SERVICO2 investigates how climate, atmospheric nitrogen and phosphorus deposition, and land use influence the capacity of headwater catchments to regulate CO₂ and other climate-relevant gases. The project combines long-term environmental records, new field observations, modelling and technological development across a European network of catchments.
Throughout 2026, this research has been highly visible within the scientific community, with SERVICO2 partners presenting both the project itself and research directly connected to its objectives at a wide range of international meetings.
Starting the year by connecting climate science and society
In April, SERVICO2 participated in the 5th ACCC Impact Week in Helsinki, Finland. The session “Brownification of inland waters”, held on 16 April, brought together scientists and other actors interested in climate, air quality and sustainability.
SERVICO2 was presented through the contribution “Impacts of climate, N and P deposition and land use on water as a driver of the greenhouse gases regulatory ecosystem service in headwater catchments”. The event provided an opportunity to introduce the project in a setting specifically designed to connect scientific research with policymakers, businesses and stakeholders.
A busy May: from EGU to the ICP Waters and ICP Integrated Monitoring communities
May was particularly intense.
At the EGU General Assembly 2026, held in Vienna from 3–8 May, research involving SERVICO2 scientists addressed several questions closely connected with the project. These included the fate of groundwater-derived CO₂ in boreal streams and long-term changes in Pyrenean aquatic ecosystems associated with declining acid deposition and climate change. EGU is one of Europe’s major forums for exchanging new research across the Earth sciences and in 2026 again brought together an international geoscience community in Vienna.
At almost the same time, SERVICO2 strengthened one of the international collaborations at the heart of the project. On 5–7 May, project representatives participated in the Joint ICP Waters and ICP Integrated Monitoring Task Force Meeting in Windermere, United Kingdom. The meeting brought together the two international monitoring programmes with which SERVICO2 is developing cooperation; the event was the 42nd ICP Waters Task Force Meeting.
Carlos Palacín-Lizarbe and Lluís Camarero presented “SERVICO2: Evaluating Greenhouse Gas Regulation in Headwater Catchments and Opportunities for Collaboration with ICP-Waters and ICP-IM”. The contribution introduced the project while exploring opportunities to combine SERVICO2 research with the extensive long-term environmental observations available through these international networks.
The meeting also highlighted strong scientific links between SERVICO2 and research conducted by project partners. Jakub Hruška presented “Catchment recovery from acidification and carbon export: Can enhanced alkalinity generation remove atmospheric CO₂?”, a topic closely connected with SERVICO2’s work on weathering, catchment recovery and the role of geochemical processes in atmospheric CO₂ regulation.
These exchanges are particularly important for SERVICO2. Long-term monitoring records extending over decades provide a unique opportunity to investigate how headwater catchments have responded to changes in atmospheric pollution and climate—one of the central objectives of the project’s reanalysis and modelling activities.
SERVICO2 science takes centre stage at BIOGEOMON 2026
The project’s scientific presence continued in June at BIOGEOMON 2026 in Umeå, Sweden, where SERVICO2 itself was presented alongside an exceptionally broad range of contributions from researchers participating in the consortium.
The project presentation, “SERVICO2: Evaluating Greenhouse Gas Regulation in Headwater Catchments”, provided an overview of the approach being developed to understand how water, climate, nutrient deposition and land use interact to determine greenhouse-gas regulation across European headwaters.
But the connections with SERVICO2 extended far beyond a single presentation.
Research presented by project scientists covered catchment-scale carbon budgets in Arctic environments; carbon and greenhouse-gas export through aquatic networks; groundwater-derived CO₂ in boreal streams; greenhouse-gas and BVOC emissions from subarctic rivers; long-term sulfur and nitrogen deposition in Pyrenean aquatic ecosystems; weathering and base-cation release; soil CO₂ production; isotope biogeochemistry; and the dynamics of river networks.
Together, these contributions illustrate one of SERVICO2’s main strengths: bringing expertise in terrestrial and aquatic biogeochemistry, hydrology, atmospheric deposition, carbon cycling and ecosystem monitoring into a common catchment-scale perspective.
Several of these studies have also travelled beyond BIOGEOMON. Related or very similar contributions have been presented during 2026 at meetings including ASLO, EGU and other specialist scientific events, further extending the visibility of research associated with the SERVICO2 consortium.
From headwater catchments to long-term lake observatories
In September, the scientific exchange continued at the GLEON All Hands Meeting in Banyoles, Spain, where Jordi Catalan and colleagues—including SERVICO2 researchers Lluís Camarero and Carlos Palacín-Lizarbe—presented “New site: Lake Redon, an ultra-oligotrophic alpine lake in the Pyrenees, Spain.”
Lake Redon has been studied since 1984 and provides an exceptional natural laboratory for understanding how high-mountain aquatic ecosystems respond to atmospheric forcing and global change. Long-term research at the site encompasses water-column temperature, biogeochemistry, nitrogen cycling, alkalinity, plankton communities, winter limnology and the effects of long-range atmospheric pollution.
Its presentation to the GLEON community creates new opportunities for international collaboration around a site whose long environmental record is highly complementary to SERVICO2’s interest in atmospheric deposition, climate, water quality and carbon cycling.
Building connections around a common scientific challenge
Taken together, the project’s 2026 activities tell a broader story.
SERVICO2 is not working in isolation. Its researchers are actively connecting the project with international communities studying long-term environmental change, inland-water carbon cycling, greenhouse-gas exchange, atmospheric pollution, ecosystem recovery and high-resolution environmental monitoring.
These exchanges are helping the consortium to identify complementary datasets, compare methodologies, establish collaborations and place the observations from SERVICO2’s European headwater catchments within a much wider geographical and scientific context.
They also reflect the inherently multidisciplinary nature of the challenge. Understanding whether headwater catchments act as sources or sinks of greenhouse gases requires following carbon across soils, vegetation, groundwater, streams and lakes—and understanding how these pathways respond simultaneously to climate, atmospheric deposition and human land use.
With presentations and scientific exchanges spanning multiple international meetings and networks in just one year, 2026 has firmly established SERVICO2 as an active contributor to the European research community working at the intersection of water, carbon and global change. And with field measurements, new monitoring technologies and data synthesis now advancing across the project, there will be much more science to share as SERVICO2 moves forward.
