Supervisors:

PI: Ulrike Feudel, Co-PIs: Helmut Hillebrand, Gerhard Zotz, Gabriele Gerlach

Projects and Research:

The objective of this thesis is to study the formation of vegetation patterns in tidal areas at the transition zone between marine and terrestrial environments. We will develop a model describing the growth of plants in the pioneer zone, which includes the interaction between biomass, suspended sediment and water level. We will employ this model to study the impact of perturbations on plant settling, growth and distribution. This model will be later extended to plant communities in lower and upper salt marches.