Research
Our research seeks to describe, evaluate and inform about the status of the environment, how that status changes over time, and the causes of those changes. Most of the work is focused on assessing, in a catchment perspective, the aquatic ecosystem in lakes and streams. Our efforts to define natural variability and better detect human influence are advancing our knowledge of how the environment varies in space and time. Our width of expertise allows for an interdisciplinary approach to the relation of water quality and the biota, as well as the coupling of catchment soils and land use to the situation in the aquatic environment. The environmental fate of organic pollutants and their effects on biota is another specialty.
Some key areas of current research are:
- Classification of Ecological Status for the EG Water Framework directive - especially the connections between ecological, chemical and physical status
- Benthic invertebrates, plankton, macrophytes, and benthic diatoms as indications of human influence on lakes and water courses
- Detection of Impact - the statistical design of surveillance systems, and interpretation of data from such systems
- The effect of climate on lakes and watercourses
- Modeling catchment sources of nitrogen and phosphorus in surface waters, as well their transport to lakes and the sea
- Modeling critical loads of acidifying substances and metals to terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems
- Natural and anthropogenic acidification of lakes and watercourses
- The distribution and effects of metals and organic risk substances, especially modern pesticides, in aquatic ecosystems