Research on lakes and rivers receives funding from Formas

Formas, Sweden’s government research council for sustainable development, has awarded funding to two research projects that aim to improve our understanding of key processes in lakes and river systems and how they are affected by environmental change.

Václava Hazuková, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Department of Ecology, Environment and Geoscience.

ImageMattias Pettersson

Václava Hazuková will investigate how carbon is stored in Arctic lakes. Although lakes collectively represent a carbon sink comparable in magnitude to that of the oceans, scientists still know relatively little about the mechanisms that preserve carbon in lake sediments.

As the climate warms and permafrost thaws, increasing amounts of organic matter and minerals are transported from land into lakes. The project will examine how the interactions between these materials affect the amount of carbon stored and the stability of that storage over time.

One of the most visible examples is that once-clear waters are turning orange, a process known as “rusting”.

“As the permafrost thaws and ‘rusting’ becomes more widespread, it will become even more urgent to understand what governs the ability of Arctic lakes to store carbon,” says Václava Hazuková.

Reconnecting floodplains with rivers

Richard Mason’s project focuses on flooding in Swedish river systems. More specifically, he will study floodplains, the areas alongside rivers that store water during floods. These environments provide important habitats for plants and animals while also helping to reduce flood risks downstream.

In Sweden, human modifications such as levees and hydropower have disconnected many rivers from their floodplains. Richard Mason will be working with experts, using satellite imagery to map how frequently floodplains flood and how this is affected by humans and climate change.

The project aims to provide knowledge that can support the restoration of free-flowing rivers.

“We usually only study flooding when it poses a risk to people or property. I hope that the project will provide the tools to understand where we can safely reconnect floodplains and how we can design flood timings which provide the greatest benefits for biodiversity and society,” says Richard Mason.