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.
This project focuses on the long-term stability (or otherwise) of vegetation, based on a series of multi-proxy records in southern South America. We will build a network of sites suitable for high-resolution reconstructions of changes in vegetation since the Last Glacial Maximum, and use these to test a null hypothesis that changes in vegetation over the past 14,000 years are driven by internal dynamics rather than external forcing factors. The extent to which the null hypothesis can be falsified will reveal the degree to which we can expect to be able to predict how vegetation is affected by external events, including future climate change. The southern fringes of the South American landmass provide a rare opportunity to examine the development of moorland vegetation with sparse tree cover in a wet, cool temperate climate of the Southern Hemisphere. We present a record of changes in vegetation over the past 17,000 years, from a lake in extreme southern Chile (Isla Santa Inés, Magallanes region, 53°38.97S; 72°25.24W; Fontana, Bennett 2012: The Holocene), where human influence on vegetation is negligible. The western archipelago of Tierra del Fuego remained treeless for most of the Lateglacial period. Nothofagus may have survived the last glacial maximum at the eastern edge of the Magellan glaciers from where it spread southwestwards and established in the region at around 10,500 cal. yr BP. Nothofagus antarctica was likely the earlier colonizing tree in the western islands, followed shortly after by Nothofagus betuloides. At 9000 cal. yr BP moorland communities expanded at the expense of Nothofagus woodland. Simultaneously, Nothofagus species shifted to dominance of the evergreen Nothofagus betuloides and the Magellanic rain forest established in the region. Rapid and drastic vegetation changes occurred at 5200 cal. yr BP, after the Mt Burney MB2 eruption, including the expansion and establishment of Pilgerodendron uviferum and the development of mixed Nothofagus-Pilgerodendron-Drimys woodland. Scattered populations of Nothofagus, as they occur today in westernmost Tierra del Fuego may be a good analogue for Nothofagus populations during the Lateglacial in eastern sites. Climate, dispersal barriers and/or fire disturbance may have played a role controlling the postglacial spread of Nothofagus. Climate change during the Lateglacial and early Holocene was a prerequisite for the expansion of Nothofagus populations and may have controlled it at many sites in Tierra del Fuego. The delayed arrival at the site, with respect to the Holocene warming, may be due to dispersal barriers and/or fire disturbance at eastern sites, reducing the size of the source populations. The retreat of Nothofagus woodland after 9000 cal. yr BP may be due to competitive interactions with bog communities. Volcanic disturbance had a positive influence on the expansion of Pilgerodendron uviferum and facilitated the development of mixed Nothofagus-Pilgerodendron-Drimys woodland.
The development of sustainable and efficient energy conversion processes at interfaces is at the center of the rapidly growing field of basic energy science. How successful this challenge can be addressed will ultimately depend on the acquired degree of molecular-level understanding. In this respect, the severe knowledge gap in electro- or photocatalytic conversions compared to corresponding thermal processes in heterogeneous catalysis is staggering. This discrepancy is most blatant in the present status of predictive-quality, viz. first-principles based modelling in the two fields, which largely owes to multifactorial methodological issues connected with the treatment of the electrochemical environment and the description of the surface redox chemistry driven by the photo-excited charges or external potentials.Successfully tackling these complexities will advance modelling methodology in (photo)electrocatalysis to a similar level as already established in heterogeneous catalysis, with an impact that likely even supersedes the one seen there in the last decade. A corresponding method development is the core objective of the present proposal, with particular emphasis on numerically efficient approaches that will ultimately allow to reach comprehensive microkinetic formulations. Synergistically combining the methodological expertise of the two participating groups we specifically aim to implement and advance implicit and mixed implicit/explicit solvation models, as well as QM/MM approaches to describe energy-related processes at solid-liquid interfaces. With the clear objective to develop general-purpose methodology we will illustrate their use with applications to hydrogen generation through water splitting. Disentangling the electro- resp. photocatalytic effect with respect to the corresponding dark reaction, this concerns both the hydrogen evolution reaction at metal electrodes like Pt and direct water splitting at oxide photocatalysts like TiO2. Through this we expect to arrive at a detailed mechanistic understanding that will culminate in the formulation of comprehensive microkinetic models of the light- or potential-driven redox process. Evaluating these models with kinetic Monte Carlo simulations will unambiguously identify the rate-determining and overpotential-creating steps and therewith provide the basis for a rational optimization of the overall process. As such our study will provide a key example of how systematic method development in computational approaches to basic energy sciences leads to breakthrough progress and serves both fundamental understanding and cutting-edge application.
Die Europäische Kommission wird voraussichtlich eine Folgenabschätzung sowie einen Gesetzesentwurf zur indirekten Landnutzungsänderung (ILUC) in Zusammenhang mit der Biokraftstoffproduktion veröffentlichen. Die Einführung einer EU-Richtlinie zur indirekten Landnutzungsänderung in der Richtlinie für Erneuerbare Energien (RED) und der Richtlinie zur Kraftstoffqualität (FQD), hat möglicherweise Einfluss auf derzeitige Investitionen und Arbeitsplätze in der europäischen Biokraftstoffindustrie. Im Auftrag der Umweltorganisation Transport & Environment hat Ecofys untersucht, inwieweit der Biokraftstoffsektor unter dem Gesichtspunkt der Bestandswahrung gegen die Einführung einer ILUC-Richtlinie auf EU-Ebene geschützt werden kann. Dies wird mit dem Begriff 'Grandfathering' beschrieben. Der Bericht beginnt mit einem Überblick über den EU Biokraftstoffmarkt und -sektor. Er analysiert die verschiedenen Auswirkungen möglicher ILUC Maßnahmen in Hinblick auf den Sektor und geht der Frage nach, inwieweit gegenwärtige Investitionen und Arbeitsplätze geschützt werden müssen. In einem zweiten Schritt untersucht der Bericht die Grandfathering Klausel, die aktuell in der RED und FQD Richtlinie enthalten ist, sowie weitere mögliche Grandfathering Optionen. Die Studie kommt zu dem Schluss, dass die Einführung einer ILUC Politikmaßnahme bei gleichzeitigem Erhalt der Arbeitsplätze und der Investitionen in Biokrafstoffproduktion möglich ist, wenn das Biokraftstoffverbrauchsniveau von 2010-2012 bis zum Jahr 2020 von der ILUC Richtlinie ausgenommen wird. Dies würde bedeuten, dass eine mögliche ILUC Richtlinie sich lediglich auf die zukünftige Biokraftsoffproduktion ab 2020 bezieht. Die ILUC-Maßnahme würde den gesamten Biokraftstoffverbrauch in der EU nicht deutlich verringern, da die Ziele der RED und FQD für 2020 unverändert bleiben. Dennoch könnten auf den EU Biodieselsektor Herausforderungen zukommen, wenn z. B. neue ILUC-Faktoren eingeführt oder der Mindestschwellenwert für Treibhausgasausstoß angehoben würde. Ein Grandfathering des derzeitigen Biokraftstoffverbrauchs würde dem entgegenwirken und heutige Investitionen und Arbeitsplätze sichern. Die Ergebnisse der Studie wurden am 22. März 2012 dem Europäischen Parlament vorgestellt.
Introduction: In Malaysia, excessive nutrients from livestock waste management systems are currently released to the environment. Particularly, large amounts of manure from intensive pig production areas are being excreted daily and are not being fully utilised. Alternatively, the excess manure can be applied as an organic fertiliser source in neighbouring cropping systems on the small landholdings of the pig farms to improve soil fertility so that its nutrients will be available for crop uptake instead of being discharged into water streams. Thus, there is a need for better tools to analyse the present situation, to evaluate and monitor alternative livestock production systems and manure management scenarios, and to support farmers in the proper management of manure and fertiliser application. Such tools are essential to quantify, and assess nutrient fluxes, manure quality and content, manure storage and application rate to the land as well as its environmental effects. Several computer models of animal waste management systems to assist producers and authorities are now available. However, it is felt that more development is needed to adopt such models to the humid tropics and conditions of Malaysia and other developing countries in the region. Objectives: The aim is to develop a novel model to evaluate nutrient emission scenarios and the impact of livestock waste at the landscape or regional level in humid tropics. The study will link and improve existing models to evaluate emission of N to the atmosphere, and leaching of nutrients to groundwater and surface water. The simulation outputs of the models will be integrated with a GIS spatial analysis to model the distribution of nutrient emission, leaching and appropriate manure application on neighbouring crop lands and as an information and decision support tool for the relevant users.
Early generation plant breeding trials are often laid out according to unreplicated designs. Replicated checks may be used for error control, for example in augmented designs based on an incomplete block design for checks which are augmented with unreplicated entries. Traditional augmented designs require considerable resources to be spent on genotypes that are not themselves of interest. Therefore, it has been suggested to replace checks with partially replicated entries, leading to so-called prep designs. In the present proposal we suggest combining both ideas to develop what we call augmented prep designs. A non-trivial design problem arises when trials are to be performed at multiple locations. The main challenge then is how to augment the blocks so as to balance the number of pairwise concurrences. This task can be tackled in different ways based on the use (-arrays which are well-known as the basis for (-designs in fully replicated experiments. Furthermore, we also explore the refinement of designs when analysis by spatial models is envisioned. Robustness of the designs to the presence of genotype-environment interaction is also investigated.
In my project I aim at a better understanding of the evolution of malacostracan crustaceans, which includes very different groups such as mantis shrimps, krill and lobsters. Previous studies on Malacostraca, on extant as well as on fossil representatives, focussed on adult morphology.In contrast to such approaches, I will apply a Palaeo-Evo-Devo approach to shed new light on the evolution of Malacostraca. Palaeo-Evo-Devo uses data of different developmental stages of fossil malacostracan crustaceans, such as larval and juvenile stages. With this approach I aim at bridging morphological gaps between the different diverse lineages of modern malacostracans by providing new insights into the character evolution in these lineages.An extensive number of larval and juvenile malacostracans is present in the fossil record, but which have only scarcely been studied. The backbone of this project will be on malacostracans from the Solnhofen Lithographic Limestones (ca. 150 million years old), which are especially well preserved and exhibit minute details. During previous studies, I developed new documentation methods for tiny fossils from these deposits, e.g., fluorescence composite microscopy, and also discovered the first fossil mantis shrimp larvae. For malcostracan groups that do not occur in Solnhofen, I will investigate fossils from other lagerstätten, e.g., Mazon Creek and Bear Gulch (USA), or Montceaules- Mines and La-Voulte-sur-Rhône (France). The main groups in focus are mantis shrimps and certain other shrimps (e.g., mysids, caridoids), as well as the bottom-living ten-footed crustaceans (reptantians). Examples for studied structures are leg details, including the feeding apparatus, but also eyes. The results will contribute to the reconstruction of 3D computer models.The data collected in this project will be used for evaluating the relationships within Malacostraca, but mainly for providing plausible evolutionary scenarios, how the modern malacostracan diversity evolved. With the Palaeo-Evo-Devo approach, I am also able to detect shifts in developmental timing, called heterochrony, which is interpreted as one of the major driving forces of evolution. Finally, the reconstructed evolutionary patterns can be compared between the different lineages for convergencies. These comparisons might help to explain the convergent adaptation to similar ecological niches in different malacostracan groups, e.g., life in the deep sea, life on the sea bottom, evolution of metamorphosis or of predatory larvae.As the project requires the investigation of a large number of specimens in different groups, I will assign distinct sub-projects to three doctoral researchers. The results of this project will not only be published in peer-reviewed journals, but will also be presented to the non-scientific public, e.g., during fossil fairs or museum exhibitions with 3D models engraved in glass blocks.
Prehistoric pits are filled with ancient topsoil material, which has been preserved there over millennia. A characteristic of these pit fillings is that their colour is different depending on the time the soil material was relocated. Soil colour is the result of soil forming processes and soil properties, and it could therefore indicate the soil characteristics present during that specific period. To the best of our knowledge, no investigation analysed and explained the reasons for these soil colour changes over time. The proposed project will investigate soil parameters from pit fillings of different archaeological periods in the loess area of the Lower Rhine Basin (NW-Germany). It aims to implement the measurement of colour spectra as a novel analytical tool for the rapid analyses of a high number of soil samples: the main goal is to relate highresolution colour data measured by a spectrophotometer to soil parameters that were analysed by conventional pedogenic methods and by mid infrared spectroscopy (MIRS), with a main focus on charred organic matter (BPCAs). This tool would enable us to quantify the variation of soil properties over a timescale of several millennia, during different prehistoric periods at regional scale and for loess soils in general. Detailed information concerning changing soil properties on a regional scale is necessary to determine past soil quality and it helps to increase our understanding of prehistoric soil cultivation practices. Furthermore, these information could also help to increase our understanding about agricultural systems in different archaeological periods.
Although global pesticide use increases steadily, our field-data based knowledge regarding exposure of non-target ecosystems is very restricted. Consequently, this meta-analysis will for the first time evaluate the worldwide available peer-reviewed information on agricultural insecticide concentrations in surface water or sediment and test the following two hypotheses: I) Insecticide concentrations in the field largely exceed regulatory threshold levels and II) Additional factors important for threshold level exceedances can be quantified using retrospective meta-analysis. A feasibility study using a restricted dataset (n = 377) suggested the significance of the expected results, i.e. an threshold level exceedance rate of more than 50Prozent of the detected concentrations. Subsequent to a comprehensive database search in the peer-reviewed literature of the past 60 years, analysis of covariance with the relevant threshold level exceedance as the continuous dependent variable (about 10,000 cases) will be performed and the impact of significant predictor variables will be quantified. Parameters not yet considered in pesticide exposure assessment will be included as independent variables, such as compound class, environmental regulatory quality, and sampling design. The simultaneous presence of several insecticide compounds as a well as their metabolites will also be considered in the evaluation. The present approach may provide an innovative and integrated view on the potential environmental side effects of global high-intensity agriculture and in particular of pesticides use.
SP0 is conceived for coordination of the ICON research, for internal and external scientific exchange as well as for investigating development pathways of land use on the Philippines. The SP0 team will supervise the project activities as a whole, including reporting and final synthesis. It will design the ICON homepage, establish and maintain a web-based database and present the project and its results in scientific forums and public media. It will organize collaboration and scientific exchange with international networks dealing with atmospheric processes, global carbon, nitrogen, water and energy cycles, and long-term ecological research. Specifically, SP0 is devoted to ensuring a sound integration of the ICON project within the scientific communities of Germany and SE Asia. Supported by the ICON local research coordinator based at and employed by IRRI, it will coordinate with the IRRI farm management to assist other ICON subprojects with field setup, routine data collection and technical backstopping.
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