Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon
Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon is a research center that is part of the pulse of the water sector. Here we bring together everything it publishes on Smart Water Magazine: its news, its blogs and the events it takes part in.
Loss of oxygen in bodies of water identified as new tipping point
Oxygen concentrations in our planet's waters are decreasing rapidly and dramatically—from ponds to the ocean. The progressive loss of oxygen threatens not only ecosystems, but also the livelihoods of large sectors of society and the entire planet, according to the authors of an international study involving GEOMAR published today in Nature Ecology & Evolution. They call for the […]
Study reveals ancient Nile floods were highly variable during wetter climates
Global warming as well as recent droughts and floods threaten large populations along the Nile Valley. Understanding how such a large river will respond to an invigorated hydrological cycle is therefore a pressing issue. Insights can be gained by studying past periods with wetter and warmer conditions, such as the North African Humid Period eleven […]
Mapping chemical footprints in European streams
Many pesticides, industrial chemicals, and pharmaceuticals, as well as their degradation products, end up in streams and rivers after use. A team of environmental chemists at the UFZ has therefore taken a closer look at 610 chemicals with known occurrence patterns or problematic effects and analyzed whether and in what concentrations they occur in European […]
Metal-organic frameworks study unravels mechanism for capturing water from air
Researchers from the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf and Dresden University of Technology have unraveled the water adsorption mechanism in certain microporous materials—so-called hierarchical metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)—while probing them on the atomic scale. Discovered only about 25 years ago, their special properties quickly led to a reputation as "miracle materials"—which, as it turned out, can even harvest water […]
Estuaries as climate gas hotspots
Nitrous oxide has a much stronger effect on the climate than carbon dioxide. Soils, peatlands and rivers are potential nitrous oxide sources. However, when, where and how much nitrous oxide is emitted into the air has not yet been sufficiently researched. A team led by Gesa Schulz, a doctoral student at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, has […]
Green hydrogen: How photoelectrochemical water splitting may become competitive
Sunlight can be used to produce green hydrogen directly from water in photoelectrochemical (PEC) cells. So far, systems based on this "direct approach" have not been energetically competitive. However, the balance changes as soon as some of the hydrogen in such PEC cells is used in-situ for a catalytic hydrogenation reaction, resulting in the co-production […]
European summer droughts since 2015 most severe in centuries
The 2015–2018 summer droughts have been exceptional in large parts of Western and Central Europe over the last 400 years, in terms of the magnitude of drought conditions. This indicates an influence of man-made global warming. However, multi-year droughts have occurred frequently in the 17th and 18th century, although not as severe. This is the […]
Reliably measuring whether rivers or lakes run out of air
International study shows that freshwater polluted by fecal material can be determined more quickly and reliably using a new technique.