MAIN RESEARCH LINES

Small water bodies in agricultural landscapes

Small water bodies are an important part of freshwater ecosystems. They support higher proportions of biodiversity compared to larger lakes or rivers and largely contribute to inland water–carbon fluxes. At the same time, intensive agriculture is threatening first and foremost these important ecosystems by pesticide pollution. However, only a disproportionally low amount of studies addresses pesticide occurrence and impacts in small water bodies despite their spatial dominance among the water bodies receiving pesticide inputs.

Human lakeshore development

Lakes are used in multiple ways for fishing, boating, navigation, beach recreation, drinking water supply, and nature conservation. Thereby, lakeshores suffer substantially from the anthropogenic, hydromorphological degradation which affects diversity of habitats and of benthic invertebrates colonizing the littoral zone.

Relevant hydromorphological processes in river systems

A multitude of pressures are co-occuring in river ecosystems and act simultaneously on important processes and variables. Therefore, the different pressures cannot be seen as individual drivers of ecological change. To guide river rehabilitation and nature conservation, clear diagnoses of existing deficits are neccessary that involve the complex interactions between hydrology, morphology, existing habitats, water chemistry and the thermal regime.

Effects of ship-induced waves on aquatic ecosystems

Most larger water bodies worldwide are used for navigation, and the intensity of commercial and recreational navigation is expected to further increase. Navigation profoundly affects aquatic ecosystems. To facilitate navigation, rivers are trained and developed, and the direct effects of navigation include chemical and biological impacts. Propagating ships create hydrodynamic alterations, often simply summarized as waves. Although ship-induced waves are recognized as influential stressors, knowledge on their effects is poor.