News archive

January 22, 2014According to the proverb, constant dripping wears away the stone, but this is not the whole story: in limestone, a significant role in the formation of fissures and caves appears to be played by microorganisms.

January 8, 2014Natural wetlands are well-known for their large share in global methane emissions via biological processes but until now it has not been investigated if wetlands could also be important emitters of trace elements.

December 3, 2013In the course of the last few decades, the oxygen concentration levels in aquifers in the Swiss Plateau have dropped irregularly.

September 11, 2013The 6.5 million inhabitants of Vietnam’s capital, Hanoi, are facing a growing threat: as more and more water is pumped from a deep – previously uncontaminated – aquifer, arsenic‑laden water from shallow sediments is advancing towards the city’s wells..

August 22, 2013Arsenic-laden groundwater used for cooking and drinking could pose a risk to the health of almost 20 million people across China.

July 2, 2013Researchers at Cornell University (United States) and Eawag (Switzerland) discovered a general and flexible method to understand how insects may use non-native plants in their diet. The method could accurately predict the use of >400 non-native plants as larval hostplants by 900 different herbivorous butterfly and moth species native to Europe.