of information. The hierarchy-of-hypotheses (HoH) approach is such a tool that helps to (a) organize evidence, (b) organize theory and (c) closely connect evidence to theory. In this paper, the authors outline the HoH approach and offer guidance on how to apply it, using examples from ecology and evolution.

With a physically based model that couples flow and heat transport in hyporheic zones, the study provides insights into hyporheic responses to daily groundwater withdrawal and river temperature fluctuations. These interactions have impacts on temporal variability of hyporheic exchange, mean residence times and denitrification potential. Improved pumping schemes can restore ecosystem functions.

The authors used stable isotope and stomach content analyses to investigate whether European perch alter their diet composition as a consequence of an infection with eye flukes. The study shows for the first time that fish feed more selectively as infection intensity increases, allowing the parasites to modulate top-down effects of their host on lower trophic levels.

Freshwater megafauna are vulnerable to extinction, with over 50% of all classified species considered as threatened on the IUCN Red List. The authors found that human impact and traits related to species’ recovery potential including life span, age at maturity, and fecundity jointly determine their extinction risk. In addition, 17 out of 49 unclassified species were predicted to be threatened.

Photos or videos on social networks or other kind of internet-based data are emerging tools in biodiversity research and environmental sciences. In this overview article an international team of researchers has collected studies that analyzed how these emerging data sources can be used to optimize monitoring and control of invasive species spread.