Work package 3 – Vegetation and landscape changes, biodiversity of flora and fauna, and biomass production within newly emerged habitats in the catchment area

This study aims to investigate the primary succession that developed in the forefield of the glacier. The presence of different vegetation communities and their corresponding driving factors are analysed. Furthermore, the influence of small-scale variability of different vegetation communities on the carbon accumulation rate and fluxes are investigated by means of chamber-based measurements.

This work package intends to answer the following questions:

• How can the vegetation communities of the succession in a glacier forefield be characterized? What could be possible driving factors?
• How do different vegetation communities influence the carbon balance within the primary succession?

Our obtained results will be usefull for future grazing strategies regarding the impact of climate change on mountain ecosystems and and their adaptions.