I worked from 2018 to 2020 with the Surface Hydrology and Erosion Group at the Institute of Environmental Assessment and Water Research (IDAEA-CSIC) Barcelona, Spain to investigate water age dynamics in a Mediterranean catchment and their ecohydrological implications in a changing environment. This work is funded by a two-year DFG Research Fellowship. We used an extensive data set on hydrometric and isotopic data gathered over the last years in the Vallcebre Research Catchments to assess the dynamics of travel times across different compartments, ranging from plants, soils, groundwater to stream water. I was working on this project as a visiting researcher at the North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA in the group of Prof. Ryan E. Emanuel.
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I did a postdoc between 2015 and 2018 within the ERC-funded VeWa project (Vegetation effects on water flow and mixing in high-latitude ecosystems) with Prof. Doerthe Tetzlaff. Our research team examined the impacts of climate change on vegetation-water linkages along a northern climatic gradient across six extensively studied experimental sites in the UK, US, Canada and Sweden. I conducted the analysis and interpretation of soil water stable isotopes (2H and 18O) and use the data for soil hydraulic modeling and water age analysis.
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I did my PhD in the DFG-funded research group Catchment As Organized Systems (CAOS) with Markus Weiler and Theresa Blume as PIs between 2012 and 2015. I helped install 46 sensor clusters and took over 3000 soil samples for the analysis of their stable isotopic composition. This data was used to calibrate the Hydrus-1D model for 35 sensor cluster sites in Luxembourg with soil moisture time series and soil water stable isotopes. I then derived travel times of the percolating and transpiring water using the site specific calibrated models.
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I applied the aforementioned modeling approach in a side project with the State Institute for Viticulture and Enology, Freiburg, to relate elevated nitrate concentrations in the subsoil to the time of intense tillage processes two years earlier. Our sampling also showed that green cover between the grapevines reduces the nitrate leaching considerably.
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I had the opportunity to do field work in Panama for my master's thesis to study the water use of various tree species on an experimental plantation (Sardinilla Project) in 2011. The soil sampling at Sardinilla was a great experience and the study ignited my interest in generally carrying on with scientific work and specifically collecting field data to better understand processes in the soil and its interaction with vegetation. The results of my master's thesis showed that tree species diversity (and associated biomass production) are important controls of recharge rates at the studied tropical plantation.
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