Selected publications

The authors present the skyglow illumination system for IGB’s LakeLab, a large-scale enclosure research facility in Lake Stechlin. This is the first experimental setup to mimic skyglow realistically at ecosystem scale. Light propagation was modeled using photonics tools, a method adaptable to other outdoor and indoor experiments, urgently needed to understand the impact of skyglow on ecosystems.

Benthic filamentous algal blooms in nutrient-poor, clear lakes are unusual but have increased recently – and the causes are often complex and largely unexplored. The authors have compiled possible reasons. They want to draw attention to the problem because benthic filamentous algae blooms can change the ecosystem profoundly and can contain toxic substances.

The authors investigated how ongoning changes in winter conditions may have consequences for annual phytoplankton biomass and production. They showed that earlier winter/spring runoff and snowmelt during warmer winters lead to lower summer chlorophyll-a in 41 north temperate lakes in Europe and North America.

Urban green space is of great importance for sustainable water management and heat reduction in cities. Using field measurements and a highly advanced ecohydrological model, researchers have investigated how water pathways differ depending on vegetation type. The result: trees potentially provide the strongest cooling effect, while grass promotes more groundwater recharge.

A research team has studied the close relationships between infectious diseases and biological invasions. The "One Health" approach considers the health of humans as well as animals, plants and other elements of the environment to prevent pandemics and the spread of invasive alien species.

The authors analyzed 18 long-term high-frequency lake datasets to assess the magnitude of wind- vs. rainstorm-induced changes in epilimnetic temperature. They found small day-to-day epilimnetic temperature decreases in response to strong wind and heavy rain during stratified conditions, but day-to-day temperature change, in the absence of storms, often exceeded storm-induced temperature changes.

The authors investigated the recovery of a small, temperate shallow lake from a strong flooding-induced browning and nutrient loading event. Concentrations of dissolved organic carbon and phosphorus remained elevated and affected primary production despite water levels dropping to pre-flood levels indicating consequences of extreme precipitation for lake water quality and aquatic food webs.

The authors used the IGB model EcH2O-iso with isotope tracers to quantify how different vegetation communities in lowland German catchments partition rainfall into evapotranspiration and groundwater recharge. This showed that forests account for greater water losses to the atmosphere and reduced recharge. Future losses under climate change can be optimised by species selection and management.