Professor Doerthe Tetzlaff has been awarded a Leverhulme research grant in the amount of £249,000 for a project entitled "Plant-water interlinkages in northern uplands".
Our ability to predict consequences of climate change on water resources in high-latitude uplands is limited. These regions are highly sensitive: small differences in temperature determine the status of frozen ground, if rain or snow falls, and the magnitude and timing of snow accumulation and melt. This interdisciplinary project will investigate water uptake by plants and consequent water availability in northern regions along a cross-regional climate gradient to understand future responses to change in high-latitude uplands. We will assess the role of plants in moderating water stress and possible climate change in low energy environments in the North. This interdisciplinary project dovetails with many of the Trust’s traditional values, explicitly integrating new experimental hydrological and ecological investigations with long-term data in several river basins across the northern region.