5. ROLE OF PARTICIPANTS

The project will be coordinated by the Project Coordinator Univ.-Prof. Dr. A. Cernusca, Institute of Botany, University of Innsbruck.8 institutions (Partner Teams) will contribute to ECOMONT:

Figure 3: Partner Teams contributing to ECOMONT

1. Partner no 1: Institut für Botanik, Universität Innsbruck (A);
2. Partner no 2: Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE), Banchory, Kincardineshire, Scotland (GB);
3. Partner no 3: Institut für Terrestrische Ökosystemforschung (BITÖK), Universität Bayreuth (D);
4. Partner no 4: Europäische Akademie Bozen (EAB), Bozen (I);
5. Partner no 5: Centro di Ecologia Alpina, Monte Bondone (CEA), Trento (I);
6. Partner no 6: Instituto Pirenaico de Ecologia (IPE), Jaca (E);
7. Partner no 7: Paul-Scherrer-Institut (PSI), ETH Zürich (CH);
8. Partner no 8: Forschungsanstalt für Agrikulturchemie u.Umwelthygiene(FAC),Bern-Liebefeld (CH).

The Institute of Botany, University of Innsbruck (A) will have an important role in linking and liaising with all other partners of ECOMONT. In particular, it will be responsible for the overall coordination of the project, administratively and scientifically. The organisation will be the Module Coordinator for the work packages no 3 (canopy structure, primary production, decomposition), no 5 (microclimate and energy budget of the ecosystems) and no 8 (population and plant biological studies) in each of the countries involved, and will have the role of managing both the population and plant biological studies for the three pilot sites along the ECOMONT-transect across the Eastern Alps, as well as managing the studies based at the North Tyrolean pilot research area (being the Study Site Manager for this site). The specific objectives of the partner team no 1 are to:

• analyse the changes in vegetation structure, soil properties resulting from land-use changes, as well as the connections between canopy structure and plant ecophysiologal mechanisms,
• examine the implications of the changes for microclimate, energy balance, gas exchange,
• quantify the effects on catchment and community water relations, including the effects on snow retention, snow gliding and erosion risk,
• model the implications of change at plant, community, ecosystem and landscape level, and
• compare the results for the Austrian site with those for the other sites of ECOMONT.

The Institute of Terrestrial Ecology (ITE), Banchory, Scotland (GB) will have the role of managing both the remote sensing studies for all experimental sites of ECOMONT as well as managing the studies based at the Scottish site, which will be undertaken in collaboration with the Institute of Hydrology and Scottish Natural Heritage. Both Institutes are part of the Natural Environment Research Council. The organisation will also have a role in linking and liaising with the other partners. In particular, it will be responsible for coordinating the hydrological and remote sensing aspects of ECOMONT (work packages no 4 and 12) in each of the countries involved. The specific objectives and operational goals of the partner team no 2 are to:

• describe the changes in vegetation structure composition and function resulting from abandonment of heavy grazing in a mountain catchment in the Highlands of Scotland;
• examine the implications of the changes for , gas exchange, and interception of pollutants,
• quantify the effects on catchment and community water relations, including the effects on snow retention and erosion risk,
• compare effects with those for other mountain ecosystems in the ECOMONT programme,
• model the implications of change at catchment and community level
• compare the results for the Scottish site with those for sites in alpine areas in Austria, Spain and Italy.

The contribution of the Institut für Terrestrische Ökosystemforschung (BITÖK), University of Bayreuth (D) as being module coordinator of work package no 11 will be the development of an integrative modeling framework that will permit spatial assessments of transpiration, run-off, and soil water balance for alpine landscapes, especially as related to potential erosion, but also to allow a direct linking of plant ecology and ecosystem function with these processes. Thus a tool will be developed for interpreting the consequences of land-use changes and new vegetation development for water and carbon balance in mountainous regions. The specific objectives and operational goals of the partner team no 3:

• Formulation of a landscape model utilizing GIS descriptions of land-use gathered in the project,
• Parameterization of stand models to describe water fluxes in major communities,
• Simulations of water fluxes and run-off in the landscape, description of functional aspects of landscape patches, and identification of erosion risk areas,
• Model testing with respect to measured latent heat fluxes together with Paul Scherrer Institut.

The European Academy Bozen/Bolzano (EAB), Bozen (I) will be responsible for the studies based at the South Tyrolean pilot research area on the ECOMONT-transect Trentino - South Tyrol - North Tyrol (being the Study Site Manager for this site). The organisation will also have a role in linking and liaising with the other partners. In particular, it will be the module coordinator for the work packages no 6 (gas exchange of single plants and ecosystems) and no 10 (GIS) for each of the partners involved. In addition, EAB Bozen will contribute data storage and analysis via the Geographical Information system (GIS) for all the pilot research areas in the transect Trentino - South Tyrol - North Tyrol. The specific objectives and operational goals of the partner team no 4 are to:

• compile the GIS-based topography and vegetation descriptions for the sites,
• describe the changes in soil properties, vegetation structure, composition and function resulting from abandonment of meadows and pastures in a South Tyrolean catchment,
• examine the implications of the changes for microclimate, energy budget and gas exchange,
• quantify the effects on catchment and community water relations, including the effects on snow retention, snow gliding and erosion risk,
• develop an Environmental Information System (EIS), including numerical data-bases and GIS for the three pilot areas from the Italian to the Austrian Alps,
• model the implications of change at community and ecosystem level, and
• compare the results for the South Tyrolean site with those for sites in mountain areas in Italy, Scotland, Spain an. Switzerland.

The Centro di Ecologia Alpina (CEA), Trento (I) will provide the composite experimental sites on Monte Bondone and the infrastructure necessary to carry out the investigations at this site. The CEA will coordinate the module "Physical and chemical soil properties" (work package no 2) for all partners of ECOMONT and will contribute the following investigations at the experimental sites on Monte Bondone: spatial distribution of vegetation and soil, physical and chemical soil properties (including soil organic matter), biological population studies with special reference to plant-animal interactions, potential risks through land-use changes and development of a first concept for sustainable development for Monte Bondone. The specific objectives and operational goals of the partner team no 5 are to:

• assess the spatial distribution of vegetation, animals and soils on Monte Bondone,
• determine the specific physical and chemical parameters of soils,
• define and assess potential risks, and
• develop a first concept of sustainable development for Monte Bondone.

The Instituto Pirenaico de Ecologia (IPE), Jaca (E) will be responsible as module coordinator for the overall coordination of work package no 1 (spatial distribution of vegetation and soil in the experimental areas) and will investigate the following in the Spanish Pyrenees: spatial distribution of vegetation and soil in the experimental area, physical and chemical soil properties, key parameters of soil stability and soil movement, canopy structure, primary production, water relations and hydrological balance of the ecosystems and the catchment area, microclimate, energy budget of ecosystems, population and plant biological studies. The approach will be developed in collaboration with the School of Agricultural and Forestry Engineering of Lleida and the Polytechnical University School of Huesca. The specific objectives and operational goals of the partner team no6 are to:

• characterize and describe the environmental (soil, water relations, microclimate), vegetation and human (type of uses) constraints on the homogeneous sectors (meadows, pastures and abandoned grasslands)
• formulate the spatial and functional interrelationships in the frame of the ecosystem and landscape levels and to predict the successions following land-use changes.

The Paul Scherrer Institute (PSI), ETH Zürich (CH) will be module coordinator of work package no 7 (gas exchange biosphere/atmosphere) and the special topic "analyses of stable isotope ratios" and will contribute with measurements and modeling of exchange processes between the atmosphere and the vegetation. This link is of major concern from the point of view of the integrative aspect of the project, because the flow pattern of atmospheric air masses on the north-south transect couples the experimental sites. The task is splitted into 3 aspects: (1) The long range transport with interaction of air masses between the Inn-Valley and the adjacent plain (Po-Valley); (2) The exchange on the local scale in a box including the 4 different ecosystems. The budget for CO₂, H₂O and nitrogen compounds along the boundaries of an atmospheric box with a height of approximately 200 m above ground is established by means of experiments and models; (3) The micrometeorological deposition to the ground is investigated on for the above-mentioned species. The specific objectives and operational goals of the partner team no 7 are to:

• determine horizontal fluxes of CO₂, H₂O and nitrogen compounds by characterizing the wind system and the concentration distribution on the local scale over the composite ecosystem,
• determine the vertical fluxes and N-deposition in the designated study sites,
• interprete the data set by means of specific models for total budgets for the pilot research areas along the South/North-transect Trentino - South Tyrol - North Tyrol, and
• characterize long term carbon - water relationships and nutrient relations of plants in the context of gas exchange and plant ecological studies by means of stable isotope analyses.

The Forschungsanstalt für Agruchemie u. Umwelthygiene (FAC), Bern-Liebefeld (CH) will be responsible for the Swiss experimental site and the experiments to be conducted there. In addition, FAC Liebefeld will coordinate the investigations concerning potential risks through land-use changes (work package no 9) for ECOMONT. Studies at the Swiss experimental site will include investigations of plant species abundance for the analysis of the transition in species composition of the area, quantitative analyses of the vertical distribution of phytomass, determination of rooting density and rooting intensity on slopes, measurements of microclimate, energy budget and gas exchange of ecosystems, measurements of soil water and determination of soil physical parameters used to model the soil water balance, measurements of soil stability and soil movement on slopes, measurements of rainfall amount and intensity and of soil surface run-off, transpiration of forested area by xylem-sapflow measurement on at least six trees in the forest within the catchment, monitoring of discharge of the catchment at the base with a triangular shaped weir, and in winter measurements of radiation input, air temperature near the ground and soil temperature, measurements of soil water content and potential, quantification of soil stability, measurements of snow cover thickness and monitoring of snow-sliding.