Reference conditions can be defined as the natural state of a water body. The concept is becoming increasingly important since climate and land use changes increase the pressures on our water bodies. However, determining nutrient reference conditions in areas that have been cultivated for centuries has proven difficult. BIOWATER scientists have therefore compared how the Nordic countries have approached the

“Ecosystem services” has become an increasingly used concept in the academic world. One (of many) definitions is that ecosystem services are the benefits people obtain from ecosystems. Like the feature photo indicates, this can be the recreational benefits given to us by a lake, or it can be clean drinking water, healthy fish for dinner, insects that pollinate and thereby

BIOWATER hosted a virtual  SWAT scenario workshop on 4-6 November 2020,  and the lecturer was the SWAT expert Dr. Eugenio Molina Navarro from the University of Madrid. Why is this an important topic for BIOWATER? Well, across the Nordic countries we have asked stakeholders of their beliefs about future land uses in a bioeconomy. We have compiled their answers on

The cultivation of new land is a means to increase food production for a growing population. BIOWATER is concerned with what happens to our freshwaters when the land use is changed, and this is a concern that we share with our stakeholders. Based on requests from regional and national authorities, we have therefore conducted a literature survey to increase our

If the bioeconomy does not develop in a sustainable way, the modifications of the rural landscape, in combination with expected climate change, will seriously affect our freshwater resources, and thereby society. This is one of many conclusions in BIOWATER’s special issue “Environmental effects of a green bioeconomy” (Ambio 49-11). There are altogether 12 papers in the issue, and we have

Fatemeh Hashemi and co-authors from the Biowater project were very early keen to investigate the dynamics of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) forms across the range of Nordic mini-catchments. They wanted to develop “catchment cartoons” that could be used by scientists when communicating results to stakeholders and decision makers. Fatemeh’s newly published paper in the Journal of Water with the

Biowater’s PhD student Mette Vodder Carstensen (University of Aarhus) and co-authors asked themselves: How efficient are mitigation measures targeting nutrient losses from drainage system in the Nordic region? Main author Mette V. Carstensen writes: “This was our first question setting the stage for this study, as despite many initiatives and efforts, the losses of nutrients to our rivers, lakes and

Biowater is proud to announce that Dr. Faisal Bin Ashraf successfully defended his thesis on 29 May 2020. Faisal’s thesis, River regimes and energy demand interactions in Nordic rivers, was well received by the opponents. Dr. Faisal Bin Ashraf is by this our first examined PhD! Faisal has studied at the University of Oulu in Finland. He has analysed the