POSSIBILITIES FOR ECOHYDROLOGICAL MONITORING IN NATURAL AND MANAGED ECOSYSTEMS IN SOUTHERN CHILE
Ecohydrology investigates how hydrological processes affect plant growth and vice versa. As these mutual interactions are important in many ecosystems, ecohydrology has wide applicability. An important aspect of ecohydrological research is the assessment and prediction of the occurrence of plant spe...
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| Autores principales: | , , , , , , |
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| Lenguaje: | English |
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Facultad de Ciencias Naturales y Oceanográficas, Universidad de Concepción
2005
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | http://www.scielo.cl/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S0717-66432005000200007 |
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| Sumario: | Ecohydrology investigates how hydrological processes affect plant growth and vice versa. As these mutual interactions are important in many ecosystems, ecohydrology has wide applicability. An important aspect of ecohydrological research is the assessment and prediction of the occurrence of plant species or vegetation types in relation to hydrological or hydrogeochemical habitat conditions. Several models have been developed (e.g. DEMNAT, ICHORS, ITORS, ITORS-VL). All of these models are data driven. Consequently a monitoring network has to be installed, possibly in addition to existing databases. These networks are ecosystem specific but the most widely monitored variables are: water table depth, electric conductivity of groundwater, soil moisture content and chemistry (pH, concentrations of major ions and nutrients) and vegetation composition. The ITORS-VL model proved to be successful for predicting probabilities of plant species and plant community occurrence in Flemish (Belgium) wetland ecosystems, using regressions based on environmental variables ranging from hydrological variables as mean water table depth to chemical variables characterizing soil water such as nitrate concentration and electrical conductivity. However, because of its empirical and ecosystem specific nature, ITORS-VL would not be readily applicable to Chilean ecosystems. The possibility for implementing a comparable monitoring and modelling approach in different ecosystems in southern Chile is investigated. Benefits are of many kinds: (i) a holistic understanding of ecosystem functioning; (ii) the ability to determine the relative importance of site characteristics in various ecosystems and (iii) the possibility to predict vegetation successional stages under changing environmental conditions. These benefits have potential roles in decision support, ecosystem restoration and risk or environmental impact assessment |
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