Selected publications

Riffle-pool sequences provide vital ecological services to aquatic organisms and are considered fundamental habitats in fluvial ecosystems. Little is known about riffle-pool hydrodynamics. The study presents a dataset on turbulent flow structure in riffle-pool sequences of a natural river,  the Tagliamento River in Italy.

The authors detected great concentrations of source hotspots on the northern regions associated to lentic ecosystems, main European rivers acting as ecological corridors for all freshwaters, and a mixed distribution of connectivity hotspots in southern and Mediterranean ecoregions.

The authors studied the needs and knowledge of stakeholders who own, work, research, or benefit from pondscapes in 8 countries. Using the analytic hierarchy process, this study shows that in general stakeholders in the European and Turkish demo-sites prefer environmental benefits, while stakeholders in the Uruguayan demo-sites rank the economic benefits higher.

The research team used a standardized, low-nutrient organic matter substrate (cotton strips) to quantify nutrient immobilization at 100 paired stream and riparian sites representing 11 biomes worldwide. Immobilization rates varied by three orders of magnitude, were greater in rivers than riparian zones, and were strongly correlated to decomposition rates. 

Variability is inherent to all natural ecosystems, yet the consequences of alterations to existing variability patterns in environmental factors expected under global change scenarios remain unclear. The authors identified sources of mismatches, challenges, and knowledge gaps to contribute to a research agenda on the effects of variability in aquatic systems. T

The authors performed a cross-timescale investigation of a suite of physiological processes governing phytoplankton growth under fluctuating light exposure during vertical mixing: Respiration was enhanced in the short periods of low light following higher photosynthesis at the lake surface, indicating a tight connection between photosynthesis, respiration and biosynthesis under fluctuating light.

The spatial and temporal variability of stable water isotopes were investigated in the Schlei and in the Baltic Sea boddens. The data improve the understanding of hydrological processes behind those dynamics. Further they will be a helpful contribution to multiple IGB projects, e.g. in context of migration studies of pike and analysis of biochemical processes in macrophytes

The authors studied, with an individual-based phytoplankton model, how toxins can evolve and how intraspecific variation of toxicity can be maintained in toxic phytoplankton blooms. They found that small-scale spatial heterogeneity generated by binary division of phytoplankton cells can explain the evolution of toxins as a public good and the coexistence of toxic and non-toxic genotypes.