Short and long term feedback between vegetation and morphodynamic processes
Final Report Abstract
Landcover in high altitudes is highly dynamic and changes occur due to climate change, land use change, and geomorphological impacts. Objectives of the first project phase 2019-2021 of SP7 (BIO) were (i) the assessment of plant community development on glacier forelands, comparing disturbed and undisturbed sites, (ii) the response of vegetation cover and plant species to geomorphological/fluvial disturbances and vice versa, and (iii) changes of landscape units along elevation gradients (e.g. treeline and dwarf shrub advances). The investigations should be outlined along the micro- (colonisation), meso- (restoration after disturbance), and macroscale (landscape units), considering the time slices 1850-1920, 1920-1980, 1980-today. The work programme included also the searching of images from the study areas in archives and the definition of landcover classes in order to interpret and compare aerial maps and/or photographic images from different time slices. The field work was carried out, as planned in the project proposal, in all the three investigation areas: Martell Valley, Kauner Valley and Horlach Valley/Grastal. Data analyses is still going on, although results were published and presented at national and international fora. Due to the complexity of approaches of the project SP7 (BIO) and the respective analyses, only a few striking results will be shown here. In Martell Valley, primary succession starts at Fürkele- and Zufallferner already one year after deglaciation. Increasing elevation of the deglaciated area hampers colonisation speed and vegetation cover. Geomorphological disturbances on the glacier forelands cause a considerable setback of the primary succession, i.e. such disturbed areas return to an earlier successional stage with fewer species numbers and lower vegetation cover. Along elevation gradients from the treeline to the nival zone in Martell- and Kauner Valley significant changes in vegetation cover were found due to disturbances. As expected, in Martell Valley, soil organic matter, microbial carbon, ammonia, total dissolved nitrogen and carbon were significantly correlated with high vegetation cover along the elevation gradient. For the comparison of disturbed and stable plots along debris flows in Horlach Valley/Grastal final analyses and interpretation are still missing. First results from 2020 showed that the youngest debris flow plots (events of 2018, 2019) were still without vegetation cover, however, they had already a remarkable number of species. An evaluation of the functional traits will unravel the strategies of these early colonizers. In order to compare aerial images and to be able to highlight the changes along the time slices, 11 landcover classes have been defined and templates of landcover have been performed for the aerial images from the year 1953 and 2003. The templates of the aerial image from 2003 will now be used for automatization of the landcover map creation for the whole study area. For the glacier foreland of Martell Valley a novel method of vegetation cover modelling was carried out by means of the satellite derived vegetation index NDVI (= Normalized Difference Vegetation Index). NDVI of the year 2019 was correlated to in-situ vegetation sampling in 2019, showing a significant correlation with only 2 outliers (due to high abundance of non-green lichens and bryophytes). It was possible to model vegetation cover from 1986 onwards and to outline the distribution of successional stages. Last but not least, it still remains a major challenge, to extract all informations from the huge amount of field data collected during this project and to analyse the implications of disturbances for ecologicals functions of high mountain ecosystems.
Publications
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(2020): Development of soil in heterogeneous landscapes of a high alpine catchment in the Central European Alps. EGU 2020, Online, 08.05.2020
Müller, S., Ramskogler, K., Knoflach, B., Stötter, J., Erschbamer, B., Illmer, P. & Geitner, C.
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(2020): Long-Term Changes of Morphodynamics on Little Ice Age Lateral Moraines and the Resulting Sediment Transfer into Mountain Streams in the Upper Kauner Valley, Austria. Austria. Water 2020, 12, 3375
Altmann, M., Piermattei, L., Haas, F., Heckmann, T., Fleischer, F., Rom, J., Betz-Nutz, S., Knoflach, B., Müller, S., Ramskogler, K., Pfeiffer, M., Hofmeister, F., Ressl, C. & Becht, M.
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(2020): Plant community development and soil characteristics in the glacier foreland of Zufallferner (Martell Valley, South Tyro). XI. Tagung Zoologische und Botanische Forschung in Südtirol
Ramskogler, K., Müller, S., Knoflach, B., Stötter, J., Geitner, C. & Erschbamer, B.
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(2020): Plant community evolution in a glacier foreland of the Central European Alps. EGU 2020, Online, 07.05.2020
Ramskogler, K., Müller, S., Knoflach, B., Stötter, J., Geitner, C. & Erschbamer, B.
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(2021): Modelling of vegetation dynamics from satellite time series to determine proglacial primary succession in the course of global warming – a case study in the upper Martell valley (Eastern Italian Alps). Remote Sens. 2021, 13, 4450
Knoflach, B., Ramskogler, K., Talluto, M., Hofmeister, F., Haas, F. Heckmann, T., Pfeiffer, M., Piermattei, L., Ressl, C., Wimmer, M.H., Geitner, C., Erschbamer, B. & Stötter, J.
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(2021): Modelling vegetation dynamics from Satellite time series to estimate proglacial primary succession in the course of global warming – a case study in the Eastern Italian Alps. Gesellschaft für Ökologie, Braunschweig 30th August – 1st September 2021. In: Schröder-Esslbach, B. et al. (Eds.) (2021): 50th Anniversary Conference Ecology Science in Transition, Science for Transition. Braunschweig: Book of Abstracts
Knoflach, B., Ramskogler, K., Talluto, M., Hofmeister, F., Haas, F., Heckmann, T., Pfeiffer, M., Piermattei, L., Ressl, C., Wimmer, M.H., Geitner, C., Erschbamer, B. & Stötter, J.
