ALBERT

Description: In our meeting Dynamic Earth – from Alfred Wegener to today and beyond we will review how Wegener‘s findings evolved into to modern Earth system science including its impact on climate and the Earth surface, and how this system affects our daily life: where humans live, what risks we are exposed to, where we find our resources. In the meeting we will hold sessions that cover the entire geoscience spectrum (from mineral physics over solid earth geodynamics to the climate sciences) and that explore the consequences of Wegeners findings on how humans use our planet today (from energy and mineral resources over georisks to utilisation of the subsurface and materials for modern society). We have invited keynote speakers that are eminent international scientists in these fields. In events open to the general public we will get an account of Wegeners final trip to Greenland on the history of science of his hypothesis.

Description: The disciplines of environmental protection and sustainable development are highly reliant on the continuous advancement of theoretical and practical knowledge. Germany can look back on many years of environmental and sustainability research and thus has both an opportunity and a duty to share its extensive technological and planning expertise with the rest of the world. After all, conserving the foundations of life and protecting people from natural hazards are not just domestic concerns. Three examples from the field of water management highlight the many means of imparting knowledge to young scientists across the globe.

Description: The history of the study of Polar Motion began with the derivation of the equations for the rotation of a rigid body by Euler published in 1758. This was followed by further theoretical contributions made by Lagrange (1788) and Poinsot (1834). To confirm the existence of the polar motion of the Earth in terms of a variation of latitude, intensive efforts were undertaken at several observatories toward the end of the 19th century. During the 7th General Conference of the European Arc Measurement in Rome in October 1883, Fergola had already suggested to investigate the problem. The latitude variation was detected by K¨ustner at the Berlin Observatory in 1888. Following this, during the Annual Conference of the Permanent Commission of the ”Internationale Erdmessung” in Salzburg in September 1888, Foerster proposed to consider the variation of latitude more systematically by a Special Commission. Activities began quickly, and after considerable effort the International Latitude Service (ILS) started in September 1899. The paper reviews, in which way the Geodetic Institute Potsdam contributed to the foundation of the ILS and took part in its activities through the work of Helmert, Albrecht,Wanach and Mahnkopf. Based on international scientific cooperation, the results were the rectangular coordinates of the Polar Motion from 1890.0 to 1922.7 at 0.1 year intervals, in particular those derived from the latitude observations at independent stations from 1890.0 to 1899.8, and those derived from the latitude observations at the ILS stations from 1899.9 to 1922.7

Description: Soil moisture is a key state variable that controls runoff formation, infiltration and partitioning of radiation into latent and sensible heat. However, the experimental characterisation of near surface soil moisture patterns and their controls on runoff formation remains a challenge. This subject was one aspect of the BMBF-funded OPAQUE project (operational discharge and flooding predictions in head catchments). As part of that project the focus of this dissertation is on: (1) testing the methodology and feasibility of the Spatial TDR technology in producing soil moisture profiles along TDR probes, including an inversion technique of the recorded signal in heterogeneous field soils, (2) the analysis of spatial variability and temporal dynamics of soil moisture at the field scale including field experiments and hydrological modelling, (3) the application of models of different complexity for understanding soil moisture dynamics and its importance for runoff generation as well as for improving the prediction of runoff volumes. To fulfil objective 1, several laboratory experiments were conducted to understand the influence of probe rod geometry and heterogeneities in the sampling volume under different wetness conditions. This includes a detailed analysis on how these error sources affect retrieval of soil moisture profiles in soils. Concerning objective 2 a sampling strategy of two TDR clusters installed in the head water of the Wilde Weißeritz catchment (Eastern Ore Mountains, Germany) was used to investigate how well “the catchment state” can be characterised by means of distributed soil moisture data observed at the field scale. A grassland site and a forested site both located on gentle slopes were instrumented with two Spatial TDR clusters that consist of up to 39 TDR probes. Process understanding was gained by modelling the interaction of evapotranspiration and soil moisture with the hydrological process model CATFLOW. A field scale irrigation experiment was carried out to investigate near subsurface processes at the hillslope scale. The interactions of soil moisture and runoff formation were analysed using discharge data from three nested catchments: the Becherbach with a size of 2 km², the Rehefeld catchment (17 km²) and the superordinate Ammelsdorf catchment (49 km²). Statistical analyses including observations of pre-event runoff, soil moisture and different rainfall characteristics were employed to predict stream flow volume. On the different scales a strong correlation between the average soil moisture and the runoff coefficients of rainfall-runoff events could be found, which almost explains equivalent variability as the pre-event runoff. Furthermore, there was a strong correlation between surface soil moisture and subsurface wetness with a hysteretic behaviour between runoff soil moisture. To fulfil objective 3 these findings were used in a generalised linear model (GLM) analysis which combines state variables describing the catchments antecedent wetness and variables describing the meteorological forcing in order to predict event runoff coefficients. GLM results were compared to simulations with the catchment model WaSiM ETH. Hereby were the model results of the GLMs always better than the simulations with WaSiM ETH. The GLM analysis indicated that the proposed sampling strategy of clustering TDR probes in typical functional units is a promising technique to explore soil moisture controls on runoff generation and can be an important link between the scales. Long term monitoring of such sites could yield valuable information for flood warning and forecasting by identifying critical soil moisture conditions for the former and providing a better representation of the initial moisture conditions for the latter.zeige weniger

Description: Abflussentwicklung, Infiltration und die Umverteilung von Strahlung in latenten und sensiblen Wärmestrom werden maßgeblich durch die Bodenfeuchte der vadosen Zone gesteuert. Trotz allem, gibt s wenig Arbeiten die sich mit der experimentellen Charakterisierung der Bodenfeuchteverteilung und ihre Auswirkung auf die Abflussbildung beschäftigen. Der Fokus dieser Dissertation wurde darauf ausgerichtet: (1) die Methode des Spatial TDR und deren Anwendbarkeit einschließlich der Inversion des TDR Signals in heterogenen Böden zu prüfen, (2) die Analyse der räumlichen und zeitlichen Dynamik der Bodenfeuchte auf der Feldskala einschließlich Feldexperimenten und hydrologischer Modellierung, (3) der Aufbau verschiedener Modellanwendungen unterschiedlicher Komplexität um die Bodenfeuchtedynamiken und die Abflussentwicklung zu verstehen und die Vorhersage des Abflussvolumens zu verbessern. Um die Zielsetzung 1 zu erreichen, wurden verschiedene Laborversuche durchgeführt. Hierbei wurde der Einfluss der Sondenstabgeometrie und verschiedener Heterogenitäten im Messvolumen bei verschiedenen Feuchtegehalten untersucht. Dies beinhaltete eine detaillierte Analyse wie diese Fehlerquellen die Inversion des Bodenfeuchteprofils beeinflussen. Betreffend der Zielsetzung 2, wurden 2 TDR-Cluster in den Quellgebieten der Wilden Weißeritz installiert (Osterzgebirge) und untersucht, wie gut der Gebietszustand mit räumlich hochaufgelösten Bodenfeuchtedaten der Feldskala charakterisiert werden kann. Um die Interaktion zwischen Evapotranspiration und Bodenfeuchte zu untersuchen wurde das hydrologische Prozessmodell CATFLOW angewendet. Ein Beregnungsversuch wurde durchgeführt um die Zwischenabflussprozesse auf der Hangskala zu verstehen. Die Interaktion zwischen Bodenfeuchte und Abflussentwicklung wurde anhand von drei einander zugeordneten Einzugsgebieten analysiert. Statistische Analysen unter Berücksichtigung von Basisabfluss, Bodenvorfeuchte und verschiedenen Niederschlagscharakteristika wurden verwendet, um auf das Abflussvolumen zu schließen. Auf den verschiedenen Skalen konnte eine hohe Korrelation zwischen der mittleren Bodenfeuchte und dem Abflussbeiwert der Einzelereignisse festgestellt werden. Hierbei konnte die Bodenfeuchte genauso viel Variabilität erklären wie der Basisabfluss. Im Hinblick auf Zielsetzung 3 wurden “Generalised liner models” (GLM) genutzt. Dabei wurden Prädiktorvariablen die den Gebietszustand beschreiben und solche die die Meteorologische Randbedingungen beschreiben genutzt um den Abflussbeiwert zu schätzen. Die Ergebnisse der GLMs wurden mit Simulationsergebnissen des hydrologischen Gebietsmodells WaSiM ETH verglichen. Hierbei haben die GLMs eindeutig bessere Ergebnisse geliefert gegenüber den WaSiM Simulationen. Die GLM Analysen haben aufgezeigt, dass die verwendete Messstrategie mehrerer TDR-Cluster in typischen funktionalen Einheiten eine viel versprechende Methode ist, um den Einfluss der Bodenfeuchte auf die Abflussentwicklung zu verstehen und ein Bindeglied zwischen den Skalen darstellen zu können. Langzeitbeobachtungen solcher Standorte sind in der Lage wichtige Zusatzinformationen bei der Hochwasserwarnung und -vorhersage zu liefern durch die Identifizierung kritischer Gebietszustände für erstere und eine bessere Repräsentation der Vorfeuchte für letztere.zeige weniger