Tree and palm water use: temporal dynamics, spatial heterogeneity and scaling - Jambi, Indonesia

Rainforest transformation alters ecosystem water cycles with respect to the magnitude of fluxes, their spatial heterogeneity and their temporal variability. We want to address in detail the variability in plant water use across sites as well as the mechanisms controlling tree and palm water use. The sites will comprise the core plots including different topographic positions and particularly wet sites, and the biodiversity enrichment experiment. Regarding the mechanisms controlling plant water use, we plan to study the importance of stem water storage dynamics for plant water use. The methods include different sap flux techniques, which are foreseen for a high number of replicates (Granier-type thermal dissipation probes) and particular organs such as the roots in the study of the stem water storage (heat ratio method). For spatial scaling, we consider the use of canopy leaf temperatures sensed from an unmanned aerial vehicle. The study may thus lead to a better evaluation and understanding of changes in tree and palm water use characteristics as a consequence of rainforest transformation.

Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Dirk Hölscher

Education:

• 2012-2014: M.Tech. in Remote Sensing and GIS specialization in Forestry and Ecology, Indian Institute of Remote Sensing, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, India.
• 2008-2012: BSC in Forestry, Department of Forestry, North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology, Nirjuli, Arunachal Pradesh, India.

Publications:

• Ahongshangbam, J., Patel, N. R., Kushwaha, S. P. S., Watham, T and Dadhwal, V. K. 2016. Estimating Gross Primary Production of a Forest Plantation Area Using Eddy Covariance Data and Satellite Imagery. Journal of Indian Society of Remote Sensing, DOI 10.1007/s12524-016-0564- 7.