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PhD-Update: Thesis succesfully defended
3.5 years after starting my PhD in the SSF Research Unit, supervised by Markus Weiler and Jeffrey McDonnell, I successfully defended my thesis on the 14.11.25. I am super happy with the scientific work produced in that time and the disputation was a nice chance to present and defend my work in front of my…
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PhD Update: Thesis Submitted & 2 Preprints
Over the past few months, I’ve been a bit quiet on here — and for good reason: I was wrapping up my PhD thesis! I’m excited (and relieved) to share that it’s now officially printed and submitted On top of that, I managed to submit two new research papers, both now available as open-access preprints:…
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EGU 25 Poster & Sessions
Looking forward to an exciting #EGU25! I’m co-convening a few sessions and presenting a poster—come by and say hi: Poster – Tracing Subsurface Stormflow: Insights from Sprinkling ExperimentsMon, 28 Apr | 10:45–12:30 | Hall A, A.17 MacGyver Session – Innovative tools to observe the geosphereMon, 28 Apr | 14:00–15:45 | Hall A BUGS Session –…
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Preferential flowpaths change soilwater isotopic composition
A review by Mathias Sprenger and others in 2016 described how preferential flowpaths alter the iotopic seasonality signature in soils. When these pathways exist (see my post on macropores), young, topsoil water is directly added to soil layers which have a different or dampened signature. This causes sharp deviations which stick out of the otherwise…
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Isotope seasonality in soils
In last weeks #waterwednesday I briefly explained the reason behind the seasonality effect of stable water isotope composition. When water infiltrates into the soil, this signature is first preserved. However, as the water trickels further down, it mixes with preexisting water, slowly dampening the signature. This post is part of my water science communication series…
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On the origin of preferential flowpaths
In some soils over 95% of infiltrated rainwater travels through less than .5% of the total soil volume. The reason? Macropores! In last weeks post I explained the basic concept of how water moves through hillslope soils with the most important feature being “water highways”, scientifically called preferential flowpaths or macropores. These pathways can have…
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How water flows on hillslopes
In line with my PhD project on subsurface stormflow I want to share some basics on hillslope hydrology: When it rains on hillslopes, water can flow over land to the next stream or infiltrate into the soil. In the soil it can take two ways. It can move either through the soil matrix or use…