Project Details
Projekt
Long- and short-term effects of climate variability and physical forcing on the diversity of aquatic organisms
Applicant
Professor Dr. Helmut Hillebrand
Subject Area
Hydrogeology, Hydrology, Limnology, Urban Water Management, Water Chemistry, Integrated Water Resources Management
Term
from 2004 to 2009
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5429571
Climate variations over the Northern Hemisphere are to a substantial proportion associated with atmospheric circulations, e.g. the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). Recently, many studies have revealed the impact of the NAO on the dynamics of organisms in different ecosystems, especially on the timing of life history events, on the biomass of organisms, and on the biomass of different trophic levels. However, no study has developed a consistent picture on how the NAO affects biodiversity. Here we propose a unique study aiming at analysing long-term data on the diversity of aquatic communities in combination with the prediction of trends in aquatic biodiversity while disentangling long-term and short-term effects of climate variability. To achieve this goal, we will combine databases from different marine and freshwater ecosystems in North-Central Europe. These databases provide long-term time series of species abundance and community composition from lakes, streams and 2 marine sites, comprising a spatial extent from Germany to Northern Sweden. We will use these data to test: 1)Whether there are decadal or yearly trends in the diversity of aquatic communities related to climate variability. 2) Whether asynchrony of species-specific responses leads to shifting community patterns related to climate variability, including information on shifts in seasonal co-occurrence of interacting organisms (match-mismatch), and 3) Whether the short-term variability of climate has an effect on diversity in the ecological time frame of disturbances. We will use this information to predict changes in future biodiversity under changed climate scenarios. This study will result in modelling and experimental approaches to the role of climate forcing for aquatic biodiversity.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
Participating Person
Professorin Dr. Karen Helen Wiltshire
