Members
Australian Centre for Tropical Freshwater Research
Chongxi Wetland Research Centre
Harry Oppenheimer Okavango Reserach Center
Howard T. Odum Center for Wetlands
Max-Planck Institute für Limnologie
Pantanal Ecology Research Group
Max-Planck-Institut für Limnologie
Arbeitsgruppe Tropenökologie / Working Group Tropical EcologyDescription:
The Working Group Tropical Ecology of the Max-Planck-Institute of Limnology (MPIL), Ploen, Germany, concentrates its activities on the Ecology of river floodplains, mainly in tropical South America. The work is realized since the 1960's at the Amazon River floodplain in cooperation with Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas da Amazonia, (INPA), Manaus, Brazil and since 1991 at the Pantanal of Mato Grosso in cooperation with the Federal University of Mato Grosso, (UFM), at Cuiabá, Brazil.
The working group at MPIL consists of 4 senior scientists, 4 technicians, a chemical engineer a secretary (permanent positions), and a varying number of doctoral students, pos-docs, and scientists financed by different funding organizations in specific projects. The number of Brazilian counterparts at INPA and UFMT varies between 4 to 8 scientists at MSc and PhD level plus technical staff, and varying numbers of master and doctoral students.Funding:
Different funding organizations in specific projects.Research:
The scientific approach is holistic, covering land-water interactions of nutrient fluxes and food webs, adaptations of organisms to periodic drought and flooding, bio-geochemical cycles, production and decomposition, biodiversity, and sustainable management. The Flood Pulse Concept is the scientific basis of the research activities. Actually, the work at INPA concentrates on floodplain forests and speciation of terrestrial invertebrates, that at UFMT on the impact of multiannual hydrological changes on the biota. Comparative studies on litter decomposition are realized by a multinational decomposition experiment (DECOEX).
Website: http://www.mpil-ploen.mpg.de
Contact:
Head: Prof. Dr. Wolfgang J. Junk
E-mail: wjj@mpil-ploen.mpg.de
Phone: ++49(0)4522 763 234
Fax: ++49(0)4522 763 281
Max-Planck-Institut für Limnologie
AG Tropenökologie
Postfach 165
24302 Plön
GERMANY
