Selected publications

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.

With a physically based model that couples flow and heat transport in hyporheic zones, the study provides insights into hyporheic responses to daily groundwater withdrawal and river temperature fluctuations. These interactions have impacts on temporal variability of hyporheic exchange, mean residence times and denitrification potential. Improved pumping schemes can restore ecosystem functions.

The authors used a coupled lake-atmosphere model to investigate the effect of the largest lake of China, the Qinghai, on the weather and climate conditions of the Tibetan Plateau. They found that the lake alters wind conditions and increases precipitation over the arid areas of the earth’s “third pole” Tibet but the effect is irregularly distributed spatially and temporally over the seasons.  

Wastewater still contains high amounts of trace organic compounds and organic matter after the wastewater treatment plant. These compounds are usually discharged to rivers with the treated water. The study shows that in the hyporheic zone of the river, i.e. the river sediment, degradation of trace organic compounds takes place simultaneously with a change in the composition of organic matter.

The authors compared stable isotopes of water in the plant stem (xylem) and in the soil over a complete growing season at five northern experimental sites to understand where plants get their water from and what the temporal dynamics are of such root water uptake. This paper was a main finding of an ERC Grant.

Confluences are locations of complex hydrodynamic conditions within river systems. The effects on hydrodynamics and mixing of temperature‐induced density differences between incoming flows were investigated at a small‐size concordant bed confluence.

Mixing within confluences is highly variable.This study relates patterns and amounts of mixing to three‐dimensional flow structure at three small confluences. The study indicates that generalization of mixing at confluences remains challenging but that advective lateral fluxes of streamwise momentum related to secondary currents or primary flow greatly enhance mixing at confluences.

The authors have investigated whether and to what extent mining products from the Lusatian mining are deposited in the sediments of the River Spree: their signature in the river bed reaches 90 kilometres.