TY - GEN A1 - Winter, Susanne A1 - Zaplata, Markus K. A1 - Rzanny, Michael A1 - Schaaf, Wolfgang A1 - Fischer, Anton A1 - Ulrich, Werner T1 - Increasing ecological multifunctionality during early plant succession T2 - Plant Ecology N2 - Ecological multifunctionality quantifies the functional performance of various important plant traits and increases with growing structural habitat heterogeneity, number of plant functional traits, and species richness. However, the successional changes in multifunctionality have not been traced so far. We use quantitative plant samples of 1 m2 plots from the first 6 years of initial vegetation dynamics in a German created catchment to infer the temporal changes in plant functional trait space and multifunctionality. Multifunctionality at the plot level was in all study years lower than expected from a random sample of the local pool of potential colonizers and was lowest at intermediate states of succession. In each year species containing a specific set of traits occurred with limited but focused functionality. The observed average low degree of multifunctionality contrasts with recent models predicting a tendency towards maximum multifunctionality during plant community development. However, variability in multifunctionality among plots increased during succession and the respective multifunctionality distribution among plots was increasingly right skewed indicating an excess of plots with relatively high multifunctionality. This relative excess of plots with high multifunctionality might act as an important trigger of community development paving the way for new species and functions to become established. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s11258-019-00930-3 SN - 1573-5052 VL - 220 IS - 4-5 SP - 499 EP - 509 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Moghadas, Davood A1 - Schaaf, Wolfgang A1 - Gerwin, Werner A1 - Badorreck, Annika A1 - Hüttl, Reinhard F. T1 - A web-based platform for terrestrial data repository from Chicken Creek catchment T2 - Earth Science Informatics N2 - Exploring hydrological and ecological processes plays a key role in understanding ecosystem developments. In this respect, the constructed catchment, Chicken Creek, has been established for fundamental and interdisciplinary scientific research. Since 2005, an ongoing monitoring program has been launched to measure hydrological, biological, meteorological, and pedological parameters during the ecological development of the site. This comprehensive and multidisciplinary monitoring program has produced a diverse large data set. Handling such complex data for research purposes can be a cumbersome task. Consequently, we developed an online data portal (https://www.b-tu.de/chicken-creek/apps/datenportal/) to efficiently handle the data from Chicken Creek catchment. The portal was constructed using Shiny package of the R programming language. This platform provides a web-based data repository allowing for data discovery, download, visualization, and analysis. The data include time series of different parameters from installed sensors, data from laboratory analyses, vegetation data, data from sampling campaigns, and aerial photos. This platform demonstrates the relevancy and potentiality of the R-Shiny for constructing an online data portal to be used for multidisciplinary scientific purposes. The Chicken Creek data portal thus provides a comprehensive and reliable database to give scientists a fast and easy access to all collected data. Y1 - 2019 U6 - https://doi.org/10.1007/s12145-019-00385-0 SN - 1865-0481 VL - 12 IS - 4 SP - 671 EP - 684 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Badorreck, Annika A1 - Schaaf, Wolfgang A1 - Gerwin, Werner A1 - Moghadas, Davood A1 - Hüttl, Reinhard F. T1 - Long-term monitoring program at the constructed catchment "Chicken Creek" T2 - Geophysical Research Abstracts N2 - Ecosystems are characterized by high complexity and are dynamically changing by abiotic and biotic drivers such as climate, vegetation and soil fauna. Due to feedback processes between compartments, ecosystems show an inherent degree of locally heterogeneous properties and structures at multiple spatial and temporal scales. The constructed catchment “Chicken Creek” represents a unique and outstanding site to study an ecosystem at the initial stage of development. The catchment is located about 20 km south of the city of Cottbus (Germany). The 6-ha catchment area was built in 2005 of coarse-textured quaternary sediments from the adjacent lignite mine and forms a back- and foot-slope that flattens out to a pond. A clay liner of 2-3 m thickness seals the catchment at the bottom, allowing for the formation of a local water body fed by precipitation. After construction the site was left to an unrestricted and unmanaged succession to elucidate the role of structures und processes during the initial establishment of an ecosystem. To study processes of ecosystem development and newly emerging structures the Chicken Creek catchment is equipped with a comprehensive ecological monitoring network. A network of more than 40 wells and two weirs allow for recording groundwater levels, surface runoff and discharge. Meteorological parameters are recorded at three weather stations. Annual aerial photos and vegetation monitoring reveal the floral colonisation of the area. Here, we present the 12 years of diverse and extensive monitoring program which has been launched to measure hydrological, biological, meteorological, and pedological parameters during the ecological development of the catchment area. Y1 - 2019 UR - https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2019/EGU2019-5038.pdf VL - 21 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Gerwin, Werner A1 - Schaaf, Wolfgang T1 - Dynamic interactions between abiotic and biotic ecosystem compartments - case study Huehnerwasser landscape observatory T2 - Geophysical Research Abstracts N2 - The Huehnerwasser catchment was constructed 2004-2005 in a post-mining landscape in Eastern Germany and was left for an unmanaged primary ecosystem succession. At the same time a comprehensive monitoring program was launched for observing the expected dynamic development of this 6 ha site. During the following years this artificially created system was subject to a series of fast changes with regard to morphology, hydrology or vegetation cover. In summary, these processes resulted in significant alterations of the original, initial system within a short period of time. This development can be divided up into single phases with dominating processes or groups of processes. A first phase was mainly characterized by interactions between abiotic system components such as water and substrate. However, already in this very early developmental phase biotic components in the form of microorganisms were a crucial system forming factor by means of biological soil crusts. This period was quickly replaced by a second phase with dominating hydrological processes. During this phase the local groundwater body of the system developed to its full extent. With the beginning of the present phase biota gained control of the system behavior. Particularly plants and related processes such as water uptake and evapotranspiration are now responsible for new modifications of the system. The Huehnerwasser site offers an example of young and highly dynamic ecological systems. This transitional development of a very young ecosystem contrasts with the behavior of mature ecosystems with slow and less pronounced changes unless the system is disturbed. In this paper we present insights into a unique landscape observatory which illustrates the dynamic nature of natural systems in fast motion. Y1 - 2019 UR - https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2019/EGU2019-4207.pdf VL - 21 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Schaaf, Wolfgang A1 - Gerwin, Werner A1 - Hüttl, Reinhard F. T1 - 15 years of ecosystem development at Chicken Creek catchment: conceptual framework, surprises and conclusions T2 - Geophysical Research Abstracts N2 - After completion of the construction in 2005 (Gerwin et al. 2009), a major challenge was to develop and install a cross-disciplinary long-term monitoring program for the 6 ha area to record major environmental parameters adapted to the development of the site (Schaaf et al. 2013). During its first 15 years, Chicken Creek showed a very dynamic development (Elmer et al 2013). Whereas the abiotic geosystem of the first 2-3 years was characterized by heavy erosion and sediment transport, primary succession by invading vegetation and the unexpected formation of soil crusts within few years resulted in more biotic-abiotic feedbacks that controlled catchment hydrology. Our observations over a period of 15 years indicate that even minor variations in initial substrate characteristics (e.g. texture) can have lasting impacts on geomorphical, hydrological and biological development like erosion intensity, groundwater levels or establishment of vegetation patterns. The time-series of monitoring data combined with a structure model of the catchment (Gerke et al. 2013) allowed the closure of the water balance by relatively simple calculations of water storage volumes and the estimation of evapotranspiration (Schaaf et al. 2017). From these data three stages of ecosystem development were derived which are characterized by increasing influence of biota and increasing system complexity. Y1 - 2019 UR - https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2019/EGU2019-1864.pdf VL - 21 ER - TY - GEN A1 - Moghadas, Davood A1 - Schaaf, Wolfgang A1 - Gerwin, Werner A1 - Badorreck, Annika A1 - Hüttl, Reinhard F. T1 - Chicken Creek data portal: a web-based R-Shiny platform for terrestrial data repository T2 - Geophysical Research Abstracts N2 - Exploring hydrological and ecological processes plays a key role in understanding ecosystem development. In this respect, the constructed catchment, Chicken Creek (Hühnerwasser), has been established to promote fundamental and interdisciplinary scientific research. Since 2005, an on-going monitoring program has been established in this catchment to measure hydrological, biological, meteorological, and pedological parameters during the ecological development of the site. This comprehensive and multidisciplinary monitoring program has produced a large and diverse data set. Managing and exploring such a complex data set for research purposes can be a cumbersome task. As a consequence, we developed an online data portal https://www.b-tu.de/chicken-creek/apps/datenportal/ to efficiently handle the data from Chicken Creek catchment. The portal was constructed using R programming language, Shiny package, and the accompanying local Linux server. This platform allows for efficient data discovery, download, visualization, and analysis. Data visualizations are freely available, while data storage is limited to the authorized users. In comparison with the commonly used data base tools, R-Shiny offers several advantages. As an open source package, this platform allows for constructing a web data platform in an interactive way taking into account the complexity and diversity of the data. The flexibility of this routine enables to make an efficient user-demand data portal rather than relying on predetermined outputs. It also offers flexibility in data handling by using many different R packages, rendering versatile and extensive functionalities. R-Shiny is particularly powerful in terms of statistical analyses. Although the Chicken Creek online data portal is complete and available, new features, and extended capabilities are under active development. The Chicken Creek data portal provides a comprehensive and reliable database to give scientists a fast and easy access to all collected data. Consequently, R-Shiny offers a great potential for future development of the web-based data portals to efficiently handle scientific data collected at different scales. Y1 - 2019 UR - https://meetingorganizer.copernicus.org/EGU2019/EGU2019-3270.pdf VL - 21 ER -