Catchment scale hydro-biogeochemical fluxes and aquatic diversity under global change

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Lutz Breuer
• Co-Applicants: Dr. Rolando Célleri; Professor Dr. Jan Feyen
• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Plants and Ecosystems
• Term: from 2007 to 2013
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 29937865

The proposed research contributes to the following overarching goals: (i) better understanding of the complex hydro-biogeochemical and biological interactions in tropical montane forest systems under natural and altered conditions; (ii) the integration of this knowledge in an integrated modeling system that will be tested to long-term and spatially dense datasets; and (iii) prognosis of the likely impact of climate change scenarios on the hydro-biogeochemical and biological processes considering for each process the uncertainty range on the prediction. A main deliverable of the project will be the expanded CMF modeling tool enabling the simulation of the combined impact of land use and climate change on hydro-biogeochemical processes and biological interaction. The project follows the general philosophy of cooperative researchers between experimentalists and modelers, thereby facilitating the implementation of state-of-the-art system understanding into simulation tools. The integrated modelframework developed in D4 will therefore allow to assess the likely impacts of global change on tropical montane rainforest ecosystems of Ecuador.

• DFG Programme: Research Units
• Subproject of: FOR 816: Biodiversity and Sustainable Management of a Megadiverse Mountain Ecosystem in Southern Ecuador
• International Connection: Ecuador
• Major Instrumentation: 1 Isotopic Water Vapor Analyzer
• Instrumentation Group: 1820 Nah-Infrarot-Spektralphotometer
• Participating Person: Professor Dr. Hans-Georg Frede