HILLSCAPE (HILLSlope Chronosequence And Process Evolution)

人类活动和气候变化正在迅速改变地球表面。然而，我们对土壤如何随时间变化以及这如何影响生态、水文和地貌过程的理解仍然是初级的。有些土壤性质是持久的，但其他土壤性质会迅速变化，对水量和水质产生重大影响。在山坡尺度上尤其如此，因为横向和垂直输送过程在不同的时间尺度上相互作用。水和植被通过风化、土壤发育和侵蚀塑造山坡的表面和地下特性。这些过程，反过来，控制水流路径。水的分布也影响植被，而植被反过来也影响水的流动路径。尽管所有这些过程都相互影响，但它们之间的众多相互作用直到最近才成为研究的焦点。多学科山坡时序和过程演化（HILLSCAPE）项目侧重于沿山坡的水和物质的垂直和横向再分配，以及这种再分配如何影响和受土壤、植被和景观发展的影响。这些过程的共同进化是一个新颖而具有挑战性的研究领域。该项目的总体研究问题是：在最初的1万年里，山坡反馈循环是如何演变的，这与包括植物覆盖在内的山坡结构的演变有什么关系？HILLSCAPE将确定斜坡功能的主要控制因素及其在不同年龄的冰碛山坡上的反馈过程，从而确定其演变的阶段。我们将在两个不同地点使用不同母材的高度仪器化地块的时间序列，并遵循所有地块上的所有测量方法，以确保不同数据集和见解的整合。对于每个年龄段，我们将调查六个地块，覆盖植被复杂性的梯度。我们将通过进行一系列人工降雨实验，确定每个样地的山坡结构，并研究频繁和极端降雨事件期间的水文和地貌过程。我们还将量化共生植物的相关结构和功能特征，以得出结构和功能多样性指数。四个跨学科博士项目和博士后综合建模工作的结合，使我们能够了解山坡结构和功能及其反馈过程在山坡演变过程中如何变化。

Human activities and climate change are rapidly changing the earths surface. However, our understanding of how soils change over time and how this influences ecological, hydrological and geomorphological processes is still elementary. Some soil properties are persistent, but others can change rapidly with significant effects on water quantity and quality. This is particularly true at the hillslope scale, where lateral and vertical transport processes interact over various timescales. Water and vegetation shape the surface and subsurface properties of hillslopes through weathering, soil development, and erosion. These processes, in turn, control water flow paths. The distribution of water also affects the vegetation, while vegetation in turn also affects the flow pathways for water. Although all of these processes affect each other, their numerous interactions have only recently become a research focus. The multidisciplinary HILLSlope Chronosequence And Process Evolution (HILLSCAPE) project focuses on the vertical and lateral redistribution of water and matter along hillslopes and how this redistribution affects and is affected by soil, vegetation and landscape development. The co-evolution of these processes is a novel and challenging research field. The overall research question of the project is: How does the hillslope feedback cycle evolve in the first 10,000 years and how is this related to the evolution of hillslope structure, including plant cover? HILLSCAPE will identify the dominant controls on hillslope functioning and their feedback processes at hillslopes on moraines of different ages and thus stages in their evolution. We will use a chronosequence of highly instrumented plots at two different locations with different parent material and follow an all-measurements-on-all-plots approach to ensure integration of the different datasets and insights. For each age class, we will investigate six plots, covering a gradient of vegetation complexity. We will determine the hillslope structure at each of these plots and study the hydrological and geomorphological processes during frequent and extreme rainfall events by conducting a series of artificial rainfall experiments. We will also quantify the relevant structural and functional traits and characteristics of the co-occurring plants to derive indices of structural and functional diversity. The combination of the four interdisciplinary PhD projects and the integrative modelling work of the post-doc allows us to understand how hillslope structure and functioning and their feedback processes change during hillslope evolution.