Hydrologic controls

Hydrologic controls on ecological processes : River networks as corridor for biodiversity, populations and pathogens of Water-borne Diseases

-> click here to see description <-

River basins are seen as a natural laboratory for the integration of hydrological, ecological and geomorphological processes. Moving from morphological and functional analyses of dendritic geometries observed in Nature over a wide range of scales, the proposal addresses essential processes sustaining human life and societies taking place along fluvial structures suggesting that they can be predicted. The proposal hinges on the noteworthy scientific perspectives provided by ecohydrological studies of large-scale water resource management schemes. Water-borne disease, such as cholera, and invading foreign species spread through water bodies linked by river networks. Although the dynamics of such systems has been extensively studied, existing approaches were mostly within the framework of mean-field or two-dimensional landscapes that ignore directionality of dispersal implied by the network acting as environmental matrix. How does connectivity within a river network affect the emergent spreading of water-borne infections ? Does the river basin act as a template for biodiversity ? To answer such questions, the present proposal addresses, through direct and indirect data collections and comparative mathematical analyses, the study of :

  • biodiversity in the river basin
  • hydrologic controls on cholera epidemics (and possibly of other water-borne disease)
  • zebra mussel (Dreissena polimorpha) invasions along river networks.

This is intended to prove of crucial interest for understanding the functioning of river basins as a whole, including its ecosystem structure and function. Methods include mathematical models, ecological data collection and a basin-scale transport experiment. The most important scientific questions addressed are :

  • the recognition on solid theoretical and observational grounds of the nature and extent of hydrologic controls on the spreading of water-borne disease, typically cholera
  • the definition of capabilities of neutral ecological theory to explain biodiversity in the presence of highly non-neutral constraints
  • improved understanding of transport at basin scales. A suitable assessment of the large-scale features of transport in the hydrological cycle, especially under catastrophic events would offer direct linkage from large-scale forcing, such as global climate changes, to biodiversity patterns.

On this basis alone it is deemed that the proposed research might prove groundbreaking well beyond the field of hydrology.


Funding agencie(s) :
Period : 2009-2011
Contact person(s) : PhD: S. CeolaProf. A. Rinaldo