Unravelling the Complex Processes That Control the Biodiversity and Ecosystem Functioning of Aquifers (A05*)

• Subject Area: Ecology and Biodiversity of Animals and Ecosystems, Organismic Interactions
• Term: from 2017 to 2021
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 218627073

We want to disentangle the complex temporal and spatial processes as well as the underlying mechanisms that drive biodiversity and functional diversity of the microbial food webs in the Hainich CZE. We will (1) build hypotheses, using mathematical food web modelling, how aboveground events changes in aquifer biodiversity, functional richness and structure, and subsequently functioning (e.g., CO2 fixing) of the microbial aquifer community. We (2) test these hypotheses by synthesizing and analyzing data from several AquaDiva projects using state of the art statistical methods, such as piecewise structural equation models and time series analyses.

• DFG Programme: Collaborative Research Centres
• Subproject of: SFB 1076: AquaDiva: Understanding the Links between Surface and Subsurface Biogeosphere
• Applicant Institution: Friedrich-Schiller-Universität Jena
• Project Heads: Professor Dr. Ulrich Brose; Dr. Björn C. Rall, until 1/2020