Project Overview
A forested groundwater infiltration basin for a major aquifer. Research quantifies how forest management impacts groundwater recharge, a crucial drinking water source for the region. | Fresh water provisioning is actively enhanced through research on forest management to optimize groundwater recharge. All other services like raw materials, carbon sequestration, and tourism are maintained.
Ecosystem Services
Provisioning
- Provisioning Services are ecosystem services that describe the material or energy outputs from ecosystems. They include food, water and other resources.
- Raw materials: Ecosystems provide a great diversity of materials for construction and fuel including wood, biofuels and plant oils that are directly derived from wild and cultivated plant species.
- Fresh water: Ecosystems play a vital role in the global hydrological cycle, as they regulate the flow and purification of water. Vegetation and forests influence the quantity of water available locally.
Regulating
- Regulating Services are the services that ecosystems provide by acting as regulators eg. regulating the quality of air and soil or by providing flood and disease control.
- Carbon sequestration and storage: Ecosystems regulate the global climate by storing and sequestering greenhouse gases. As trees and plants grow, they remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and effectively lock it away in their tissues. In this way forest ecosystems are carbon stores. Biodiversity also plays an important role by improving the capacity of ecosystems to adapt to the effects of climate change.
Habitat / Supporting
- Ecosystem services "that are necessary for the production of all other ecosystem services". These include services such as nutrient recycling, primary production and soil formation.
- Habitats for species: Habitats provide everything that an individual plant or animal needs to survive: food; water; and shelter. Each ecosystem provides different habitats that can be essential for a species’ lifecycle. Migratory species including birds, fish, mammals and insects all depend upon different ecosystems during their movements.
Cultural
- Cultural Services corresponds nonmaterial benefits people obtain from ecosystems through spiritual enrichment, cognitive development, reflection, recreation, and aesthetic experiences.
- Recreation and mental and physical health: Walking and playing sports in green space is not only a good form of physical exercise but also lets people relax. The role that green space plays in maintaining mental and physical health is increasingly being recognized, despite difficulties of measurement.
- Tourism: Ecosystems and biodiversity play an important role for many kinds of tourism which in turn provides considerable economic benefits and is a vital source of income for many countries. In 2008 global earnings from tourism summed up to US$ 944 billion. Cultural and eco-tourism can also educate people about the importance of biological diversity.
Major Issues
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No issues provided.
EH Engineering Solutions
Sap flux density/ Eddy Covariance/ Light interception/
Sap flux density/ Eddy Covariance/ Light interception/ Soil moisture / Soil water potential / Tree diameters / Leaf wetness / Rainfall interception / Solar induced Fluorescence and hyperspectral reflectance.
The tree shape and crown density as
The tree shape and crown density as measured with LiDAR will be used to study the role of tree structure on microclimate. No manipulation experiments are planned.
Some areas are fenced (to reduce grazing
Some areas are fenced (to reduce grazing pressure) and other areas are not. This will be used to study the effect of fauna on hydrology.
The Speulderbos is an infiltration area with
The Speulderbos is an infiltration area with relatively deep groundwater tables. Surrounding the Speulderbos are springs and valleys, and acid fens which are unique habitats, which depend on the groundwater recharge.
Project Activities
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Continuous monitoring of water and environmental fluxes like sap flow and soil moisture
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PostDoc research quantifying tree water content
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PhD project quantifying groundwater recharge
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PhD project monitoring forest health with remote sensing
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Educational fieldwork for universities
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Organizing excursions for primary and secondary schools
Expected Outcomes
Spatio-temporal quantification of groundwater recharge, interception and evaporation | Insight into the effects of forest characteristics and management on hydrological fluxes | Assessment of forest health and vulnerability during droughts and heatwaves | Informing sustainable forest management policy for climate resilience | Supporting the sustainable provision of clean drinking water