Diploma thesis in Physics submitted by Florian Freundt born in ...

Acknowledegment
At the end of this thesis a few words of thanks are due: to all the people who helped me get
to this point, both personally as well as professionally. First of all I would like to thank my
parents for supporting me through my entire time at the Heidelberg University, through all the
good and all the difficult times.
Of course I would also like to thank my supervisor, Professor Dr. Werner Aeschbach-Hertig, for
giving me the chance to work on this thesis and for letting me handle it quite independently
while still providing valuable input and guidance. For all the input and shared knowledge, as
well as the great help at constructing the sampling sites I would like to thank my friend and
colleague Tim Schneider. In fact, the entire team was extremely kind and helpful with the many
problems and questions that arose. Primarily, but not exclusively, I would like to thank Martin
Wieser, Tillmann Kaudse, Lisa Broeder and for all their help and the extensive proofreading
and generally for the great time.
This study would also not have been possible without the kind assistance of Kurt Elfner, who
provided a small piece of his flower nursery’s land where I was able to set up one of my sampling
sites. Also very helpful was the company meteomedia, which made their weather data archive
of their nearest weather station available to me.
And of course there were the inhabitants of office 442: probably holding both the institute’s
attendance record on sundays and holidays (which might be a bit ambivalent) and always entertaining
visitors (which was a lot of fun as well as insightful). Claudia, Johannes, Joelle and
Fiete, you are the best!
A special and huge thanks goes to my good friend Julia Schaper who helped me a lot with some
great, extensive and always encouragingly funny proofreading and to Tina Straße, who somehow
always managed to motivate me and to get my spirit up. Your visits meant a lot to me! I would
not have made it this far without the support of my girlfriend Katja Weiß, who was always there
for me (even when I did not have time for her). Thank you!
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