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.
Despite the advantages of solar membrane distillation (MD) systems very few experimental systems have been developed as opposed to the mature technologies solar PV-driven RO and solar distillation. Therefore, main objective of MEDESOL Project is the development of an environmentally friendly improved-cost desalination technology to fresh water supply in arid and semi-arid regions in EU and Third Countries based on solar MD. The layout involves the innovative concept of multistage MD in order to minimize specific energy and membrane area required and also to substantially reduce the brine generation. The aim of this work was to evaluate the technical feasibility of producing potable water from seawater by integrating several membrane distillation modules (Multi-step Membrane Distillation System). The aim is to develop systems for a capacity ranging from 0.5 to 50 m3/day. Technical simplicity, long maintenance-free operation periods and high-quality potable water output are the very important aims which will enable successful application of the systems that are based in membrane distillation. The heat source will proceed from an advanced compound parabolic solar concentrator, developed to the specific concentration ratio to achieve the specific needed range of temperatures (90ºC) and the seawater heater will include the development of an advanced non-fouling surface coatings to avoid the deposit formation (i.e. scaling) at such temperature. Laboratory tests under defined testing conditions of all components are very important for the preparation of successful field tests under real conditions. Prime Contractor: Centro de Investigaciones Energeticas, Medioambientales y Tecnologicas-Ciemat, Madrid, Spain.
The HyFLEET:CUTE project involves the operation of 47 hydrogen powered buses in regular public transport service in 10 cities on three continents. The Project aims to diversify and reduce energy consumption in the transport system by developing new, fuel efficient hydrogen powered bus technology, and clean, efficient and safe ways of producing and distributing hydrogen fuel. Objectives: - Develop hydrogen powered bus technology in order to reduce the consumption of fuel and energy in the whole transportation system. - Develop efficient and environmentally 'friendly' ways to produce hydrogen. - Research the technology and development needs to establish a hydrogen refueling infrastructure. - Inform the community and key decision-makers about the potential advantages of a hydrogen-based transport system and how they can help to develop it.
Based on a better understanding of terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity and ecosystem functioning ALARM will develop and test methods and protocols for the assessment of large-scale environmental risks in order to minimise negative direct and indirect human impacts. Research will focus on assessment and forecast of changes in biodiversity and in structure, function, and dynamics of ecosystems. This relates to ecosystem services and includes the relationship between society, economy and biodiversity. In particular, risks arising from climate change, environmental chemicals, biological invasions and pollinator loss in the context of current and future European land use patterns will be assessed. There is an increasing number of case studies on the environmental risks subsequent to each of these impacts. This yields an improved understanding on how these act individually and affect living systems. Whereas the knowledge on how they act in concert is poor and ALARM will be the first research initiative with the critical mass needed to deal with such aspects of combined impacts and their consequences. So far the ALARM consortium combines the expertise of 54 partners from 26 countries (19 EU, Bulgaria, Romania, Israel, Switzerland, Russia, Chile, and Argentina). Within this call we propose to include 16 new TTC partners from Russia, Belarus, China, South-Africa, India, Croatia, Ukraine, Serbia & Montenegro, The Philippines, Bolivia, Guatemala, and Mexico, in order to complement expertise and geographical coverage of the existing consortium.
The overall goal of the GEOMON project is to sustain and analyze European ground-based observations of atmospheric composition, complementary with satellite measurements, in order to quantify and understand the ongoing changes. GEOMON is a first step to build a future integrated pan-European Atmospheric Observing System dealing with systematic observations of long-lived greenhouse gases, reactive gases, aerosols, and stratospheric ozone. This will lay the foundations for a European contribution to GEOSS and optimize the European strategy of environmental monitoring in the field of atmospheric composition observations. Specifically, we will unify and harmonize the main Europeans networks of surface and aircraft-based measurements of atmospheric composition parameters and integrate these measurements with those of satellites. The access to data and data-products will be coordinated at a common data centre for more efficient use. GEOMon will support data gathering at existing networks if necessary, rescue and compile existing ground-based data, and develop new methodologies to use these data for satellite validation and interpretation.. In addition, GEOMON will enable innovative ground-based measurements complementary to satellites, made by upward looking ground based remote sensing instruments Max-DOAS, FTIR, and LIDAR and by systematic measurement programmes of upper-tropospheric composition using passenger aircrafts CARIBIC and MOZAIC. These data will serve to reduce biases and random errors in satellite observations and facilitate interpretation of the columnar measurements in combination with surface data. This will result in a significant improvement in the use of existing and future satellite data. Common techniques and modelling tools will be used in order to add value to the GEOMON data observations, to facilitate their use in satellite validation and help design an optimal network. Prime Contractor: Commissariat a l'Energie Atomique (CEA); Paris; France.
The project will contribute to better measure, model, and predict the processes leading to earthquakes, andslides, submarine slides, and tsunamis, and their effect in terms of hazard. The target area is the rift of Corinth,well known for its exceptional activity with respect to these hazards. This work will focus on the western end of the rift, close to the cities of Patras and Aigion, where the risk is highest. We will study the short term seismic hazard with methods involving seismology, geodesy, geophysics, and geochemistry. In addition to strong motion analysis and prediction, transient processes (seismic swarms, 'silent' earthquakes, fluid transients) will be studied, for a better modelling fault mechanics and earthquake preparation processes. In addition to the existing monitoring arrays and data base, specific new instrumentation will be built. Near-real time alarms systems for significant earthquakes will be developed and tested. For the long term seismic hazard, the seismic potential of active faults will be assessed on land and offshore. For submarine slope failures, places of past and future potential slumps will be mapped, and complemented by marine sediment coring and dating on selected places. Scenarios of slope failure and of coseismic displacement of the sea floor will be the inputs for tsunami modelling. The latter will be implemented using the existing high resolution bathymetry for modelling of the wave run up. Early warning alarms will be developed and tested. For landslides, the main objective is to monitor and model the perturbation of the sliding of a well documented active landslide, in response to ground shaking from local earthquakes. Continuous GPS, seismic and tilt monitoring, and repeated advanced geodesy, will quantify sliding rates and constrain first order models. The feasibility of alarm systems will be studied. Prime Contractor: Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, Sismogénèse, Department de Sismologie; Paris; France.
Backgrond: The mild climate of north western Europe is, to a large extent, governed by the influx of warm Atlantic water to the Nordic Seas. Model simulations predict that this influx and the return of flow of cold deep water to the Atlantic may weaken as a consequence of global warming. MOEN will assess the effect of anthropogenic climate change on the Meridional Overturning Circulation by monitoring the flux exchanges between the North Atlantic and the Nordic Seas and by assessing its present and past variability in relation to the atmospheric and thermohaline forcing. This information will be used to improve predictions of regional and global climate changes. MOEN is a self-contained project of the intercontinental Arctic-Subarctic Ocean Flux (ASOF) Array for European Climate project, which aims at monitoring and understanding the oceanic fluxes of heat, salt and freshwater at high northern latitudes and their effect on global ocean circulation and climate. MOEN will contribute to a better long-term observing system to monitor the exchanges between the North Atlantic and the Nordic Seas from direct and continuous measurements in order to allow an assessment of the effect of anthropogenic climate change on the Meridional Overturning Circulation. This we will be done by measuring and modelling fluxes and characteristics of total Atlantic inflow to the Nordic Seas and of the Iceland-Scotland component of the overflow from the Nordic Seas to the Atlantic. General objectives: To contribute to a better long-term observing system to monitor the exchanges between the North Atlantic and the Nordic Seas. To assess the effect of anthropogenic climate change on the Meridional Overturning Circulation. Modelling objectives (WP4, IfM): To model the flow field, the temperature and salinity distribution and the heat fluxes for an area focused on the Iceland-Faroe Ridge, the Faroe Bank and Faroe-Shetland Channel and Wyville-Thomson Ridge. To model long term variations of the locally induced and far field circulation and T/S distribution in order to understand climate variations.
An einer ausgewählten Tankstelle in Luxemburg wurde mit dem VACONOVENT®-System eine neuartige Variante im Vergleich zu den bislang eingesetzten Gasrückführungssystemen erprobt. Die Ermittlung der Emissionen bei der Betankung von Kraftfahrzeugen mit Ottokraftstoff erfolgte durch drei verschiedene Messinstitute bei drei unterschiedlichen Betriebszuständen der Gasrückführungssysteme: Rückführrate 0, 100 und 150 Prozent. Bei allen drei Messkampagnen ist der Unterschied in den Emissionen bei wirksamer Gasrückführung zur abgeschalteten Gasrückführung klar erkennbar. Der Einfluss des verbesserten Rückführwirkungsgrades bei Rückführraten bis zu 150 Prozent auf die Gesamtemissionen der Tankstelle konnte aufgrund verschiedener Randbedingungen nicht eindeutig festgestellt werden.
The ARCHAIA project aims at implementing two training seminars on cultural heritage based on an innovative integrated perspective deriving both from the human and the natural sciences. The seminars address 90 post-graduate students, scholars and professionals of different backgrounds. Starting from the need of disseminating the results of 9 funded EU research projects and COST actions, we aim at presenting these within an innovative framework, i.e. a global approach towards planning and management of archaeological parks starting from the very first steps of field research and going through the characterisation of the materials retrieved and topographical studies in order to mould every bit of historical information within a coherent project, properly displayed for the public. Through an innovative didactic methodology, innovative scientific contents will be disseminated. Dealing with the initial program of archaeological research in the field, integrated with techniques of archeobiological and geoarchaeological investigation, our final goal is to supply the participants with the guidelines for moulding research strategies and managing archaeological sites, in order to be able to publicly display the historical content derived from research results and effectively proceed to the protection of the cultural heritage. One training seminar will be in Copenhagen and another one in Bologna. Five key topics have been selected: Topic 1 concerns Topography, surveying and landscape archaeology, Topic 2 Archaeological research and restoration of monuments, Topic 3 Material culture characterization, Topic 4 Anthropology and environment and Topic 5 Data processing and public presentation. The dissemination of the lectures presented through a monograph and multimedia products will also supply guidelines for integrated protocols on the management of archaeological sites, set in their landscape, within a global perspective.
In Vorbereitung des Langzeitmonitorings transgener Kulturpflanzen wurde die Variation ökologischer Parameter beim Anbau von Kartoffeln unter Praxisbedingungen im Land Brandenburg (2001-2003) analysiert. Ziel der Untersuchungen war es, im Rahmen einer Baseline-Studie ökologisch relevante Parameter der Agrarbiozönose 'Kartoffelfeld' zu analysieren und hinsichtlich ihrer Eignung für das Monitoring gentechnisch veränderter Kartoffeln zu bewerten. Die Studie konzentrierte sich auf die Untersuchung der boden- und pflanzenassoziierten Mikroflora, der Begleitfauna und -flora sowie auf die Abschätzung des Ausbreitungspotentials der Kartoffel. Daneben wurden zur Kennzeichnung der Versuchsbedingungen Standort- und Witterungsgrößen erfasst. Untersuchungsgrundlage waren jährlich 11 unterschiedlich bewirtschaftete Schläge (Ökologischer Landbau vs. Integrierter Pflanzenbau mittlerer und hoher Intensität), die sowohl in der Textur als auch in der organischen Bodensubstanz variierten, wenngleich ausschließlich für den Kartoffelanbau geeignete diluviale Standorte genutzt wurden. Somit lagen ähnliche, aber eindeutig differenzierte Ausgangsbedingungen vor. Teilthema 1: Auswahl und Charakterisierung der Untersuchungsstandorte. Teilthema 2: Charakterisierung der angebauten Kartoffelsorten. Teilthema 3: Analyse der Zusammensetzung bakterieller Gemeinschaften. Teilthema 4: Zusammenfassung der Kartoffelbegleitflora. Teilthema 5: Begleitfauna der Kartoffelbstände.
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