The ICDP-funded Bushveld Drilling Project (BVDP) aims to generate a continuous vertical stratigraphic sequence of the mineral and resources-rich Bushveld Igneous Complex (BIC) in South Africa. Within this framework, a specific focus is directed towards gathering water-related data, aimed at enhancing the understanding of deep groundwater systems in relation to water and energy security. The present project complements the already ongoing and funded collaborative activities between the Hydrogeology group of UniBas, the main partner's group at University of the Free State, and the BVDP, via the addition of state-of-the-art measurements of radio-noble gases dissolved in water. The determination of the radio-noble gas isotope concentrations of ³⁹Ar, ³⁷Ar, ⁸⁵Kr, and ⁸¹Kr, alongside the already planned analyses of classic environmental tracers [i.e., stable water isotopes (∂¹⁸O, ∂²H), atmospheric noble gas concentrations (He, Ar, Kr, Xe), and other ratio isotopes (³H,³He, and ⁴He)] will allow the characterization (i) of the residence times and flow dynamics of the suspected hundreds-of-thousands- to millions-of-years old deep groundwater, which in turn enables the assessment of the spatial extents and hydraulic properties of the different lithological units in the BIC, (ii) of the origins of suspected large amounts of dissolved CH₄, which in turn enables assessment of the potential for using CH₄ from the BIC for sustainable energy production, and (iii) enable estimating the quantity, quality, and vulnerability of groundwater and therefore the suitability for using it as a drinking water source.

Die Schweizerisch-Liechtensteinische Stiftung für archäologische Forschungen im Ausland (SLSA) hat 2023 ein marokkanisch-schweizerisch-deutsches Team bei der Durchführung ethnoarchäologischer Forschungen zu Marktplätzen unterstützt. Ziel dieser Arbeiten war es, auf zwei aktiven traditionellen Wochenmärkten sowie auf einem Viehmarkt im Atlasgebirge (Marokko) Vergleichsdaten zu sammeln, die dabei helfen sollen, Marktplätze aus früheren Epochen archäologisch zu identifizieren und besser zu verstehen.

Untersuchung von Tierknochen aus Brandgräbern

80% of Switzerland's drinking water is originating from groundwater. Climate change-induced droughts and increased demand for irrigation put groundwater under considerable pressure and cause widespread concern. In 2021, two popular initiatives were launched to protect groundwater and 2 parliamentary motions concerning groundwater were accepted in 2022/23. Now, for more than 3000 wells capture zones have to be delineated until 2035, and 4000km of rivers have to be restored within the next 70 years. Groundwater modelling plays an important role in tackling these challenges. However, the robustness of the current modelling practice is undermined by the poor characterisation of the subsurface, the computational challenges to jointly simulate surface- and groundwater and by the large resulting uncertainties. Consequently, stakeholders have to deal with complex issues but cannot fully exploit the potential of modelling to help them make relevant decisions.

In this project, we are addressing these shortcomings by (1) Employing cutting-edge mass-spectrometry technology to expand the available tracer methods with non-toxic gas tracers injected into the subsurface. This will greatly expand the spatial and temporal scales of available tracer methods and open new pathways to subsurface characterisation. (2) Building on the latest generation of integrated surface-subsurface hydrological models (ISSHM). This will allow joint consideration of the surface, the subsurface, and the operational infrastructure. Through the direct simulation of tracers, the model calibration is also far more robust and unique. (3) Providing the technological and computational means for real-time data assimilation in ISSHMs. This will guarantee that the model is always close to the real system state and thus can be continuously used to support operational decision-making. We have demonstrated the technical feasibility of all of these developments in our previous work.

This BRIDGE Discover project allows us to move this fundamental research to an operational level by collaborating among the three institutions through 12 coordinated work packages. In close collaboration with the relevant stakeholders, we develop and assess the efficiency of our hydrogeological service for two pilot studies: one to increase the efficiency of irrigation for agriculture, and the second one to predict the influence of a renaturation on well capture zones.

Calcareous grasslands are among the most species-rich habitats of Europe. Their occurrence has declined since the beginning of the green revolution as many of them were transformed into intensively farmed meadows or fields. The region of northwestern Switzerland has still a remarkable number of remnants, though census data collected since the 1950s document the decline or local extinction in a number of flowering plants in them, especially in the more fragmented remnants. This trend suggests that despite the currently high protection status calcareous grasslands have and management efforts to maintain species diversity, many plants do not benefit from these conservation measures.

Overall objectives. The goal of the study is to assess the change in the vegetation of the remnants over time and understand the important drivers, including eutrophication, climate change, and management schemes. Furthermore, the project will assess why some outcrossing, insect-pollinated plants have continued declining. For some of them, the project will evaluate the contribution of mate limitation versus pollinator limitation. Outcrossing in plants is often determined by the genetic factor of self-incompatibility that leads to the avoidance both of self-pollination and pollination between close relatives. If plants of a species are rare, there may not be enough unrelated compatible mates. Another potential problem may be that terrestrial insects, many of which are important pollinators, have declined in the past decades, and those that remain may not provide sufficient pollination services.

Specific aims. The proposed research will focus on over 50 grassland remnants in the greater region of Basel that have been surveyed intensively over the last 70 years. The specific aims are:

  (1) To add to the time-serious of surveying the 50 remnants and analyse the change in plant composition in more detail. So far, the time serious includes 1950, 1985, 1996 and 2016. By repeating the census in 2024, we will be able to assess change in plant composition, link it to eutrophication and climate change, and pinpoint the management efforts that have had a positive effect on rare specialist plants.

  (2) Based on 5 selected plant species that have declined strongly over the past 70 years, we will assess the contribution of mate and pollinator limitation. We will test whether reproductive success is lower because of incompatible mates and/or a low abundance of effective pollinators.

Impact. Taken as a whole, this research should pinpoint the causes of the decline of rare plants in protected calcareous grasslands and provide guidelines for managing them adequately, to assure the promotion and long-term survival of plant diversity specialized to this type of habitat.

SW Asia (Eastern Turkey, Iraq and Iran) is an important region for paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental research as it is a sensitive hotspot to climate change, where water availability, as an often scarce and unequally distributed resource, is a key-parameter for societal stability today and in the past. Climate in SW Asia is influenced by two major climate systems; the North Atlantic/Siberian pressure system in winter and the Indian monsoon in summer. To date the interaction between these systems remains highly uncertain, warranting further investigations. In addition, SW Asia is a key-region where three of the most fundamental transformations in human history took place; the rise of agriculture and emergence of advanced complex societies and the development of the first cities, states and empires. It is very likely that both climatic and environmental conditions were important factors contributing to these profound socio-cultural transformations, some of them led to the rise and fall of empires.

Our understanding of the causes and patterns of climatic changes and their influence on the environment in SW Asia has remained uncertain due to the brevity of instrumental records and scarcity of precisely-dated and highly resolved climatic and environmental reconstructions. To go beyond scarce existing reconstructions, MITRA (named after the Indo-Iranian god and spirit of the rain and of the sun) will develop a dense network of different paleo records and climate model simulations to understand past changes of the complex climate in SW Asia, in particular the hydroclimate. We will use the most promising and most widespread archives in SW Asia, namely speleothems, lake and marine sediments along a nearly 2,000 km-long N-S transect stretching from Eastern Turkey to the Persian Gulf. Such a comprehensive approach will allow us to develop a network of precisely-dated multi-proxy multi-archive climatic and environmental records. These records will form a unique confluence of numerous physical, chemical and biological parameters to reconstruct a wide range of climatic and environmental variables, thereby reducing the uncertainties associated with the interpretation of single parameter studies. Moreover, a dense network of paleorecords is required to address the great spatial heterogeneity of climate in SW Asia; connecting the gap between the more widely studied European, Mediterranean and Central Asian regions. The new climatic and environmental network created by MITRA will be compared to high resolution climate model simulations, which generate process understanding of long- and short-term climate variability in SW Asia. The climate model simulations will be extended into the future so that future climate change will be placed into context of millennia long climate variability. Furthermore, MITRA will provide the data that are urgently needed by archaeologists and historian to investigate the climatic-environmental-human connections in the recent and distant past.

Mountainous countries like Switzerland are overproportionally affected by climate change, with temperature rise and increasing weather extremes such as heat waves, droughts, and torrential rainfalls already being more pronounced than elsewhere. Under these circumstances, water supply is becoming a major challenge for agriculture, be it for crop production or animal husbandry. In addition, water in mountain communities becomes increasingly scarce during summer months. This is where the Swiss Federal Office of Agriculture FOAG-funded "Slow Water" project comes in: In 3 hydrologically and geographically distinct pilot regions of Switzerland, farm-specific, catchment-related water retention strategies are developed together with municipalities and farmers in a co-creative process, and their impacts on increased water availability and decreased streamflow extremes assessed. The Slow Water project consortium consists of the Hydrogeology and the Global and Regional Land-Use Change groups of University of Basel, the regional authorities of the Cantons of Basel-Landschaft and Luzern, municipalities, farming associations and the private sector.

Humanity has reached a point where the capacity to live without irreversibly compromising Earth’s resources is questioned. Since the 1980s, both Earth’s population and global food production have been constantly increasing. To face the challenges of increasing food and water demand, agricultural production efficiency must be improved. Initiatives like the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) describe major challenges for clean water and food production. Accordingly, food production and access to clean water must be a priority in the context of sustainable development. To tackle these important challenges to sustainable development, the present project will build on a combination of agricultural field and integrated hydrological modelling experiments. The knowledge obtained in the field and modelling experiments will be ultimately combined to enable the creation of a prototype near-real time decision support tool for sustainable and resilient management of nitrogen fertilization.

In Poland, cereal production is a major component of the national economy. Even though fertilizer use has been restricted since 2017, in 2020 the Polish government still reported a significant trend of increasing nitrogen concentrations in water bodies. Climate change makes agricultural production even more vulnerable and challenging, pushing farmers to overfertilization. Given the fact that 30% of Polish agricultural soils consist of soils highly prone to fertilizer leaching, it comes as no surprise that excessive nutrient loadings are still widely observed. Due to its high mobility, the most applied agricultural fertilizer Nitrogen (N) is the most prone to leaching, and as a result, N (primarily in the form of nitrate) is by far the most widely observed agricultural contaminant in water bodies worldwide, including in Poland and Switzerland.

To tackle these important challenges to sustainable development, the project will build on a combination of field and modelling experiments. The Swiss project partner will focus on the integrated simulation of hydrological fluxes, crop dynamics and nitrogen-cycling. The Polish project partner will focus its research on field experiments in agricultural fields and in the university's outdoor agricultural laboratory. The knowledge obtained in the field and modelling experiments will be ultimately combined to enable the creation of a prototype near-real time decision support tool for sustainable and resilient management of nitrogen fertilization.