Selected publications

In this review, the authors provide a guide to state-of-the-art approaches that allow the collection and analysis of high-resolution behavioural data across development. They outline how such approaches can be used to address key issues regarding the ecological and evolutionary factors shaping behavioural development.

This review paper by international female experts on urban hydrology identifies gaps in our understanding of how water flows through built landscapes. It focuses on key topics within urban hydrology related to water quantity, incl. runoff and streamflow generation, soils and soil water, groundwater, vegetation, and climate; describes challenges and opportunities in the field of urban hydrology.

The authors introduce a theory for confluence mixing dynamics of shallow flows, in which the mixing process is controlled by two modes: one similar to a wake behind an obstacle and the other similar to a mixing layer between two parallel flows. The findings, supported by field-based experiments, provide insight into different modalities of flow structure controlling mixing at river confluences.

To analyse the influence of vegetation on water partitioning under land management strategies, the authors used stable water isotopes with contrasting land covers and soil types in the Demnitzer Millcreek. The study underlined the need for long-term observations of land use changes and drought-sensitive vegetation to evolve a drought resilient land management considering time lags.

The authors explored how spatial and temporal variability of lake food webs and their links to the terrestrial environment affect trophic transfer efficiency (TTE). They suggest that TTE can be estimated as mechanistic expression of energy flow between consumer and producer pairs, or as ecosystem efficiency comparing total sums of heterotrophic production rates with fixation rates of carbon.

The objective of this study was to understand the role of environmental variables explaining the distribution of three major eco-evolutionary groups of inland fishes. Despite marked differences in the distribution patterns of native and alien species, evolutionary and introduction histories as well as seawater tolerance are central factors explaining the current distribution of inland fishes. 

About 20 % of the newly sealed area is not in urban areas, but in rural areas, according to the model calculations of this study. Calculations of nutrient fluxes into water bodies have not taken these new sealings in rural areas into account, because these are often based on land use maps and consider urban areas. As a result, the nutrient loads of water bodies are systematically underestimated. 

The authors analysed the trajectories of captive, wild-caught krill in 3D to determine individual-level interaction rules and quantify patterns of information flow. They demonstrate that krill align with near neighbours and that they regulate both their direction and speed relative to the positions of groupmates showing that social factors are vital to the formation and maintenance of swarms.