SPP 1162:  The Impact of Climate Variability on Aquatic Ecosystems (AQUASHIFT)

• Subject Area: Geosciences
• Term: from 2004 to 2010
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 5472038

The Priority Programme will consist of field, experimental and modelling studies to analyse the impacts of the anticipated climate change on aquatic ecosystems. According to most forecasts for our region, emphasis will be given to the effects of seasonal temperature increases with most of the warming occurring in winter. For running waters also increased frequencies of extreme events can be considered. It is anticipated, that climate change will differently affect light dependent processes (e.g. primary production) and temperature dependent processes (e.g. growth of heterotrophic organisms). As a consequence, not only changed seasonal activity and growth patterns of singles species but also shifts in biotic interactions (competition, predation) are expected. It will be the focus of the Priority Programme to analyse the community and ecosystem level consequences of a temporal de-coupling ("mismatch") of hitherto synchronised demand and supply relationships ("match"; e.g. temporal coincidence of food abundance and prey demand by certain life-cycle stages of consumers).

• DFG Programme: Priority Programmes

Projects

• Adaptation to environmental warming? Microevolution in the protists Paramecium and Coleps (Applicant Berendonk, Thomas U. )
• AQUASHIFT: programm co-ordination and meta-analysis of seasonal patterns (Applicant Sommer, Ulrich )
• Climate induced changes in phenology of lake plankton communities: Implications for the match / mismatch of species interactions (Applicant Adrian, Ph.D., Rita )
• CLIMate variability and copepod population dynamics - Do COPepod life cycle eventS match with climate driven abiotic and biotic environmental variability? (CLIMCOPS) (Applicant Straile, Dietmar )
• Climatic impact on temperature and mixing regime of polymictic lakes and its consequences for lake ecosystems (Applicant Behrendt, Horst )
• Contrasting strategies of anaerobic bacterial communities to adapt to long-term temperature changes in seasonally and permenently cold sediment and the effects on organic matter decomposition (Applicant Brüchert, Volker )
• Coupling between phyto- and bacterioplankton during early spring bloom conditions (Applicant Jürgens, Klaus )
• Effects of climate variability on interactions between cyanobacteria and associated microheterotrophs-consequences for development of toxic cyanobacterial blooms (Applicant Grossart, Hans-Peter )
• Global warming and thermal stress tolerance: assessing the physiological and genetic basis through direct transcriptome sequencing (Applicant Reusch, Ph.D., Thorsten )
• Impact of climate change on life history patterns and food web interactions of benthic assemblages of running waters: modelling and experimental approaches (Applicant Richter, Otto )
• Impact of climate variability on the bentho-pelagic coupling in a large river (Applicant Weitere, Markus )
• Influence of temperature and stratification on spring succession of the plankton community in deep lakes (Applicant Gabriel, Wilfried )
• Influence of the year-to-year variation of water temperature on the coupling between benthic and pelagic food webs (Applicant Hülsmann, Stephan )
• Long- and short-term effects of climate variability and physical forcing on the diversity of aquatic organisms (Applicant Hillebrand, Helmut )
• Match and mismatch between phyto- and zooplankton during spring succession: an experimental analysis with Baltic Sea plankton (Applicant Sommer, Ulrich )
• Match / mismatch of zooplankton- phytoplankton interactions, based on existing long-term information in the North Sea (Applicants Freund, Jan Alfred ;  Wiltshire, Karen Helen )
• Mechanisms, phenotypic plasticity and genotypic determination of thermal tolerance and related properties in Daphnia and Leptodora kindtii:: consequences for temperature impacts on food web interactions (Applicant Paul, Rüdiger J. )
• Model-aided analysis of climate impacts on planktonic food webs based on long-term data of the Saidenbach Reservoir (Applicant Paul, Lothar )
• Modelling match and mismatch processes within plankton communities during spring succession (Applicant Gaedke, Ursula )
• Modelling the impact of changes in the physical environment on plankton succession with special emphasis on Daphnia-algae interactions (Applicant Peeters, Ph.D., Frank )
• Physiological match and mismatch in climate dependent distribution of boreal marine invertebrates (Applicants Paul, Rüdiger J. ;  Pörtner, Hans-Otto )
• Physiological match and mismatch in climate dependent distribution of boreal marine invertebrates (Applicant Paul, Rüdiger J. )
• Population genetic impacts of a changing ambient conditions on marcro-in-vertebrates with different life history strategies in running waters (Applicant Seitz, Alfred )
• Resolving Trophodynamic Consequences of Climate Change (RECONN2): Match-mismatch between Secondary and Tertiary Production in the Baltic Sea (Applicant Clemmesen-Bockelmann, Catriona )
• REsolving Trophodynamik CoNsequences of Climate ChaNge (RECONN 1) - Simulating and Predicting Marine Ecosystem Dynamics and Match-mismatch Effects on Key Trophic Players (Applicant Peck, Ph.D., Myron )
• Shift in the synchronisation of leaf decay processes in fragmented streams (Applicant Mutz, Michael )
• Survival strategies of macroinvertebrate species under changing ambient conditions of rivers (Applicant Griebeler, Eva Maria )
• Temperature chaos and microbial food web dynamics (Applicant Arndt, Hartmut )
• The impact of climate variability on recruitment, life history, and physiology of sympatric pairs of ciscoes (Teleostei: Coregonus spp.) in lakes (Applicant Mehner, Thomas )
• The impact of climate variability on the species ranges of European freshwater pulmonates (Applicant Pfenninger, Markus )
• The impact of temperature on the partitioning between particulate and dissolved organic carbon in a pelagic new production system (Applicant Riebesell, Ulf )
• The influence of global climate change on growth and population dynamics of zooplanktivorous whitefish (Coregonus sp.) (Applicant Eckmann, Reiner )

• Spokesperson: Professor Dr. Ulrich Sommer