In developing countries, including East Africa, people are still grappling with health problems due to pollutants in municipal wastewater effluents. Najib Bateganya Lukoyaa investigated in his PhD thesis how constructed wetlands can help in this case. In september he successfully finished his thesis.
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The two hungarian researchers Csaba Vad and Andràs Abonyi received each an Ernst Mach Grant from the Austrian Agency for International Cooperation in Education and Research (OeAD), which enables them to work five months at WasserCluster. Both scientists pursue the research of pytoplankton. Csaba Vad started already in September, Andràs Abonyi will work at WasserCluster from October on.
Thippavanh Maniphousay successfully finished her master thesis. She investigated the use of Pulse Amplitude Modulated (PAM) fluorescence techniques to observe the periphyton community, like the vegetation of stones beneath the water surface.
As one of the large rivers with greatest biodiversity in Europe, Danube nowadays rapidly loses its ecological functions due to excessive anthropogenic alteration. Zheng Xiaoxiong investigated in his master thesis effects of different modified river habitats on carbon cycling and nutrient dynamic in the river Danube. Recently he graduated successfully.
Changes in land use and intensification of agriculture have led to an increase of phosphorus load in streams. Marine Decrey wrote her master thesis about that topic, under the title „The efficiency of in-stream phosphate uptake and retention along a gradient of in-stream nutrient loading“. Recently she completed her studies successfully.
The hydrological institutes of the Czech Republick and Lower Austria visited WasserCluster Lunz to get informed about the ongoing research. Scientific manager Thomas Hein introduced the research at Lunz, moreover the guests visited the experimental flumes and mayor Martin Ploderer guided them to the natural sights of the region, such as the three lakes at Lunz.
Marina Ivankovic, master student of the working group Bioframes, investigated in her master thesis epilithic microorganisms from twelve habitats along the Danube in Austria and Croatia. She recently finished her master studies successfully. Congratulations!
On May 28th and 29th the Biological Station Lunz – which was an important institution in the development of limnology as a scientific discipline – was meeting point for the „Old Brains“ of limnology. At a symposium themed „Old Brains“ for „New Blood“ 20 scientists from all over Austria met and discussed the history of limnology.