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Entwicklung von Rebklonen mit besserer Klimaanpassung

Leistungsfähiges Pflanzgut mit guter Boden- und Klimaanpassung bildet die Grundlage der einer umweltgerechten Pflanzenproduktion. Dies trifft in gleicher Weise auf den Weinbau zu. Neben der Globalisierung der Märkte gehört sicherlich die Klimaveränderung zu den größten Herausforderungen der Gegenwart. Das größte Problem sind in zunehmendem Maß eine wärmere Witterung kombiniert mit Starkregenereignisse während der Traubenreifung und die dadurch ausgelöste Traubenfäule. Wegen der besonderen Bedeutung von Weinlandschaften für Tourismus und Wirtschaft kommt dem Weinanbau hierbei eine besondere gesellschaftliche Bedeutung zu. Die Sicherung der Produktion von gesunden Trauben steht daher an erster Stelle. Ein lockerer Traubenaufbau durch längere Beerenstielchen und/oder kleinere Beeren sowie festere Beerenschale können den Fäulnisbefall stark reduzieren. Sie sind damit ein hervorragendes Resistenzmerkmal und können den Einsatz von Spezial-Botrytiziden erheblich vermindern. Solche Formen der apparenten Resistenz sind sehr stabil, da der Pathogen sie nur schwer überwinden kann und daher hervorragend für langlebige Kulturpflanzen, wie die Weinrebe geeignet. Das Fachgebiet entwickelt von den traditionell in Deutschland angebauten Rebsorten Klone mit lockerem Traubenaufbau und damit einhergehender hoher Resistenz gegen Traubenfäulen. Hierzu wird Zuchtmaterial, das im Rahmen dieses oder weiterer Projekte gesammelt wurde, auf seine Widerstandsfähigkeit gegen Traubenfäulen und weitere weinbaulich relevante Eigenschaften getestet. Ziel ist die Entwicklung von Klonen traditioneller Rebsorten mit hoher Traubenfäuleresistenz kombiniert mit einem stabilen Ertrag und hoher Trauben und Weinqualität, um deutschen Winzern entsprechendes Pflanzgut zur Verfügung zu stellen und damit einerseits die Applikation von Fungiziden zu reduzieren und gleichzeitig die Konkurrenzfähigkeit der heimischen Produktion an ihren traditionellen Standorten sichern zu helfen.

Züchtung von Rebunterlagen mit hoher Reblausfestigkeit und Anpassung an Trockenheit und Kalk-Chlorose

Eine hohe Resistenz gegen Bodenpathogene, gute Standortanpassung und Veredlungsaffinität sind die entscheidenden Merkmale von Unterlagen. Bei der Pathogenresistenz ist bei Reben die Widerstandsfähigkeit gegen die Reblaus Daktulosphaira vitifoiae essentiell, da die europäische Kulturrebe Vitis vinifera L über keinerlei Resistenzen verfügt und nur an wenigen Standorten ein wurzelechter Anbau möglich ist. Klimaveränderungen erfordern neue Unterlagen mit hoher Reblausfestigkeit und besserer Standortanpassung. Aufgrund der derzeitigen Szenarien werden sowohl Trockenresistenz als auch Toleranz gegen hohe Kalkgehalte insbesondere in Verbindung mit hohem Bodenwassergehalte zukünftig von Bedeutung sein. Hierfür werden entsprechende Kreuzungen vorgenommen, die Sämlinge aufgezogen, auf ihre Reblausfestigkeit getestet und anschießend Prüfungen der Wurzelungs- und Veredlungsfähigkeit vorgenommen. Anschließend wird die Witterungs- und Bodenanpassung der Zuchtstämme insbesondere auf Trocken- und Kalkstandorten untersucht. Ziel ist die Entwicklung verschiedener Unteralgen, die eine vollständige Reblausresistenz mit hohen Trockenheits- und/oder Kalktoleranz kombinieren.

The scalar organization of environmental governance: an institutionalist perspective on the transformation of water and marine governance in the European Union

The project aims to theorize the scalar organization of natural resource governance in the European Union. This research agenda is inspired by critical geographers' work on the politics of scale. The research will examine an analytical framework derived from theories of institutional change and multi-level govern-ance to fill this theoretical gap. Furthermore, it will review conceptualizations of the state in institutional economics, evaluate their adequacy to capture the role of the state in the dynamics identified, and develop them further. The described processes may imply shifts in administrative levels, shifts in relations between different levels and changes in spatial delimitations of competent jurisdictions that result, for example, from decentralization or the introduction of river basin oriented administrative structures. The research investigates the implications of two European Directives: the Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). They both have potentially great significance for the organization of marine and water governance at the level of Member States and below, and adhere to similar regulatory ideas for achieving good ecological status of waters. A multiple case study on changes in the scalar reorganization of marine and water governance that result from the implementation of the Directives will be carried out. It will rely on qualitative and quantitative data gathering based on semi-structured interviews and review of secondary and tertiary sources looking at Portugal, Spain, and Germany. It specifically addresses the role of social ecological transactions, the structure of decision making processes and the role of changes in contextual factors (such as ideologies, interdependent institutions and technology).

Late-Glacial and Holocene vegetational stability of southern South America

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.

CFK-Recycling in der Kompetenzregion Augsburg

The increasing proportion of carbon fibre reinforced plastics (CFRP) in different branches of industry will result in an increasingly larger quantity of CFRP wastes in future. With regard to improved management of natural resources, it is necessary to add these fibres that require energy-intensive production to effective recycling management. But high-quality material recycling is only ecoefficient if the recycled fibres can be used to produce new high-quality and marketable products. Tests carried out up to now indicate that very good results can be expected for large-scale recycling of carbon fibres by means of pyrolysis. The waste pyrolysis plant (WPP) operated in Burgau is the only large-scale pyrolysis plant for municipal wastes in Germany. Use of this plant to treat CFRP wastes represents a unique opportunity for the whole Southern German economy and in particular the Augsburg economic region. In a study funded by the Bavarian State Ministry of the Environment and Health ('Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Umwelt und Gesundheit'), the specific implementation options for the recovery of carbon fibres from composites by means of large-scale pyrolysis have been under investigation since November 2010. To this end, in the first step a development study was carried out, which in particular examined the options for modifying the Burgau WPP for the recycling of CFRP. The knowledge acquired from the pyrolysis tests, the fibre tests and the economic feasibility study confirmed the positive assessment of the overall concept of CFRP recycling in Burgau. As an overall result, unlimited profitability was found for all scenarios with regard to investments in CFRP recycling in Burgau WPP. The work on the development study was carried out by bifa Umweltinstitut GmbH together with the Augsburg-based 'function integrated lightweight construction project group ('Funktionsintegrierter Leichtbau' - FIL) of the Fraunhofer Institute for Chemical Technology (ICT). Methods: analysis and moderation of social processes, economy and management consulting, process engineering

Identification of groundwater nitrogen point source contribution through combined distribute temperature sensing and in-situ UV photometry

Agriculture is the major contributor of nitrogen to ecosystems, both by organic and inorganic fertilizers. Percolation of nitrate to groundwater and further transport to surface waters is assumed to be one of the major pathways in the fate of this nitrogen. The quantification of groundwater and associated nitrate flux to streams is still challenging. In particular because we lack understanding of the spatial distribution and temporal variability of groundwater and associated NO3- fluxes. In this preliminary study we will focus on the identification and quantification of groundwater and associated nitrate fluxes by combining high resolution distributed fiber-optic temperature sensing (DTS) with in situ UV photometry (ProPS). DTS is a new technique that is capable to measure temperature over distances of km with a spatial resolution of ca1 m and an accuracy of 0.01 K. It has been applied successfully to identify and quantify sources of groundwater discharge to streams. ProPS is a submersible UV process photometer, which uses high precision spectral analyses to provide single substance concentrations, in our case NO3-, at minute intervals and a detection limit of less than 0.05 mg l-1 (ca.0.01 mg NO3--Nl-1). We will conduct field experiments using artificial point sources of lateral inflow to test DTS and ProPS based quantification approaches and estimate their uncertainty. The selected study area is the Schwingbach catchment in Hessen, Germany, which has a good monitoring infrastructure. Preliminary research on hydrological fluxes and field observations indicate that the catchment favors the intended study.

Arid Southern Levant: a joint environmental and human history for the Holocene, derived from new archives of climate change (Dead Sea edge, Jordan)

This project proposes to explore the potential of sedimentary sequences from arid Southern Levant to record past environmental and climate changes that can be compared with the evolution of human societies during the Holocene. The Levant, crucible of history, actually possesses very few archives of past climate change in its most arid parts, which restricts the possibility to compare, on a regional scale, environmental variation and the evolution of human communities through time. The region is characterised by contrasted bioclimatic conditions, from Mediterranean-type to arid. Most of the known records of environmental change are located in the moister, Mediterranean zones of the region, where increased water availability permits the presence - or the better preservation - of high-resolution and continuous archives of past climates. However, the potential of the arid environments of the Southern Levant (roughly corresponding to modern Israel, Palestine, and Jordan) to harbour records of Holocene (last ca. 11,500 years) climate change, is far from being exploited to its full extend. Following the unique discovery of Holocene organic, peat-like deposits in the rain-shadow of the Dead Sea area in Jordan, this project proposes to investigate the potential of this currently arid region to record past environmental and climate change. The organic sequences present in the mountain slopes East of the Dead Sea have been shown to contain very good pollen information. Results from a preliminary pollen study provided in particular evidence for the periodic extension of Mediterranean-type forest vegetation, from the upper Mediterranean plateaus down to the study area. These organic sequences can be further exploited to generate more precisely dated (mainly through radiocarbon techniques) and higher-resolution records of climate and environmental change for the Holocene. Pollen data will be complemented by a series of other proxies: charcoal studies indicating recurrent fires, spores and fungi revealing past grazing activities, diatom assemblages showing changes in the water quality, increased detrital content marking periods of enhanced erosion. All these results can then be integrated into dynamic models of local environmental changes and vegetation response. Furthermore, the same area contains multiple sequences of spring carbonates (tufa / travertine) waiting to be studied. The stable isotopic (oxygen and carbon) composition of spring carbonates can provide a good record of past climate change, as it registers variations in environmental factors such as temperature, parent-water composition (itself related to the source and amount of rainfall), and evaporation. The presence of carbonate sequences near organic sequences on the edge of the Dead Sea, offers an unprecedented occasion to directly compare the isotopic variations of carbonate series with environmental variations recorded in the peaty archives.

Holistic and sustainable abatement of noise by optimized combinations of natural and artificial means (HOSANNA)

Objective: Noise pollution is a major environmental problem within the EU. The social costs of traffic noise have been estimated to 0.4Prozent of total GDP. Road traffic is the dominant source, and also rail traffic noise is significant. At the same time, road and rail traffic are expected to steadily increase, and the source strength is not expected to significantly decrease within the near future. To reduce the outdoor traffic noise to a sufficiently low level for a good acoustic environment is a major challenge of high need. Here, we will focus on noise propagation abatement for the outdoor environment. Following the EU Directive on environmental noise, a series of major action have been taken in noise abatement, but the sustainability has rarely been paid attention. The main idea of our project is to optimize the use of green areas, green surfaces and other natural elements in combination with artificial elements in urban and rural environments for reducing the noise impact of road and rail traffic. The project offers a variety of powerful abatement strategies that will make a cost effective improvement by its combination of approaches concerning: ground and road surface treatments; trees, forests and tall vegetation; greening of buildings and other surfaces; and innovative barriers. The noise impact will be assessed in terms of sound levels (including spectra and time patterns) as well as perceived environment (including annoyance, well-being and other health related aspects). The main objectives of the project are: to show by full scale evaluation that the proposed abatement methods work; to deliver noise prediction methods applicable to the proposed abatements, which can also can be used in noise mapping software; to deliver assessment methods for the perceived noise environment; to deliver a good practice guide for the end-users; and to show the cost benefit, including the positive effect on urban air quality and CO2 neutrality, of the resulting noise abatement methods. Prime Contractor: Chalmers Tekniska Hoegskola AB; Goeteborg; Sverige (Schweden).

Analysing climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies for sustainable rural land use and landscape developments in Austria (CC-ILA) - Analysing climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies for sustainable rural land use and landscape developments in Austria - Teilprojekt TS

Changes in European agricultural landscapes have gained on intensification in the second half of the last century. Among others, they are driven by global change phenomena such as climate change, demographic change and migration, increasing global bio-energy demands and changing human diets as well as by trade liberalisation, technological progress, and leakage effects of land use policy interventions. Farmers usually respond to such changes by adapting production and land use systems to efficiently utilize and manage their farm resource endowments. However, this process often leads to adverse impacts on the diversity of agricultural landscapes and environmental qualities. EU policies have been formulated as a reaction to singular or sectoral problems (e.g. the Common Agricultural Policy, the Water Framework Directive, the Nitrates Directive, NATURA2000), which are usually differently implemented among member states by using a variety of legislative or incentive based instruments. Consequently, more coordination among policies is required to minimize the trade-offs between different land use policy targets (i.e. land conservation versus boosting biomass production), and between private (adaptive) and societal (mitigative) land use benefits. Mitigation and adaptation are often separately analysed due to the nature of the problem i.e. mitigation is often considered as public good versus adaptation as private or club good. However, it is necessary to consider both in assessing the mutual benefits of cost-effective land uses and farm mitigation and adaptation measures, which mainly depend on spatial heterogeneity of natural and farming conditions. Consequently, it is important to consider bio-physical, ecological, and economic relationships in assessing the mitigative (public) and adaptive (private) potentials and trade-offs of alternative land uses and farm management measures.In this project we implement a data-model-policy fusion concept, which shall guarantee cost-effective mitigation and adaptation of farms and sustainable landscape and biodiversity developments in the context of climate, market, and policy instrument changes. The concept is applied to two case-study landscapes in the Mostviertel region in Austria and contains an integrated spatially explicit modelling framework to simulate the land use changes at field, farm, and landscape level as well as cost-effective farm mitigation and adaptation portfolios. The land use changes are assessed with farm economic, biodiversity, abiotic, and landscape indicators including GIS-modelling and field observations. Biodiversity effects are central in the integrated assessment acknowledging the roles of landscape structure and land use intensity. Geo-referenced land uses and land use attributes are a major interface in the data-model-policy fusion concept. The results will help farmers and regional stakeholders to identify best management practices for climate change mitigation and adaptation i

SPLASH - European Union Water Initiative - European Research Area Network (EUWI Era-Net)

Narrative description of Project: SPLASH has been the name of the European Union Water Initiative European Research Area Network (EUWI Era-Net). This network project has been developed and implemented by a consortium of 15 ministries, funding agencies and national research and technological development authorities from 11 European countries. Objective: The overall aim of SPLASH has been to improve water research for poverty reduction and thus to contribute to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). SPLASH objective has been to improve the effectiveness of European funded research on water for development and to develop the capacity of local organizations to coordinate and communicate their research activities. The project focus was Africa and the Mekong region. SPLASH focussed on the following specific objectives: - To coordinate existing national and regional research programmes to minimise duplication and identify gaps; - To design collaborative research programmes which address identified needs; - To speed up knowledge sharing between researchers and practitioners; - To map good research management to maximise use of resources; - To support the transfer of research into practice. Description of actual services provided by your staff within the assignment: In close collaboration with the Austrian Development Agency HYDROPHIL experts worked with other European agencies on the implementation of several Work Packages (WP) and specifically was responsible for the fulfilment of WP4 - Engagement of Main Actors (i.e., from Africa and the Mekong region). HYDROPHIL conducted regional stakeholder consultations in Western Africa (Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso), Eastern Africa (Kisumu, Kenya) and in the Mekong Basin (Phnom Penh, Cambodia).

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