Das Projekt "Remote sensing as surrogate for phylodiversity and functional processes along land use and elevation gradients" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Marburg, Fachgebiet Naturschutz, Professur für Naturschutz durchgeführt. The proposed project aims at investigating how changes in land use and elevation affects the functional and phylodiversity of trees and birds and how this translates into the associated processes in particular herbivory and predation. As it is time consuming to quantify these measures of biodiversity and processes we need a simple indicator system for routine monitoring across large areas. New developments in remote sensing provide promising information for predicting biodiversity as well as ecosystem processes. Spectral diversity derived from remote sensing is for example positively linked to biochemical diversity of trees. In addition, the vegetation reacts on subtle changes due to herbivory by detectable changes in netto primary production and leaf pigment status. Therefore, we expect that we can predict variables describing the status of biodiversity as well as certain processes by measures of spectral and structural diversity derived from remote sensing. This would provide the ground to develop a simple and integrative indicator for ecosystem services. Such an indicator system based on remote sensing would be an important step towards an integrative monitoring of the status of biodiversity, ecosystem functioning and finally ecosystem services that can be used across large areas and even in areas with rough terrains.
Das Projekt "Forest biodiversity characterization and in situ service quantification - Sub-project: smallFOREST - Biodiversity and ecosystem services of small forest fragments in European landscapes" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Institut für Biologie II, Lehrstuhl für Geobotanik durchgeführt. In many parts of Europe, the original forest cover has strongly reduced and forests presently occur as small fragments, often embedded in an intensively used agricultural matrix. Despite their small size, these forest patches often act as refugia for biodiversity. And these small fragments may provide a wide range of ecosystem services (ES) to human society. Biodiversity and ES of small forest fragments are mutually dependent as they are determined by a similar set of drivers. However, the nature and strength of the relationships between biodiversity and ES will vary, depending on the taxonomic group and ES under consideration, and on the landscape context including the type and intensity of the surrounding land-use and the land-use history. Moreover, the value attributed to an ES will differ between different regions. All these sources of variation remain largely unknown and their effects on human perception, hence on decisions about management, planning and policy, is poorly understood. Therefore, the main objective of the small FOREST project is to quantify ES and biodiversity in small forest fragments among agricultural landscapes and across different regions in Europe, to analyse how their mutual relationships vary between landscapes and regions and to assess the extent to which ES are valued differently. The contribution from our work package is 1) the description of the taxonomic, functional and structural diversity of the forest patches. And 2) Quantification of in situ ES. We will focus on wood production as an ecosystem service and on an important ecosystem dis-service provided by forests, which is tightly related to human well-being, namely the presence of ticks (Ixodes spp.) and diseases they carry.
Das Projekt "Development and validation of functional indicators for avian seed dispersal" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von LOEWE - Biodiversität und Klima Forschungszentrum (BiK-F) durchgeführt. Human-induced global change calls for a worldwide monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem functions. To date, monitoring programs of biodiversity indicators have been established for different taxonomic groups and habitats. However, these indicator systems have not quantified the pivotal interactions among species within communities and thus fail to measure the functionality of ecosystems. In this proposal, we aim at developing a prototype for structural and functional monitoring of frugivorous bird and fruiting plant diversity and avian seed dispersal, an important bird-mediated ecosystem function. We will implement and test functional and structural indicators in mountain rainforest and Tumbesian dry forest in South Ecuador. We will employ artificial fruits to assess the impact of human disturbance on avian seed-dispersal networks by comparing pecking rates on artificial fruits of different size and colour between continuous near-natural forests and human-disturbed forests. We will validate the reliability of the functional indicator system by comparing experimental networks to real-world seed- dispersal networks. At the same sites, we will assess species richness and trait diversity of frugivorous bird and fruiting plant communities. Functional monitoring of avian seed dispersal and structural monitoring of bird and fruit communities will be integrated to deliver predictions of avian seed-dispersal functions at the scale of entire plant communities. With this project, we seek to implement a reliable indicator system for avian seed dispersal that can be applied as a prototype for ecosystem function monitoring in research platforms worldwide.
Das Projekt "'Institutions of Sustainability' as an Analytical Framework and Research Heuristics" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Berlin (Humboldt-Univ.), Albrecht Daniel Thaer-Institut für Agrar- und Gartenbauwissenschaften - Ressourcenökonomie durchgeführt. This proposal describes the research and communication the applicant intends to conduct during a five months visit at Indiana University in the Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis in Bloomington (www.indiana.edu/caworkshop/). The background of the research process in which the applicant finds himself is the extended capacity of humans to use and overuse both geo- and bio-physical systems, which has increased rapidly during the twentieth century. As a consequence, adequate theoretical approaches and empirical methodologies are required to develop a proper explanation and understanding of the complexity and diversity of naturerelated institutions and governance structures in socio-ecological systems. A central prerequisite to achieve this are analytical frameworks which have the capacity to serve as research heuristics for guiding research processes towards 'Institutions of Sustainability'. This project aims to refine, improve and extend analytical frameworks existing in different schools to arrive at a framework for analyzing Social-Ecological Systems in an institutional perspective.
Das Projekt "FOR566: Tierarzneimittel in Böden: Grundlagenforschung für die Risikoanalyse, Teilprojekt 'Modellierung der Interaktionen von Dynamik und Wirkung'" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Osnabrück, Institut für Umweltsystemforschung durchgeführt. The simulation models developed in the 1st phase integrate the chemical fate of the veterinary medicines sulfadiazine (SDZ) and difloxacin (DIF) in bulk soil and their subsequent effects on soil microorganisms and on soil functions after single-dose application with manure. In the 2nd project phase, this approach is extended to the rhizosphere, which represents the hotspot of microbial growth in soil and a continuous source of organic compounds released from active roots. The processes of fast and slow sorption, transformation and formation of bound residues of the antibiotics and their main metabolites are adapted to the rhizosphere. The developed effect models for soil functions, structural diversity, and resistance dynamics are extended by relevant plant-soil interactions in close collaboration with the experimental subprojects. The integrated fate-effect model is coupled with a transport model taking heterogeneities of the rhizosphere and plant uptake into account. Processes are parameterized for the two antibiotics SDZ and DIF in rhizosphere and bulk soil with data from the central mesocosm experiment and several planned satellite experiments. The resulting integrated fate-effect models will be evaluated with data from the field experiments. The model is further used to develop indicators such as structural resilience and functional redundancy for antibiotic induced effects, evaluate their applicability for risk assessment and to generate new hypotheses to corroborate the conclusions.
Das Projekt "Bioactive natural products - linking chemical and biological information for lead discovery, preliminary SAR and assessment of undesired pharmacological properties" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Basel, Department Pharmazeutische Biologie durchgeführt. Small molecule natural products are a prolific source of inspiration for the development of new drugs, and essential tools in basic biomedical research as probes of biological functions. The contribution of academic laboratories in natural products discovery has been essential. The limiting factor of traditional approaches in bioactivity-directed natural product research has been the tedious process of purification and identification of active molecules from a highly complex extract matrix. Recent technological advances enable substantial improvements in efficiency via a consequential miniaturization of the screening and discovery process, and automation of certain process steps. The aim of the project is to discover small molecule natural products leads from plants and fungi acting against clinically relevant and/or emerging targets in important disease areas. The targets have been selected on the basis of specific criteria, such as (i) novelty and importance of target; (ii) lack of specific/selective inhibitors; (iii) need for enhancement of structural diversity of ligands; (iv) difficulty/impossibility to use rational drug discovery approaches; (v) access to animal models. Indications include CNS (selective GABA-A receptor agonists), inflammation and cancer (modulation of angiogenesis and lymphangiogenesis, inhibition of PI3 kinases). In addition, a screening for hERG channel inhibition will be carried out as the currently most critical anti-target in drug discovery & development. An extract library and a technology platform for the miniaturized discovery of natural products will be used. The library consists of currently 1000 plant and fungal extracts. An ethnomedicine-based focussed sub-library will be specifically tested for GABAA receptor agonistic properties. All process steps in the screening and consecutive lead identification are miniaturized, in part automated, and based on the 96-well microtiter footprint. Most of the assays are via external collaborations, and some assays involving cell signalling are established in-house. Prioritized extracts are submitted to HPLC-based activity profiling with microtiter-based fractionation of column effluent, and simultaneous on-line spectroscopic (PDA, ion-trap ESI and APCI-MS, and ESI-TOF) analysis. Compound dereplication and identification is supported by off-line microprobe NMR spectroscopy. Around the active target molecules, structurally related compounds will be characterized to generate small 'virtual' libraries for preliminary structure activity relationships. Calculation of physico-chemical data and secondary bioassays will characterize leads, and shortlisted compounds will be tested in vivo for proof of concept. For this purpose, compounds of interest are isolated in a targeted manner in amounts of up to several hundred mg.
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