Advanced Training course: RIVER FLOODPLAIN ECOLOGY

1. Organization

• Host: Can Tho University
• Date: 26/02/2018 – 02/03/2018
• Venue: Meeting room, College of Aquaculture and Fisheries, Can Tho University
• Lecturers: Prof. Thomas Hein and Dr. Elisabeth Bondar-Kunze. BOKU University, Austria
• Attendants: total of 11 including staff and MSc  students shown in following table:

2. Contents of the course

Theory

I. RIVER FLOODPLAIN ECOLOGY – BIOGEOCHEMICAL ASPECTS AND RELATED ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS

1. Basic properties of river systems

• Brief introduction to floodplain ecology
• Main aspects of the aquatic ecology
• Main characteristics of river systems
• Rivers in the global water cycle
• Importance of water level fluctuations
• Global trends – nutrient levels

2. Underlying ecological concepts of river systems

• Overview – Important concepts of river systems
• River Continuum Concept
• Underlying concept ‐ Nutrient Spiraling
• Flood Pulse Concept (Junk et al. 1989)
• Ecological connectivity
• Worldwide Ecosystem Services
• Restoration

3. The Human dimension and Pressures and changes of river systems

• Human demand in the Anthropocene
• Main threats to rivers
• Human water use/security and river  biodiversity
• Student presentations

II. RIVER FLOODPLAIN ECOLOGY – BIOGEOCHEMICAL ASPECTS AND RELATED ECOSYSTEM FUNCTIONS

• Overview ecosystem functions
• Biogeochemical processes as ecosystem functions
• Biogeochemical processes in aquatic systems
• Biogeochemical processes methods

III. PARTICIPANT SEMINARS
– Reading paper
– Presenting key information
– Giving an overview on relevant graphs
– Trying to link main messages / information to the situation of the Mekong
– Presentation for 15min

Practice

1. Field sampling

• Collecting water and sediment samples along the Mekong river at polluted sites and unpolluted sites

2. Lab work – analysing different parameters

• Nutrients – PO4 in water and sediment samples
• Respiration: measurement of DO at different points of times within 24 hours to measure the respiration of water sample and water sample plus sediment sample
• TSS – total suspended solids

3. Result discussion

Certification handling: at the end of the course, most of participants were awarded a certificate certified his/her participation of the course.

Pics of the ATC