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BTU
Water budget components
(2011)
Experimental catchments with well-known boundaries and characteristics may contribute valuable data to hydrological, critical zone and landscape evolution research. One of the most well-established and largest constructed catchments is the Chicken Creek catchment (6 ha area including a 0.4 ha pond, Brandenburg, Germany) representing an initial ecosystem undergoing a highly dynamic ecological development starting from clearly defined starting conditions. The water balance dynamics of the catchment was calculated using a simple mass balance approach to reveal the impact of ecological development during 12 years. Water storage in the catchment was calculated from a 3D-model of groundwater volumes, soil moisture measurements and water level recordings of the pond. The catchment water balance equation was resolved for evapotranspiration, the only part that was not measured directly. Due to the known boundary conditions and the inner structure of the catchment, we were able to quantify the different storage compartments and their role in hydrologic response. Our results indicate that for small catchments with a highly dynamic ecological development like the Chicken Creek, the knowledge about saturated and unsaturated storage volumes enables a good estimate and closure of the water balance using a rather simple approach, at least in annual resolution. We found a significant relationship between vegetation cover in the catchment and calculated ET. Time series of meteorological, hydrological, soil and vegetation data over 12 years enabled us to characterize the transient development of the catchment and to evaluate the effect of different feedback mechanisms on catchment hydrology. The dataset from the Chicken Creek catchment indicate at least three phases in ecosystem development, where initial abiotic feedbacks (e.g. erosion) were followed by more and
more biotic controls (e.g. biological soil crusts, vegetation succession and growth). Data from Chicken Creek in high spatial and temporal resolution provide a valuable database underlining the high importance of abiotic/biotic feedback effects that change the hydrologic functioning and response of the catchment more than the water balance itself revealed and thus have to be included in catchment models.
Difficulties in quantitatively closing the water balance of catchments arise when upscaling point measurements and from insufficient knowledge of the physical boundaries, inner structure, and storage volumes of natural catchments. In addition, there is a strong need for generalizing the relationship between catchment characteristics and hydrological response. Therefore, experimental catchments with well-known boundaries and conditions could contribute valuable data to hydrological and critical zone research. One of the most well-established and largest constructed catchments is the Chicken Creek catchment (6 ha including a pond, Brandenburg, Germany) representing an initial ecosystem undergoing highly dynamic ecological development starting from clearly defined starting conditions. Directly after completion of the construction, extensive monitoring equipment was installed to track the ecosystem development and to capture the
spatiotemporal variability of meteorological, hydrological, ecological, and soil conditions and vegetation succession. In this study, we focused on the water balance dynamics of the Chicken Creek catchment for the period 2005 to 2015 as influenced by ecological development. Water storage in the catchment was calculated from a three-dimensional model of groundwater volumes, soil moisture measurements, and water level recordings of the pond. The catchment water balance equation was resolved for evapotranspiration, the only part that was not measured directly. Time series of meteorological, hydrological, and ecological data for 10 yr enabled us to characterize the transient development of the catchment and to evaluate the effect of different feedback mechanisms on catchment hydrology.
Landscapes and ecosystems are complex systems with many feedback mechanisms acting between the various abiotic and biotic components. The knowledge about these interacting processes is mainly derived from mature ecosystems. The initial development of ecosystem complexity may involve state transitions following catastrophic shifts, disturbances or transgression of thresholds. The Chicken Creek catchment was constructed in 2005 to study ecosystem development
of an initial ecosystem at the landscape scale. The world´s largest constructed catchment has a hillslope-shaped 6 ha size with defined boundary conditions and well-documented inner structures1. For 12 years, we have been monitoring the development of different system compartments2,3. The fast formation of patterns and increasing heterogeneity were challenges for the monitoring program. Starting with a regular 20 × 20 m grid in the initially homogeneous system, monitoring installations were continuously complemented by more pattern and patch oriented measurements in order to catch up with both the spatial and temporal dynamics of the catchment. The monitoring program includes both
high-resolution temporal recordings (e.g., groundwater levels, discharge, meteorological data, soil moisture), spatial sampling campaigns (e.g., soil properties) and annual vegetation surveys. In addition, we use drone images to document the site development. The presentation describes the monitoring approach and adaptation with examples from vegetation, soil and hydrological data at different spatial and temporal scales. From the monitoring data we were able to derive different phases during initial development that are characterized by abiotic/biotic feedback mechanisms controlling catchment functioning. Detailed monitoring of the Chicken Creek catchment with known boundary conditions and structure information could help in disentangling general feedback mechanisms between hydrologic, pedogenic, biological and geomorphological processes as well as in gaining a more integrative view of succession and its drivers during the transition from initial, less complex systems to more mature ecosystems. Long-term time series of data are the key for a better understanding of these processes and the effects on ecosystem self-organization and resilience.
Trophic structure and complexity of early soil food webs in a post mining area in Lower Lusatia
(2009)
One of the main issues that the forest sector is facing is to achieve a balance between the demand for biomass &wood production and the need to preserve the sustainability and biodiversity of forest ecosystems. The purposes of the new approaches are to ensure more efficient management of ecosystems and implement intensive forestry that will increase biomass production & timber yields. To achieve this, we need to determine the macroeconomic potential of the various options available, including the use of biotechnology and genetics. The success of the forests plantations capacity may be solved through forest certification, based on: a) Stabilization of the forests and soils structure. b) Hierarchy of biomass production in the forest’s management process. c) rganization and implementation of effective plantation on marginal lands. d) Maintenance or increase of forest productivity by introducing new items as and when they are required. It is important to evaluate of the influence of factors such as the quality of soils of plantation areas, the utilization of the genetic resources and the management of forest operations with the environmental economic criteria such as net present value of benefits (NPV) and the corresponding flow annuities (EACF).The existing evaluations studies showed that the quality of the plantation areas has the most influence and through validated quality seed production can generate an increase in the NPV up to 73%. The importance of seedlings quality in timber and bio-energy production on marginal lands based on the literature it is estimated according to the heredity of the characteristics of the wood structure (except shrinkage). This clearly indicate that seedlings with the appropriate morphological characteristics can significantly improve the growth performance and help to support the development of biomass plantations oriented in tailor-made timber and bio-energy production.