Selected publications

Microcosm experiments were performed to disentangle the direct and indirect effects of agricultural runoff (ARO) combined with warming on primary producers and their consumers in freshwaters. Negative effects of ARO on snail grazers affected the balance between functional groups of primary producers leading to a dominance of periphyton.The effect was enhanced when ARO arrived in multiple pulses.

The authors describe how a heat wave influenced heat tolerance and life history traits in 3 coexisting Daphnia species. Pronounced trait changes resulted in a shift in the degree to which species’ traits differ from each other. A single heat wave will affect species in isolation but also how they interact, emphasizing the need for multi-species studies at the interface of ecology and evolution.

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. 

The authors investigated the co-evolution of plant xylem water and soil water stable isotopic compositions in a northern mixed forest, Canada. They showed that differences in timing and intensity of water use between deciduous and coniferous trees may account for inter-specific variations in xylem water isotopic composition providing insight into how they may respond to hydroclimatic change.

Using a dataset of 979 introductions of 173 mammal species worldwide, the authors investigated the hypothesis that the establishment success of alien species depends on the match between environmental conditions in the exotic and native range. The study results support this hypothesis. They are based on the Niche Margin Index, which is presented as a new analysis tool in the paper.

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.