BIodiversity and BioGEochemistry of Riverine landscapes
BIGER on Bluesky
Biger in the News
14thInternational Symposium on Biogeochemistry of Wetlands and Aquatic Systems
(Baton Rouge, LA, USA)
Our working group actively participated in the inspiring BioGeo 2025 symposium, engaging with the application of biogeochemical principles to address environmental and societal challenges across diverse systems.
This year’s theme highlighted the critical role of coastal zones—where freshwater from rivers and lakes meets estuarine and coastal ocean waters. Changes in runoff timing and discharge volume in these zones can lead to significant shifts in key drivers of biogeochemical cycling, including temperature, salinity, nutrient availability, sediment transport, and contaminant loads.
Our PhD student, Flavia Byekwaso, contributed to the symposium by presenting her work on urban tropical wetlands.
The EGU General Assembly 2025 was held in Vienna, Austria, from 27 April to 2 May.
During this week-long event, our team presented their achievements. Topics covered during the poster sessions included ecosystem dynamics, sediment transport in the Danube River and its tributaries, and the human impact on tropical urban rivers and wetlands. Our team also delivered oral presentations on topics such as floodplain connectivity, biogeochemical dynamics, and greenhouse gas emissions from tropical, groundwater-fed springs. We also gave a presentation on the drivers of stream metabolism in human-impacted mountain streams in Uganda.
Congratulations to our incredible team on these excellent presentations! Keep up the fantastic work!
Congratulations Peter!
Peter Bader successfully defended his MSc thesis entitled: ‚Analysing amphibian metacommunities in river-floodplain systems using eDNA metabarcoding: The importance of spatial connectivity and environmental conditions‘.
An important study for supported by FWF project RIMECO (Functioning of vertebrate metacommunities in dynamic riverine landscapes: an innovative approach using eDNA metabarcoding) https://forschung.boku.ac.at/en/projects/13766 and several EU projects.
Introducing the newest doctor on our team—congratulations, Sonia!
Please join us in congratulating Sonia Recinos Brizuela on becoming the newest doctor in our team! She successfully defended her PhD thesis titled ‘Network-based approaches to assess restoration of water-mediated connectivity in floodplains’. An outstanding achievement!
The Days of Biodiversity 2025 (Tage der Biodiversität 2025)
Prof. Thomas Hein presented our research findings for „Ecological development perspectives of the Austrian Danube and its tributaries“ (Ökologische Entwicklungsperspektiven der österreichischen Donau und ihrer Zubringer) and as member of the Austrian Biodiversity Council the recent Austrian Biodiversity Barometer. PhD student Johannes Kowal, together with Dr Florian Borgwardt, gave a presentation on „Water connectivity using the example of the AT-Danube tributaries“ (Gewässer-Konnektivität am Beispiel der AT-Donauzubringer). Dr. Martin Tschikof presented his work on „Protection of Danube fish: status assessments and solutions from an expert perspective“ (Schutz der Donaufische: Zustandsbewertungen und Lösungsansätze aus der Sicht von Experten).
