Operation of the central experimental sites
Final Report Abstract
The goals of project „Z Central Experiments” were i) installation and operation of the central experiments of the Research Unit 562 for the manipulation of soil water content and irrigation regime, ii) continuous measurements of basic parameters used by the members of the Research Unit (temperatures, soil water contents, chemistry of soil solution, above ground litterfall, groundwater level) and iii) documentation of data in the central data base of the Research Unit. These goals were fully achieved at the two experimental sites located in the Fichtelgebirge area. The site Coulissenhieb is a mature Norway spruce stand and comprises 9 plots for three different experimental treatments and the control, each with 3 replicates. One treatment was an artificial drought induced by roof constructions during the summer with increasing drought intensities in the years 2006-2010. The second treatment was a snow removal experiment in the winter of 2005/2006 to study the effects of soil frost on soil processes. The third treatment was an additional irrigation to avoid natural drying of the soil and to eliminate restrictions of soil processes due to water shortage. The site Schlöppnerbrunnen is a fen and comprises 6 plots, 3 of which are used for the drought and wetting experiment and 3 as controls. The water table manipulation was induced by drainage and by exclusion of precipitation in the summer of 2006-2008. in 2009 and additional water application resulted in a permanently flooding of the treatment sites.
