Background: An increasing frequency of massive flooding along the lower Yangtse River in China ended in a disastrous catastrophe in summer 1998 leaving several thousand people homeless, more than 3.600 dead and causing enormous economic damage. Inappropriate land-use techniques and large scale timber felling in the water catchment of the upper Yangtse and its feeder streams were stated to be the main causes. Immediate timber cutting bans were imposed and investigations on land use patterns were initiated by the Chinese Government. The Institute for World Forestry of the Federal Research Centre for Forestry and Forest Products was approached by the Yunnan Academy of Forestry in Kunming to exchange experiences and to cooperate scientifically in the design and application of appropriate afforestation and silvicultural management techniques in the water catchment area of the Yangtse. This cooperation was initiated in 1999 and is based on formal agreements in the fields of agrarian research between the German and Chinese Governments. Objectives: The cooperation was in the first step focussing on the identification of factors which caused the enormous floodings. After their identification measures of prevention were determined and put into practice. In this context experiences made in past centuries in the alpine region of central Europe served as an incentive and example for similar environmental problems and solutions under comparable conditions. Relevant key questions of the cooperation project were: - Analysis of forest related factors influencing the recent floodings of the Yangtse, - Analysis and evaluation of silvicultural management experiences from central Europe for know-how transfer, - Evaluation of rehabilitation measures for successful application in Yunnan, - Dissemination of knowledge through vocational training. Results: - Frequent wild grazing of husbandry is a key factor for forest degeneration beyond unsustainable timber harvests, forest fires and insect calamities leading to increased water run-off in the mountainous region of Yunnan; - Browsing of cattle interrupts succession thus avoiding natural regeneration and leaving a logging ban ineffective; - Mountain pasture in the Alps had similar effects in the past in central Europe. The introduction of controlled grazing has led to an ecologically compatible coexistence of pasture and ecology. Close-to-nature forestry can have positive effects in this sensitive environment. - Afforestation with site adopted broadleaves and coniferous tree species was implemented on demonstration level using advanced techniques in Yunnan.
On 18 Januar 1986 at the east-looking slope of the Kleiner Watzmann in the Berchtesgaden National Park a snow avalanche came down from an elevation of about 2.000 m to the Königssee near St. Bartholomae (610 m above see level). It destroyed 12 to 15 ha of old growth forests dominated by beech (Fagus sylvatica); about 2.000 m3 of wood were thrown down. The soil survace was not intensively effected by the snow avalange. Because the area is situated in the central protection zone of the national park no clearing procedure was done, and a free stand develeopment without any direct impact of man is allowed to take place. In 1989 permanent plots (3 transects, each starting in the surrounding forest and crossing to avalanche area) were established. Vegetation and stand structure records were carried out in 1989, 1994 and 1999. Vegetation development in the first place is characterised by (1) a re-establishment of the tree layer by the (beech) trees, which were bent to the ground but not killed by the avalanche, (2) by seedling and sapling establishment (especially Acer and Fraxinus, but not by pioneer trees) and (3) by continuing floristic composition of the ground vegetation (coverage increasing or decresing depending on the light conditions).
Background and Objectives: The project area is located in the Ashanti Region of Ghana / West Africa in the transition zone of the moist semideciduous forest and tropical savannah zone. Main land use in this region is subsistence agriculture with large fallow areas. As an alternative land-use, forest plantations are under development by the Ghanaian wood processing company DuPaul Wood Treatment Ltd. Labourers from the surrounding villages are employed as permanent or casual plantation workers. Within three forest plantation projects of approximately 6,000 ha, DuPaul offers an area of 164 ha (referred to as Papasi Plantation) - which is mainly planted with Teak (Tectona grandis) - for research purposes. In return, the company expects consultations to improve the management for sustainable timber and pole production with exotic and native tree species. Results: In a first research approach, the Papasi Plantation was assessed in terms of vegetation classification, timber resources (in qualitative and quantitative terms) and soil and site conditions. A permanent sampling plot system was established to enable long-term monitoring of stand dynamics including observation of stand response to silvicultural treatments. Site conditions are ideally suited for Teak and some stands show exceptionally good growth performances. However, poor weed management and a lack of fire control and silvicultural management led to high mortality and poor growth performance of some stands, resulting in relative low overall growth averages. In a second step, a social baseline study was carried out in the surrounding villages and identified landowner conflicts between some villagers and DuPaul, which could be one reason for the fire damages. However, the study also revealed a general interest for collaboration in agroforestry on DuPaul land on both sides. Thirdly, a silvicultural management concept was elaborated and an improved integration of the rural population into DuPaul's forest plantation projects is already initiated. If landowner conflicts can be solved, the development of forest plantations can contribute significantly to the economic income of rural households while environmental benefits provide long-term opportunities for sustainable development of the region. Funding: GTZ supported PPP-Measure, Foundation
Atmospheric CO2 concentrations present a repetitive pattern of gradual decline and rapid increase during the last climate cycles, closely related to temperature and sea level change. During the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM; 23-19 kyr BP), when sea level was ca. 120 m below present, the ocean must have stored additionally about 750 Gt carbon. There is consensus that the Southern Ocean represents a key area governing past and present CO2 change. The latter is not only of high scientific but also of socio-economic and political concern since the Southern Ocean provides the potential for an efficient sink of anthropogenic carbon. However, the sensitivity of this carbon sink to climate-change induced reorganizations in wind patterns, ocean circulation, stratification, sea ice extent and biological production remains under debate. Models were not yet able to reproduce the necessary mechanisms involved, potentially due to a lack of the dynamic representation/resolution of atmospheric and oceanic circulation as well as missing carbon cycling. Data on past Southern Ocean hydrography and productivity are mainly from the Atlantic sector, thus do not adequately document conditions in the Pacific sector. This sector is not only the largest part of the Southern Ocean, but it also represents the main drainage area of the marine-based West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS). In the proposed study we aim to generate paleo-data sets with a newly established proxy method from sediment core transects across the Pacific Southern Ocean. This will enhance the baselines for the understanding and modeling of the Southern Ocean's role in carbon cyling, i.e. ocean/atmosphere CO2 exchange and carbon sequestration. It will also allow insight into the response of the WAIS to past warmer than present conditions. Paired isotope measurements (oxygen, silicon) will be made on purified diatoms and radiolarians to describe glacial/interglacial contrasts in physical and nutrient properties at surface and subsurface water depth. This will be used to test (i) the impact of yet unconsidered dust-borne micronutrient deposition on the glacial South Pacific on shifts of primary productivity, Si-uptake rates and carbon export, (ii) the 'silicic-acid leakage' hypothesis (SALH) and (iii) the formation and extent of surface water stratification. Diatom and radiolarian oxygen isotopes will provide information on the timing of surface ocean salinity anomalies resulting from WAIS melt water. Climate model simulations using a complex coupled atmosphere ocean general circulation model (AOGCM) in combination with a sophisticated ocean biogeochemical model including Si-isotopes will be used for comparison with the paleo records. The analysis will cover spatial as well as temporal variability patterns of Southern Ocean hydrography, nutrient cycling and air-sea CO2-exchange. With the help of the climate model we aim to better separate and statistically analyse the individual impacts of ocean circulation and bio
Der Beginn der nordhemisphärischen Vereisung und die Entwicklung kontinuierlichen Permafrostes in Eurasien zwischen dem Ende des Miozäns und dem frühen Pleistozän zählt zu den bedeutendsten klimatischen Ereignissen des Känozoikums. Der Zeitpunkt extensiver Vereisung auf den Kontinenten und des Arktischen Ozeans und damit verbundene Veränderungen der klimatischen Bedingungen bleibt bislang ungenau bestimmt.Speläotheme (sekundäre Höhlenkarbonate) stellen ein wichtiges Archiv kontinentaler Umweltbedingungen dar, welches durch besonders genaue radiometrische Altersmodelle für eine grosse Bandbreite an Paläoklimaproxies charakterisiert ist.Wir konnten erfolgreich diagenetisch unveränderte und datierbare Proben aus Zentral- und Nordsibirien identifizieren und schlagen eine Multi-proxy-Studie an U/Pb-datierten Stalagmiten vor. Diese Studie wird Einblicke in die thermalen und hydrologischen Bedingungen zwischen 10.3 Ma und 8 Ma liefern. Wasser aus in den Speläothemen eingeschlossenen Fluidinklusionen wird auf seine Isotopenzusammensetzung hin untersucht. Zudem wird die in den Speläothemen beobachtete Lamination genutzt, um die Saisonalität während des Torton und Messiniums zu rekonstruieren. Wir suchen finanzielle Unterstützung für die parallele Analyse der Isotopie des Fluidinklusionswassers, der Sauerstoff- und Kohlenstoffisotopie des Karbonates, und der Elementkonzentration in den Speläothemen. Diese Kombination geochemischer Methoden wird Einblicke in regionale Umweltbedingungen, die Niederschlagshistorie und Temperaturen während des Miozäns und vor der Entwicklung kontinuierlichen Permafrostes geben. Zusätzliche Proben werden genutzt, um den Wechsel vom eisfreien zu einem durch Permafrost charakterisierten Sibirien zeitlich genauer einzugrenzen.Das vorgeschlagene Projekt wird unser Wissen zur atmosphärischen Zirkulation, und daran geknüpfter Veränderungen des Feuchte- und Temperaturregimes während eines saisonal eisfreien Arktischen Ozeans erweitern.
The 'hydraulic activation of stomata' (HAS) describes the establishment of continuous liquid water connections along stomatal walls, which affects individual stomata. It enables the efficient bidirectional transport of water, solutes, and hydraulic signals between the leaf interior and leaf surface and makes stomatal transpiration partly independent of stomatal aperture. While in our earlier work we postulated the existence of these connections and contributed substantially to their final approval, this research proposal focusses on the fundamental significance of HAS for the water and nutrient relations of plants, for atmosphere/plant interaction, and for the modelling of gas exchange. The planned experimental investigations aim to describe HAS formation by hygroscopic salts, to examine new concepts of the plant humidity sensor, nocturnal transpiration, stomatal water uptake, and the 'extended apoplast', as well as the significance of epicuticle waxes for atmospheric particle capture. Together, this should lead both to the further development of new theoretical concepts describing plant adaptations to aerosol regimes, and to practical applications in foliar fertilization, plant protection, and improvement of salt stress tolerance.
Das hier vorgeschlagene Projekt, RP6 in INUIT-2, zielt darauf hin, fundamentales Prozessverständnis in Bezug auf heterogene Eisnukleation zu erzielen, und hier besonders auf die Rolle von biogenen Eiskeimen und von Eiskeimen die aus Mischungen von biogenem und mineralischem Material bestehen. Der Leipzig Aerosol Cloud Interaction Simulator (LACIS) wird dazu verwendet werden, das Immersionsgefrierverhalten einer Reihe von verschiedenen Eiskeimen zu untersuchen, darunter biogene (von Pilzen stammende) Eiskeime, solche die aus einer Mischung von biogenem und mineralischem Material bestehen wie Bodenstäube und Proben die innerhalb von INUIT-2 als Test-Materialen verwendet werden. Letztere werden von verschiedenen Gruppen von innerhalb und außerhalb von INUIT vermessen werden, und die Ergebnisse werden Vergleichen unterzogen werden, ähnlich denen, die bereits für einfachere Test-Materialien in INUIT-1 erfolgreich durchgeführt worden sind. Für die Eiskeime, die zur Untersuchung in RP6 vorgeschlagen werden, wird in sinnvollen und machbaren Fallen eine Oberflächenbehandlung durchgeführt werden, mit reaktiven und mit chemisch inerten Substanzen, deren Einfluss auf die Eiskeimfähigkeit dann untersucht wird. Wie bereits in früheren LACISStudien dokumentiert, sind kontrollierte Oberflächenbehandlungen ein ausgezeichnetes Instrument um zu ermitteln, was dazu führt, dass ein Partikel ein effektiver Eiskeim ist. Zusätzlich erhellen diese Untersuchungen den Effekt der Alterung auf die Eiskeime. Es ist auch geplant, die Messungen auszuweiten, hin zu Bedingungen unter denen eine Untersättigung bezüglich Wasserdampf vorliegt. Es soll untersucht werden in wie weit sich die Eiskeimbildung unter diesen Bedingungen verhält wie es im Fall von Immersionsgefrieren in konzentrierten Lösungen zu erwarten wäre. Von all den experimentell erhaltenen Daten werden verschiedene Parametrisierungen abgeleitet, sowohl zeit-abhängige als auch zeit-unabhängige, die dann der Wissenschaftsgemeinschaft für die weitere Verwendung in Modellen zur Verfügung gestellt werden. Die hier vorgeschlagenen Studien werden die bereits erfolgreich an LACIS während INUIT-1 durchgeführten Arbeiten ergänzen, da die Arbeiten in INUIT-1 stärker auf die Untersuchung reiner Mineralstäube und reiner biogener Substanzen hinzielten. Die Untersuchung von komplexeren und entsprechend mehr atmosphärenrelevanten Eiskeimen wird signifikant dazu beisteuern, atmosphärische Eiskeimbildung generell besser zu verstehen, und die entsprechenden Beiträge von mineralischen und biogenen Substanzen zu quantifizieren.
The final goal of the EUROWET project is to integrate the substantial multidisciplinary European research in wetlands to help attain the sustainable management of the water cycle. This will be achieved by the translation of state-of-the art science developed at both national and European levels, into practical guidance for end-users. This will be achieved by a comprehensive review, expert assessment and a focussed dissemination strategy. There is considerable scientific knowledge and technical experience gained in diverse aspects of wetland science and management including hydrology, biogeochemistry, ecology restoration, socio-economic and policy analysis. However the results of research and management experience are still too fragmentary and not sufficiently orientated to problem-solving or simply inadequately framed to be effectively transferred to, or used by, stakeholders and policy-makers. Simultaneously the general outcome of the scientific research has been increased awareness of the significance of wetlands in delivering goods and services important for human welfare including quality of life, biodiversity conservation and maintenance or enhancement of environment quality. Despite this wetlands continue to be degraded and lost throughout Europe without adequate consideration of the wider benefits to be achieved from this management. The new Water Framework Directive (WFD) promotes a unique opportunity to redress this problem by means of the holistic, integrated approach to water management. There is currently in preparation horizontal guidance on Wetlands as part of the Common Implementation Strategy (CIS) process. There is however work still to be done on providing more specific scientific and technical guidance on the effective implementation of the Directive with respect to wetlands. This is particularly the case in relation to Integrated River Management, the CIS cluster within which wetlands are being considered in the WFD.
Introduction: In Malaysia, excessive nutrients from livestock waste management systems are currently released to the environment. Particularly, large amounts of manure from intensive pig production areas are being excreted daily and are not being fully utilised. Alternatively, the excess manure can be applied as an organic fertiliser source in neighbouring cropping systems on the small landholdings of the pig farms to improve soil fertility so that its nutrients will be available for crop uptake instead of being discharged into water streams. Thus, there is a need for better tools to analyse the present situation, to evaluate and monitor alternative livestock production systems and manure management scenarios, and to support farmers in the proper management of manure and fertiliser application. Such tools are essential to quantify, and assess nutrient fluxes, manure quality and content, manure storage and application rate to the land as well as its environmental effects. Several computer models of animal waste management systems to assist producers and authorities are now available. However, it is felt that more development is needed to adopt such models to the humid tropics and conditions of Malaysia and other developing countries in the region. Objectives: The aim is to develop a novel model to evaluate nutrient emission scenarios and the impact of livestock waste at the landscape or regional level in humid tropics. The study will link and improve existing models to evaluate emission of N to the atmosphere, and leaching of nutrients to groundwater and surface water. The simulation outputs of the models will be integrated with a GIS spatial analysis to model the distribution of nutrient emission, leaching and appropriate manure application on neighbouring crop lands and as an information and decision support tool for the relevant users.
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