Nationalpark Hohe Tauern

Monitoring of waters


Interdisciplinary


 

Even in mountainous areas, it is expected that climate change will strongly affect the hydrology and geomorphology of river landscapes resulting in a significant change in the volume and composition of meltwater and thus in aquatic ecology. Therefore, the causal relationships between hydrology/glaciology – geomorphology – ecology/biodiversity will be the focus of attention in water monitoring.


Project objective

The objective of the project is to contribute to the study of climate change. In selected waters, site conditions and environmental factors, as well as the biodiversity of the waters, are precisely measured and recorded. The project involves identifying climate-related changes and their potential impact on ecosystems. The real tools of long-term monitoring are the communities of the mountain streams and rivers. Here, the outstanding indicator function of insects living in and on the water as well as of other invertebrates is used.

The Hohe Tauern National Park is ideally suited for the long-term monitoring of the effects of climate change due to the diversity of aquatic ecosystems and the diversity of their typical characteristics and the low or absent anthropogenic impact. More than half of the rivers with a catchment area> 1 km² of the national park are affected by glaciers. With a balanced distribution of measuring areas ("monitopes") in running waters in alpine catchment areas, changes of climatic as well as anthropogenic nature can be identified.

The Hohe Tauern National Park is ideally suited for the long-term monitoring of the effects of climate change due to the diversity of aquatic ecosystems and the diversity of their typical characteristics and the low or absent anthropogenic impact. More than half of the rivers with a catchment area> 1 km² of the national park are affected by glaciers. With a balanced distribution of measuring areas (monitors) in running waters in Alpine catchment areas, changes of climatic as well as anthropogenic nature can be identified.

 

 


Investigation areas

Carinthia: Seebachtal (Seebach valley)

Salzburg: Anlauftal (Anlauf valley), Krimmler Achental (Krimmler Achen valley)

Tyrol: Innergschlöss

Continual abiotic observation is carried out annually in all four areas. This basic set-up involves continuous observation and high-frequency measurement of the parameters hydrology, geomorphology, water chemistry and turbidity analysis. For this purpose, a total of 18 trial sites have been set up where the biotics are examined every three years.

Related links:

Project reports/information


Water monitoring in the Hohe Tauern National Park

 

 

Bund EU ELER EN farbig