Attachment, re-mobilization, and inactivation of bacteriophage MS2 during bank filtration following simulation of a high virus load and an extreme rain event.

Viruses, including human pathogenic viruses, can persist in water. For producing drinking water from surface water via bank filtration, natural attenuation capacities and the fate of viruses during the passage of aquatic sediments are of particular interest. Moreover, the increasing frequency of extreme hydrological events necessitate re-evaluation of the sustainability and efficacy of processes removing viruses.

The phenomenon of thunderstorm asthma in Bavaria, Southern Germany: a statistical approach.

Higher incidences of asthma during thunderstorms can pose a serious health risk. In this study, we estimate the thunderstorm asthma risk using statistical methods, with special focus on Bavaria, Southern Germany. In this approach, a dataset of asthma-related emergency cases for the study region is combined with meteorological variables and aeroallergen data to identify statistical relationships between the occurrence of asthma (predictand) and different environmental parameters (set of predictors).

Disentangling multiple chemical and non-chemical stressors in a lotic ecosystem using a longitudinal approach.

Meeting ecological and water quality standards in lotic ecosystems is often failed due to multiple stressors. However, disentangling stressor effects and identifying relevant stressor-effect-relationships in complex environmental settings remain major challenges. By combining state-of-the-art methods from ecotoxicology and aquatic ecosystem analysis, we aimed here to disentangle the effects of multiple chemical and non-chemical stressors along a longitudinal land use gradient in a third-order river in Germany.