IP Freshwaters – Annual Retreat

10 Sept 2024, 09:30 → 11 Sept 2024, 13:00 Europe/Berlin

Leipziger KUBUS

Jan Fleckenstein, Markus Weitere, Ilona Baerlund

IP Freshwaters - Annual Retreat 2024

We cordially invite all scientists and PhD students working within the Integration Platform (IP) Freshwaters to the Annual Retreat 2024.

The Meeting will take place at the Helmholtz Center for Environmental Research (UFZ) - KUBUS in Leipzig, on September 10-11 2024. 

For more information on IP Freshawater please see here: https://www.ufz.de/index.php?en=48617.

Building on the formats of our previous IP workshops in Barby 2022 and Ottersleben 2023, we once again would like to engage with you in discussions on our research within the Research Unit Water and Environment and across the RUs. The workshop will provide an opportunity to connect and synthesize some of our exciting research and outreach along multi-disciplinary lines. This especially to further strengthen and expand our collaborations and fine-tune our research portfolio in the light of the upcoming evaluation in February 2025. Besides the interesting scientific discussions there will be ample room to also socialize and have a good time together.

The aim of the IP Workshop is to: 

• Inform and be informed – current achievements in the IP 
• Prepare for the UFZ scientific evaluation in February 2025 - status quo and next steps
• Support alignment of own work towards common goals of Platform Projects / Integration Platform / UFZ
• Maintain the exchange across Departments and RUs
• Bring in a view from / to the outside - lecture by and discussion with an external guest 
• "BBQ"

We are especially looking forward to your posters – new or recycled – for the session in the afternoon of Day 1. You can register the posters together with your personal registration. 

A binding registration is required to assess the need for chairs, poster boards and litres of coffee. We kindly ask you to register for the workshop until August, 23rd, 2024. A successful registration is confirmed by an automatic email reply.

All participants shall cover their travel and accommodation expenses through their own cost allocation (Kostenstelle). The costs for meals will be covered by the IP/TB Water integration budget. At the Suite Hotel www.suitehotel-leipzig.de) 12 rooms are reserved until August, 19th. However, this "contingent" may not be used via HRS-booking. Therefore - try to book via HRS first and if there is no further availability of rooms, please contact the Suite Hotel directly using the code ‘IP-Sommerworkshop’.

For questions and suggestions, please contact the IP/TB manager Ilona Bärlund.

Looking forward to seeing you at UFZ-KUBUS!

 

 

 

Tuesday 10 September

09:30 → 10:00 Registration and coffee

10:00 → 10:25 Plenary - Welcome and Introduction

• Welcome and formalities (Ilona Bärlund)
• Introduction to the workshop and IP updates (Jan Fleckenstein and Markus Weitere)

Convener: Ilona Baerlund (UFZ)

10:30 → 12:15 Plenary - Update on joint activities on water and matter fluxes and eutrophication under extremer climatic conditions in multifunctional landscapes

Part 1. (10:30-11:30) Long-term effects of reforestation on water quality at catchment scale (Chairs: Christian Siebert, Mario Brauns, Andreas Musolff)
Short WP description, first field campaign results and next steps on:
- Groundwater (Christian Siebert)
- Soil water (Felix Sauke)
- Dissolved Organic Carbon (Oliver Lechtenfeld)
- Biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (Mario Brauns, Michael Rode)
- Modelling (Andreas Musolff, Gunnar Dreßler)
General discussion

Part 2. (11:30-12:15) How anthropogenic modification of riverscapes reduces the resilience of floodplain waters to drought - Implementation of the new Floodplain Observatory, Magdeburg (Chairs: Jörg Tittel, Luisa Coder, Andreas Musolff, Kay Knöller)

12:15 → 13:15 Lunch

13:15 → 14:15 Plenary - Data talks to models - and models talk to data

Rohini Kumar, Andreas Musolff, Daniel Graeber

This plenary focuses on feedback loops between data and models, highlighting their significant potential for advancing the IP as a unique hub for innovative freshwater resource analysis, both now and in the future. We explore these feedback loops from three approaches that we are using in the IP work: deductive, inductive, and a combined approach.
- Deductively, we test existing theories on data, such as ecological hypotheses on the links between nutrients and ecosystem functioning.
- Inductively, we identify patterns within data to generate new hypotheses, such as the effects of catchment land use or climate on nutrient export.
- In combined approaches, we employ algorithmic water quality models that integrate inductive pattern recognition with deductive testing.
We will showcase examples of these approaches, discussing their strengths and limitations, and aim to foster open communication among colleagues on the interconnections between models and data across disciplinary boundaries.

14:15 → 15:15 Plenary - Upcoming POF evaluation

• Status quo of the evaluation preparation process
• Prospects incl. first ideas towards POF V
• Q & A

Conveners: Jan Fleckenstein (UFZ-HDG), Markus Weitere (UFZ-FLOEK)

15:15 → 15:45 Coffee ... with seamless shift towards posters

15:45 → 17:15 Mingle activity - Poster Session

1. Jomaa et al. Sustainable Water Storage and Distribution in the Mediterranean (OurMED Project)
2. Chavez et al. Are groundwater levels declining in southwestern Europe?
3. Wang et al. Groundwater droughts and their impacts
4. Vieweg et al. Modelling the extent of artificial floodings and their impact on groundwater levels in the Leipzig floodplain forest
5. Zill et al. Diffuse nutrient input to large rivers: Quantifying the dimension of groundwater discharge and its effects on riverine eutrophication in the Elbe
6. Saavedra et al. Uncovering the impact of hydrological connectivity on nitrate transport at the catchment scale using explainable AI
7. Falchi Bernardo et al. NITRAT LURCH - Numerical Modeling as a Tool to improve tracer test design and in situ remediation efforts
8. Musolff et al. Balancing Nitrogen exports in Elbe and Rhine basin.
9. Graeber et al. Integrating and managing nitrogen and phosphorus dynamics in agriculturally impacted inland waters via a stoichiometric nutrient management framework
10. Große et al. More balanced C:N:P ratios increase nitrate uptake in benthic biofilms
11. Herzsprung et al. NOM quality differences in sediments of land based aquacultures – insights by liquid chromatography-high resolution mass spectrometry
12. Zonkpoedjre et al. Life on plastic garbage in a eutrophic pre-dam
13. Büttner et al. Microplastic transport in European river networks
14. Büttner et al. Seamless forward assessment of toxic risks in river networks for wastewater reference mixtures
15. Rojo-Nieto et al. Chemometers: an integrative tool for chemical assessment in multimedia environments
16. Finckh et al. Mixture Risk Assessment: Advancing the concept of the Chemical Footprint
17. Schmitt-Jansen et al. Community Ecotoxicology: Biofilms to assess the effects of chemical and non-chemical stressors
18. Willenberg et al. Analysing the short-term feeding rate reduction in Daphnids as an alternative to the chronic daphnia test: is it worth the effort?
19. Pasqualini et al. Can we restore ecosystem functions and structures to their natural state in streams? Insights from the RESTOLINK project

17:15 → 17:30 Plenary - Recap Day 1 and Programme Day 2

Convener: Ilona Baerlund (UFZ)

17:30 → 20:00 Dinner & informal get-together at KUBUS

Wednesday 11 September

09:00 → 10:30 Plenary - 4th Water Debate: Nitrogen versus phosphorus - How to tackle the eutrophication problem in lakes?

This debate focusses on the best way to deal with the pervasive eutrophication issue in lakes, still resulting in a plethora of deleterious effects for humans and nature. The participants are Karsten Rinke (SEEFO) and Daniel Graeber (ASAM), which have differing priorities on how to solve this issue. Nuria Perujo (FLOEK) supports the preparation of the debate with external viewpoints. We, the participants, aim to make this debate as approachable as possible for all listeners from the IP freshwater resources, including friends of the IP. Within the debate, we aim to foster discussion and exchange and may even possibly reach a conclusion towards further IP work on eutrophication management and aquatic ecosystem productivity. Yet, we also expect (and hope for) some heat due to our contrasting viewpoints, so join the IP summer workshop to see it!

Our viewpoints:
- Karsten Rinke: Lake eutrophication management through phosphorus control has been done for decades and is very successful. Nitrogen management will not have the same impact, since nitrogen limitation is efficiently prevented by biological provisioning of nitrogen through fixation.
- Daniel Graeber: Lake eutrophication management could have been much more successful in the last decades if also the pervasive nitrogen pollution would have been tackled. Nitrogen and phosphorus co-limitation is very common, as denitrification is a key process removing nitrogen from lakes.
- Nuria Perujo: Management of eutrophication should address the dissolved organic components in aquatic ecosystems and their microbial cycling in water and sediments. This cycling may significantly contribute to the availability of nitrogen and phosphorus, ultimately promoting algal biomass. Inclusion of organic compounds may support efforts to control eutrophication and its impacts on water quality.

Conveners: Dr Daniel Graeber, Dr Karsten Rinke, Dr Nuria Perujo

10:30 → 11:00 Coffee

11:00 → 12:30 Plenary: External guest

Chair: Markus Weitere

Dr. Emanuel Wyler (Max-Delbrück-Centrum für Molekulare Medizin, Berlin)
Water as a carrier of genetic information: establishing integrative metagenomics across environmental samples

12:30 → 13:00 Plenary (Chairs: Jan Fleckenstein, Markus Weitere, Ilona Bärlund)

What happens next in the IP
Administrative issues
Workshop wrap-up