Contact:

Sabine Attinger , Project P.I.
Georg Büchel, Project P.I.

Rationale

Water is an important control for ecosystem functioning. Water availability and fluxes control plant productivity, root uptake of nutrients, and element leaching to the groundwater. This project studies the influence of plant water relation on ecosystem function and answers questions about the relationships between soil water and biodiversity. It combines experimental and modeling approaches to understand how diverse ecosystems allocate the available soil water resource efficiently, particularly under stress conditions in summer. Furthermore, this project establishes the water balance within the soil, which is a prerequisite for setting up element budgets.

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