Ecohydrology

Course goals

• understands the processes and mechanisms governing the interaction between biota and the hydrological cycle at different scales;
• understands how this knowledge can be applied in the practice of restoration ecology and studies of global change;
• understands how this knowledge can be used in ecohydrological models
• can apply such models in the practice of restoration ecology and analysis of global change

Content

The discipline of ecohydrology has been defined in many ways. The common denominator in these definitions, however, is that the discipline of ecohydrology studies the interactions between biota (including humans) and the hydrological cycle. The spatial scale of study ranges from the cellular level of plant stomata to the global scale.
The ecohydrology course focuses on the processes and mechanisms that govern the interaction between biota and the hydrological cycle and that operate over this large variety of scales. 

The course addresses interactions of individual plants and plant communities with their abiotic environment, including ground- and surface water regimes and biogeochemistry at the local scale, and how these interactions are linked to hydrological processes at the catchment scale. Furthermore, it addresses the role of plants and vegetation in governing water fluxes between soil and atmosphere, the influence on climate, and the interactions between these processes.