The project DIGSTER - Map and Go (Digital Based Terrain Mapping) aims at the technical aspects of digital terrrain mapping. For many questions in administration, planning and expertise terrrain mappings are indispensable. The whole process starting with the data acquisition in the field and ending with map products will be digitally performed by the system. Therefore, a platform appropriate for the use in the field (PDA) is combined with technologies from the disciplines of satellite navigation, remote sensing, communication, and mobile geoinformation systems. For DIGSTER a lot of practical applications already exist in connection with policies and directives on the national and also European level.
Beach sand deposits are widespread in the area around Sandefjord, at the western coast of the Oslofjord, southern Norway. The age of the deposits continuously increases with elevation, as the area has been subject to steady glacio-isostatic uplift throughout the Holocene. Existing local sea level curves provide age control related to elevation. Thus, the area offers excellent conditions to test hypotheses on soil formation and OSL dating. A chronosequence covering the last 10 000 years will be established. A preliminary study showed that soil formation leads to Podzols within 4300 - 6600 years. Micromorphological analyses suggest that clay illuviation takes place before and below podzolisation. It is hypothesised that clay translocation goes on contemporarily with podzolisation, but at greater soil depth, where the chemical conditions are suitable. This hypothesis will be proved by more detailed micromorphological investigation and chemical analyses. The factors controlling soil forming processes and their rates, will be determined by analyzing elemental composition, primary minerals and clay mineralogy. Preliminary OSL dating tests suggest that the beach sand deposits are OSL dateable despite the high latitude. This hypothesis will be checked by comparing OSL datings to ages derived from the 14C-based sea level curves.
This subproject aims to analyze the fragmentation of forest policy at both an international and national level for the selected countries, employing a discourse analysis approach. It is split into two sub-subprojects (SSPs). 'SSPa' conducts an analysis of discursive genealogies of forest policy in Germany, Sweden, and the US. 'SSPb' investigates the history of forest related discourses in three global environmental policy processes (UNFF, CBD, and UNFCCC). In doing so, both SSPs follow a three step procedure: In the first work package, relevant literature is reviewed and a theoretical and analytical framework is developed. In the second work package, empirical data (mostly formal and informal policy documents) are gathered and analyzed. In the third work package, emphasis is placed on the role of political 'elites' in the creation of fragmented forest policy discourses at different levels; in-depth interviews with policy stakeholders and experts add another perspective to the analysis in this work package. The project is expected to develop a new understanding not only of the fragmentation of multi-level and multi-sector forest policy discourses, but also of the way in which 'discourse elites' interact with and within these discourses. The results of the work packages will be published in peer reviewed journals and discussed with policy stakeholders and scientists in conferences and workshops.
The Labrador Sea is one of the few places in the world ocean, where deep water formation takes place. This water is exported from the Labrador Sea to become part of the southward branch of the meridional overturning circulation. Previous observational work has largely focused on the role of deep convection in the interior of the Labrador Sea. Recent evidence from observations and numerical ocean models specifically indicate that processes near the ocean boundaries might be most relevant for both Eulerian downwelling of waters in the Labrador Sea and the fast export of newly transformed waters. We propose to analyze mooring based observations at the western margin of the Labrador Sea together with high resolution numerical model simulations to understand the role both processes play for the meridional overturning circulation in the subpolar North Atlantic. Specifically, we want to test (i) if (and where) downwelling occurs along the margins of the Labrador Sea, (ii) how downwelling relates to the seasonal evolution of convection and eddy activity, (iii) how fast waters newly transformed near the western margin of the Labrador Sea are exported, and (iv) how the two processes (downwelling, fast export) affect the temporal variability of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation.
Water is an intrinsic component of ecosystems acting as a key agent of lateral transport for particulate and dissolved nutrients, forcing energy transfers, triggering erosion, and driving biodiversity patterns. Given the drastic impact of land use and climate change on any of these components and the vulnerability of Ecuadorian ecosystems with regard to this global change, indicators are required that not merely describe the structural condition of ecosystems, but rather capture the functional relations and processes. This project aims at investigating a set of such functional indicators from the fields of hydrology and biogeochemistry. In particular we will investigate (1) flow regime and timing, (2) nutrient cycling and flux rates, and (3) sediment fluxes as likely indicators. For assessing flow regime and timing we will concentrate on studying stable water isotopes to estimate mean transit time distributions that are likely to be impacted by changes in rainfall patterns and land use. Hysteresis loops of nitrate concentrations and calculated flux rates will be used as functional indicators for nutrient fluxes, most likely to be altered by changes in temperature as well as by land use and management. Finally, sediment fluxes will be measured to indicate surface runoff contribution to total discharge, mainly influenced by intensity of rainfall as well as land use. Monitoring of (1) will be based on intensive sampling campaigns of stable water isotopes in stream water and precipitation, while for (2) and (3) we plan to install automatic, high temporal-resolution field analytical instruments. Based on the data obtained by this intensive, bust cost effective monitoring, we will develop the functional indicators. This also provides a solid database for process-based model development. Models that are able to simulate these indicators are needed to enable projections into the future and to investigate the resilience of Ecuadorian landscape to global change. For the intended model set up we will couple the Catchment Modeling Framework, the biogeochemical LandscapeDNDC model and semi-empirical models for aquatic diversity. Global change scenarios will then be analyzed to capture the likely reaction of functional indicators. Finally, we will contribute to the written guidelines for developing a comprehensive monitoring program for biodiversity and ecosystem functions. Right from the beginning we will cooperate with four SENESCYT companion projects and three local non-university partners to ensure that the developed monitoring program will be appreciated by locals and stakeholders. Monitoring and modelling will focus on all three research areas in the Páramo (Cajas National Park), the dry forest (Reserva Laipuna) and the tropical montane cloud forest (Reserva Biologica San Francisco).
In the Earth, the dynamo action is strongly linked to core freezing. There is a solid inner core, the growth of which provides a buoyancy flux that drives the dynamo. The buoyancy in this case derives from a difference in composition between the solid inner core and the fluid outer core. In planetary bodies smaller than the Earth, however, this core differentiation process may differ - Fe may precipitate at the core-mantle boundary (CMB) rather than in the center and may fall as iron snow and initially remelt with greater depth. A chemical stable sedimentation zone develops that comprises with time the entire core - at that time a solid inner core starts to grow. The dynamics of this system is not well understood and also whether it can generate a magnetic field or not. The Jovian moon Ganymede, which shows a present-day magnetic dipole field, is a candidate for which such a scenario has been suggested. We plan to study this Fe-snow regime with both a numerical and experimental approach. In the numerical study, we use a 2D/3D thermo-chemical convection model that considers crystallization and sinking of iron crystals together with the dynamics of the liquid core phase (for the 3D case the influence of the rotation of the Fe snow process is further studied).The numerical calculations will be complemented by two series of experiments: (1) investigations in metal alloys by means of X-ray radioscopy, and (2) measurements in transparent analogues by optical techniques. The experiments will examine typical features of the iron snow regime. On the one hand they will serve as a tool to validate the numerical approach and on the other hand they will yield important insight into sub-processes of the iron snow regime, which cannot be accessed within the numerical approach due to their complexity.
The aim of this project is to co-estimate models of the core and ionosphere magnetic fields, with the longer-term view of building a 'comprehensive' model of the Earths magnetic field. In this first step we would like to take advantage of the progresses made in the understanding of the ionosphere by global M-I-T modelling to better separate the core and ionospheric signals in satellite data. The magnetic signal generated in the ionosphere is particularly difficult to handle because satellite data provide only information on a very narrow local time window at a time. To get around this difficulty, we would like to apply a technique derived from assimilation methods and that has been already successfully applied in outer-core flow studies. The technique relies on a theoretical model of the ionosphere such as the Upper Atmosphere Model (UAM), where statistics on the deviations from a simple background model are estimated. The derived statistics provided in a covariance matrix format can then be use directly in the magnetic data inversion process to obtain the expected core and ionospheric models. We plan to apply the technique on the German CHAMP satellite data selected for magnetically quiet times. As an output we should obtain a model of the ionospheric magnetic variation field tailored for the selected data and a core-lithosphere field model where possible leakage from ionospheric signals are avoided or at least reduced. The technique can in theory be easily extended to handle the large-scale field generated in the magnetosphere.
Most soils develop distinct soil architecture during pedogenesis and soil organic carbon (SOC) is sequestered within a hierarchical system of mineral-organic associations and aggregates. Permafrost soils store large amounts of carbon due to their permanently frozen subsoil and a lack of oxygen in the active layer, but they lack complex soil structure. With permafrost thaw more oxidative conditions and increasing soil temperature presumably enhance the build-up of more complex units of soil architecture and may counterbalance, at least partly, SOC mineralization. We aim to explore the development of mineral-organic associations and aggregates under different permafrost impact with respect to SOC stabilization. This information will be linked to environmental control factors relevant for SOC turnover at the pedon and stand scale to bridge processes occurring at the aggregate scale to larger spatial dimensions. We will combine in situ spectroscopic techniques with fractionation approaches and identify mechanisms relevant for SOC turnover at different scales by multivariate statistics and variogram analyses. From this we expect a deeper knowledge about soil architecture formation in the transition of permafrost soils to terrestrial soils and a scale-spanning mechanistic understanding of SOC cycling in permafrost regions.
Ziel der Forschungsarbeit ist die Klassifizierung von Boden-Biozönosen in ausgewählten Feldrainen. In drei Naturräumen (Lössböden der Jülicher Börde, Muschelkalkböden in Mainfranken und pleistozäne Sande bei Leipzig) werden typische Lebensgemeinschaften von Collembola und Gamasina (Taxozönosen) beschrieben. Der wesentliche Unterschied zu anderen Klassifikations-Ansätzen liegt in der induktiven Vorgehensweise: Biozönosen werden allein aufgrund der Artenzusammensetzung an den Standorten typisiert. Vegetationskundliche Kriterien dienen als entscheidendes Hilfsmittel zur Vorauswahl von Flächen mit ähnlichen Standortbedingungen. Hierbei wird gleichzeitig die aufgenommene Vegetation als ein weiteres Taxon der zu beschreibenden Biozönose angesehen. Die typische Artenzusammensetzung ist das integrierte Ergebnis aller denkbaren ökologischen Vorgänge. Ein Ziel der Arbeit ist somit die prospektive Formulierung von Erwartungswerten für Collembolen und Raubmilben auf der Basis vegetationskundlicher Daten. Es sollte daher möglich sein, dieses Mehrarten-System mit hoher Sensibilität zur Bioindikation von Standortveränderungen einzusetzen. Die Kenntnis der Artenstruktur wiederkehrender Lebensgemeinschaften kann der funktionellen Ökosystemforschung hilfreiche Hinweise bieten.
The formation of biogeochemical interfaces in soils is controlled, among other factors, by the type of particle surfaces present and the assemblage of organic matter and mineral particles. Therefore, the formation and maturation of interfaces is studied with artificial soils which are produced in long-term biogeochemical laboratory incubation experiments (3, 6, 12, 18 months. Clay minerals, iron oxides and charcoal are used as major model components controlling the formation of interfaces because they exhibit high surface area and microporosity. Soil interface characteristics have been analyzed by several groups involved in the priority program for formation of organo-mineral interfaces, sorptive and thermal interface properties, microbial community structure and function. Already after 6 months of incubation, the artificial soils exhibited different properties in relation to their composition. A unique dataset evolves on the development and the dynamics of interfaces in soil in the different projects contributing to this experiment. An integrated analysis based on a conceptual model and multivariate statistics will help to understand overall processes leading to the biogeochemical properties of interfaces in soil, that are the basis for their functions in ecosystems. Therefore, we propose to establish an integrative project for the evaluation of data obtained and for publication of synergistic work, which will bring the results to a higher level of understanding.
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