The Rhine floodplain - a biogeochemically coupled system under stress

 Speaker: Professor Patrick Fink, Professor Christina Bogner 
 

River floodplains are highly dynamic systems at the aquatic–terrestrial interface that regulate biogeochemical cycles by trapping sediments, transforming nutrients, and storing carbon in soils and vegetation. 

Across Europe, however, floodplains have been profoundly altered by river regulation, intensive land use, and climate-driven hydrological extremes. At the same time, research on floodplain processes remains fragmented across disciplines, with hydrology, sediment dynamics, biotic communities, and biogeochemical fluxes often investigated in isolation. 

The Emerging Group (EG) addresses this gap by establishing a new, integrated floodplain research focus at the University of Cologne, conceptualising floodplains as biogeochemically coupled systems. Using the Lower Rhine floodplain as a model system and building on the unique infrastructure of the Ecological Research Station Rees, the EG investigates how altered hydrological regimes reorganise sediment dynamics, food-web structure, and biogeochemical processes across aquatic–terrestrial interfaces.

Four tightly interlinked subprojects integrate hydrological driver analysis, sediment dynamics and contamination, food-web and stoichiometric processes, and microbially mediated greenhouse gas and volatile organic compound emissions within a shared process-based framework. By systematically linking geo- and life-science perspectives and embedding early-career researchers as PIs, the EG creates a coherent interdisciplinary research nucleus. It provides the conceptual and organisational foundation for a future Collaborative Research Centre and strategically strengthens the University of Cologne’s research profile.