Projects

Hyporheic Zone Processes – A training network for enhancing the understanding of complex physical, chemical and biological process interactions

Invasion biology has addressed or even solved several key questions about biological invasions, but the central issue of long-term effects of invasive species has remained critically unexplored. Several case studies exist about long-term population dynamics of invasive species and their impacts, but a general synthesis or understanding is currently lacking. This knowledge gap is critical, as long-term shifts in invader population densities and traits are likely and may have large consequences of ecological and economic interest. This project aims to narrow the knowledge gap.

EU research project to protect endangered migratory fish species (salmon, eel and sturgeon)

Climate change affects not only air temperature and precipitation, but also our streams and rivers: water temperature is rising, river flow characteristics are changing, oxygen concentration is sinking, while nutrient concentrations increase. This is not without consequence for the plants and animals living in freshwaters.

The recent discovery of a so-far disregarded diversity of abundant fungal (chytrid) parasites of phytoplankton is challenging our understanding on how aquatic ecosystems function. Combining physiological, ecological and evolutionary approaches, we aim to disentangle the role of chytrids in the aquatic food webs. 

The main objective of this project is to identify the key-factors of organic matter turnover in inundated peatlands. Based on our findings we might improve our predictions regrading the restoration of degraded peatlands.

Our surface and groundwaters struggle with a variety of different pressures, like water shortage, flow regulation, straightening or sediment and nutrient loading. The project MARS analyses how the combination of these stressors impacts aquatic ecosystems and their functions.

Innovative model and demonstration based water management for resource efficiency in integrated multitrophic agriculture and aquaculture systems