The project aims at achieving a better understanding of the processes that drive or limit the response of grassland systems in a world of increasing atmospheric pCO2. We will test the hypothesis that the previously shown increase in below-ground allocation of C under elevated pCO2 provides the necessary energy excess and will stimulate free-living N2 fixers in a low N grassland environment. The project thus aims at assessing the occurrence and importance of free-living N2 fixers under elevated pCO2 and identify the associated microbial communities involved in order to better understand ecosystems response and sustainability of grassland systems. This project had the last opportunity to obtain soil samples from a grassland ecosystem adapted to long-term (10 year) elevated atmospheric pCO2 as the Swiss FACE experiment. The project aims to identify the relevant components of free-living diazotrophs of the microbial community using 15N stable isotope - DNA probing.
The goal of REMEDE is to develop, test and disseminate resource equivalency methods appropriate for determining the scale of complementary and compensatory remedial measures necessary to adequately offset environmental damage. The project draws from both US experience, in terms of methodological developments and implementation issues encountered, and experience of the EU Member States. It aims to apply and develop these in accordance with the requirements of the Environmental Liability Directive and the EIA, and Habitats Directives, in order that one standard guidance can be applied to all damage cases in the EU. The project brings together ecologists, economists and legal experts from the USA and Europe to review experience in the application of resource equivalency methods, draft a guidance document for the EU, test the guidance through application to at least four case studies in different Member States, and disseminate the guidance to relevant stakeholders. Throughout the project stakeholder consultation and peer review are used to ensure the best possible results. Prime Contractor: Economics for the Environment Consultancy Limited; London; United Kingdom.
Many of the world's mountain ecosystems are moving along trajectories that couple high rates of environmental change with strong economic changes, whose collective effect may alter the ability of mountain regions to provide critical goods and services, both to mountain inhabitants and lowland communities. In order to address the environmental challenges facing the world's mountain regions in the 21st Century, we will develop an integrative research strategy for detecting signals of global environmental change in mountain environments, for defining the consequences of these changes for mountain regions as well as lowland areas dependent on mountain resources, and for facilitating the development of sustainable resource management regimes for mountain regions. Following a kick-off meeting, the details of the research strategy will be formulated through a series of product-oriented workshops dedicated to: 1) Long-term Monitoring, 2) Integrated Modelling, 3) Process Studies, and 4) Sustainable Development. The concepts developed in these Thematic Workshops will be revisited, refined and synthesised during a final Open Science Conference on Global Change in Mountain Regions. By gearing the research strategy toward implementation in mountain Biosphere Reserves, the project will take advantage of the existing UNESCO infrastructure and ongoing Global Change research in these areas. The structure of UNESCO mountain Biosphere Reserves provides ideal natural Global Change laboratories with core protected mountainous areas surrounded by lower-elevation buffer zones that are more strongly influenced by human activities. European scientific participation, capacity building and leadership will be promoted by adapting the research strategy for implementation in UNESCO's mountain Biosphere Reserves in both developed and developing countries. This will be achieved through the active participation of Biosphere Reserve managers in the development of the research strategy.
Recent events such as the Pakistan earthquake, Hurricane Katrina, the Indian Ocean tsunami and the European heat waves of 2003 reveal the vulnerability of societies to extreme events. The goal of this project is to strengthen prevention, mitigation and preparedness strategies in order to reduce the health, social and economic impacts of extreme events on communities. The objectives of the MICRODIS project are to strengthen the scientific and empirical foundation on the relationship between extreme events and their impacts; to develop and integrate knowledge, concepts, methods and databases towards a common global approach and to improve human resources and coping capacity in Asia and Europe through training and knowledge sharing. This integrated project involves 19 partners from Asia and Europe, including research, policy and ground roots institutions. The outputs will include an evidence-base on impacts, field methodologies and tools for data compilation, impact models, and integrated vulnerability assessments. It will also strengthen standardised data collection of extreme events and their impacts at local, regional and global levels. Prime Contractor: Université Catholique de Louvain; Louvain-la-neuve; Belgium.
Aquifers are the main source of water in most semi-arid areas of the Mediterranean basin. As a result of over-exploitation hydrologic deficits of varying acuity prevail in these areas. Seawater intrusion and pollution have been identified as the primary factors for quality degradation. Further deterioration can be expected based on trends in the precipitation regime attributed to climate change. The objective of this project is to identify alternative sources of water and to investigate the feasibility, both environmental and economic of their utilization. Alternative water sources to be artificially recharged comprise: surface water runoff, treated effluent, and imported water. Furthermore, brackish water bodies, present in many aquifers could be utilised after desalination. The project structured into eight work-packages comprehensively addresses all issues related to the problem: expected precipitation rates, recharge and water budgets, identification of potential alternative water sources and technologies for their utilization, development of tools for the management of groundwater resources under artificial recharge conditions, aquifer vulnerability assessment, characterization of the unsaturated zone, and mixing effects. Four test sites have been selected for practical application of the approach. Substantial field testing, integration of technologies and findings to ensure optimal implementations of aquifer recharge alternatives, quantification of socio-economic impacts and development of dissemination platform are planned. Finally a carefully designed project management shall drive and accompany the project execution in order to ascertain consistency and efficiency.
Objective: New process route for lightweight, unbreakable and economically feasible solar panels on the basis of amorphous silicon. Results: From a number of canditates enamel-coated steel sheet as substrate and an organic barrier as protective layer was chosen as an alternative to the dual glass panels. Criteria were vacuum compatibility, surface rougness and insulating properties. This concept requires that the production order of the thin film solar cell is reversed into back electrode, active stack, front transparent electrode. Inverted processes and low temperature processes were investigated in parallel. Protection against damage due to permeating water was reduced with an improved organic barrier coating. Also, less vulnerable back electrode materials were studied. Fluorine doped tin oxide, tin-doped indiumoxide and aluminium-doped zinc oxide were studied. However, the best and most economical results were optained with ITO. For monolithic integration mechanical masking and laser scribing were investigated. Mechanical masking failed due to the uneveness of the enamel surface. Laser scribing is possible due to the diminished power need with each consecutive layer. Some concepts for better light capture (texturing, optical coatings) were investigated. Based on the inverted process route small scale and full scale panels were manufactured and tested. Ultimately, the full scale failed due to the built-up of stress which caused delamination and could not sufficiently be reduced. The panel costs of the new route proved very similar to the existing product, but required an additional investment in vacuum deposition equipment. Surprisingly, ITO with recycling proved to be the most cost effective transparent electrode material.
This GSE-FM service option provides a powerful tool for effective forest monitoring and inventory at regional scale using both EO-data and ground based observations. It is especially designed for allocating reliable and up-to-date information over large forest areas. Many regions of the world like wide parts of Russia and the Irkutsk Oblast are covered by vast forests. The countries and administrative regions often have to deal with pressing environmental problems such as frequent forest fires events, illegal logging practices as well as other human activities and natural forest disturbances. Due to the large forest areas, which are often difficult to access or characterized by insufficient infrastructure and severe climate conditions, frequent monitoring of the forest resources is a great challenge. Forest monitoring by the means of ground inventories is rather complicated or even impossible. The use of aerial photographs is also often insufficient and cost-intensive. As a result, forest information available today, often does not correspond to the current situation. This is true for wide parts of Siberia, for example. However, according to their own legislation and to fulfill international obligations up-to-date and reliable information on forest resources are essential. For instance, in order to update the Russian State Forest Account as well as for forest management and monitoring issues an annual update of forest information is obligatory. The use of EO-technologies offers an excellent tool to obtain spatial forest information. Especially for regions covered by vast forest areas the combined use of high and low resolution EO-data is the most promising and cost-efficient strategy. Therefore, this GSE-FM service option follows a two-level strategy: Level 1: Low and medium resolution satellite data are used for operational monitoring of forest changes over large areas caused by fires, cutting, and other natural and human induced disturbances. Territories where significant changes occurred are identified at this level. Level 2: Both high-resolution satellite data and aerial photos are used for a detailed inventory of all candidates registered by the first level observations. Ground truth data (inventory maps, topography, archive EO data etc.) are used in addition.
The working documents on revision of the Sewage Sludge Directive (86/278/EEC) on Biowaste and the Soil Protection Communication call for standards on sampling and analysis of sludge, treated biowastes and soils. The European Directives are intended to prevent unacceptable release of contaminants, impairment of soil function, or exposure to pathogens, and to protect crops, human and animal health, the quality of water and the wider environment when sludges and treated biowastes are used on land. The EU animal by-product regulations are fixing microbiological threshold values, for which microbiological methods of analysis are needed. The European Commission wishes to cite European (CEN) standards in order that there is harmonised application of the directives and that reports from Member States (MS) can be compared. This project to develop standards for hygienic parameters in sludge, soil and biowaste, presented under the name 'HORIZONTAL-HYG', will be carried out under the umbrella of the main project HORIZONTAL 'Development of horizontal standards for soil, sludge and biowaste'. This ensures full integration in the CEN system through BT Task Force 151 specially set up in support of this project as well as direct supervision by DG ENV and MS, which form the Steering Committee of HORIZONTAL. Preparation of HORIZONTAL-HYG was taken in a full agreement with the DG ENV, DG JRC and the MS already contributing to HORIZONTAL. HORIZONTAL-HYG's objective is to produce standardised methods for sampling and hygienic microbiological parameters, as Salmonella spp, Escherichia coli, Clostridium perfringens, Ascaris ova in sludges, treated biowastes and soils written in CEN format. Validation of the methods is an essential part of the development as it quantifies performance in terms of repeatability and reproducibility. The consortium is well connected in CEN and ISO and thus provides an excellent basis for implementation of the deliverables. Prime Contractor: Energieonderzoek Centrum Nederland; Petten, Netherlands.
The project aims at supporting the implementation of the proposed Directive of the European Parliament and of the Council on the management of waste from the extractive industries 2003/0107. The Directive was prepared following several major accidents with a serious impact on the environment, and it has the purpose of ensuring a safer management of the mining waste facilities, so that such accidents will not occur in the future. This project addresses particularly Article 9, which provides for the classification of waste facilities with respect to the possible consequences of an accident, and respectively the Annex II: Characterisation of mining waste and Annex III: Criteria for the classification of waste facilities. The activities of the project are divided into four major work packages as follows: - Preparation of a Methodology for the Characterisation of Mining Waste - Elaboration of a Risk Assessment Methodology for the Classification of Mining Waste Facilities, including Old/Abandoned Mining Waste Facilities - Review of Techniques for the Prevention and Abatement of Pollution Generated by Mining Wastes - Development of a Decision Support Tool for Minimising the Impact of the Mining Industry on the Environment. The Consortium co-ordinated by BIUTEC, Austria, includes universities, research institutes, NGOs and implementing authorities from 8 European countries, both Members of the EU and accession countries. The experts team is highly qualified and has many years of experience and research in this area, so that the best outputs can be obtained. The project will build on the results of other projects carried out in this field, and will relate closely to on-going projects, so that there is no overlap in our activities. In order to provide an effective tool for the potential beneficiaries, the project team will consult with representatives of the stakeholders before the final versions of the outputs are publicly made available on the project web-site.
In order to study the effects of parasitoid associated factors on lepidopteran larval hosts we used g-irradiation of sterilize females of the braconid parasitoid Glyptapanteles liparidis. Along with eggs, G. liparidis females inject a secrete of the calyx gland containing particles of a symbiotic virus, the polydnavirus (PDV) and venom into the host. These associated factors are known from other host-parasitoid systems to suppress the immune system of the host and cause alterations in its development. g-irradiation should sterilize the eggs inside the wasp's ovary, so that sterile eggs are oviposited together with PDV and venom and the influence of parasitoid larvae inside the host is excluded. We irradiated G. liparidis females with different doses, ranging from 2.4 to 10.5 krad, in a Co60 g-irradiator. L. dispar larvae were stung by such irradiated wasps as well as untreated wasps, and the development of hosts and parasitoid progeny was controlled by rearing and dissections of hosts. Also G. liparidis were reared under controlled conditions to measure the effect of irradiation on their longevity and oviposition. A sting by an irradiated wasp (= pseudoparasitization) caused prolonged development and supernumerary molts of L. dispar larvae, and lead to the production of heavier pupae. However, such pseudoparasitized hosts suffered from higher pupal mortality due to incomplete larval-pupal molts or incomplete hardening of pupal cuticle. Effects on the host immune system were studied indirectly using an additional infection with the entomopathogenic microsporidium Vairimorpha sp. Pseudoparasitized hosts died earlier from the microsporidiosis and showed infections of higher intensity. For G. liparidis adults the g-irradiation caused no marked reduction in lifespan, except at the highest dose of 10.5 krad, but irradiated females laid significantly fewer eggs. The treatment did not result in complete sterilisation; about 10 to 20 percent of parasitoid eggs did hatch and such G. liparidis were able to complete their development to adults. Further studies will investigate the incomplete sterilization of G. liparidis eggs by g-irradiation. We will test whether these synovigenic wasps can recover after a certain time after irradiation and produce fertile eggs again. Consequently, we aim to develop a protocol of dose and timing of g-irradiation to give the best results for using it as a tool in studying the effects of PDV and venom of G. liparidis.
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