Several project & thesis opportunities in a mesocosm study in Landau

A team of researchers in Systemlink at the University of Koblenz – Landau are offering several project and thesis opportunities. Here is a brief description of the research and the topics involved thereof:-

“Streams are affected by multiple stressors, which can co-occur and interact. In a mesocosm study, we investigate the impacts of an invasive crayfish (Signal crayfish, Pacifastacus leniusculus) and artificial light at night (ALAN). Besides focussing on aquatic invertebrates, both drifting and the whole community, we investigate effects cascading to terrestrial areas connected via emerging insects and the food-web based on stable isotope and fatty acid analysis. The study is currently performed in a system of outdoor flow-through mesocosms (RSM facility, Figure 1), with weekly samplings for drifting and emerging invertebrates and 3 sampling campaigns for benthic invertebrates.”

Figure 1: Experiment setup in the RSM mecososm system with Gemma Burgazzi collecting a benthic invertebrate sample (photo by V. Schreiner).

Students can either join immediately or for the post-experiment phase, including sample processing and community data analysis.

Within the mesocosm study, we offer several projects / theses investigating the effects of the two stressors on:

  • Drifting stream invertebrates
  • Whole benthic invertebrate communities
  • Emerging insects
  • Food webs using stable isotope analysis
  • Food quality using fatty acid analysis

Please contact the following researchers in Systemlink if you have any questions or are interested in one of the topics:-

  1. Gemma Burgazzi (burgazzi@uni-landau.de)
  2. Marina Arias (arias@uni-landau.de)
  3. Verena Schreiner (schreiner-verena@uni-landau.de)