Das Projekt B1 'Allometrie und Raumbesetzung von krautigen und holzigen Pflanzen' ist Teil des Sonderforschungsbereiches 607 Wachstum und Parasitenabwehr und befindet sich bereits in der vierten Phase des seit 1998 laufenden Forschungsprojektes. Bisher wurde im Projekt B1 die Allometrie als Resultat der pflanzeninternen Steuerung der Allokation untersucht. Auf Individuenebene wurden Allometrie und ihre Veränderung für verschiedene Baumarten in verschiedenen ontogenetischen Stadien untersucht. Auf Bestandesebene wurden die self-thinning-Linien von Yoda und Reineke für krautige bzw. holzige Pflanzenbestände analysiert. Bisherige Allometriebestimmungen erbrachten für diese Arten zwar ähnliche Größenordnung aber auch charakteristische Unterschiede, die Ausdruck spezifischer Strategien der Raumbesetzung und -ausbeutung widerspiegeln. Die bisher vereinzelten Auswertungen sollen in Phase IV in eine übergreifende Analyse (versch. Arten, ontogenetische Stadien, Konkurrenzsituationen, Störfaktoren) der Allometrie auf Pflanzen- und Bestandesebene münden.
Die Erkennung von Veränderungen der Landbedeckung der Erdoberfläche auf der Basis von satellitengestützten Fernerkundungsdaten ist seit Jahrzehnten ein sehr aktives Forschungsfeld. Das Ziel des Landschaftsveränderungsdiensts ist es, freie Copernicus-Satellitendaten für eine automatische Ableitung von Landbedeckungsänderungen zu nutzen und diese Informationen regelmäßig für einzelne Landschaftselemente (z.B. für Waldgebiete, Wasserflächen, Landwirtschaftsflächen usw.) über einen Web Service bereitzustellen. Copernicus Daten eignen sich aufgrund der hohen zeitlichen (ca. 3-5 Tage, je nach Sensor) und mittleren räumlichen Auflösung (ab 10m) ideal für eine regelmäßige bundesweite flächendeckende Analyse der Landbedeckung. Um eine hohe Bearbeitungsleistung zu erreichen wird die 'Copernicus Data and Exploitation Platform - Deutschland' (CODE-DE) für die Datenverarbeitung und -analyse genutzt. Es können aktuelle und konsistenteste Informationen über Landdeckungsänderungen abgeleitet werden, um kontinuierlich Geodaten in einer einheitlichen Qualität zu pflegen (siehe Abbildung 1). Andererseits können die gewonnenen Informationen genutzt werden, um statistisch relevante Geoinformationen zur quantitativen Beschreibung der UN-SDG-Indikatoren zu extrahieren. Die 2015 verabschiedete Agenda 2030 mit 17 Entwicklungszielen (SDG) und 169 Unterzielen verknüpft das Prinzip der Nachhaltigkeit mit der ökonomischen, ökologischen und sozialen Entwicklung. Die Umsetzung erfordert einen soliden Überprüfungsmechanismus. Dieser soll durch eine regemäßige nationale Erfassung von ca. 200 definierten UN-SDG-Indikatoren erfolgen, mit dem Ziel Fortschritte zu monitoren und die Politik zu informieren.
The COMTES project has as goal to develop and demonstrate three novel systems for compact seasonal storage of solar thermal energy. These systems will contribute to the EU 20-20-20 targets by covering a larger share of the domestic energy demand with solar thermal energy. Main objective of COMTES is to develop and demonstrate systems for seasonal storage that are significantly better than water based systems. The three technologies are covered in COMTES by three parallel development lines: solid sorption, liquid sorption and supercooling PCM. Strength of this approach is the collaboration of three development groups in activities that pertain to the analyses, methods and techniques that concern all technologies, without risking the exchange of confidential material. In this way, the development is much more effective than in three separate projects. The project starts with a definition of system boundary conditions and target applications. Next comes the investigation of the best available storage materials. Detailed numerical modelling of the physical processes, backed by experimental validations, will lead to optimum component design. Full-scale prototypes are simulated, constructed and tested in the laboratory in order to optimize process design. One year of fully monitored operation in demonstration buildings is followed by an integrated evaluation of the systems and their potential. When deemed successful, the involved industry partners will pick up the developed storage concepts and bring them further to a commercial level. The COMTES project is a cooperation of key scientific institutions active in the above mentioned heat storage technologies. For the first time, all relevant research disciplines are covered in an international effort. For each development line, a top-Ieading industry partner contributes its know-how and experience, providing the basis for further industrial development and exploitation of project results.
The aim of the current research is to identify regional sources and trans-boundary flow leading to the observed salinity of Lake Tiberias (LT) -also known as the Sea of Galilee or Lake Kinneret-, and its surroundings, which is considered the only natural surface fresh water reservoir of the area. The current study will include all sources of brines in the Tiberias Basin (TB) with specific emphasis of the relationship between the brines from the Ha'on and Tiberias Regions (HTR).The tasks will be achieved by a multidisciplinary approach involving: (i) numerical modelling of density-driven flow processes (i.e., coupled heat and dissolution of evaporites), (ii) hydrochemical studies, supplemented by investigations of subsurface structures.(i) Numerical modelling will be carried out by applying the commercial software FEFLOW® (WASY, GmbH) complemented with the open source code OpenGeoSys developed at the UFZ of Leipzig (Wang et al., 2009). The final goal is to build a 3D regional-scale model of density-driven flow that will result in: (1) revealing the different interactions between fresh groundwater and natural salinity sources (2) elucidate the driving mechanisms of natural brines and brackish water body's movements.(ii) Hydrochemical study will include major, minor and, if possible, rare earth elements (REE) as well as isotope studies. The samples will be analysed at the FU Berlin and UFZ Halle laboratories. Geochemical data interpretation and inverse modelling will be supported by PHREEQC. Hydrochemical field investigations will be carried out in Tiberias basin and its enclosing heights, i.e. the Golan, Eastern Galilee and northern Ajloun in order to search for indications of the presence of deep, relic saline groundwater infested by the inferred Ha'on mother-brine. The current approaches will be supplemented by seismic and statistical data analysis as well as GIS software applications for the definition of the subsurface structures. The key research challenges are: building a 3D structural model of selected regions of TB, adapting both structural and hydrochemical data to the numerical requirements of the model; calibrating the 3D regional-scale model with observational data. The results of this work are expected to establish suitable water-management strategies for the exploitation of freshwater from the lake and from the adjacent aquifers while reducing salinization processes induced by both local and regional brines.
SUNBIOPATH - towards a better sunlight to biomass conversion efficiency in microalgae - is an integrated program of research aimed at improving biomass yields and valorisation of biomass for two Chlorophycean photosynthetic microalgae, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii and Dunaliella salina. Biomass yields will be improved at the level of primary processes that occur in the chloroplasts (photochemistry and sunlight capture by the light harvesting complexes) and in the cell (biochemical pathways and signalling mechanisms that influence ATP synthesis). Optimal growth of the engineered microalgae will be determined in photobioreactors, and biomass yields will be tested using a scale up approach in photobioreactors of different sizes (up to 250 L), some of which being designed and built during SUNBIOPATH. Biomethane production will be evaluated. Compared to other biofuels, biomethane is attractive because the yield of biomass to fuel conversion is higher. Valorisation of biomass will also be achieved through the production of biologicals. Significant progress has been made in the development of chloroplast genetic engineering in microalgae such as Chlamydomonas, however the commercial exploitation of this technology still requires additional research. SUNBIOPATH will address the problem of maximising transgenic expression in the chloroplast and will develop a robust system for chloroplast metabolic engineering by developing methodologies such as inducible expression and trans-operon expression. A techno economic analysis will be made to evaluate the feasibility of using these algae for the purposes proposed (biologicals production in the chloroplast and/or biomethane production) taking into account their role in CO2 mitigation.
The European project initiative TRUST will produce knowledge and guidance to support TRansitions to Urban Water Services of Tomorrow, enabling communities to achieve sustainable, low-carbon water futures without compromising service quality. We deliver this ambition through close collaboration with problem owners in ten participating pilot city regions under changing and challenging conditions in Europe and Africa. Our work provides research driven innovations in governance, modelling concepts, technologies, decision support tools, and novel approaches to integrated water, energy, and infrastructure asset management. An extended understanding of the performance of contemporary urban water services will allow detailed exploration of transition pathways. Urban water cycle analysis will include use of an innovative systems metabolism model, derivation of key performance indicators, risk assessment, as well as broad stakeholder involvement and an analysis of public perceptions and governance modes. A number of emerging technologies in water supply, waste and storm water treatment and disposal, in water demand management and in the exploitation of alternative water sources will be analysed in terms of their cost-effectiveness, performance, safety and sustainability. Cross-cutting issues include innovations in urban asset management and water-energy nexus strengthening. The most promising interventions will be demonstrated and legitimised in the urban water systems of the ten participating pilot city regions. TRUST outcomes will be incorporated into planning guidelines and decision support tools, will be subject to life-cycle assessment, and be shaped by regulatory considerations as well as potential environmental, economic and social impacts. Outputs from the project will catalyse transformation change in both the form and management of urban water services and give utilities increased confidence to specify innovative solutions to a range of pressing challenges.
PROMISE strives for multidimensional networking thus fostering integration. The primary strategic objective of PROMISE is to improve and increase the integration, collaboration and knowledge transfer between the new member states, old member states (EU15) and candidate countries through a collaborative workplan of exchange of expertise and regional training and dissemination actions, to tackle common food safety threats. PROMISE strives for sustainability through involvement of risk communicators. A further strategic objective is to integrate stakeholders like public health authorities and national food safety authorities from the old and new member countries in order to ensure the exploitation of research results into standardisation and harmonisation efforts. PROMISE will enhance the knowledge on pathogen transmission. While legal imports are well monitored for contamination and alerts are registered through the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed RASFF notification systems, gates into the EU-27 could exist where food supply chains are not controllled. These uncontrolled imports present the risk that new strains of traditional pathogens will be transferred from third countries into the European Union. Analysing, assessing and interpreting this risk of introducing new strains of pathogens is one of the main objectives of PROMISE.
Fire is an important ecological factor of disturbance in African tropical ecosystems, driving vegetation dynamics and regulating nutrient cycling and biomass. The significance of wildfires for future environmental processes is underlined by recent projections of global warming, which predict more frequent and more intense extremes of natural events. Particularly in East Africa, where population growth and natural resource exploitation are among the highest in the world, strategies for sustainable economic development will have to deal with environmental changes at regional to continental scales. Understanding such complex responses to global change requires long-term records, since only they provide a way to observe the response of ecosystems to large-magnitude environmental change on decadal and longer time scales. We use high-resolution charcoal data from lake-sediment cores to reconstruct past fire/climate/human interactions in East Africa, aiming in particular 1) to understand how the fire regime influenced vegetation dynamics during the last millennia in savannah-type and sub-humid tropical ecosystems, 2) to test whether changes in fire regime are coupled with episodes of past climatic extremes inferred from the available sedimentological data, and 3) to detect early human deforestation and the timing of increased fire frequencies beyond its natural variability. Additionally, we will apply novel techniques such as molecular markers (benzene polycarboxylic acids, BPCAs) to complement the standard sedimentary approaches to reconstruct Holocene fire history. The proposed research addresses new, highly relevant questions for today's key issue of sustainability (economic development, natural resource management, adaptation of vulnerable communities to global change). Additionally, it will contribute with new high-quality data to ongoing multi-proxy research concerning the magnitude, frequency, and rates of past climate change in equatorial East Africa. Finally, the project will contribute to our understanding of tropical ecosystem functioning and its interaction with regional, cultural, and economic systems.
The research projects of PMOD/WRC aim at understanding the terrestrial radiation budget and the influence of the Sun on the terrestrial climate. The latter is in the central focus of today's world-wide climate research and is termed 'Space Weather' if the emphasis is on short term events and it is termed 'Space Climate, if climate implications are investigated. From the point of view of the activities of PMOD/WRC, the most interesting aspect of research in solar physics is that the radiance output of the Sun itself is variable. The goal of solar physics research at PMOD/WRC is therefore, to advance our understanding of the origin of these variations in order to be able to reconstruct the solar influence on the climate in the past. The SNF grant supports: A) Interpretation of data from active space experiments: Presently, there are two active space experiments built by PMOD/WRC: VIRGO on SoHO since December 1995, which is still operational, and SOVIM on the ISS since February 2008; B) Preparing for the scientific exploitation of the upcoming space experiment LYRA/PROBA2 and PREMOS on PICRAD (with launch in 2009); C) Investigating the origin of the solar radiance variability in the UV by exploring the lower chromosphere with helioseismological methods. Since 1996 the space experiment VIRGO/SoHO is monitoring the Total (TSI) and spectral Solar Irradiance. The homogeneous VIRGO data provide a crucial element in the construction of the TSI composite and thus, VIRGO provides a key observation to investigate the influence of the Sun on the terrestrial climate. The PMOD/WRC is involved in three new space missions that continue the observations of total and spectral solar irradiance: SOVIM on the ISS since February 2008 and with launch in 2009 LYRA on PROBA2, and PREMOS on PICARD. SOVIM on the ISS continues to monitor total and spectral solar irradiance with instrumentation similar to VIRGO/SOHO. Together with the two other experiments SOLSPEC and SolACES on the same platform, which observe the spectral irradiance from the EUV to the near infrared, our knowledge of the spectral redistribution during TSI changes will be improved and provide a sound basis for understanding of solar irradiance variability. LYRA/PROBA2 observations will be used for a climate-chemistry model that was developed at PMOD/WRC as part of an ETH-funded Poly-project. When LYRA data become available we will use a special middle atmosphere version of this CCM model, SOCOL-I, for now-casting the state of the upper atmosphere as reaction to the UV irradiance as observed by LYRA/PROBA2. This now casting is primarily aimed at testing our understanding of the chemical and dynamical processes induced by the variable solar UV irradiance, but if successful, our now casting product is a welcome additional input for space weather applications. Until the launch of PROBA2, this subproject is aimed at preparing the computer model for its operational use.
The Adaptive Food Production Systems and Natural Resources Water Management is set in a context of the appearing challenges and relevant natural processes, the water balance as well as socio/economic transformations concepts taking into account different soils, climatic conditions and land uses. Inappropriate management lead to a loss of natural resources, of organic matter, salinization, decrease of soil fertility and pollution of ground and surface fresh waters. Research efforts are necessary to allow a more sustainable exploitation of natural resources by African farmers, and support the increasing demand for locally produced food. More sustainable on site food production need to be studied, developed and implemented, which can revitalise the natural regenerative capacities of agricultural soils, reduce fresh water pollution and ensure healthy and resilient environments. Methodologies, devices and indicators, adapted to specific African situations, will be developed for monitoring and assess risk factors for natural resources like soil fertility, as well as for safe fresh water resources. Adapted innovative techniques to improve WRM and keep soil fertility at farm level need to be investigated and field-tested. The prevailing technical/scientific part of the project should be complemented by a true participatory approach by involving local stakeholders at different levels, such as farmers, local NGOs, relevant governmental organisations, as to make better and suitable use of existing potentialities and local knowledge, as well as to facilitate an easier implementation/adoption of the project's selected strategies. Studies on social processes and farmers rationales for implementing, adapting, innovating or rejecting the proposed strategies, should also be part of the project activities, as to ensure their acceptability by the end users (farmers and policy-makers) and thus producing the expected impact. A SWOT analyses is performed to identify the needs, risk and challenges (WP1) for the sustainable management at a cachtment scale and on farm level. Emphasize is given to farmers to have choices and to generate adaptive management concepts. Based on the findings concepts for adaptive management practises are promoted. The expertise of the cooperation partners ensures the coverage of this complex task.
| Organisation | Count |
|---|---|
| Bund | 54 |
| Wissenschaft | 24 |
| Type | Count |
|---|---|
| Förderprogramm | 54 |
| License | Count |
|---|---|
| Offen | 54 |
| Language | Count |
|---|---|
| Deutsch | 3 |
| Englisch | 53 |
| Resource type | Count |
|---|---|
| Dokument | 1 |
| Keine | 38 |
| Webseite | 15 |
| Topic | Count |
|---|---|
| Boden | 50 |
| Lebewesen und Lebensräume | 52 |
| Luft | 34 |
| Mensch und Umwelt | 54 |
| Wasser | 40 |
| Weitere | 54 |