The vegetation of East and South African savannahs has been shaped by the complex interaction of geo-biophysical processes and human impact. For both regions a controversial discussion is pertinent, as to whether massive degradation threatens the sustainability of livelihoods in these regions. Rangeland vegetation is mainly affected by environmental conditions (soil and climate) and by livestock management. Extent and interaction of these drivers are not well understood but have profound impacts on the resilience and vulnerability of these systems to be shifted toward unfavourable degraded or bush encroached states. The project aims to analyse and model rangeland vegetation in response to range management including livestock, soil quality and climatic conditions and to assess the impacts of changes in these conditions on the resilience and vulnerability of rangeland systems. Field measurements, remote sensing of vegetation patterns and dynamics and simulation modelling will be used to understand the dynamics of rangeland vegetation. We will use the 'fast' or 'state' variables potential of pastures to produce palatable biomass, the variability of this production, and the system's potential to recover from disturbance impact as indicators of resilience. 'slow' variables that control (or drive) the 'fast' variables such as management, climate and soil variables are recorded in cooperation with other subprojects as with A1 for soil variables. Results of the project will show which management activities are most favourable for individual regions to sustain plant production in the long term.
Increasing population pressure is leading to unsustainable land use in North Vietnamese highlands and destruction of natural habitats. The resulting loss of biodiversity includes plant genetic resources - both wild (= non-cultivated) species and cultivated landraces - adapted to local conditions, and local knowledge concerning the plants. A particularly important group among endangered plants are the legumes (1) because Southeast Asia is a major centre of genetic diversity for this family, and (2) because the potential contribution of legumes to sustainable land use is, due to their multifunctionality (e.g., soil improvement, human and livestock nutrition), especially high. The project aims to contribute to the conservation and sustainable use of genetic resources of legumes with an integrated approach wherein a series of components are combined: (1) A participatory, indigenous knowledge survey complemented by information from the literature; (2) germplasm collection missions (for ex situ conservation) complemented by field evaluation and seed increase; (3) genetic diversity analysis of selected material by molecular markers; and (4) GIS based analysis of generated data to identify areas of particular genetic diversity as a basis for land area planning and in situ preservation recommendations. Project results are expected to be also applicable to similar highlands in Southeast Asia.
Traditional Indonesian homegardens harbour often high crop diversity, which appears to be an important basis for a sustainable food-first strategy. Crop pollination by insects is a key ecosystem service but threatened by agricultural intensification and land conversion. Gaps in knowledge of actual benefits from pollination services limit effective management planning. Using an integrative and agronomic framework for the assessment of functional pollination services, we will conduct ecological experiments and surveys in Central Sulawesi, Indonesia. We propose to study pollination services and net revenues of the locally important crop species cucumber, carrot, and eggplant in traditional homegardens in a forest distance gradient, which is hypothesized to affect bee community structure and diversity. We will assess pollination services and interactions with environmental variables limiting fruit maturation, based on pollination experiments in a split-plot design of the following factors: drought, nutrient deficiency, weed pressure, and herbivory. The overall goal of this project is the development of 'biodiversity-friendly' land-use management, balancing human and ecological needs for local smallholders.
Das Auerhuhn ist eine stark gefährdete Brutvogelart der Schweiz. Veränderungen in der Zusammensetzung und Nutzung des Waldes haben dazu geführt, dass sich die Bestände dieses Raufusshuhns in den letzten drei Jahrzehnten halbiert haben. Deshalb sollen die Lebensraumansprüche des attraktiven Waldvogels vermehrt in der Planung und Umsetzung von Waldreservaten und der Bewirtschaftung von Wäldern der höheren Lagen berücksichtigt werden. Auf der kleinen räumlichen Ebene sind die Habitatsansprüche der Art durch Untersuchungen in West- und Mitteleuropa (Storch 1993, 2002, Schroth 1994) und Skandinavien relativ gut bekannt. Dagegen werden die Populationsprozesse auf der Ebene der Landschaft erst in Ansätzen verstanden (Sjöberg 1996, Kurki 2000). Entsprechend konnte man die Bestandsrückgänge in den meisten Gebieten Europas noch nicht stoppen, da einerseits genauere Kenntnisse über das Zusammenspiel und die relative Bedeutung der einzelnen Faktoren fehlen (Habitatqualität, Störungen, Prädatoren, Witterung-Klima, Huftierkonkurrenz), und andererseits noch nicht versucht wurde, die Bestandsentwicklung im grossen landschaftlichen Massstab als Metapopulationsdynamik zu verstehen. Es ist das primäre Ziel dieses Projekts, ein räumlich explizites Metapopulationsmodell des Auerhuhns für einen grossen Landschaftsausschnitt der Schweizer Alpen zu erarbeiten. Dabei sollen die erwähnten Einflussfaktoren möglichst umfassend berücksichtigt werden. Die Arbeit soll modellhaft zeigen, dass für das Verständnis von Populationsvorgängen von raumbeanspruchenden Wildtierarten eine Analyse und Bewertung von lokal bis überregional wirksamen Einflussfaktoren notwendig sind. Die Ergebnisse sollen zudem als konzeptionelle Grundlage für den Nationalen Aktionsplan Auerhuhn und für regionale Artenförderungsprojekte dienen. Folgende Fragen und Themen sind für das Projekt von zentraler Bedeutung: Wie gross ist das landschaftsökologische Lebensraumpotenzial für das Auerhuhn in den Alpen, wie ist es räumlich verteilt? Wie verteilen sich die lokalen Auerhuhnpopulationen in diesen Potenzialgebieten? Wie gross sind die Bestände? Welche Faktoren beeinflussen den Status von Lokal- und Regionalpopulationen? Welche Populationen haben abgenommen oder sind verschwunden, welche sind stabil (Source-Sink-Mechanismen)? Zwischen welchen räumlich getrennten Populationen besteht ein Austausch? Welche Landschaftselemente wirken als Barrieren? Entwickeln einer nicht-invasiven Methode für die genetische Differenzierung von Populationen, sowie für Bestandsschätzungen und Monitoring.
In our central European man-made landscape more and more habitats become destroyed or fragmented because of the increasing anthropogenic need of available land. Roads, residential, and industrial areas separate formerly connected habitats into small remnants, thus creating small subpopulations. Especially stenotopic species with low dispersal power are endangered because exchange of specimen between different habitat patches is reduced or entirely inhibited. Methods for the quantification of fragmentation are necessary to develop management and species-specific conservation plans for habitat networks. In this project we investigate the structure of the German woodlands by calculating landscape metrics and study the impacts of fragmentation on different FFH-species' occurrences. Indices which significantly quantify the fragmentation of woodlands are identified by using a simulation model of neutral landscapes. ATKIS2008-data are used for the calculation of the selected landscape metrics. Topographic maps (TK25) serve as the interface between determinated fragmentation of forest and habitat modelling. A niche model of different species is calculated to demonstrate the impacts of woodland fragmentation on different woodland species (e.g. wild cat (Felis sylvestris), barbastelle bat (Barbastella barbastellus), stag beetle (Lucanus cervus), and black stork (Ciconia nigra).
Natural populations are increasingly exposed to extreme environmental changes as a result of human activities. These changes threaten the existence of populations and cause strong natural selection at short time-scales. In the long term, the persistence of populations is determined by their capacity to respond to this selection via genetic adaptation. It is therefore crucial to understand how evolutionary processes influence the ability of populations to cope with the ongoing environmental changes. This project focuses on studying two major factors that influence the ability of populations to adapt to rapid environmental change: gene flow (movement of genes resulting from dispersal of individuals) and maternal effects (the effects of a mother's traits that, in addition to offspring's own genes, affect offspring performance), both of which have the potential to either impede or speed up adaptation. On this vein, the proposed research focuses in particular on understanding how gene flow and maternal effects affect the ability of populations to adapt to environmental changes. The main part of the research will be conducted on Swedish populations of the moor frog (Rana arvalis) that inhabit areas affected to different extents by human-induced acidification. The main questions to be targeted are i) to what extent is the level of local adaptation to acidification explained by variation in the extent of gene flow or variation in the strength of selection among populations, ii) how wide-spread are maternal effects as adaptations and iii) how is maternally determined local adaptation maintained in the face of gene flow? Because experimental manipulations are not possible in these natural populations, related questions will in parallel be addressed in a pilot study on laboratory populations of Daphnia. Here the main questions to be targeted are i) under which conditions does gene flow have positive vs. negative effects on adaptation to novel environments and ii) how do maternal effects influence the ability to respond genetically to rapid environmental changes? Different complementary approaches will be used in the different subprojects to allow rigorous inferences and predictions. The main methods to be used include large-scale geographic sampling (for environmental, molecular genetic, and phenotypic variation) and mark-recapture studies in nature, molecular and quantitative genetic analyses in the laboratory, and fitness assays in semi-natural and laboratory conditions. The results from this research will illustrate to what extent gene flow and maternal effects influence variation in the phenotypes that we see in nature, and how they can affect the ability of organisms to adapt to novel environments. Ultimately this research aims at understanding the short-term ecological and evolutionary processes that create, maintain and change biological diversity, and will be of broad significance for evolutionary biology as well as conservation biology.
The Indonesian Archipelago harbours the most diverse marine habitat on earth, but also the presently most endangered. Overfishing, deleterious fishing practices and land-based sources of pollution result in a dramatic decline of the reef-based ecosystems. Coral reefs thrive in clear oligotrophic water. Deteriorating water quality due to increased terrigenous inputs of sediments, nutrients and pollutants are believed to be among the major causes of the demise of Indonesian coral reefs over the last decades. The pelagic cycling of material, production and development of larvae in shallow coastal waters as well as the exports of material to the benthos and adjacent deep water ecosystem are yet poorly understood. In this program 12 Indonesian and 14 German universities and institutions are involved. From the German side it is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The Center for Tropical Marine Ecology (ZMT) is responsible for the overall coordination. The main goal of the project is to strengthen the scientific basis for the protection of coral reefs in Southeast Sulawesi, harbouring some of the richest but also most endangered coral reefs in the world. In the Spermonde Archipelago off Makassar coral reef losses amounted to 20 Prozent over the last 12 years, eroding the income base for many thousands of families. Regulations related to the marine environment and its valuable resources have not been effectively implemented, and public awareness among the growing local population is still very limited. The aim of the AWI plankton group is to assess the significance of suspended matter for the reef organisms and to demonstrate that environmental changes are an important factor for phyto- and zooplankton communities and hence, for their consumers. To achieve this goal, quantitative studies of plankton occurrence and distribution are essential on various spatial and temporal scales. Further topics are the duration of the pelagic phase of economically important benthic organisms and the life cycles of dominant zooplankton species.
CULT-STRAT will establish a scientific reference for developing strategies for policy and decision-makers on European and national levels within the CAFE Programme and for heritage managers for strategic decisions at local level. It will do this through a choice of material indicators and pollution threshold levels based on best available scientific data including deterioration models, spatial distribution and mapping of pollutants and of stock of materials at risk, cost estimates, comparison studies off different conservation approaches. Damage caused to objects of cultural heritage belongs to the most serious among the detrimental effects of anthropogenic air pollutants as it endangers a vital part of the European identity. There is therefore an urgent need to include the impact of pollutants on cultural heritage alongside the human health and parts of the ecosystem that are already concerned in the EU Directives on urban air quality. This is especially relevant for the CAFE (Clean Air for Europe) programme of the Commission and the Community interventions through the 'Culture 2000' framework programme and the structural funds. The overall aim is to identify material indicators and threshold levels of pollutants to be used for development of strategies for sustainable maintenance and preventive conservation of European cultural heritage and air quality policy to reduce damage. The models will permit ranking of the effects of pollutants on corrosion and soiling of materials. The air pollution models will be related to local fluxes, including indoor concentrations. The stock of cultural heritage materials at risk in selected areas (Paris, Rome, Florence, Prague, Madrid, and Berlin) will be used for assessment and mapping of areas where cultural heritage objects are endangered. Prime Contractor: Korrosionsinstitutet Sci AB, R&D Department Atmospheric Corrosion, Stockholm SE.
Malaysia has been identified as one of the worlds mega diverse countries being extremely rich in biodiversity. Tropical rainforests, the oldest and most diverse ecosystems on earth, still cover an average 60 Prozent of the country (Soepadmo, 1998). The rainforests are estimated to contain about 12,500 species of flowering plants, and more than 1,100 species of ferns and fern allies (MSET, 1998). The dominating plant family is dipterocarp trees many of which produce commercial timber being native to Borneo as well as to Peninsular Malaysia, Indonesia, Philippine, Thailand etc. Large portions of these species are endemic and uniqueto the Malaysian archipelago.There is also great diversity in fauna, including about 300 species of wild mammals, 700-750 species of birds, 350 species of reptiles, 165 species of amphibians and more than 300 species of freshwater fish. Endemism in flora and fauna is high. As with other cultures, it is assumed that much of the traditional knowledge about these flora and fauna are heritage of the many traditional societies and communities that are dependent on them for their livelihood (Soepadmo, 1998).Unfortunately, much of Sabahs natural vegetation has been altered and degraded due to unsustainable and destructive human practices. Their existence continues to be threatened. Certain forest types are in danger of being totally eradicated from Sabah, while many plant species will likely disappear before they have ever been described. The fragmentation of natural forests also threatens the viability of various wildlife populations. The State is undergoing rapid development and the transformation of rural areas into urban is also accelerating. Many green areas are lost which causes serious threats to biodiversity in the country, because green areas play a very important role in buffering negative impacts on conservation areas.The objective of this study is to provide the information for developing a concept for sustainable urban green management in Kota Kinabalu district as well as to judge the ecological sustainability and to describe the importance of urban green area for the public. A focus is placed on the terrestrial and aerial inventory of the natural resources, including trees, birds, and biotopes. Furthermore, the study tries to explore the perception and attitude of local people, concerning urban forests and green areas. It also explores and investigates the possibilities for implementing an urban green management concept.The terrestrial data collection accordingly comprises of four fields: (1) tree inventory/survey, (2) bird survey/observation, (3) public perception survey, and (4) the mapping and classifying of urban forest functions.i).
Forest structure is altered by humans for long times (Bramanti et al. 2009). The long lasting modification of forests pursuant to human demands modified the living conditions for birds as well as for many other animals. This included changes in resource availability (e.g., food, foraging, nesting sites) and changes of interspecific interactions, e.g., parasitism and predation (Knoke et al. 2009; Ellis et al. 2012). Also species compositions and the survivability of populations and even species are affected. The loss of foraging sites and suitable places for reproduction, the limitation of mobility due to fragmented habitats and the disturbances by humans itself may lead to more stressed individuals and less optimal living conditions. In certain cases species are not able to deal with the modified requirements and their populations will shrink and even vanish. Depending on the intensity of management and the remaining forest structure, biodiversity is more or less endangered. Especially in systems of two or more strongly connected taxa changing conditions that affect at least one part may subsequently affect the other, too. One system of interspecific communities that recently attracted the attention of biologists includes birds, blood parasites (haemosporidians) and their transmitting vectors. For instance, avian malaria (Plasmodium relictum) represents the reason for extreme declines in the avifauna of Hawaii since the introduction of respective vectors (e.g. Culicidae) during the 20th century (van Riper et al. 1986, Woodworth et al. 2005). With the current knowledge of this topic we are not able to predict if such incidences could also occur in Germany. All in all, different management strategies and intensity of forest management may influence the network of birds, vectors and blood parasites and change biodiversity. To elucidate this ecological complex, and to understand the interactions of the triad of songbirds as vertebrate hosts, dipteran vectors and haemosporidians within changing local conditions, I intend to collect data on the three taxa in differently managed forest areas, the given forest structure and the climatic conditions. I will try to explain the role of abiotic factors on infection dynamics, in detail the role of forest management intensity. Data acquisition takes place at three spatially divided locations: inside the Biodiversity Exploratory Schwäbische Alb, at the Mooswald in Freiburg, and inside the Schwarzwald.
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