Objectives: Sustainable management of tropical moist forests through private forest owners will become increasingly important. Media report that in Brazil, particularly in Amazonia, approx. 80 percent of the timber harvested is from illegal sources. Private management of forests according to internationally acknowledged standards offers an opportunity to significantly lower the portion of illegally cut timber. Moreover, it contributes significantly to the conservation of the Amazon forest. Private forest owners show a clear long-term commitment towards the implementation of management standards according that is ecologically compatible, socially acceptable and economically viable. The project area, a pristine forest in legal Amazonia in the transition zone between moist tropical forests and savannas (cerrado), is extremely diverse in floristic and faunistic terms. The institute cooperates with the private forest owner. Main tasks are to document the faunistic and floristic diversity, to calculate the Annual Allowable Cut and to elaborate concepts for site-specific silviculture. Results: To date (Oct. 2006) the following activities were started: - a comprehensive inventory system for planning at the FMU-level has been successfully introduced; - the inventory system for the annual coupe area has been designed and data for the first coupe are being processed; - the annual allowable cut is currently calculated based on the results of the above described inventories; - two fauna surveys are completed; one focusing on large mammals and one on the avi-fauna. A long-term monitoring concept to assess the influence of forest management on the faunistic diversity is currently under development; - forest zoning is completed applying terrestrial surveys and interpreting high-resolution satellite images; - a study on the use of Bethollethia excelsa-fruits (Brazil nuts) is currently implemented; - a study on timber properties of lesser known species is currently implemented.
Organotin and especially butyltin compounds are used for a variety of applications, e.g. as biocides, stabilizers, catalysts and intermediates in chemical syntheses. Tributyltin (TBT) compounds exhibit the greatest toxicity of all organotins and have even been characterized as one of the most toxic groups of xenobiotics ever produced and deliberately introduced into the environment. TBT is not only used as an active biocidal compound in antifouling paints, which are designed to prevent marine and freshwater biota from settlement on ship hulls, harbour and offshore installations, but also as a biocide in wood preservatives, textiles, dispersion paints and agricultural pesticides. Additionally, it occurs as a by-product of mono- (MBT) and dibutyltin (DBT) compounds, which are used as UV stabilizer in many plastics and for other applications. Triphenyltin (TPT) compounds are also used as the active biocide in antifouling paints outside Europe and furthermore as an agricultural fungicide since the early 1960s to combat a range of fungal diseases in various crops, particularly potato blight, leaf spot and powdery mildew on sugar beet, peanuts and celery, other fungi on hop, brown rust on beans, grey moulds on onions, rice blast and coffee leaf rust. Although the use of TBT and TPT was regulated in many countries world-wide from restrictions for certain applications to a total ban, these compounds are still present in the environment. In the early 1970s the impact of TBT on nontarget organisms became apparent. Among the broad variety of malformations caused by TBT in aquatic animals, molluscs have been found to be an extremely sensitive group of invertebrates and no other pathological condition produced by TBT at relative low concentrations rivals that of the imposex phenomenon in prosobranch gastropods speaking in terms of sensitivity. TBT induces imposex in marine prosobranchs at concentrations as low as 0,5 ng TBT-Sn/L. Since 1993, for the littorinid snail Littorina littorea a second virilisation phenomenon, termed intersex, is known. In female specimens affected by intersex the pallial oviduct is transformed of towards a male morphology with a final supplanting of female organs by the corresponding male formations. Imposex and intersex are morphological alterations caused by a chronic exposure to ultra-trace concentrations of TBT. A biological effect monitoring offers the possibility to determine the degree of contamination with organotin compounds in the aquatic environment and especially in coastal waters without using any expensive analytical methods. Furthermore, the biological effect monitoring allows an assessment of the existing TBT pollution on the basis of biological effects. Such results are normally more relevant for the ecosystem than pure analytical data. usw.
Das übergeordnete Ziel von CHEPHREN ist die konsequente Erschließung ultra- und supra-niedriger Reibungszustände in verschiedensten mechanischen Systemen auf Basis von übergreifenden tribologischen Lösungsansätzen. Das Vorhaben zielt darauf ab, Ansätze zur Supraschmierung direkt in Anwendungen zu übertragen, indem alle bisherigen Beschränkungen (z.B. Maskierungseffekt im Motoröl) überwunden werden. Um dieses Gesamtziel zu erreichen, wird ein umfassender Ansatz gewählt, basierend auf den Aspekten (1) Materialentwicklung mit Beschichtungen und neuen Grundwerkstoffe insbes. Kunststoffe, (2) Weiterentwicklung von Schmierstoffen zur Supraschmierung, (3) Betrachtung der für die jeweilige Anwendung geeigneten Tribokonzepte und deren Auslegung sowie (4) Erarbeitung von experimentellen und theoretischen Grundlagen aller o.g. Entwicklungslinien.
Das Ziel des Verbundprojektes CHEPHREN ist die ist die Erschließung ultra- und supraniedriger Reibungszustände in verschiedensten mechanischen Systemen auf Basis von übergreifenden tribologischen Lösungsansätzen. CHEPHREN hat das Ziel, die Ansätze zur Supraschmierung direkt in Anwendungen zu übertragen, indem bisherige Beschränkungen (z.B. den Maskierungseffekt im Motoröl) überwunden werden. Die Ansätze basieren auf folgenden Superlubricity- (SL-) Mechanismen: - Grenzreibung: Festschmierstoff-SL, vorwiegend MoS2-basierend - Grenz-/Mischreibung: SL von ta-C mit Polyol-/Fettsäure-basierten Fluiden - (Elasto-)Hydrodynamik: wasserbasierte (EHL-)Fluide Innerhalb dieses Teilvorhabens werden die genannten Ansätze für das tribologische System Wälzlager mit Schwerpunkt auf Wälzlagern mit keramischen Komponenten untersucht. Die Untersuchungen erfolgen unter Einbeziehung verschiedener Werkstoffkombinationen wie hochlegierten Wälzlagerstählen für Lagerringe und Hochleistungskunststoffen für Käfige. Die verschiedenen Werkstoffkombinationen werden systematisch tribolgisch charakterisiert. Anhand der Ergebnisse aus der Charakterisierung werden erfolgversprechende Varianten in Hinsicht auf die Erreichung der Projektziele identifiziert und in einen Gesamtversuchsträger übertragen und untersucht.