Ecohydrological Modelling and Hydrological Change

Research focus

Our general objective is to better understand how ecohydrological systems behave in a changing climate. Climatic changes (increase in air temperature, changes in water availability) and increases in atmospheric CO2 also result in changes in the vegetation, e.g. longer growing seasons and a shift in vegetation zones. We want to understand how these changes affect the water balance. For our research we use models that simulate the energy balance, plant growth and hydrologic processes. Important impulses for the further development of these models arise from the comparison of model simulations with observation data, such as data from lysimeter stations, eddy covariance stations or from remote sensing. Observations over the past decades, which already show a clear signal of climate change in many parts of the world, offer the opportunity to study the behaviour of ecohydrological systems under changing climatic conditions.