To work against the high population pressure and the poverty problems in Egypt, rural areas are opened for new settlements in the Region of Lake Nasser. Due to its high potential for development the government is planning to settle approximately 1, 5 million people in this area within the following 10-15 years. In order to avoid unplanned settlements in the area with a negative impact on natural resources a Comprehensive Development Plan for Aswan and Lake Nasser was developed in 2003 by the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) together with the Aswan Governorate.
We study the effects of plants and root-associated fungi on wind erosion within the alpine environment of Tibet. China is one of the countries most affected by desertification processes and Tibet, in particular, a key region in desertification combat. The presented project focuses on the Barkha Plain surrounded by Mount Kailash and the Lake of Manasarovar (Ngari Prefecture). This Western Tibet region experienced little scientific attention but, nowadays, faces rapidly increasing touristic activities and expanding local settlements associated with socio-economic changes that are serious threats to the delicate ecological balance and potential triggers of desertification. It exists almost unanimous agreement that revegetation is the most efficient and promising strategy to combat wind erosion and desertification in the long term. However, re-colonising success is often poor, mainly under extreme environmental conditions. Compared to conventional practices, the approach of the presented project attains better accordance with natural succession processes and promises acceleration of both plant and soil development and, conclusively, more efficient desertification control. The project assesses the potential of native plants and symbiotic fungi to control wind erosion and desertification processes. It aims to identify key plants and fungi that increase soil aggregate stability and efficiently drive succession into a natural and self-maintaining cycle of the ecosystem. Furthermore, it provides crucial information for implementing environmentally compatible and cost-effective measures to protect high-elevation ecosystems against desertification. Within three successional stages (early, intermediate, late), field investigations are performed on the basis of Modified-Whittaker plots. Classic methods of vegetation analysis and myco-sociology are combined with analysis of distribution patterns at different scales (patchiness, connectivity). Comprehensive soil analysis is performed comprising grain size distribution, aggregate stability, pH as well as water and nutrient contents. Additionally, important parameters of wind erosion are measured concurrently and continuously to assess their magnitude and variability with respect to vegetation and soil at different levels of development. The parameters addressed, include sediment transport, air temperature, radiation, precipitation, relative humidity as well as speed and direction of wind. Surface moisture is recorded periodically and roughness described. Species and environmental parameters are checked for spatial correlation. Cutting edge technologies are applied in laboratory work, comprising molecular methods for fungal species identification and micro-tomography to analyse soil structure. Furthermore, successfully cultivated fungi and plants are subject of synthesis experiments and industrial propagation in view of practical implementation in restoration measures.
Die 'Innsbrucker Föhnstudien 1-4' am Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts leisteten Pionierarbeit zum Verständnis von Föhn, eines starken, böigen und oft warmen und trockenen Windes im Lee von Gebirgen. Am Ende des 20. Jahrhunderts wurde im Rahmen des internationalen 'Mesokaligen Alpinen Programms' (MAP) Föhn in bisher unerreichtem Detail und Vollständigkeit vermessen. Daten aus MAP und aus einem kleineren Programm zur Untersuchung des Föhns (örtlicher Name: Bora) entlang der adriatischen Küste halfen unserem Projekt, den 'Innsbrucker Föhnstudien 5', herauszufinden, wie und warum Luft im Lee des Gebirges hinunter'fällt' und dabei immer schneller wird, wie häufig Föhn auftritt und wie gut er vorausgesagt werden kann. Unsere Forschungsarbeiten ergaben ein nahezu vollständiges Bild des Föhns, das wir aus Puzzleteilen früherer Föhnforschungen und von MAP zusammentrugen. Föhn läßt sich am besten mit Wasser vergleichen, das in einem Fluss oder einem See langsam auf ein Wehr zuströmt, dort immer schneller und gleichzeitig auch viel dünner (meist weniger als 1m) wird und hinunterstürzt. Luft verhält sich ähnlich, nur ist die Luftschicht, die als Fallwind hinter dem Gebirgskamm hinunterstürzt, typischerweise hunderte Meter dick. Während die Bauingeneure den Oberrand des Wehrs glatt bauen, sind Gebirge zerklüftet und voller Einschnitte. Luft wird natürlich zuerst durch solche Einschnitte und Pässe strömen, bevor sie über den Kamm fließt. Wir konnten zeigen, dass die berühmten Föhnorte unserer Erde alle im Lee von Gebirgeseinschnitten liegen. Auch für einen erfahrenen Meteorologen ist es nicht immer leicht, Föhn von einem nächtlichen Hangwind zu unterscheiden, der dadurch entsteht, dass die Luft durch Ausstrahlung schwerer wird. Ob Föhn blies, hatte man bisher immer subjektiv anhand des zeitlichen Verlaufs von Windgeschwindigkeit und -richtung, Temperatur und relativer Feuchte bestimmt. Das hatte 2 Nachteile: das Resultat hing davon ab, wer die Bestimmung vornahm, und außerdem war es zu zeitaufwendig, Jahrzehnte von Daten oder Daten von mehreren Föhnorten händisch zu klassifizieren. Wir entwickelten erstmals einen objektiven, zuverlässigen Computeralgorithmus zur Föhnbestimmung. Damit waren wir in der Lage, Föhnklimatologien auf beiden Seiten des Alpenhauptkamms zu erstellen. Im windigsten Ort (Ellbögen ca. 10 km südlich von Innsbruck) bläst der Föhn im Jahresschnitt während 20Prozent der Zeit. Auch die größten Computer sind nicht mächtig genug, alle Täler und Einschnitte der Gebirgszüge wiederzugeben und dort die Wetterdetails vorherzusagen. Föhn im Wipptal ist z.B. gar nicht direkt enthalten. Trotzdem finden sich Spuren, mittels derer wir wiederum objektiv die Wahrscheinlichkeit für Föhn voraussagen können. Auch 3 Tage in die Zukunft ist diese Föhnvorhersage praktisch gleich gut wie für den ersten Tag. Erst ab dem vierten Tag nimmt die Vorhersagegüte dann deutlich ab.
Utilisation des communautes d'oligachetes comme indicateurs de l'etat des lacs. Mise au point d'indices biologiques d'eutrophisation. Suivi ecologique a long terme du Leman, des lacs de Neuchatel, Morat, Joux, des Brenets, de Bret, Chavannes et Lioson. (FRA)
During the first project period we developed a general approach to quantify soil pore structure based on X-ray micro-tomography Vogel et al. (2010) which is applicable at various scales to cover soil pores larger that 0.05 mm in a representative way. Based on this method we generated equivalent network models to numerically simulate flow and transport of dissolved chemicals. The existing network model was extended to handle reactive transport and infiltration processes which are especially critical for matter flux in soil. The results were compared to experimental findings. The original research question 'what does a particle see on its way through soil' could be answered quantitatively for various boundary conditions including steady state flux and infiltration. However, we identified various critical aspects of the proposed modeling concept which will be in the focus of the second period. This includes 1) the spatial arrangement of interfaces having different quality which is crucial for chemical interactions and pore scale water dynamics, 2) the realistic multiphase dynamics at the pore scale which need to reflect the dynamic pressure and movement of trapped non-wetting phase and 3) the parametrization of structural complexity which need to be developed beyond the measurement of continuous Minkowski functions to allow the development of quantitative relations between structure and function. These aspects will be explored in a joint experiments in cooperation with partners within the SPP.
Bei der Phosphateliminationsanlage in Berlin-Tegel ist die direkte Umsetzung des Standes des Wissens in eine grosstechnische Anlage erforderlich, um das Ziel von 0,01 mg/l P im Ablauf zu erreichen. Die Mitarbeit bezieht sich besonders auf die Mischtechnik des Faellungsmittels, die Messtechnik und die Flockenbildung.
The aim of my study is to calibrate PAR from small lakes against tree biomass, which can be used to achieve quantitative estimates of biomass in the past. Furthermore, the relation between pollen percentages and plant abundance will also be investigated. As study area, the state Brandenburg was chosen, because it has a large number of lakes and is covered by different plant communities, like conifer forest, mixed forest, deciduous forest and open land. These are situated on a range of soil types in a terrain with little altitudinal differences. Lakes in different types of landscape were selected. They were of almost uniform size, mostly ranging from 100-300 m in diameter and without inflow and outflow. Deeper lakes in proportion to the lake size were preferred, to avoid lakes with a high pollen redeposition. In order to have an effective fieldwork and to get the broadest possible data spectrum for modeling, the relevant pollen source area of pollen (Sugita, 1994) was estimated, based on the map CORINE. The calculation shows that the pollen source area is approximately 5-6 km. However, we also sampled lakes which are situated closer together, especially when the landscape structure was very heterogenic at the small scale. From the surface samples of 50 lakes, the pollen percentages of different taxa will be compared with the information from the forest inventory data for different distances around the lakes to evaluate theoretical considerations of pollen source area. These data are available at the data base Datenspeicher Wald, which contains information about cover, age and biomass for the different tree species. This information was collected during the time of the German Democratic Republic (DDR) and is in the most continued. Concurrently, 15 of the short cores are selected for dating by 210Pb. PAR will be calculated based on the sedimentation rates obtained for these cores, so that PAR can be compared to tree biomass for different time slices over the past 50 years.
In Suesswasserseen treten jedes Jahr Sukzessionen von Plankton-Algen auf, die ein charakteristisches Zeitmuster zeigen. Waehrend das Zeitmuster im Grundtyp durch den Gewaessertyp, die klimatischen Faktoren und durch trophische Wechselwirkungen mit dem Zooplankton determiniert wird, verursachen anthropogene Umweltfaktoren (Duengemittel, Biozide etc.) charakteristische Modulationen oder Entgleisungen dieser Muster, z.B. im besonderen 'Algenblueten'. Anhand von Daten aus dem Halterer Stausee - ein Trinkwasserreservoir der Gelsenwasser AG - werden Zeitreihenanalysen des Planktons einschliesslich multivarianter Kreuzkorrelationen mit chemischen Parametern durchgefuehrt. Ziel dieser Untersuchung ist das Identifizieren von belastungsspezifischen Typen des Sukzessionsmusters der Algen. Ein Sonderthema dieses Forschungsprojektes ist das Erproben von Algenmischpopulationen in kontrollierten Durchfluss-Fermenten. Am Beispiel der Schwermetalle Cadmium und Quecksilber wird ein Monitor-System aus der Wildform und eine heterotrophe Mutante von Euglena gracilis entwickelt.
The Northern Eurasia Earth Science Partnership Initiative, or NEESPI, is a currently active, yet strategically evolving program of internationally-supported Earth systems science research, which has as its foci issues in northern Eurasia that are relevant to regional and Global scientific and decision-making communities (see NEESPI Mission Statement). This part of the globe is undergoing significant changes - particularly those changes associated with a rapidly warming climate in this region and with important changes in governmental structures since the early 1990s and their associated influences on land use and the environment across this broad expanse. How this carbon-rich, cold region component of the Earth system functions as a regional entity and interacts with and feeds back to the greater Global system is to a large extent unknown. Thus, the capability to predict future changes that may be expected to occur within this region and the consequences of those changes with any acceptable accuracy is currently uncertain. One of the reasons for this lack of regional Earth system understanding is the relative paucity of well-coordinated, multidisciplinary and integrating studies of the critical physical and biological systems. By establishing a large-scale, multidisciplinary program of funded research, NEESPI is aimed at developing an enhanced understanding of the interactions between the ecosystem, atmosphere, and human dynamics in northern Eurasia. Specifically, the NEESPI strives to understand how the land ecosystems and continental water dynamics in northern Eurasia interact with and alter the climatic system, biosphere, atmosphere, and hydrosphere of the Earth. The contemporaneous changes in climate and land use are impacting the biological, chemical, and physical functions of the northern Eurasia, but little data and fewer models are available that can be used to understand the current status of this expansive regional system, much less the influence of the northern Eurasia region on the Global climate. NEESPI seeks to secure the necessary financial and related institutional support from an international cadre of sponsors for developing a viable understanding of the functioning of northern Eurasia and the impacts of extant changes on the regional and Earth systems. Many types of ground and integrative (e.g., satellite; GIS) data will be needed and many models must be applied, adapted or developed for properly understanding the functioning of this cold and diverse regional system. Mechanisms for obtaining the requisite data sets and models and sharing them among the participating scientists are essential and require international and active governmental participation. (abridged text)
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