Supervisor

Stefan Schmutz, https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3013-0450 Christoph Hauer, https://orcid.org/0000-0001-8704-2198

Content

To analyse water-energy-food nexus related stressor impacts on aquatic biota to better explain underlying degradation processes. The gained knowledge will support the identification of mechanistic pathways of (multiple) stressors and will enable better tailored management measures, e.g., mitigation & restoration and conservation, to make human needs more ecologically sustainable.

Skills and Qualifications

  • Required: Master or other equivalent university degree in biology/ecology or other interdisciplinary environmental or sustainability sciences
  • Desirable: experiences in aquatic ecology, statistical analyses, ecological experiments
 

 

Introduction/background

IRLs are exposed to a multitude of human demands which threaten their integrity and functioning as well as the provision of ecosystem services. The water-energy-food nexus (WEFN) is central to the sustainable development of Industrialized Riverine Landscapes IRL, given the increasing demands of a growing population and related economic & societal aspects for water, food, and energy security. Hydropower production (HP) is considered as a renewable and sustainable energy resource and as nearly C02-free and thus plays a huge role in the WEFN. However, HP is associated with numerous ecological drawbacks resulting in degraded IRLs and threatened biota. Further, there is a lack of knowledge on the cumulative impacts particularly in multi-stressed Alpine IRLs, where besides HP, other stressors such as river channelization, intensive land use, pollution, toxics, etc. impact biota in manifold ways. In addition, climate change may enforce HP impacts (e.g., water withdrawal). This poses tremendous challenges on future management of natural resources, requiring inter- and transdisciplinary scientific inputs and the integration of various EU policy goals.

Main objective/research question/hypothesis

The pervasiveness of HP and other stressors related to the WEFN in IRS requires the incorporation of relevant stressors in an integrative research framework. We hypothesize that considering multiple WFEN related stressors in such a framework will better explain underlying degradation processes. The gained knowledge will support the identification of mechanistic pathways of (multiple) stressors and will enable better tailored management measures, e.g., mitigation & restoration and conservation, to make human needs more ecologically sustainable.

Approach/methods and time frame

The following methods will be applied: (1) Review and meta-analyses on multiple HP-stressors; (2) Analysis of integration needs of various EU directives (e.g., WFD, Floods-D, Res-ED) and the CAP to understand management challenges & needs for concerted measures in the future; (3) Large scale dataset analyses on multiple WFEN stressors (e.g., HP, land-use etc.) in multiple Austrian catchments, multiple river types, with integrative biotic indicators, remote sensing data etc; (4) Mesocosms experiments of selected prevailing stressor combinations and expected tipping points (flow, morphology, temperature) at BOKU HyTEC experimental channels in Lunz am See.