ESR11: Quantifying the cumulative effects of nitrogen buffering hotspots at the catchment scale
Research Fellow: Tamara Kolbe, Centre national de la recherche scientifique (France)
Objectives
ESR 11 will use innovative biogeochemical tracers, i.e. REE, δ13C of DOM, δ15N in nitrate and ammonia, δ18O in nitrate at the outlets of the focal catchments to determine the nutrient buffering capacity of the focal catchments as a function of their land cover structure.
Tasks and methodology
ESR11 will measure Cerium anomaly in REE series to quantify the percentage of water which has passed through reduced OM-rich environments. Excitation emission matrix fluorescence will provide a qualitative assessment of the organic matter fluxes, while analysis of 14C DOM will allow determining the age of the mobilized organic matter. Moreover, δ13C of DOM will be used to trace the source of organic matter from C4 crops such as maize. δ15N in nitrate and ammonia, δ18O in nitrate at the outlets of the focal catchments will be used to determine point and diffuse sources of N in the catchments. ESR11 will measure these parameters in nested catchments from stream orders 1 to 4 in order to link LULC and water quality and to determine the scale at which variability levels off. New techniques developed in collaboration with ESR 10, ESR 7 and ESR 8 will be tested in the same locations.
Supervisors
- Gilles Pinay (CNRS)
- Co-Supervisors: Christian Schmidt, Jan Fleckenstein (UFZ)
Video Introduction
Watch this short video of ESR11 Tamara Kolbe introducing herself and talking about her Interfaces project: