Project Details
Projekt
Model-aided analysis of climate impacts on planktonic food webs based on long-term data of the Saidenbach Reservoir
Applicant
Dr. Lothar Paul
Subject Area
Hydrogeology, Hydrology, Limnology, Urban Water Management, Water Chemistry, Integrated Water Resources Management
Term
from 2004 to 2011
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5430069
Climate change does not proceed consistently. The responses of aquatic ecosystems are influenced by weather varying locally year by year and by alterations of anthropogenic activities in the drainage area. Therefore, long-term ecological observations are imperative to filter out trends and to validate model forecasts. For the Saidenbach Reservoir (volume 22 mil. m³, surface 146 ha, max. depth 45 m, retention time ~0.7 a), a dataset of 29 years of daily meteorological and hydrological data as well as weekly or biweekly measured physical, chemical, and planktologic parameters of the lake (in up to 10 depths) and its tributaries exists. The goals of the project are (i) to continue the field investigations, (ii) to statistically analyze the data for trends of climate elements and the abiotic (thermal structure, nutrient turnover) and biotic (both diversity and succession of phyto- and zooplankton) parameters, (iii) to find out whether and how these trends are interrelated, and (iv) how they influence the microbial sediment structure and activity. Better understanding of these processes is of high scientific interest and has a crucial practical and commercial meaning for the drinking water supply from reservoirs. The field observations will be supplied as background information to other "Aquashift"-projects that will run at the Saidenbach Reservoir.
DFG Programme
Priority Programmes
Participating Person
Dr. Thomas Petzoldt
