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Publications

NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.

2009

Abstract

Long-term monitoring meteorological, hydrological and hydrochemical data from small catchments are irreplaceable witnesses of past environmental conditions. This insight shaped the formation of the Long-Term Ecological Research Network (LTER) in the US, but European as well as German siblings are under preparation. Among the European forested monitoring sites, the Bramke catchments in the Harz mountains present a particularly well-documented case, with daily runoff measurements starting after World War II-related reparation cuts in 1948, and surface water chemistry being observed since the 1970ies. Originally powered by research on erosion, then by acid rain research and the then-prominent “forest decline”, a large set of hydrochemical variables (major ions) is available now with basically weekly resolution. Previously tightly connected to academic research at the University of Göttingen, routine measurements are by now performed by local forest authorities, ensuring forthcoming continuity even when public attention should shift away again from climate change research.