International Symposium AquaDiva: Celebrating 15 Years of Groundbreaking Research

On June 6 and 7, we held the final AquaDiva symposium in the beautiful setting of the Volkshaus Jena, Germany. After 15 years of intensive and fruitful research, we brought our scientists and numerous guests together to share results and discuss future research perspectives. The spokespersons of the Collaborative Research Centre AquaDiva, Prof. Kirsten Küsel, Prof. Susan Trumbore and Prof. Kai U. Totsche, welcomed all guests and guided  through these exciting days.

Kirsten Küsel (FSU Jena) opened the talk sessions with a keynote about the steps, challenges and successes in 15 years of the AquaDiva adventure, including the initial research that led to the establishment of the CRC AquaDiva, which has been funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) since 2013.

Other notable keynotes on the first day were given by Prof. Cara Magnabosco (ETH Zurich) on the biogeography and ecology of subsurface life and Dr. Simon Schroeter (MPI-BGC, Jena) on the connection between soil and groundwater under extreme hydroclimatic conditions. On the second day, the keynotes were given by Dr. Robert Lehmann (FSU Jena) on advances in monitoring techniques at the Hainich Critical Zone Exploratory and by Prof. Andreas Hartmann (TU Dresden) on advances in hydrological modeling. The last two keynotes by Prof. Barbara Praetorius (SRH, Berlin) and Prof. Kai U. Totsche (FSU Jena) were particularly interesting, highlighting the important implications and responsibility of environmental research for policy, education, and governance.

During the insightful 2-day symposium, 31 talks and 32 posters were presented to the nearly 100 participants. We gained deeper insights into the infrastructure of the Hainich Critical Zone Exploratory and the Saale-Elster-Sandsteinplatte Observatory, into groundwater microbial communities and element cycling, and how canopy, bryophytes, fungi, and viruses shape surface and subsurface environments. We learned more about emerging techniques such as Raman gas spectroscopy, isotope methodology, and data modeling.

We also enjoyed spending time together and shared memorable moments such as the Young Researcher Meet&Greet on June 5 and the field trip to the Hainich Critical Zone Exploratory on June 8.

There is still a year of collaboration and scientific work left in the AquaDiva project, and the foundation that has been established ensures that our scientists will continue and expand this valuable research.

It was a fantastic symposium, thanks to all the speakers, chairs, and poster presenters for the amazing science presented!

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