Publications related to Catchment land cover influences macroinvertebrate food-web structure and energy flow pathways in mountain streams

From roots to canopy: Unraveling the influence of species diversity on tree water relations under warmer and drier climates

The worsening of drought events with rising air temperature alters tree water relations causing severe hydraulic impairments and widespread forest mortality. Mixing tree species with contrasting hydraulic traits could reduce forest vulnerability to extreme ...

EPFL2024

The cost of adaptability: resource availability constrains functional stability under pulsed disturbances

Hannes Markus Peter

Global change exposes ecosystems to changes in the frequency, magnitude, and concomitancy of disturbances, which impact the composition and functioning of these systems. Here, we experimentally evaluate the effects of salinity disturbances and eutrophicati ...

Amer Soc Microbiology2024

Fate and effects of microplastic particles in a periphyton-grazer system

Renata Behra, Kristin Schirmer, Ahmed Tlili

In the aquatic environment, microplastic particles (MP) can accumulate in microbial communities that cover submerged substrata, i.e. in periphyton. Despite periphyton being the essential food source for grazers in the benthic zones, MP transfer from periph ...

Elsevier Sci Ltd2024

Winter post-droughts amplify extreme nitrate concentrations in German rivers

Jana Freiin von Freyberg

Hydrological extremes can affect nutrient export from catchments to streams, posing a threat to aquatic ecosystems. In this study, we investigated the effects of hydrological drought on nitrate concentrations in the streamflow of 182 German catchments from ...

Iop Publishing Ltd2024

The microbial genomics of glacier-fed streams: adaptations to an extreme ecosystem

Massimo Bourquin

Glacier-fed streams are the cold, ultra-oligotrophic, and unstable streams that are fed by glacial meltwater. Despite these extreme conditions, they harbour a diverse and abundant microbial diversity that develops into biofilms, covering the boulders and s ...

EPFL2024

Lotic-SIPCO2: Adaptation of an open-source CO2 sensor system and examination of associated emission uncertainties across a range of stream sizes and land uses

Andrew Lean Robison

River networks play a crucial role in the global carbon cycle, as relevant sources of carbon dioxide (CO2) to the atmosphere. Advancements in high-frequency monitoring in aquatic environments have enabled measurement of dissolved CO2 concentration at tempo ...

Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography (ASLO)2024

At what spatial scale does natural selection operate? Using multiscale frameworks to calibrate the effects of environmental factors across landscape continuums

Annie Sandrine Guillaume

Patterns in nature arise from processes interacting across a continuum of spatial scales, where new relationships emerge at each level of investigation. These patterns are nested features encompassing fine-scale local patterns, such as topography and geolo ...

EPFL2024

Treeline displacement may affect lake dissolved organic matter processing at high latitudes and altitudes

Hannes Markus Peter

Climate change induced shifts in treeline position, both towards higher altitudes and latitudes induce changes in soil organic matter. Eventually, soil organic matter is transported to alpine and subarctic lakes with yet unknown consequences for dissolved ...

Nature Portfolio2024

Regional uniqueness of tree species composition and response to forest loss and climate change

Devis Tuia, Nina Marion Aurélia Van Tiel, Loïc Pellissier

The conservation and restoration of forest ecosystems require detailed knowledge of the native plant compositions. Here, we map global forest tree composition and assess the impacts of historical forest cover loss and climate change on trees. The global oc ...

Nature Portfolio2024

Invasive palms have more efficient and prolonged CO2 assimilation compared to native sub-Mediterranean vegetation

Marco Conedera, Thibaut Michel Georges Juillard, Charlotte Grossiord, Christoph Bachofen, Janisse Deluigi

In sub-Mediterranean ecosystems, shade-tolerant broadleaf evergreens, especially the invasive Trachycarpus fortunei, are spreading uncontrollably in the forest understorey, impeding the regeneration of the native deciduous woody vegetation. Most invasive s ...

Elsevier2024

Organ-specific biotransformation in salmonids: Insight into intrinsic enzyme activity and biotransformation of three micropollutants

Kristin Schirmer, Juliane Hollender

Aquatic ecosystems continue to be threatened by chemical pollution. To what extent organisms are able to cope with chemical exposure depends on their ability to display mechanisms of defense across different organs. Among these mechanisms, biotransformatio ...

Elsevier2024

Parity in bacterial communities and resistomes: Microplastic and natural organic particles in the Tyrrhenian Sea

Florian Frédéric Vincent Breider, Sylvain Coudret

Petroleum-based microplastic particles (MPs) are carriers of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) in aquatic environments, influencing the selection and spread of antimicrobial resistance. This research characterized MP and natural organic particle (NOP) ...

2024

Investigation of microbial community dynamics in soil during variable hydrological forcing

Simiao Wang

Climate change is expected to alter the temporal distribution of precipitation events, leading to prolonged drought periods and an increased frequency of extreme precipitation events. Changes in precipitation pattern will directly affect soil moisture dyna ...

EPFL2024

Breaking Blockchain Rationality with Out-of-Band Collusion

Bryan Alexander Ford, Haoqian Zhang, Louis-Henri Manuel Jakob Merino, Verónica del Carmen Estrada Galiñanes, Mahsa Bastankhah

Blockchain systems often rely on rationality assumptions for their security, expecting that nodes are motivated to maximize their profits. These systems thus design their protocols to incentivize nodes to execute the honest protocol but fail to consider ou ...

Springer International Publishing Ag2024

Food web structure and energy flux dynamics, but not taxonomic richness, influence microbial ecosystem functions in a Sphagnum-dominated peatland

Alexandre Buttler, Edward Mitchell, Vincent Eric Jules Jassey

Soil microbial communities are vital for multiple ecosystem processes and services. In particular, soil microbial food webs are key determinants of soil biodiversity, functioning and stability. Unclear, however, is how struc-tural features of food webs, su ...

ELSEVIER FRANCE-EDITIONS SCIENTIFIQUES MEDICALES ELSEVIER2023

Use of an unmanned aerial-aquatic vehicle for acoustic sensing in freshwater ecosystems

Mirko Kovac, Raphael Zufferey

Freshwater ecosystems are endangered, underfunded and understudied, making new methods such as passive acoustic monitoring (PAM) essential for improving the efficiency and effectiveness of data collection. However, many challenges are still to be addressed ...

Wiley2023

Atlas Narratives of Anthropogenic Transformations across the Vietnamese Mekong Delta's Urban-Rural Territories: Water Ecosystems as Subject for the Social Ecological Transition

Sylvie Tram Nguyen

Well beyond the impact of climate change, anthropogenic modifications of the Vietnam Mekong Delta's ecosystems have resulted in environmental degradation and subsequent loss in ecosystems. The environmental impacts include but are not limited to accelerate ...

EPFL2023

Clogging of riverbed substrates by fine sediment

Romain Maxime Dubuis

Riverbeds represent the habitat of numerous aquatic species. Exchanges between the groundwater, the hyporheic zone and the surface flow are also essential for river ecosystems. Fine sediment transported by rivers deposits inside or on top of the bed and mo ...

EPFL2023

River ecosystem metabolism and carbon biogeochemistry in a changing world

Enrico Bertuzzo, Tom Ian Battin, Luis Gómez Gener

River networks represent the largest biogeochemical nexus between the continents, ocean and atmosphere. Our current understanding of the role of rivers in the global carbon cycle remains limited, which makes it difficult to predict how global change may al ...

NATURE PORTFOLIO2023

A Survey of Industrial N-nitrosamine Discharges in Switzerland

Florian Frédéric Vincent Breider, Caroline Gachet Aquillon, Urs von Gunten

N-nitrosamines are formed during different industrial processes and are of significant concern due to their carcinogenic and mutagenic properties. This study reports concentrations of N-nitrosamines in eight different industrial wastewater treatment plants ...

2023