CANFLOOD (FWF)The role of benthic processes for Carbon And Nitrogen cycling in complex FLOODplain landscapes.
PI: T Hein
2007-2010
With increasing frequency, riverine systems are impacted by human behaviors. Human encroachment on floodplains leads to habitat destruction and ecosystem fragmentation. Within these fragmented and disconnected ecosystems, structures are disrupted which reduce ecosystem functioning, including decreased nutrient retention. However, attempts are being made to rectify these problems, namely through restoration measures of floodplains. Yet, the full impact of these restorations on overall ecosystem functioning is still unclear. The effects of altered water regime on the nitrogen cycling of river systems have been demonstrated at local scales. The main challenge, however, is to evaluate the effects of changes in microbial processing at larger scales, corresponding to the landscape scale and under the context of human alterations.The central question of CANFLOOD is how and to what extent hydrogeomorphic conditions and especially connectivity control the retention and cycling of nitrogen and bio-available carbon sources in river floodplains? The main objective of the project is to determine how the physical constraints related to the geomorphology and the water regime (visible at the landscape scale) can affect biogeochemical processes (e.g. the nitrogen cycle), which occur at the micro-scale. The project seeks to determine how these small-scale processes affect the nutrient retention capacity at the floodplain scale and how restoration measures could interact and impact these microscale processes. In the current 3 year study, restored and non-restored sites within the floodplains along the Danube River east of Vienna are compared according nutrient uptake based on hydrological and morphological factors in order to study the affect of restoration on the nutrient cycling. |
Wasser Cluster Lunz