Team > Dr. Hannes Imhof

Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences
Chair Animal Ecology I

Phd candidate & PostDoc until 12/2017
Scientific coordinator from 07/2020 till 02/2023

Main Focus on Microplastic

PhD project: Plastic particles in aquatic ecosysystems: occurence and influence to aquatic organisms

The pollution of marine environments with plastic waste is well documented since the last years. High amounts of particles have been accumulated in the sediments and in the pelagic zone and are ingested by many organisms. Therefore the plastic accumulates in the food chain and is getting a risk for humans and the environments. Nevertheless the impact on aquatic ecosystems is not yet fully understood. Moreover, only a few studies are known concerning the amount of discharged plastic particles to freshwater environments. There is a high requirement for scientific studies to examine the potential endangerment by plastic particles of these ecosystems. The Goal of this interdisciplinary study is to quantify the pollution with plastic particles of German and European lakes and streams and to assess the distribution pattern within the waters with the help of Raman-Microspectroscopy (RM). A first important step in order to assess the consequences of plastic debris in aquatic ecosystems we  developed a reliable, verified and standardized method to quantify the amount of plastic particles (Munich Plastic Sediment Separator, MPSS). In addition we will test for influences to freshwater environments. We will use chosen species as examples for different functional groups and test for accumulation of plastic particles in the organisms and furthermore for influences to life-history, reproduction and mortality. Next to sophisticated histological techniques, Raman-Microspectroscopy (RM) is used and further developed as an efficient method to show the ingestion and possible accumulation of plastic particles in organisms and organs in-vivo. This will help to foster studies quantifying the increasing contamination of aquatic environments with plastic particles, which is a crucial prerequisite for future risk assessment and management strategies.

funded by the German National Academic Foundation and the German Research Foundation (DFG), Supervisor: Prof. Dr. C. Laforsch

Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences
Chair Animal Ecology I

• Microplastic related science
  
• Aquatic ecology and zoology
  
• Alpine ecology
  
• Scientific diving
  
• Project coordination & public relations
  
• Research data management
  

Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences
Chair Animal Ecology I

Publications

2022

Isabella Schrank, Julia N. Möller, Hannes Imhof, Oliver Hauenstein, Franziska Zielke, Seema Agarwal, Martin G. J. Löder, Andreas Greiner, Christian Laforsch: Microplastic sample purification methods : Assessing detrimental effects of purification procedures on specific plastic types. In: Science of the Total Environment, 833 (2022). - .
doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2022.154824

Isabella Schrank, Martin G. J. Löder, Hannes Imhof, Sonya Moses, Maren Heß, Julia Schwaiger, Christian Laforsch: Riverine microplastic contamination in southwest Germany : A large-scale survey. In: Frontiers in Earth Science, 10 (2022). - .
doi:10.3389/feart.2022.794250

2021

Vinay B. N. Kumar, Lena A. Löschel, Hannes Imhof, Martin G. J. Löder, Christian Laforsch: Analysis of microplastics of a broad size range in commercially important mussels by combining FTIR and Raman spectroscopy approaches. In: Environmental Pollution, 269 (2021). - .
doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2020.116147

2020

Sarah Piehl, Elizabeth C. Atwood, Mathias Bochow, Hannes Imhof, Jonas Franke, Florian Siegert, Christian Laforsch: Can Water Constituents Be Used as Proxy to Map Microplastic Dispersal Within Transitional and Coastal Waters?. In: Frontiers in Environmental Science, 8 (2020). - .
doi:10.3389/fenvs.2020.00092

2018

Rachid Dris, Hannes Imhof, Martin G. J. Löder, Johnny Gasperi, Christian Laforsch, Bruno Tassin: Microplastic Contamination in Freshwater Systems : Methodological Challenges, Occurrence and Sources. In: Eddy Y. Zeng (Hrsg.): Microplastic Contamination in Aquatic Environments. - Amsterdam : Elsevier, 2018. - S. 51-93.
doi:10.1016/B978-0-12-813747-5.00003-5

Lena Katharina Schmidt, Mathias Bochow, Hannes Imhof, Sascha E. Oswald: Multi-temporal surveys for microplastic particles enabled by a novel and fast application of SWIR imaging spectroscopy : Study of an urban watercourse traversing the city of Berlin, Germany. In: Environmental Pollution, 239 (2018). - S. 579-589.
doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2018.03.097

Hannes Imhof, Alexandra C. Wiesheu, Reinhard Niessner, Natalia P. Ivleva, Christian Laforsch: Variation in plastic abundance at different lake beach zones - a case study. In: Science of the Total Environment, 613-614 (2018). - S. 530-537.
doi:10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.08.300

2017

Sebastian Primpke, Hannes Imhof, Sarah Piehl, Claudia Lorenz, Martin G. J. Löder, Christian Laforsch, Gunnar Gerdts: Mikroplastik in der Umwelt. In: Chemie in unserer Zeit, 51 (2017). - S. 402-412.
doi:10.1002/ciuz.201700821

Hannes Imhof, Robert Sigl, Emilia Brauer, Sabine Feyl, Philipp Giesemann, Stefan Klink, Kathrin Leupolz, Martin G. J. Löder, Lena Löschel, Jan Missun, Sarah Muszynski, Anja Ramsperger, Isabella Schrank, Susan Speck, Sebastian Steibl, Benjamin Trotter, Isabel Winter, Christian Laforsch: Spatial and temporal variation of macro-, meso- and microplastic abundance on a remote coral island of the Maldives, Indian Ocean. In: Marine Pollution Bulletin, 116 (2017). - S. 340-347.
doi:10.1016/j.marpolbul.2017.01.010

Hannes Imhof, Jakub Rusek, Michaela Thiel, Justyna Wolinska, Christian Laforsch: Do microplastic particles affect Daphnia magna at the morphological, life history and molecular level?. In: PLoS One, 12 (2017). - .
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0187590

Martin G. J. Löder, Hannes Imhof, Maike Ladehoff, Lena Löschel, Claudia Lorenz, Svenja Mintenig, Sarah Piehl, Sebastian Primpke, Isabella Schrank, Christian Laforsch, Gunnar Gerdts: Enzymatic purification of microplastics in environmental samples. In: Environmental Science & Technology, 51 (2017). - S. 14283-14292.
doi:10.1021/acs.est.7b03055

Katrin Wendt-Potthoff, Hannes Imhof, Martin Wagner, Sebastian Primpke, Dieter Fischer, Barbara Scholz-Böttcher, Christian Laforsch: Mikroplastik in Binnengewässern. In: Handbuch Angewandte Limnologie : Grundlagen ‐ Gewässerbelastung ‐ Restaurierung ‐ Aquatische Ökotoxikologie ‐ Bewertung ‐ Gewässerschutz. - Weinheim : 2017. - S. 1-35.
doi:10.1002/9783527678488.hbal2016003

2016

Hannes Imhof, Christian Laforsch: Hazardous or not - Are adult and juvenile individuals of Potamopyrgus antipodarum affected by non-buoyant microplastic particles?. In: Environmental Pollution, 218 (2016). - S. 383-391.
doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2016.07.017

Hannes Imhof, Christian Laforsch, Alexandra C. Wiesheu, Johannes Schmid, Philipp M. Anger, Reinhard Niessner, Natalia P. Ivleva: Pigments and plastic in limnetic ecosystems : A qualitative and quantitative study on microparticles of different size classes. In: Water Research, 98 (2016). - S. 64-74.
doi:10.1016/j.watres.2016.03.015

2015

Rachid Dris, Hannes Imhof, Wilfried Sanchez, Johnny Gasperi, François Galgani, Bruno Tassin, Christian Laforsch: Beyond the ocean : Contamination of freshwater ecosystems with (micro-) plastic particles. In: Environmental Chemistry, 12 (2015). - S. 539-550.
doi:10.1071/EN14172

2013

Hannes Imhof, Natalia P. Ivleva, Johannes Schmid, Reinhard Niessner, Christian Laforsch: Contamination of beach sediments of a subalpine lake with microplastic particles. In: Current Biology, 23 (2013). - S. R867-R868.
doi:10.1016/j.cub.2013.09.001

Robert Sigl, Hannes Imhof, Marcus Settles, Christian Laforsch: A novel, non-invasive and in vivo approach to determine morphometric data in starfish. In: Journal of Experimental Marine Biology and Ecology, 449 (2013). - S. 1-9.
doi:10.1016/j.jembe.2013.08.002

2012

Christian Laforsch, Hannes Imhof, Robert Sigl, Martin Heß, Marcus Settles, Andreas Wanninger: Applications of computed 3D-modeling in organismal biology. In: Alexandru, Catalin (Hrsg.): Modeling and Simulation in Engineering. - Rijeka : InTech, 2012. - S. 117-142.
doi:10.5772/31092

Hannes Imhof, Johannes Schmid, Natalia P. Ivleva, Christian Laforsch: A novel, highly efficient method for the quantification of plastic particles in sediments of aquatic environments. In: Limnology and Oceanography : Methods, (2012). - S. 524-537.
doi:10.4319/lom.2012.10.524

Faculty of Biology, Chemistry and Earth Sciences
Chair Animal Ecology I

Dr. Hannes Imhof
Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter

E-mail: hannes.imhof@uni-bayreuth.de