Academic positions

Education

Awards

• Nominated for the Leibniz Dissertation Award (10 out of 800).

Research interests

My interest is in understanding systemic processes in river and lake ecosystems, such as ecosystem metabolism. My focus is on the investigation of the effects of global change on process dynamics, in particular on non-linear, threshold-driven changes.

Methodologically, my studies are based on both long-term data and experimental data and realize a close relationship between data-driven analysis and ecological theories, as well as results from ecological modelling.

Methodical: statistical modelling, time series analysis, nonlinear optimization, mesocosm experiments

• Climate change and eutrophication
• Threshold-driven processes in freshwater ecosystems
• Abrupt changes in zooplankton community composition with specific consideration of external and internal drivers
• Capability of early warning signals to predict impeding regime shifts based on empirical long-term data
• Interacting effects of nutrients, temperature and water level changes on ecosystem metabolism, periphyton and macrophytes
• Influence of stratification on lake metabolism and metabolic balance
• Difficulties in the application of the 24 h oxygen curve method to estimate metabolic rates in small wind sheltered lakes dominated by horizontal convective mixing

Projects

AssessStress

Coordinator of the UFZ platform project: Stressor thresholds and multi-stressor assessments for aquatic ecosystems

OperaSOS

Operationalizing the 'Safe Operating Space' concept for a functional management of freshwater ecosystems under global change

P-SPACE

A save operating space for the prevention of eutrophication in riverscapes under multiple stress

HI-CAM (Helmholtz-Initiative Climate Adaptation and Mitigation)

Sub-project: Climate change effects on the water quality of large rivers in Germany.

Research profiles

Researcher ID

ORCID

ResearchGate

Publications

2023 (2)

• Adrian, R., Gsell, A.S., Shatwell, T., Scharfenberger, U. (2023):
  Linking theory with empirical data: Improving prediction through mechanistic understanding of lake ecosystem complexity under global change
  Fundam. Appl. Limnol. 196 (3-4), 179 - 194 10.1127/fal/2022/1457
• Zingel, P., Jeppesen, E., Nõges, T., Hejzlar, J., Tavşanoğlu, Ü.N., Papastergiadou, E., Scharfenberger, U., Agasild, H. (2023):
  Changes in nutrient concentration and water level affect the microbial loop: a 6-month mesocosm experiment
  Aquat. Ecol. 57 (2), 369 - 381 10.1007/s10452-023-10015-z

2020 (1)

• Ersoy, Z., Scharfenberger, U., Baho, D.L., Bucak, T., Feldmann, T., Hejzlar, J., Levi, E.E., Mahdy, A., Nõges, T., Papastergiadou, E., Stefanidis, K., Šorf, M., Søndergaard, M., Trigal, C., Jeppesen, E., Beklioğlu, M. (2020):
  Impact of nutrients and water level changes on submerged macrophytes along a temperature gradient: a pan-European mesocosm experiment
  Glob. Change Biol. 26 (12), 6831 - 6851 10.1111/gcb.15338

Other publications

• Ulrike Scharfenberger, Erik Jeppesen, Meryem Beklioğlu, Martin Søndergaard, David G.Angeler, Ayşe İdil Çakıroğlu, Stina Drakare, Josef Hejzlar, Aldoushy Mahdy, Eva Papastergiadou, Michal Šorf, Kostantinos Stefanidis, Arvo Tuvikene, Priit Zingel, Rita Adrian (2019): Effects of trophic status, water level and temperature on shallow lake metabolism and metabolic balance: A standardised pan-European mesocosm experiment. Limnology and Oceanography, 64: 616-631

• Ülkü Nihan Tavşanoğlu, Michal Šorf, Konstantinos Stefanidis, Sandra Brucet, Semra Türkan, Helen Agasild, Didier L. Baho, Ulrike Scharfenberger, Josef Hejzlar, Eva Papastergiadou, Rita Adrian, David G. Angeler, Priit Zingel, Ayşe İdil Çakıroğlu, Arda Özen, Stina Drakare, Martin Søndergaard, Erik Jeppesen, Meryem Beklioğlu (2017): Effects of nutrient and water level changes on the composition and size structure of zooplankton communities in shallow lakes under different climatic conditions: a pan-European mesocosm experiment.  Aquatic Ecology, 51: 257–273

• Darren P. Giling, Peter A. Staehr, Hans Peter Grossart, Mikkel René Andersen, Bertram Boehrer, Carmelo Escot, Fatih Evrendilek, Lluís Gómez-Gener, Mark Honti, Ian D Jones, Nusret Karakaya, Alo Laas, Enrique Moreno-Ostos, Karsten Rinke, Ulrike Scharfenberger, Silke R. Schmidt, Michael Weber, R. Iestyn Woolway, Jacob A. Zwart, Biel Obrador (2017): Delving deeper: Metabolic processes in the metalimnion of stratified lakes. Limnology and Oceanography, 62: 1288–1306

• Soren Brothers, Garabet Kazanjian, Jan Köhler, Ulrike Scharfenberger, Sabine Hilt (2017): Convective mixing and high littoral production established systematic errors in the diel oxygen curves of a shallow, eutrophic lake. Limnology and Oceanography: Methods, 15: 429–435

• Alena S. Gsell, Ulrike Scharfenberger, Deniz Özkundakci, Annika Walters, Lars-Ansers Hansson, Annette B. G. Janssen, Peeter Nõges, Philip C. Reid, Daniel E. Schindler, Ellen van Donk, Vasilis Dakos, Rita Adrian (2016): Evaluating early-warning indicators of critical transitions in natural aquatic ecosystems. PNAS, 113: E8089--E8095

• Jan Coppens, Josef Hejzlar, Michal Šorf, Erik Jeppesen, Şeyda Erdoğan, Ulrike Scharfenberger, Aldoushy Mahdy, Peeter Nõges, Arvo Tuvikene, Didier L. Baho, Cristina Trigal, Eva Papastergiadou, Kostas Stefanidis, Saara Olsen, Meryem Beklioğlu (2016): The influence of nutrient loading, climate and water depth on nitrogen and phosphorus loss in shallow lakes: a pan-European mesocosm experiment. Hydrobiologia, 778: 13–32

• Aldoushy Mahdy, Sabine Hilt, Nur Filiz, Meryem Beklioğlu, Josef Hejzlar, Deniz Özkundakci, Eva Papastergiadou, Ulrike Scharfenberger, Michal Šorf, Kostas Stefanidis, Lea Tuvikene, Priit Zingel, Martin Søndergaard, Erik Jeppesen, Rita Adrian (2015): Effects of water temperature on summer periphyton biomass in shallow lakes: a pan-European mesocosm experiment. Aquatic Sciences, 77: 499–510

• Didier L. Baho, Ülkü Nihan Tavşanoğlu, Michal Šorf, Konstantinos Stefanidis, Stina Drakare, Ulrike Scharfenberger, Helen Agasild, Meryem Beklioğlu, Josef Hejzlar, Rita Adrian, Eva Papastergiadou, Priit Zingel, Martin Søndergaard, Erik Jeppesen, David G. Angeler (2015): Macroecological Patterns of Resilience Inferred from a Multinational, Synchronized Experiment. Sustainability, 7: 1142–1160

• Aldoushy Mahdy, Ulrike Scharfenberger, Rita Adrian, Sabine Hilt (2015): Experimental comparison of periphyton removal by chironomid larvae and Daphnia magna. Inland Waters, 5: 81–88

• Frank Landkildehus, Martin Søndergaard, Meryem Beklioğlu, Rita Adrian, David G. Angeler, Josef Hejzlar, Eva Papastergiadou, Priit Zingel, Ayşe İdil Çakıroğlu, Ulrike Scharfenberger, Stina Drakare, Tiina Nõges, Michal Šorf, Konstantinos Stefanidis, Ülkü Nihan Tavşanoğlu, Cristina Trigal, Aldoushy Mahdy, Christina Papadaki, Lea Tuvikenek, Søren E. Larsen, Martin Kernan, Erik Jeppesen (2014): Climate change effects on shallow lakes: design and preliminary results of a cross-European climate gradient mesocosm experiment. Estonian Journal of Ecology, 63: 71–89

• Danijela Markovic, Ulrike Scharfenberger, Stefan Schmutz, Florian Pletterbauer, Christian Wolter (2013): Variability and alterations of water temperatures across the Elbe and Danube River Basins. Climatic Change, 119: 375–389

• Ulrike Scharfenberger, Aldoushy Mahdy, and Rita Adrian (2013): Threshold-driven shifts in
  two copepod species: Testing ecological theory with observational data. Limnology and Oceanography, 58: 741–752

• Jayaprakash Rajasekharan, Ulrike Scharfenberger, Nicolau Gonçalves, Ricardo Vigário (2010): Image Approach towards Document Mining in Neuroscientific Publications. Advances in Intelligent Data Analysis IX. IDA 2010. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 6065. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg.