The overall objective of the research unit is to provide a new framework for building hydrological models that allow a much more realistic representation of the surface and especially subsurface architecture of catchments at the lower mesoscale (10-200 km2). Key methodological objective is to unite a) the recent observation and exploration technology from soil physics, geophysics, remote sensing and hydrology with b) our understanding of landscape formation and soil structure development and c) reductionist process models as learning tools to assess novel information on surface and subsurface structures as well as on distributed process dynamics. Key theoretical objective is to develop a model and mathematical framework that allows better integration of this information into the model identification process and thus facilitates communication between experimentalists and modellers. Research will be conducted in the hydrological observatory "Attert basin" that has been operated by the Gabriel Lippmann Research Institute in Luxemburg since 2003 and is among the best investigated basins in the World.
Subproject J:Feedbacks between bioactivity and soil hydrology
Soil structure determines a large part of the spatial heterogeneity in water storage and fluxes from the plot to the hillslope scale. In recent decades important progress in hydrological research has been achieved by including soil structure in hydrological models. One of the main problems herein remains the difficulty of measuring soil structure and quantifying its influence on hydrological processes. As soil structure is very often of biogenic origin (macropores), the main objective of this project is to use the influence of bioactivity and resulting soil structures to describe and support modeling of hydrological processes at different scales. Therefore, local scale bioactivity will be linked to local infiltration patterns under varying catchment conditions. At hillslope scale, the spatial distribution of bioactivity patterns will be linked to connectivity of subsurface structures to explain subsurface stormflow generation. Then we will apply species distribution modeling of key organisms in order to extrapolate the gained knowledge to the catchment scale. As on one hand, bioactivity influences the hydrological processes, but on the other hand the species distribution also depends on soil moisture contents, including the feedbacks between bioactivity and soil hydrology is pivotal for getting reliable predictions of catchment scale hydrological behavior under land use change and climate change.
Projektleitung Prof. Dr.-Ing. Erwin Zehe (KIT), Dr. Laurent Pfister (LIST), Theresa Blume (GFZ Potsdam), Teilprojekt: Prof. Dr. Boris Schröder-Esselbach, Dr. Loes von Schaik (TU Berlin)
Mitarbeiter*innen Anne-Kathrin Schneider, Dr. Tobias Hohenbrink
Externe Kooperationspartner*innen GFZ German Research Centre for Geosciences, Universität Potsdam, TU Berlin, University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences Vienna, LMU, KIT, MPI Jena, Universität Freiburg, Universität Hohenheim, UFZ Helmholtz Zentrum für Umweltforschung, LIST, ETH Zürich
Laufzeit 2015-2018
Fördergeberin DFG