SMART EMJD DESCRIPTION OF PROPOSED RESEARCH TOPICS

Call 2013 SMARTs overall objective is to train scientists to develop and adopt integrated multidisciplinary approaches to the sustainable rehabilitation and maintenance of river corridor ecosystems. In particular SMART emphasises three multidisciplinary research areas that support specific objectives and offer each doctoral candidate a challenging context for their research project:

Research Area A: To advance relevant scientific knowledge of the resilience of riverfloodplain ecosystems to both natural and human induced changes in hydrological connectivity and other stressors.

Research Area B: To focus on the central linkage between physical processes and biota within river corridor ecosystems that fundamentally influence the potential of fluvial systems to self regulate and attain good ecological quality in both reference and impacted situations.

Research Area C: To evaluate the potential to support or rehabilitate desired river system functions in impacted systems (e.g. land use, hydropower, urban development, flow-tidal interactions).

This document presents a list of proposed research topics for the SMART Joint Doctorate. They are listed in the following table and a short description for each topic is reported in the following pages, together with the research supervisors, the primary and secondary university and, in some cases, the involved associate partner. The code given to each topic reflects the correspondent primary and secondary institution (U: University of Trento; Q: Queen Mary, University of London; F: Freie Universitat Berlin).

Res. area A B B A A A B C C B A B B B A B C B B C B C B C B B A A B UQ1 UQ2 UQ3 UQ4 UQ5 UQ6 UQ7 UQ8 UQ9 UF1 UF2 UF3 QU1 QU2 QU3 QU4 QU5 QU6 FU1 FU2 FU3 FU4 FU5 FQ1 FQ2 FQ3 FQ4 FQ5 FQ6

Research topic
Interactions among vegetation, morphology and quality of water Establishing the spatial and temporal structure of hydraulic conductivity in alluvial floodplains using physical-based meander modelling and luminescence dating Morphotexture of gravel-bed river bars Isotopic, chemical and physical characterization of the Presena glacier and of the Noce River basin Modelling the effects of aquatic vegetation and colmation on suspended sediment transport and hyporheic exchange of permeable gravel bed rivers Climate Sensitivity of the Presena glacier Bio-morphodynamic evolution of tidal systems Hydroecological processes and nutrients cycling in agricultural ditches The role of morphological diversity in improving the health of hydropower-regulated river systems Thermal dynamics in braided river corridors. Environmental impacts of small hydropower plants The mechanics of bed-load and grain dispersion in rivers bed Investigating and modelling vegetation fluvial morphology interactions: bank erosion and accretion Exploring interrelationships between floods and morphodynamics in braided rivers using multispectral satellite data Environmental impacts of hydrodynamic dredging Modelling the response of braided rivers and deltas to unsteady sediment supply Next generation models for urban flood management. Quantifying the methodological uncertainty in empirical estimates of gravel sediment transport 3D riverscapes: An airscape perspective of river landscapes Critical landscape elements along river corridors Food web modeling in aquatic systems Domesticated freshwaters: structure, function, and biodiversity River-floodplain connectivity in a lowland clay river corridor (Prut River, Romania/Moldova): Governing factors of hydrodynamics and productivity Remobilization of contaminants out of estuarine sediments Ecology of root-endophytic fungi in riparian plants Hyporheic reactors: coupling hydrodynamic and biogeochemical processes in the bed of permeable lowland rivers Interactive response of macrophytes, invertebrates and fish to changing hydromorphologic conditions in rivers Microplastics in the river system Airborne and ground-based upscaling of findings on groundwater-surface water interactions

Prim. Univ.

Second. Univ.

UniTN UniTN UniTN UniTN UniTN UniTN UniTN UniTN UniTN UniTN UniTN UniTN QMUL/ UniTN QMUL QMUL QMUL QMUL QMUL FUB FUB FUB FUB FUB FUB FUB FUB FUB FUB FUB

QMUL QMUL QMUL QMUL QMUL QMUL QMUL QMUL QMUL FUB FUB FUB QMUL/ UniTN UniTN UniTN UniTN UniTN UniTN UniTN UniTN UniTN UniTN UniTN QMUL QMUL QMUL QMUL QMUL QMUL

Research topic (UQ1) Interactions among vegetation, morphology and quality of water Supervisors: Aronne Armanini, Maurizio Righetti, Giorgio Rosatti, James Brasington, Alexander Sukhodolov Primary University: University of Trento (Italy) Secondary University: Queen Mary, University of London (UK) Associate Partner: IGB Berlin Research Area: B
Description The presence of plants, bushes or grass in river beds modifies the characteristics of flow field in water courses. Typically, the velocity field which crosses the vegetation is slower and more turbulent than the velocity field in reaches without vegetation. These differences in velocities change the transport of mass through the vegetation and, consequently, the chemical and biological equilibria of water are strongly influenced. In this research, the student will face the study of relationships among the presence of stems in bed streams, morphological changes and transport of mass both with experimental and numerical approach. Some experimental results have been already obtained at the University of Trento, concerning the interaction among plants, sediment transport and flow field. This investigation has been conducted with vegetation uniformly distributed on the bed of the channel. A further step of the investigation concerns the effect of islands of vegetation on river morphology. This situation is also affecting the environmental diversity inside the stream and have effects also on transport of different chemical and biological scalars. In the channel it will be possible to measure the flow and the turbulence field with the PIV Technique both in the vegetated islands and in not vegetated areas. There is the possibility to modelling numerically these interactions by adapting the existing 2D numerical code already existing at CUDAM. This approach will permit to understand the role of vegetation in the movements and dispersion of chemical and biological components of water, for relating the vegetation directly with the ecological equilibrium of rivers, and for defining the capacity of vegetation of restoring the quality of waters. References
Armanini A., Cavedon V., Righetti M. 2010, Sediment transport processes in vegetated streams, proceedings of 1 European IAHR Congress. Edinburgh, Scotland. Armanini A., Righetti M., Grisenti,P. (2005), Direct measurements of vegetation resistance in prototype scale, J. Hydr. Res. 43 (5)., 481-487. Elliot, A.H. (2000). Settling of fine sediment in a channel with emergent vegetation, J. Hydr. Engnr. 126 (8), 570-577 Nepf, H.M. (1999). Drag, turbulence and diffusion in flow through emergent vegetation. Water Resources Research. 35(2): 479-489. Nepf H., Ghisalberti M. (2008). Flow and transport in channels with submerged vegetation, Acta Geophysica, Vol. 56 (3), 756-777 Nikora, V. (2010). Hydrodynamics of aquatic ecosystems: an interface between ecology, biomechanics and environmental fluid mechanics, River Res. and Appl, Vol. 26 (4), 367-384. Righetti, M. , 2008, Flow analysis in a channel with flexible vegetation using double-averaging method, Acta Geophys. 56, 801-823 Wu, W., F. D. Shields Jr., S. J. Bennett, and S. S. Y. Wang (2005). A depth-averaged twodimensional model for flow, sediment transport, and bed topography in curved channels with riparian vegetation, Water Res. Res., 41 Rosatti G., Cesari D, Bonaventura L (2005). Semi-implicit, semi-Lagrangian modelling for environmental problems on staggered Cartesian grids with cut cells. Journal of Computational Physics, vol. 204; p. 353-377

Resarch topic (UQ2) Establishing the spatial and temporal structure of hydraulic conductivity in alluvial floodplains using physical-based meander modelling and luminescence dating Supervisors: Guido Zolezzi, Alberto Bellin, Sven Lukas Primary University: University of Trento (Italy) Secondary University: Queen Mary University of London (UK) Associate Partner: to be defined Research Area: B
Description Estimating the spatial structure of hydraulic conductivity in alluvial floodplain aquifers has great scientific and practical relevance. At present it is mainly achieved through a combination of geophysical surveys and statistical techniques. The recent development of physically-based simulation models of long term river dynamics hasnt been exploited so far for this purpose despite its strong potential in this direction. The proposed research project aims to further develop a physically based mathematical model of river meandering evolution (Seminara et al., 2001) to predict the spatial structure of the hydraulic conductivity in alluvial meandering floodplains. The research will integrate mathematical modelling with field observations. The modelling development shall account for sediment heterogeneity in the description of the flow-bed topography in meandering channels (Sun et al., 2001) and for the floodplain vertical accretion rate, so to produce 3D grain size maps over geological timescales. The chronological component of the vertical accretion rate will be established by employing optically-stimulated luminescence dating (OSL) of silt- and sand-sized grains extracted from cores and sedimentary exposures at key locations along meander bends. This approach offers temporal resolution at the order of centuries to millennia (e.g. Rodnight et al., 2005) and will be carried out at the luminescence laboratory at QMUL. Together, this dual approach of numerical modelling and geological fieldwork will allow a deeper level of understanding than could be achieved by employing one of these approaches on its a own. References
Rodnight, H., Duller, G.A.T., Tooth, S., Wintle, A.G.. 2005. Optical dating of a scroll-bar sequence on the Klip River, South Africa, to derive the lateral migration rate of a meander bend. The Holocene, 15: 802-811. Seminara G., Zolezzi G., Tubino M., Zardi D., 2001 Downstream and upstream influence in river meandering. Part 2. Planimetric development. Journal of fluid mechanics, v. 438, p. 213-230. Sun, T., P. Meakin, and T. Jssang (2001), A Computer Model for Meandering Rivers with Multiple Bed Load Sediment Sizes 2. Computer Simulations, Water Resour. Res., 37(8), 2243-2258.

Research topic (UQ3) Morphotexture of gravel-bed river bars Supervisors: Guido Zolezzi, Walter Bertoldi, Marco Tubino, James Brasington, Jonathan Laronne Primary University: University of Trento (Italy) Secondary University: Queen Mary University of London (UK) Associate Partner: Ben Gurion University of the Negev (Israel) Research Area: B
Description Alternate bars can be viewed as benchmark large scale bedforms in alluvial rivers because they represent fundamental morphodynamic units of a variety of channel patterns, from single to multiple-thread. In gravel-bed rivers they often present distinctive morphotextural properties, with bar tops often less armored compared with the nearby channels. The reason for this difference may be attributed to the controlling effect of bed topography on the duration of recession for any given hydrograph, any part of the channel higher than the thalweg experiencing a much shorter duration of bedload transporting flow (Laronne & Shlomi, 2007). A comprehensive insight on the process is lacking at present and this is also one of the major limitations presently faced by predictive mathematical models of gravel-bed rivers morphodynamics. The proposed research aims to provide a quantitative explanation of the above process through a combination of modelling and analysis of high spatial resolution field data on the morpho-texture and dynamics of gravel bars taken from rivers within different hydrological settings, from temperate to arid. The modelling component can either include mathematical or physical modelling for alternate bars stability and growth under unsteady flow conditions with multiple grain size, building on previous approaches (Tubino, 1991, Lanzoni and Tubino, 1999). In addition, state-of-the-art field monitoring using a combination of terrestrial photogrammetry, laser scanning and acoustic methods will be used to provide detailed coupled measurements of sediment transport and the evolution of bar surface facies as they evolve during and between floods (e.g., Hodge et al., 2009a,b). Such data will be used to provide a high resolution empirical framework essential for robust model parameterization and testing. References
Hodge RA, Brasington J, Richards KS. 2009. Characterization of grain-scale fluvial morphology using TLS. Earth. Surf. Proc. Landforms, 34, 954-968. Hodge RA, Brasington J, Richards KS. 2009. Analysing laser-scanned digital terrain models of gravel bed surfaces: linking morphology to sediment transport processes and hydraulics. Sedimentology 56, 2024-2043. Lanzoni S.; Tubino M. 1999. Grain sorting and bar instability J. Fluid Mech. 393, 149-174 Laronne, J.B. Shlomi, Y., 2007. Depositional character and preservation potential of coarse grained sediments deposited by flood events in hyper-arid braided channels in the Rift Valley, Arava, Israel. Sedimentary Geology, 195(1-2), 21-37 Tubino M. 1991 Growth of alternate bars in unsteady flow. Water Res. Res., 27(1), 37-52.

Research topic (UQ4)

Isotopic, chemical and physical characterization of the Presena glacier and of the Noce River basin
Supervisors: Alberto Bellin, Simon Carr Primary University: University of Trento (Italy) Secondary University: Queen Mary University of London (UK) Associate Partner: Edmund Mach Foundation (Italy) Research Area: A

Description This research foresees two related components. First, an extensive and detailed characterization of the structure and internal flow-dynamics for the Presena glacier will be performed. Second, the spatial and temporal dynamics of the basin of river Noce will be characterized using stable isotopes. For the first component ice and snow samples will be collected with high spatial and temporal resolution in order to characterize glacier flow behavior, using quantities such as stable isotopes (2H and
18

O) concentrations, snowpack level, electrical conductivity

and biological indicators, as well as physical survey of ice flow. The goal of this component of the study will be to investigate mixing processes occurring in the glacier. Furthermore, since this study will be conducted in collaboration with Meteotrentino (meteorological office of the Province of Trento), it will be also estimated the efficiency of the methods actually used to protect the glacier during summer. The second component focuses on the basin of River Noce, where the Presena Glacier is located. This basin is of particular interest since, depending on the period of the year, its behavior can be dominated by snow melting, glacier ablation, rainfall precipitation or groundwater discharge, each of which will have different isotopic fingerprints. Furthermore different tributaries will display different seasonal behaviors depending on their location and it will be also estimated the impact of artificial reservoir on the discharge of the river.

Research topic (UQ5) Modelling the effects of aquatic vegetation and colmation on suspended sediment transport and hyporheic exchange of permeable gravel bed rivers Supervisors: Alberto Bellin and Maurizio Righetti (UnitTn), Kate Heppell and Geraldene Wharton (QMUL), Daniele Tonina (UoI). Primary University: University of Trento, (UniTn) Secondary University: Queen Mary University London, (QMUL) Associate Partner: University of Idaho, (UoI) Research Area: A
Description The ingress of fine sediments into the gravel beds and shallow hyporheic zones of permeable rivers (termed colmation or siltation) through gravitational settling and turbulence has been shown to affect both the deposition of fine particulate inorganic and organic matter in the river bed (Warren et al., 2009), and the nature and temporal dynamics of surface water and groundwater exchange (Heppell et al., 2009). The deposition process is in turn influenced by the previously deposited sediment, which alters the bed roughness and so the turbulence structure of the flow. The scenario becomes more complicated by the presence of vegetation that can strongly affect the flow field. Colmation of the river bed can occur due to human activity, for example due to an increased supply of fine material to the channel through land use change, or a reduction in river discharge due to abstraction. Naturally occurring processes, such as glacial silt, can also result in delivery and infiltration of sediment into a gravel river bed. The consequent reduction in permeability of the river bed can have implications for the ecology of the river (for example due to a reduction in oxygen supply to spawning gravels) and for biogeochemical cycling in the shallow hyporheic including the production and efflux of methane from trapped material (Sanders et al., 2007). The student on this project will undertake detailed flume experiments at the University of Trento to examine the effects of colmation on the trapping and retention of fine suspended sediments under a range of vegetation densities. Tracer experiments in the flume will study the hyporheic flows associated with different degrees of bed colmation and vegetation cover. This physically based modelling will be combined with training in fluvial geomorphology and biogeochemistry at QMUL and empirical field experiments in lowland vegetated rivers in England in order to establish boundary conditions for the modelling effort, and apply the findings of the physically based model to the field. Applicants should have a background in hydraulic engineering, hydrology and geomorphology and some knowledge of biogeochemistry is desirable but not essential. References:

Heppell C.M., Wharton, G., Cotton, J.A.C., Bass, J.A.B. and Roberts, S.E. (2009) Sediment storage in the shallow hyporheic of lowland vegetated reaches. Hydrological Processes, 23(15), 2239-2251. Sanders I., Heppell C.M., Cotton, J.A., Wharton, G., Hildrew, A., Flowers, E.J. and Trimmer, M. (2007) Emission of methane from chalk streams has potential implications for agricultural practices. Freshwater Biology, 52 (6), 1176-1186. Warren, L. L., Wotton, R. S., Wharton, G., Bass, J. A. B. and Cotton, J. A. (2009) The transport of fine particulate organic matter in vegetated chalk streams. Ecohydrology 2, 480-491.

Research topic (UQ6)

Climate Sensitivity of the Presena glacier

Supervisors: Alberto Bellin, Simon Carr Primary University: University of Trento (Italy) Secondary University: Queen Mary University of London (UK) Associate Partner: Research Area: A

Description This research will focus on the development of coupled numerical mass-balance and icedynamic models to describe the seasonal to decadal behavior of the Presena glacier and its impact on the discharge of the Vermigliana Creek. Once calibrated, the models will be used to investigate the potential implications of climate change on the basin, including the viability of current efforts to reduce net mass-loss by shrouding the glacier during the summer months. Goals of this study will be therefore to quantify the impact of different climate change scenarios on the discharge of the Vermigliana creek and hence on hydropower production.

Research topic (UQ7) Bio-morphodynamic evolution of tidal systems Supervisors: Marco Toffolon and Walter Bertoldi, Kate Spencer Primary University: University of Trento (Italy) Secondary University: Queen Mary University of London (UK) Research Area: C

Description Estuarine wetlands (e.g. salt marshes, mud flats, lagoons) are complex systems that provide essential ecosystem services. Predicting the eco-morphodynamic response of these landforms to e.g. climate change is a challenging issue, which is capturing a growing attention in the scientific community and in the whole society for its paramount economic, cultural, and ecological importance. The goal of this project is to understand the main factors driving the evolution of tidal systems, focussing on the bio-morphodynamic processes that determine the growth of the salt marshes through the interaction between the transport and deposition of sediments and the action of vegetation. The feedbacks between channel network hydrodynamics and erosional and accretional processes in tidal flats and salt marshes, like bank erosion and collapse, sediment trapping and biomass production, are mediated by the spatially varying growth of halophytic vegetation. The project will consider the Venice lagoon as a case study of primary relevance, taking advantage from the comparison with other monitored sites in UK. The main activities will concern the development of a mathematical and/or numerical model, the participation to field surveys and the recognition of morphological patterns and vegetation dynamics by image analysis. Applicants should have good understanding of fluid mechanics and sediment transport, skills and interest in modelling issues, and be comfortable with differential equations. A basic knowledge of the ecological aspects will be appreciated.

References
- DAlpaos, A., S. M. Mudd, and L. Carniello (2011), Dynamic response of marshes to perturbations in suspended sediment concentrations and rates of relative sea level rise, J. Geophys. Res., 116, F04020. - Fagherazzi, S., et al. (2012), Numerical models of salt marsh evolution: Ecological, geomorphic, and climatic factors, Rev. Geophys., 50, RG1002. - Kirwan, M. L., and A. Murray (2007), A coupled geomorphic and ecological model of tidal marsh evolution, PNAS, 104(15), 61186122. - Mudd, S. M., A. DAlpaos, and J. T. Morris (2010), How does vegetation affect sedimentation on tidal marshes? Investigating particle capture and hydrodynamic controls on biologically mediated sedimentation, J. Geophys. Res., 115, F03029. - Toffolon, M., and S. Lanzoni (2010), Morphological equilibrium of short channels dissecting the tidal flats of coastal lagoons, J. Geophys. Res., 115, F04036.

Research topic (UQ8) Hydroecological processes and nutrients cycling in agricultural ditches Supervisors: Guido Zolezzi, Alberto Bellin, Kate Heppel, Bruno Maiolini Primary University: University of Trento (Italy) Secondary University: Queen Mary University of London (UK) Associate Partner: Edmund Mach Foundation (Italy) Research Area: C
Description Restoration of ecological functions in intensively cultivated agricultural floodplains can take advantage of irrigation ditch networks whose potential to provide ecosystem services is often poorly exploited. Ditches communities represent one of the major biodiversity sources in regulated floodplain areas (Armitage et al., 2003) providing key ecosystem services which closely depend on their flow regime, like groundwater recharge, biodiversity control, as well as nutrient attenuation. For example, sediments in agricultural drainage ditches have been shown to be important sites of nitrate removal via denitrification (Powell et al., 2010). The proposed research aims to investigate how relevant physical and biogeochemical aspects of surface subsurface water interactions occurring in agricultural floodplains depend on flow regimes in agricultural floodplain ditches. In particular we will investigate the influence of different flow regimes on surface-subsurface water and nutrient exchange and nutrient uptake length in agricultural drainage ditches. The research methods will integrate mathematical modelling with field observations taken from the case studies of the Rotaliana Plain in Trento Province (Italy), which represents an ideal site to investigate the system response to various flow regimes.

References
Armitage P.D., Szoszkiwicz K., Blackburn J.H. and Nesbitt J., 2003. Ditch communities: a major contributor to floodplain biodiversity. Aquatic Conserv: Mar. Freshw. Ecosyst. 13: 165185. Powell K.L. & Bouchard V., 2010. Is denitrification enhanced by the development of natural fluvial morphology in agricultural headwater ditches? J. North Am. Benth. Soc. 29(2), 761-772.

Research topic (UQ9) The role of morphological diversity in improving the health of hydropower-regulated river systems Supervisors: Guido Zolezzi, Annunziato Siviglia, Angela Gurnell Primary University: University of Trento (Italy) Secondary University: Queen Mary University of London (UK) Associate Partner: Edmund Mach Foundation (Italy) Research Area: C
Description In channelized river systems, giving more room to the river by locally setting back levees, is increasingly used to enhance the quality and complexity of the physical habitat through increased, self-formed morphological diversity. Besides channelization, especially in piedmont areas, river systems are often subject to strong flow regime regulation, with hydropower operation often playing a major role (Petts and Gurnell, 2005, 2012). These operation often cause unnatural, rapid changes in streamflow, known as hydropeaking, which may put at risk the success of morphologically-based restoration measures by affecting spawning habitats of living organisms, hyporeic exchanges of solutes, the river thermal regime (Zolezzi et al.,2010). However, increased morphological complexity may also support the provision of refugia for aquatic organisms as river flows vary sharply, by supporting inundation of hydraulically rough riparian zones and side channels of differing bed elevation and capacity. The ability of self-formed channels to interact with river flows to provide refugia depends upon the interplay between discharge, sediment mobilizationtransport-deposition, and vegetation establishment (Gurnell et al., 2012), but little is known about these interactions in rivers subject to hydropeaking. The present research aims to investigate the relationship between hydropeaking and increased morphological diversity in formerly channelized river reaches, with emphasis on interactions between discharge, sediment and vegetation. The lower Noce River (NE Italy) will be used as a case study because it offers an excellent array of reaches with complementary hydro-morphological conditions, up- and downstream of a large hydropower plant release. Three major research components are foreseen: (1) reconstruction of the historical morphological evolution of the Noce river segment through historical maps, aerial images and other remotely sensed data; (2) fieldwork aimed at characterizing the ecohydraulic and biogeomorphological conditions in the reach; (3) mathematical modeling of the physical habitat variability in the different sub reaches. By comparing the Noce study area with other similar regulated river systems, the proposed research will aim to define optimal and sustainable morphological improvement measures for rivers with flow regime regulated by hydropower operations. References
Gurnell, A.M., Bertoldi, W., Corenblit, D. (2012) Changing river channels: the roles of hydrological processes, plants and pioneer fluvial landforms. Earth Sci. Rev, 111 (1-2) 129-141 Petts, G.E. and Gurnell, A.M. (2005) Dams and geomorphology: research progress and new directions. Geomorphology, 71, 27-47. Petts G.E. and Gurnell, A.M. 2012. Hydrogeomorphic effects of water resources developments. Treatise in Geomorphology, Volume 13: Geomorphology of Human Disturbances, Hazards and Climate Change, Chapter 8, Elsevier, in press. Zolezzi, G., Siviglia, A., Toffolon, M., Maiolini, B. 2011. Thermopeaking in Alpine streams: event characterization and time scales. Ecohydrology. 4, 564576.

Research topic (UF1) Thermal dynamics in braided river corridors. Supervisors: Annunziato Siviglia, Guido Zolezzi, Klement Tockner Primary University: University of Trento (Italy) Secondary University: Freie Universitt Berlin (Germany) Research Area: B

Description River floodplains are composed of a shifting mosaic of aquatic and terrestrial habitats. Each habitat type exhibits distinct environmental and ecological properties. Temperature is a key property driving ecological processes and controlling the composition and distribution of biota. Thermal dynamics is particularly interesting in braided river corridors, characterized by strong heterogeneity and diversity (Arscott et al., 2001) and where thermal patterns dynamics is crucially controlled by surface subsurface exchanges, particularly at low flows (Acuna and Tockner, 2008). Mathematical modelling of thermal dynamics in braided rivers floodplains would result in a major improvements of the present knowledge on the key controls of such fundamental driver of ecosystem processes. Existing models have mainly been applied to single thread rivers (Siviglia and Toro, 2009) while suitable modelling schemes are needed when dealing with complex morphologies (Stecca et al., 2010). The proposed research aims at (i) developing a suitable coupling strategy between surface and subsurface flow-transport models, (ii) applying it to a braided river morphology and at (iii) comparing the model outcomes with data from real braided river systems.

References
Arscott DB, Tockner K, Ward JV. 2001. Thermal heterogeneity along a braided floodplain river (Tagliamento River, northeastern Italy). Can J Fish Aquat Sci 58:235973. Acuna V, Tockner K. 2009. Surfacesubsurface water exchange rates along alluvial river reaches control the thermal patterns in an Alpine river network. Freshw Biol 54:30620. Siviglia, A., E.F. Toro (2009), The WAF method and splitting procedure for simulating hydro and thermal peaking waves in open channel flows, Journal of Hydraulic Engineering-ASCE, 135, N8, pp 651-662 Stecca, G., A. Siviglia E.F. Toro (2010), Upwind-biased FORCE schemes with applications to freesurface shallow flows, Journal of Computational Physics, Volume 229, 18, 6362-6380 Tonolla, D. et al. 2010 Thermal Heterogeneity in River Floodplains. Ecosystems, 13: 727740.

Research topic (UF2) Environmental impacts of small hydropower plants Supervisors: Maurizio Righetti (University of Trento), Klement Tockner, Bruno Maiolini and M. Cristina Bruno (FEM) Primary University: University of Trento, (UniTn) Secondary University: Freie Universitat Berlin Associate Partner: Edmund Mach Foundation (Italy) Research Area: A

Description An extensive literature has focused on the impact of hydropower plants, mostly based on dam effects and hydrological alterations downstream of major power plants. Much less scientific evidence has been produced to assess the ecological effects of small hydropower plants (SHP) (Abbasi & Abbasi, 2011). The general assumption that small HPP produce small environmental impacts has led to an increasing demand for building new plants worldwide and particularly in Europe and more specifically in the Alpine area. This exponential development of new SHP has also been triggered by the financial incentives and support schemes in place in all European countries (Alpine Convention, 2001). SHPs encompass an array of different structural and operational approaches and there is still no common definition for small, mini or micro plants either if this classification is based on capacity (kW produced) or on the hydraulic head. This PhD topic will focus on: - the characterization of the hydraulic and ecological impacts of different typologies of SHPs, and - the finding of production techniques and management practices that attempt to harmonize the production requests with environmental needing of the stream. Different typologies of SHPs will be taken into account, from plants located in lowland rivers (low head, high water volume) to those in mountain streams (high head, low water volume). For each of these typologies different types of energy production devices/systems are proposed in literature and by the market (e.g. just considering only the lowland streams vertical axis turbines, floating low pressure turbines, floating barrels, transverse horizontal axis turbines or rank of turbines,..), which entails different impacts both on the hydraulics and on the ecology of the stream. Representative SHPs will be selected to study the environmental impacts of different managing and technical/structural schemes. The scientific results will be used to help defining guidelines for the authorization of new plants and for a more eco-friendly management of existing ones.

References:
Abbasi, T., & Abbasi, S. (2011). Small hydro and the environmental implications of its extensive utilization. Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews, 15 (4), 2134-2143 DOI: 10.1016/j.rser.2010.11.050 Hydropower in the Alps focusing on Small Hydropower, 2011. Permanent Secretariat of the Alpine Convention.

Research topic (UF3) The mechanics of bed-load and grain dispersion in rivers bed Supervisors: Jens Blscher, Achim Schulte, Luigi Fraccarollo, Michele Larcher Primary University: University of Trento, Italy Secondary University: Freie Universitt Berlin, Germany Associate Partner: Idaho University, Boise, Idaho, USA

Description In rivers and torrents, bed load consists fundamentally of movements of individual particles and appears to be a statistically random phenomenon (Einstein, 1937). The motion of grains is discontinuous, consisting of series of step and rest periods. The grain movement is affected by the condition of partial or full mobility, by the grainsize distribution and by the bed morphology. Characterization of individual particle displacement patterns in streams allows to get important information about the dispersion processes taking place in the bed, and provide suggestive links to other type of analyses dealing with the river life, such as the study of hyphoreic flows, flocculation, infiltration, etc.. The statistics of grain movements, including their being at rest for even long time period buried in the bed, is important for the estimation of sediment transport and channel stability. Grain displacement may be monitored by following marked individual particles and by surveying changes of morphological patterns (scours and deposits). The research path will stem from getting experimental and field data (but the doctoral student may contribute to either type of activity). In laboratory, imaging technique will be exploited to describe velocity fields of the solid and liquid phases and to track continuous particle trajectories with high degree of accuracy and statistical reliability thanks to the measuring devices and the experimental facilities of the Laboratory of Hydraulics of the University of Trento. Field based activity will employ magnetically tagged particles, painted stones and advanced topographic tool (stereo-photogrammetry, terrestrial laser scanner). Bed load data will be complemented with highly detailed morphological and textural map of selected fluvial reaches, in-channel sediment availability and channel stability. One task of the analysis will focus on assessing up to the full scale the theoretical and experimental results. Potential applications to demanding issues for river engineers, i.e. the interaction of infrastructure (abutments, hydro-power devices, etc.) or vegetation, with sediment transport and bed morphology, may be foreseen as further ultimate goal. This project requires the advisory of scientists applied to the mechanics of sediment transport, to low and large scale geomorphology and to the hyphoreic convection and diffusion of substances through the river bed in both live and clear water conditions. Experimental, modeling and/or numerical skills will be fruitfully spent in the various parts of this demanding research avenue.

References:
Bradley, D. N., G. E. Tucker, and D. A. Benson (2010), Fractional dispersion in a sand bed river, J. Geophys. Res., 115, F00A09, doi:10.1029/2009JF001268. Ganti, V., M. Meerschaert, E. Foufoula-Georgiou, E. Viparelli, and G. Parker (2010), Normal and anomalous dispersion of gravel tracers in rivers, J. Geophys. Res., doi:10.1029/2008JF001222.

Research topic (QU1) Investigating and modelling vegetation fluvial morphology interactions: bank erosion and accretion Supervisors: Walter Bertoldi, Angela Gurnell, Gemma Harvey, Guido Zolezzi Primary and/or Secondary University: University of Trento and Queen Mary University of London Research Area: B
Description Vegetation dynamics across river margins are governed by hydromorphological processes that can both promote riparian vegetation growth and disturb and destroy riparian and aquatic vegetation. Although heavily dependent upon flow regime, vegetation colonization and growth along river corridors is not an entirely passive process. Once established, riparian and aquatic plants frequently act as physical ecosystem engineers, actively driving the development of new landscape elements. In spite of the increasing recognition of the relevance of this topic, a numerical model that reproduces these effects decoupling opposite bank evolution is still lacking. The development of such a tool is fundamental for modelling the evolution of restored river reaches, where vegetation can play a relevant role in determining the river evolution trajectory. This research topic aims to investigate sediment and vegetation dynamics at patch and reach scale in rivers characterised by different energy and flow regimes and to develop a mathematical model able to reproduce the observed processes. In particular, the research will focus on the bank related processes, namely i) bank erosion (and the role of vegetation roots in bank reinforcement); and ii) bank accretion (as a result of fine sediment deposition and vegetation colonization). This topic can be developed either from a process analysis or from a mathematical modelling point of view.

References
Bertoldi, W., Gurnell, A.M., Drake, N., 2011. The topographic signature of vegetation development along a braided river: results of a combined analysis of airborne lidar, colour air photographs and ground measurements. Water Resources Research 47: W06525. Corenblit, D., Tabacchi, E., Steiger, J., Gurnell, A.M., 2007. Reciprocal interactions and adjustments between fluvial landforms and vegetation dynamics in river corridors: A review of complementary approaches. Earth-Science Reviews 84(12): 5686. Crosato, A., Saleh, M.S., 2011. Numerical study on the effects of floodplain vegetation on river planform style. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms 36(6): 711720. Perona, P., Molnar, P., Savina, M., Burlando, P., 2009. An observation-based stochastic model for sediment and vegetation dynamics in the floodplain of an Alpine braided river. Water Resources Research 45: W09418.

Research topic (QU2)

Exploring interrelationships between floods and morphodynamics in braided rivers using multispectral satellite data Supervisors: Alex Henshaw, Gemma Harvey, James Brasington (QMUL) and Walter Bertoldi (UniTN)
Primary University: Queen Mary University of London (UK) Secondary University: University of Trento (Italy) Research Area: B
Description Recent research has demonstrated the potential of Landsat Thematic Mapper data in quantifying interrelated changes in vegetation and channel planform in large braided rivers (Henshaw et al., in review). The high temporal frequency, broad spatial coverage and open-access nature of Landsat TM data, suggest that this data source and methodology has the potential to deliver further process insights. The Landsat archive now stretches back over 30 years, potentially allowing the influence of flood frequency and magnitude on channel and island dynamics to be investigated. This project will seek to utilise multi-spectral satellite images in combination with high resolution aerial photography, hydrological data and field survey methods (including dendrochronology), to explore these relationships on a near-natural braided river in north-east Italy; the Fiume Tagliamento.

References Henshaw, A.J., Gurnell, A.M., Bertoldi, W., Drake, N.A. (in review) An assessment of the degree to which Landsat TM data can support the assessment of fluvial dynamics, as revealed by changes in vegetation extent and channel position, along a large river. Submitted to Geomorphology

Research topic (QU3) Environmental impacts of hydrodynamic dredging Supervisors: Kate Spencer (QMUL) and Marco Toffolon (UniTN) Primary University: Queen Mary University of London (UK) Secondary University: University of Trento (Italy) Research Area: A
Description Hydrodynamic dredging (including agitation and water injection techniques) involves the injection of large volumes of water under low pressure into bottom sediment in situ. It is suitable for fine material including clays and fine silts and breaks the cohesive forces that bind sediment allowing the sediment to move under the influence of gravity and/or tidal and river flows. This is an effective and economically attractive dredging technique and has been used widely in estuaries, ports and harbours, including the Thames Estuary, as part of a maintenance dredging regime. Previously, this type of dredging was exempt from licensing as the dredged material did not leave the water column and was not considered as waste. However, s ince April 2011 it has become a licensable activity under the Marine and Coastal Access Act 2009. Therefore, there is an urgent need to improve our understanding of the potential environmental impacts of this technique. This project will focus on understanding the environmental impacts of hydrodynamic dredging, in particular the impacts on contaminant/nutrient release to the water column, changes to contaminant bioavailability in bottom sediments and fate of contaminated sediment in the estuarine and river environment. Applicants should have a good understanding of aquatic pollution and sediment transport behavior.

References Spencer, K.L., Dewhurst, R.E. and Penna, P. 2006. Potential impacts of water injection dredging on water quality and ecotoxicity in Limehouse Basin, River Thames, SE England, UK. Chemosphere, 63 (3): 509-521.

Research topic (QU4) Modelling the response of braided rivers and deltas to unsteady sediment supply. Supervisors: James Brasington, Alex Hensham and Walter Bertoldi Primary University: Queen Mary University of London Secondary University: University of Trento Research Area: B
Description: Channel aggradation presents significant river management challenges including the loss of flood conveyance and an enhanced threat of sudden channel switches or avulsions. The cause of localized river responses is however, not always easy to identify due to the discontinuous pattern of sediment transport, storage and remobilization occurring downstream through the fluvial system. In practice, disentangling local responses due, for example, to small-scale bar reconfiguration can easily be linked erroneously to catchment scale changes in sediment supply associated, for example, with deforestation or mining. The braided Rees River in Central Otago, NZ offers a well-resourced case study to investigate the controls on channel bed response associated with a range of sediment supply processes and provides a useful, rapidly evolving analogue for alpine fluvial systems worldwide. The Rees is a labile, gravel-bed piedmont braided river that forms the major left bank tributary of the Rees-Dart delta that discharges into Lake Wakatipu. High rates of sediment delivery have resulted in and significant bed aggradation along the lower reaches of the river and progradation of the Rees delta by over 150 m in the last 80 years. The elevation of the bed near the lakeside township of Glenorchy has compromised historic flood defences and the community is now at risk of serious inundation from floods with return periods as low as 1:10. High rates of sediment supply are common to the rivers of the Southern Alps of NZ and reflects the combination of intense precipitation forcing, active tectonics and the reworking of extensive Pleistocene valley floor deposits (Hicks et al., 2008). The Rees however, appears to have an anomalously high rate of sediment delivery (Wild et al., 2008) which is hypothesized to be linked to supply from a large mass-movement catchment, Muddy Creek, in the headwaters. This landslide dominated tributary catchment, has created a major fan complex that has undergone multiple phases of incision and reconstruction, which may in turn have led to an oscillating pattern of supply or transport limited sediment flux conditions in the downstream trunk channel. This research proposal aims to investigate the consequences of unsteady sediment supply from this large valley-side sediment store, using a combination of 1d and 2d numerical simulation modelling. The proposal builds on results from a recent UK NERC funded project, ReesScan, which has acquired a unique set of digital elevation models capturing the storm scale morphodynamics of a 3 km braided study reach of the Rees (Brasington, 2010). This research aims to upscale this study to investigate the dynamics of large-scale bed pulses or waves, associated with episodic supply from Muddy Creek along the full 25 km braided reach of the river downstream of the mountain front to the delta. Modelling will be undertaken using a 1d sediment routing framework similar to SEDROUTE (Ferguson and Church, 2008), which will in turn be used to parameterize

nested applications of a 2d hydrodynamic model (Delft3d) to investigate the detailed response of the braided planform under supply limited and transported limited conditions. An accompanying field campaign will be used to derive detailed digital elevation models of the lower reaches of the Rees using novel Structure-from-Motion photogrammetric methods (Neithammer et al., 2011). Expert guidance will be provided by supervisors Brasington and Bertoldi, who have extensive experience working on the dynamics of alpine braided rivers in NZ and Europe.

References:
Brasington, J. 2010. From grain to floodplain: hyperscale models of braided rivers. Journal of Hydraulic Research, 48 (4): 52-53 Suppl. 4 2010. Ferguson, R. & Church, M. A critical perspective on 1-D modeling of river processes: Gravel load and aggradation in lower Fraser River. Water Resources Research. 2009;45:W11424 Hicks, D.M. et al., 2003. Sediment estimates: a GIS tool. Water and Atmosphere, NIWA, 11, 2627. Niethammer, U. Et al., 2011. UAV-based remote sensing of the Super-Sauze landslide: Evaluation and results. Engineering Geology, doi:10.1016/j.enggeo.2011.03.012.

Research topic (QU5) Next generation models for urban flood management. Supervisors: James Brasington, Alex Henshaw and Walter Bertoldi,Guido Zolezzi Primary University: Queen Mary University of London Secondary University: University of Trento Research Area: C
Over the last decade advances in numerical methods and remote sensing have facilitated the development of computational hydrodynamic models as key tools for strategic and operational flood management. Much of this research has focused on applications in rural or semi-developed floodplains where the details of the built environment can be largely ignored or parameterized as surface friction. By comparison advances in predicting the pattern and frequency of inundation in urban areas, where the hazards posed by flooding are most acute, has received rather less attention. This slow rate of progress is partly attributable to: a) a lack of high resolution terrain data to parameterize the topographic boundary condition for applications in large city areas; b) the technical difficulties of modelling flow through urban areas, including the need for stable solutions to the governing conservation and momentum equations. However, the emergence of hyperscale geospatial technologies such as terrestrial laser scanning and structure-frommotion photogrammetry now offers the opportunity to parameterize the form and structure of urban floodplains at unprecedented detail (Brasington, 2010). Key outstanding questions now, are how this wealth of terrain information should be best used to support urban flood forecasting and what degree of physical complexity is required of hydrodynamic models to predict urban flood hazards effectively. Building on recent research (McMillan and Brasington, 2007; McMillan and Brasington 2008, Brasington 2010), this project will investigate the necessary complexity required in hydraulic models for simulating different forcing scenarios and severities of urban flooding. Model sensitivity to process complexity, dimensionality, spatial resolution and solution schemes will be examined using an experimental design incorporating both idealized, synthetic and real urban floodplain topographies. These idealized problems will be used to compare a hierarchy of increasingly complex simulation models (from simple basin fill models; to zero-inertia solutions; through to shallow water wave solvers) in a range of different flood scenarios. These will include: 1) pluvial flooding including overloading of urban drains; 2) flooding from overtopping of embankments; and 3) catastrophic flooding from overtopping and breaching of defences. The project will suit a numerate graduate with some experience of programming and a background in Civil Engineering, Maths, Physics, Computer Science as well as the Earth Sciences and Physical Geography. References
Brasington, J. 2010. From grain to floodplain: hyperscale models of braided rivers. Journal of Hydraulic Research, 48 (4): 52-53 Suppl. 4 2010 McMillan, H.K. and Brasington, J. 2007. Reduced Complexity Strategies for Modelling Urban Floodplain Inundation, Geomorphology, 90, 226-243. McMillan, H.K. and Brasington, J. 2008. End-to-end flood forecasting under uncertainty. Water Resources Research, Doi: 10.1029/2007WR005995

Research topic (QU6) Quantifying the methodological uncertainty in empirical estimates of gravel sediment transport. Supervisors: James Brasington, Alex Henshaw and Walter Bertoldi Primary University: Queen Mary University of London Secondary University: University of Trento Research Area: B
Just over a decade ago, Wilcock (2000) suggested provocatively that our ability to predict the rate of sediment transport through a cross-section of a river could, optimistically, be placed at order of magnitude or two! Such uncertainty poses serious difficulties for the management of sediment resources (e.g., gravel aggregates), sediment-related hazards (e.g., flood risks associated with bed aggradation) and our ability to quantify in-stream habitat quality (i.e., for fisheries). More subtlety, the poor precision of transport estimates also makes the identification of causal links between upstream catchment modifications (e.g., through land-use or climate change) and the downstream impacts, such as bed aggradation or degradation and channel instability, highly hazardous. While Wilcocks challenging statement arguably still holds true, the last decade has also witnessed significant advances in the technological armoury now at the disposal of geomorphologists and practitioners to address this issue. In particular, the advent of high precision survey tools, such as airborne and terrestrial lidar, have enabled the development of precision digital elevation models of fluvial systems, from which transport rates may be quantified by comparing terrain models before and after floods (Brasington et al., 2003; Williams et al., 2011; Brasington et al., 2012). Other novel remote sensing methods include the calculation of bottom-track bias from acoustic Doppler current profilers which provides direct insight into the magnitude and distributed patterns of bed velocity (Brasington et al., 2011). In-stream methods have also advanced rapidly, with radio-tagged tracers capable of sensing their trajectory, bed-mounted impact sensors to determine the point of incipient transport, and geophones that record an acoustic signal of the transport itself. In this project we aim to deploy a battery of methodological approaches to gauge the uncertainty in empirical transport rates in a small alpine catchment (the Borgn dArolla, Switzerland) where sediment fluxes are managed as part of a regional hydropower project. This creates a natural laboratory where multiple competent events with constrained sediment loads are released daily. Using a combination of remote sensing and in-stream methods, in particular terrestrial laser scanning, radio-particle tracing and acoustic bottom track observations, this project aims to quantify the basis in morphologically-derived sediment transport rates that arise from incomplete knowledge of compensating cycles of cut-and-fill and uncertainties in boundary sediment flux. The results will have important implications for the practice of sediment transport measurement in coarse-bedded streams, and will offer novel insights into the links between sediment flux and the magnitude and frequency of the driving hydrological events.

References
Brasington, J., Langham, J. and Rumsby, B.T. 2003. Three-dimensional channel sediment budgets: methodological sensitivity of remote survey methods. Geomorphology, 53, 299-316. Brasington, J. et al. 2011. Monitoring Braided River Morphodynamics with an Acoustic Doppler Current Profiler. In, Valentine, E.M. et al. (eds.) Proceedings of the 34th World Congress of the International Association for Hydro-Environment Research and Engineering: 33rd Hydrology and Water Resources Symposium and 10th Conference on Hydraulics in Water Engineering, Brisbane. Engineers-Australia, 3396-3403. Brasington, J., et al., 2012. Modelling river bed morphology, roughness and surface sedimentology using high resolution terrestrial laser scanning. Water Resources Research, in press. Wheaton, J., Brasington, J., Darby, S.E., Sear, D. 2010. Accounting for uncertainty in DEMs from repeated topographic survey: improved sediment budgets. Earth Surface Processes and Landforms, 35, 136-156. Wilcock, P.R. (2001). The flow, the bed, and the transport: Interaction in flume and field. In, Mosley, P. Et al., Gravel-bed Rivers V. New Zealand Hydrological Society. Williams, R.D. et al., 2011. Monitoring braided river change using terrestrial laser scanning and optical bathymetric mapping. In, Smith, M. et al. (eds.) Geomorphological Mapping. WileyBlackwell. 507-532 pp.

Research topic (FU1) 3D riverscapes: An airscape perspective of river landscapes Supervisors: Klement Tockner, Alexander Sukhodolov, Osvald Fischer, Dino Zardi Primary University: Freie Universitt Berlin (Germany) Secondary University: University of Trento (Italy) Research Area: B

Description The airscape above the water and sediment surface can horizontally and vertically extent over hundreds of meters and most likely is a very critical but unexploited habitat for adult aquatic insects as well as a melting pot of aquatic, riparian and terrestrial flying organisms. Hence, it is a key challenge to develop coupled vegetation-aerodynamic flow models that predict areas most suitable for resting, mating, and oviposition of flying insects; an important prerequisite for guiding future restoration and management strategies. Interactions of local atmospheric circulations and boundary layer processes over complex terrain with river/lake environments and ecosystems shall account for the combination of diurnal atmospheric thermally-driven processes, and in particular local- to micro-scale flows, occurring over complex terrain (mountains, valleys, basins, etc.) with processes occurring over and within water bodies (lakes, rivers, marshes, ponds, etc.) that make the environment of those regions very peculiar. In this project both field measurements (using air towers and unmanned air vehicles) along dynamic floodplain rivers (Tagliamento River, Adige River, Italy) and numerical modelling will be combined to predict the effect of thermally driven atmospheric processes over complex terrain (valley winds, slope winds, etc.) on the dispersal of flying insects, dust, and plant seeds.

References
Bitencourt, D. P., and O. C. Acevedo, 2008: Modelling the interaction between a river surface and the atmosphere at the bottom of a valley. Bound.-Layer Meteor., 129, 309-321. de Franceschi, M., Zardi, D., Tagliazucca, M., Tampieri, F., 2009, Analysis of second-order moments in the surface layer turbulence in an Alpine valley. Q. J. R. Met. Soc. 135, 17501765 Serafin, S., and D. Zardi, 2010: Daytime development of the convective and mountain boundary layers under fair weather conditions: a comparison by means of idealized numerical simulations J Atmos. Sci., 68, 2128-2141.

Research topic (FU2) Critical landscape elements along river corridors Supervisors: Michael Monaghan, Klement Tockner, Walter Bertoldi Primary University: Freie Universitt Berlin Secondary University: University of Trento Associate Partner: Tohoku University Research Area: C

Description Regular flooding both destroys and renews much of the physical habitat in the active corridor of floodplain rivers. Different landscape elements, as side channels, backwaters, scour pools, vegetated islands provide critical habitats for a wide range of organisms. Active river corridors are characterised by rapid physical development of these habitats, leading to rapid changes in their ecological communities. The project will investigate the morphological structure and the functional ecology of these landscape elements through field characterisation and remote, automated photographic data. The temporal dynamics and persistency will be investigated as a function of the flow regime and the spatial location of the elements. Preferential field site will be the Tagliamento River, Italy, where two fixed automatic cameras survey the river with an hourly temporal resolution.

References
Bertoldi W., Gurnell A., Surian N., Tockner K., Zanoni L., Ziliani L., Zolezzi G. 2009. Understanding reference processes: linkages between river flows, sediment dynamics and vegetated landforms along the Tagliamento River, Italy. River Research and Applications, 25, 501-516. Van der Nat D., Tockner K., Edwards P.J. & Ward J.V. 2003. Habitat change in braided floodplains (Tagliamento, NE-Italy). Freshwater Biology, 48, 1799-1812.

Research topic (FU3) Food web modeling in aquatic systems Supervisors: Christiane Zarfl, Michael Monaghan, Franz Hlker, Guido Zolezzi Primary University: University of Trento Secondary University: Freie Universitt Berlin Associate Partner: IGB
Description Ecological processes in rivers are strongly influenced by the composition and structure of aquatic food webs since trophic interactions represent energy and matter conversion. A food web usually includes all trophic levels from producer to consumer and decomposer. Nevertheless, even small food webs consisting of only a few species may already show a complex behaviour. Therefore, investigations in so called mesocosms with artificially simplified food webs often provide first data on interactions between the different species. Field experiments can help to complete the ecological picture. A dataset on food webs in a ditch system will be soon available. But it is also useful to support the experimental efforts by modelling approaches which allow for a deeper analysis of interconnections within the food web, parameter sensitivity and the importance of external, environmental factors like hydraulics and stressors such as artificial light at night. Therefore, a physical habitat hydraulic model shall be combined with food web modelling in aquatic systems to analyse mutual feedback interactions. How does the species availability predicted by habitat models change w hen accounting for food web modelling? And how is the species composition affected by hydraulic conditions and light pollution?

References: Hlker, F., Wolter, C., Perkin, E. K., and Tockner, K. 2010. Light pollution as a biodiversity threat. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 25: 681-682. Perkin, E. K., Hlker, F., Richardson, J. S., Sadler, J. P., Wolter, C., and Tockner, K. in press. The influence of artificial light on freshwater and riparian ecosystems: Questions, challenges, and perspectives. Ecosphere.

Research topic (FU4) Domesticated freshwaters: structure, function, and biodiversity Supervisors: Klement Tockner, Guido Zolezzi, Bruno Maiolini Primary University: Freie Universitt Berlin Secondary University: University of Trento Associate Partner: Edmund Mach Foundation (Italy) Research Area: C

Description Humans have modified natural, and created new, ecosystems to maximize their services for human use. This domestication of nature is a particularly common phenomenon for freshwater ecosystems. Today, ditches, artificial ponds, and created wetlands are among the most abundant freshwaters, however, little information is available to which extent they play a critical role as habitat for aquatic species and in providing ecosystems services such as nutrient uptake. In this project, we will use a range of domesticated ecosystem types, single and in combination, to investigate their role in maintaining biodiversity and providing ecosystem services. Furthermore, we will use large-scale field experiments to investigate the role of altered flow conditions on biodiversity and ecosystem processes, possibly integrated with mathematical modelling of the key hydrodynamic properties of the investigated systems such to allow increased quantitative assessments

References:
Kareiva P, Watts S, McDonald R, Boucher T. 2007. Domesticated nature: Shaping landscapes and ecosystems for human welfare. Science 316: 18661869. Steffen, W., Crutzen, P. J., McNeill, J. R. 2007. The Anthropocene: Are humans now overwhelming the great forces of Nature? Ambio 2007, 36, 614621.

Research topic (FU6) River-floodplain connectivity in a lowland clay river corridor (Prut River, Romania/Moldova): Governing factors of hydrodynamics and productivity Supervisors: Martin Pusch, Guido Zolezzi Primary University: Freie Universitt Berlin (Germany) Secondary University: University of Trento (Italy) Associate Partner: IGB, Natural History Museum Galati/Romania (www.cmsngl.ro), GeoEcoMar Constanta/Romania (www.geoecomar.ro), University Iasi/Romania
Description The dynamics and ecology of lowland rivers meandering in floodplains mostly made up of clay have hardly been studied so far, even that this river type is very widespread worldwide e.g. in geologically relative old landscapes and loess areas. Those river corridors are also most interesting from a theoretical point of view, as they probably exhibit a low productivity in the river channel due to permanent turbidity of river water, but a high productivity in the many shallow lakes present in the floodplain. Hence, riverfloodplain connectivity seems to be most crucial for the functioning of these systems, and thus may relatively easily be studied. Similarly, the river channel exhibits a characteristic trapezoid cross-section with low habitat diversity, but which significantly increased by riparian trees falling into the channel from undercut steep river margins, also accelerating bank erosion rate. Planned research will provide first evidence on the functioning of hydrodynamic and ecological key processes in a clay river system (Prut, Romania/Moldava), as meander migration, sediment transport, formation of oxbow and shallow lakes, habitat formation around fallen trees, lateral hydrological connectivity, utilization of food resources from floodplain lakes by riverine biota (using stable isotope technique of food web analysis), and on adaptive timing of life cycles of riverine biota. For comparison, similar studies will be conducted upstream and downstream of a large dam present in the Prut (Stnca-Costesti dam) in order to assess the consequences of such modifications, and their downstream extension. Results will allow to describe for the first time the coupling of hydrological and ecological processes in a lowland clay river system, and the implications of the construction of a large dam on such systems. References: Ene, S.A., Teodosiu, C. (2009): Water footprint and challenges for its application to integrated water resources management in Romania. Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 8: 1461-1469. Teodosiu, C., Cojocariu, C., Musteret, C.P., Dascalescu, I.G. Caraene, I. (2009): Assessment of human and natural impacts over water quality in the Prut River basin, Romania. Environmental Engineering and Management Journal 8: 1439-1450 Voiculescu, M., Georgescu, L. P., Dragan, S., Timofti, M., Caldararu, A., (2011): Study of anthropogenic effects on the quality of the Lower Prut River. Journal of Environmental Protection and Ecology 12: 16-24

Research topic (FQ1) Remobilization of contaminants out of estuarine sediments Supervisors: Christiane Zarfl, Kate Spencer Primary University: Freie Universitt Berlin Secondary University: Queen Mary, University of London Associated Partner: Leibniz-Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (Berlin) Research Area: C

Description Predicted climate change and associated sea-level rise may result in the inundation of low-lying coastal regions with significant loss of coastal habitat and impact on populations on a global scale. Much of this low-lying land is currently defended and has been heavily modified by drainage, agriculture and urban development. In Europe, legislative requirements for sustainable coastal defence and wetland restoration/creation, and the high economic costs of flood protection have led to the adoption of a range of management approaches whereby coastal defences are either deliberately removed (e.g. managed realignment (MR), de-embankment or controlled reduced tide (CRT) schemes), or no longer maintained to allow tidal inundation of previously protected areas. Once coastal defences are breached land will be quickly inundated by tidal waters resulting in the deposition of marine sediment on top of the previous land surface, resulting in spatially complex sediment structures. Much of this low-lying land may be contaminated by heavy metals, nutrients and organic contaminants from previous land-use activities and as yet little is known of the mechanisms by which contaminants may be released to the overlying water column. Experimental data on metal concentrations in the sediments and on distribution behaviour are available and can be combined with mathematical models in order to gain more insight into the underlying processes of contaminant release. This project will develop a dynamic model describing the chemical fate of contaminants (metals) in the structurally complex flooded sediments. This will include an evaluation of concentration data and parameter values with special focus on an uncertainty analysis to elucidate to what extent the sea water is exposed to metals remobilized from the sediments.

Research topic (FQ2) Ecology of root-endophytic fungi in riparian plants Supervisors: Matthias Rillig, Angela Gurnell Primary University: Freie Universitt Berlin (Germany) Secondary University: Queen Mary University of London (UK) Associate Partner: IGB Research Area: A

Description Root endophytes are a diverse and functionally divergent group of fungi. While a lot of work is focused on arbuscular mycorrhiza, other groups of Eumycota tend to be much less well studied, even less so in riparian systems. Using trees as the focal plants, possibly complemented by herbaceous species, this research theme can be addressed in a number of possible projects. These include studying possible changes in the composition of root endophyte communities over successional time or in different ecological settings (e.g., different floodplain contexts, different depths), and the functional consequences of any such changes. Possible organismic targets are the enigmatic group of Sebacinales (Basidiomycota with broadly symbiotic traits), darkseptate endophytes, or parasitic fungi. Such studies could combine molecular ecology tools with efforts to isolate these fungi and bring them into culture for functional study. We envision that an observational component at Tagliamento (Italy) or another field site would be complemented with controlled studies in the laboratory.

References Bever JD, Dickie IA, Facelli E, Facelli JM, Klironomos JN, Moora M, Rillig MC, Stock WD, Tibbett M, Zobel M. 2010. Rooting theories of plant ecology in microbial interactions. Trends in Ecology & Evolution 25: 468-478. Caruso T, Hempel S, Powell JR, Barto EK, Rillig MC. 2012. Compositional divergence and convergence in arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal communities. Ecology 93: 1115-1124. Harner MJ, Mummey DL, Stanford JA, Rillig MC. 2010. Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi enhance spotted knapweed growth across a riparian chronosequence. Biological Invasions 12: 1481-1490. Jumpponen A, Trappe JM (1998) Dark septate endophytes: a review of facultative biotrophic root-colonizing fungi. New Phytologist 140: 295310. Wei M, Skorov Z, Garnica S, Riess K, Martos F, et al. (2011) Sebacinales everywhere: Previously overlooked ubiquitous fungal endophytes. PLoS ONE 6(2): e16793.

Research topic (FQ3) Hyporheic reactors: Coupling of hydrodynamic and biogeochemical processes in the bed of permeable lowland rivers Supervisors: Jrg Lewandowski, Kate Heppell Primary University: Freie Universitt Berlin (Germany) Secondary University: Queen Mary University of London (UK) Research Area: B

Description The transition zone between surface water and groundwater is called hyporheic zone. We regard it as hydrodynamically driven bioreactor responsible for the impressive selfpurification capacity of streams. Although the role of riparian and hyporheic zones in nutrient retention has been extensively recognized, the complex coupling of hydrodynamics and biogeochemistry needs to be further explored in small scale process studies in order to comprehensively understand and facilitate the management of nutrient dynamics in disturbed riverine ecosystems (Lewandowski & Ntzmann 2010). There is much heterogeneity in the pathways of water through the hyporheic zone caused by differences in hydraulic conductivities of the streambed, by upwelling groundwater, by ripples, by riffles and by pressure differences in water as it moves around obstacles such as woody debris and macrophyte beds. Although these drivers of subsurface flow are in principal known (and have been studied in the laboratory and integrated into models), the resultant flow paths in real river systems have never been measured systematically in situ. With a novel heat pulse device developed at the IGB (Lewandowski et al. 2011, Angermann et al. 2012) it is now possible to identify dominant flow paths and measure flow velocities in the stream bed and hyporheic zones. This PhD student will determine such pathways in selected river reaches in Germany and the United Kingdom. After identifying and quantifying the drivers of the hydrodynamic heterogeneity, the consequences of the heterogeneity for biogeochemistry will be investigated. Changes in geochemical composition and biogeochemical turnover along the previously identified flow paths will be studied, with the focus on nitrogen, phosphorus and carbon fluxes and transformations. Finally, the small scale investigations will be upscaled based on innovative measurement methods such as distributed temperature sensing or airborne thermal infrared radiation studies. Thus, we are looking for a PhD student interested in applying complex hydrodynamic and biogeochemical field methods.

References Lewandowski, J., Angermann, L., Ntzmann, G. and Fleckenstein, J. H. (2011): A heat pulse technique for the determination of small-scale flow directions and flow velocities in the streambed of sand-bed streams. Hydrological Processes 25: 3244-3255. Lewandowski, J. & Ntzmann, G. (2010): Nutrient retention and release in a floodplain's aquifer and in the hyporheic zone of a lowland river. Ecological Engineering 36: 11561166. Angermann, L., Lewandowski, J., Fleckenstein, J. H. & Ntzmann, G. (2012): A 3D analysis algorithm to improve interpretation of heat pulse sensor results for the determination of small-scale flow directions and velocities in the hyporheic zone. Journal of Hydrology, accepted.

Research topic (FQ4) Interactive response of macrophytes, invertebrates and fish to changing hydromorphologic conditions in rivers Supervisors: Christian Wolter, Alexander Sukhodolov, Angela Gurnell Primary University: Freie Universitt Berlin (Germany) Secondary University: Queen Mary University of London (UK) Associate Partner: IGB Research Area: A
Description Riverine systems are triggered by their hydrographs and stochastic events such as high floods and droughts. The combination and variability of environmental factors determine the availability of substrates, structural complexity, depth and width variability as well as diversity of flow patterns all contributing to complex, diverse habitat patters and thus, habitat availability for and diversity of aquatic taxa. River regulation typically cuts the extremes of the hydrograph, reduces discharge variations and homogenizes flow patterns, all impacting on habitat complexity and diversity. In general, the reduction of the hydrographs extremes is inversely related to habitat and species diversity, and impacts, for example, on the periodic rejuvenation of emergent, bank and floodplain vegetation, on bank erosion and bedload transport and thus, on gravel cleaning, sorting and quality, and on the rejuvenation on habitats in general by infrequent set back of natural succession during major floods. With ongoing succession emergent or floating leaved vegetation and organic substrates become a dominant habitat factor and interactions between aquatic plants, invertebrates and fish via the food web become the most important structuring factor for aquatic communities. Accordingly, the primary structuring of, for example, river fish communities by environmental triggers will decrease as the typical riverine species well adapted to environmental stochastic fluctuations. If riverine communities are mainly determined by hydromorphology, while biotic interactions are controlled via the food web by nutrients, this change to more biologically, food web structured communities might oppose successful rehabilitation of typical fish assemblages in regulated rivers. Research hypothesis Flow regulation moves the primary trigger of environmental stressors as structuring factors of fluvial communities toward biotic interactions with unforeseeable consequences for riverine biodiversity. In regulated rivers, there might be a potential for macrophytes to alter hydrologic conditions in a way providing hydromorphologic habitat structures both through their hydraulic effects on velocity and depth patterns, but also ultimately on the adjustment of channel form through sediment retention and landform building by the macrophytes.

Research topic (FQ5) Microplastics in the river system Supervisors: Matthias Rillig, Christiane Zarfl, Simon Carr, Angela Gurnell Primary University: Freie Universitt Berlin (Germany) Secondary University: Queen Mary University of London (UK) Associate Partner: IGB Research Area: A

Description Microplastic pollution has been primarily examined in marine systems, but rather limited knowledge is available on the occurrence of microplastics in rivers, their environmental fate, and their effects on processes and organisms. Nevertheless, rivers may contribute significantly as a transport vector for plastics debris into the oceans. In addition, many processes which were already described for marine environments (e.g. bio-fouling, sedimentation, fragmentation, uptake by organisms) may happen on a totally different timescale and to a much higher extent. Therefore, studies could target the abundance of microplastics, their chemical fate, and/or their effects in the river itself, in the hyporheic zone or in the riparian soil. Doctoral candidates could develop methods for detection, could pursue testing of biological effects, or could investigate how much of this material is accumulating, and where, and the degree to which it is accumulating in different types of rivers and organisms, rather than being transferred to the sea.

References Fries E., Zarfl C. (2011): Sorption of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) to low and high density polyethylene (PE). Environ. Sci. Pollut. Res. 19, 1296-1304. Imhof H. K., Schmid J., Ivleva N. P., Niessner R. Laforsch C. (2012). A novel, highly efficient method for the quantification of plastic particles in sediments of aquatic environments. Limnology and Oceanography Methods (in press). Rillig MC. (2012). Microplastic in terrestrial ecosystems and the soil? Environmental Science & Technology 46, 6453-6454. Zarfl C., Fleet D., Fries E., Galgani F., Gerdts G., Hanke G., Matthies M. (2011). Microplastics in oceans. Marine Pollution Bulletin. 62, 1589-1591. Zarfl, C., Matthies, M. (2010): Are marine plastic particles transport vectors for organic pollutants to the Arctic? Marine Pollution Bulletin, 60, 1810-1840.

Research topic (FQ6) Airborne and ground-based upscaling of findings on groundwatersurface water interactions Supervisors: Jrg Lewandowski, Gemma Harvey, Hauke Dmpfling, Gunnar Ntzmann Primary University: Freie Universitt Berlin (Germany) Secondary University: Queen Mary University of London (UK) Research Area: B

Description For the sustainable management of river systems it is essential to understand groundwater-surface water interactions. Temperature is an important tracer to detect and quantify groundwater-surface water exchange. On a local scale temperature depth profiles at the sediment-water interface are a well-established technique to quantify exfiltration pattern (Schmidt et al. 2006) and active Heat Pulse Sensors (HPS) (Lewandowski et al. 2011, Angermann et al. 2012) have been recently introduced as a powerful technique for a detailed process understanding. Though local findings are an important key for process understanding the overall ecological effect of groundwatersurface water interactions requires an upscaling of local findings. For that purpose it is essential to determine the exfiltration pattern with high spatial resolution since most groundwater-surface water systems are characterized by extreme heterogeneity. For that purpose ground-based techniques such as Distributed Temperature Sensing (DTS) (Selker et al. 2006) with a fibre-optic cable, airborne and satellite measurements of Thermal Infrared Radiation (TIR), and modelling are promising techniques. A major task of the PhD student will be to develop, improve and apply upscaling techniques. He/She will conduct DTS measurements, TIR campaigns and modelling exercises. Also, as a reference and validation of theses findings he/she will apply local techniques such as the HPS or temperature depth profiles. Furthermore, the ecological impacts of the groundwater-surface water exchange on local and larger scale should be evaluated and compared at different field sites based on the findings of the upscaling studies.

References Angermann, L., Lewandowski, J., Fleckenstein, J. H. and Ntzmann, G. (2012): A 3D analysis algorithm to improve interpretation of heat pulse sensor results for the determination of small-scale flow directions and velocities in the hyporheic zone. Journal of Hydrology, accepted. Lewandowski, J., Angermann, L., Ntzmann, G. and Fleckenstein, J. H. (2011): A heat pulse technique for the determination of small-scale flow directions and flow velocities in the streambed of sand-bed streams. Hydrological Processes 25: 3244-3255. Schmidt, C., Bayer-Raich, M. and Schirmer, M. (2006): Characterization of spatial heterogeneity of groundwater-stream water interactions using multiple depth streambed temperature measurements at the reach scale. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences 10: 849-859. Selker, J. S., Thevenaz, L., Huwald, H., Mallet, A., Luxemburg, W., de Giesen, N. V., Stejskal, M., Zeman, J., Westhoff, M. and Parlange, M. B. (2006): Distributed fiber-optic temperature sensing for hydrologic systems. Water Resources Research 42 (12).