On the journey of raindrops through the forest ecosystem, forest-floor litter and deadwood form a previously underestimated storage.
On the journey of raindrops through the forest ecosystem, forest-floor litter and deadwood form a previously underestimated storage. In the Forest Laboratory "Waldlabor" on Hönggerberg, researchers investigate the storage and transport processes of water in the forest. Recently they showed that forest-floor litter and deadwood have a far larger influence on the forest water balance than expected. The forest on Hönggerberg in the north of Zurich is both, a recreational space and a laboratory. The Forest Laboratory called "Waldlabor" considers itself to be an experience-oriented education and research site that is open to everyone. The public, experts and scientists experience, manage and observe the cultivated forest with the overriding goal of better understanding and preserving this habitat. A thematic focus of the Waldlabor is climate change. In a multi-year project researchers are currently investigating how warmer and drier conditions affect the water balance of the forest. For this purpose, Marius Floriancic, Senior Scientist at the Institute of Environmental Engineering, and the ETH Hydrology Professors James Kirchner and Peter Molnar are operating a comprehensive measurement and monitoring system on Hönggerberg near the Holderbach in order to precisely record and trace the relevant water fluxes between the soil, trees and the atmosphere. Soil moisture measurements under surfaces with and without litter layer. In a recently published study in the journal external page Ecohydrology call_made , Floriancic, Kirchner and Molnar were able to show that dead plant material on the forest floor plays a far more important role in the water balance of a forest than previously thought. How much water is left for trees?
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