Rheoreaction impacts dispersal of fish larvae in restored rivers.

Connectivity of nurseries and spawning habitats for young of the year life stage is essential for successful recruitment of fish populations and therefore provides a key indicator for river restoration measures. Models for dispersal offer the potential to draw conclusions regarding restoration scenarios and to fill knowledge gaps about possible implications for fish populations. A newly developed rheoreaction-based correlated random walk model (RCRW), in combination with a three-dimensional numerical model and a non-steady-state particle tracing model, was applied for nase carp larvae () before and after a restoration project on the river Danube, Austria.

Aquatic methane dynamics in a human-impacted river-floodplain of the Danube.

River-floodplain systems are characterized by changing hydrological connectivity and variability of resources delivered to floodplain water bodies. Although the importance of hydrological events has been recognized, the effect of flooding on CH concentrations and emissions from European, human-impacted river-floodplains is largely unknown. This study evaluates aquatic concentrations and emissions of CH from a highly modified, yet partly restored river-floodplain system of the Danube near Vienna (Austria).

The Danube so colourful: a potpourri of plastic litter outnumbers fish larvae in Europe's second largest river.

Previous studies on plastic pollution of aquatic ecosystems focused on the world's oceans. Large rivers as major pathways for land-based plastic litter, has received less attention so far. Here we report on plastic quantities in the Austrian Danube.

Large-scale controls on potential respiration and denitrification in riverine floodplains.

Restoration measures of deteriorated river ecosystems generally aim at increasing the spatial heterogeneity and connectivity of these systems in order to increase biodiversity and ecosystem stability. While this is believed to benefit overall ecological integrity, consequences of such restoration projects on biogeochemical processes per se (i.e.

Modelling highly variable environmental factors to assess potential microbial respiration in complex floodplain landscapes.

The hydrological exchange conditions strongly determine the biogeochemical dynamics in river systems. More specifically, the connectivity of surface waters between main channels and floodplains is directly controlling the delivery of organic matter and nutrients into the floodplains, where biogeochemical processes recycle them with high rates of activity. Hence, an in-depth understanding of the connectivity patterns between main channel and floodplains is important for the modelling of potential gas emissions in floodplain landscapes.