Pflanzensoziologische Analyse der Vegetation von Lesesteinwaellen; Saumgesellschaften; Moos- und Flechtengesellschaften; Verbreitung von Gehoelzarten und pflanzengeographischer Weiserarten; Populationsoekologie von Lilium bulbiferum im Osterzgebirge.
Im Rahmen dieses Projektes sollen die Auswirkungen unterschiedlicher strukturfördernder Maßnahmen zur Lichtstellung auf lichtliebende Artengruppen untersucht werden. Hierfür sollen Auflichtungsmaßnahmen unterschiedlicher Intensität in ausgewählten Schonwäldern mit entsprechendem Schutzziel durchgeführt werden und im Hinblick auf Biodiversität und Managementaufwand bewertet werden. Ziel ist die Ableitung arten(gruppen)spezifischer Zielwerte und kosteneffizienter waldbaulicher Verfahren zur Schaffung von lichten Strukturen. Die Ergebnisse stellen einen wichtigen Baustein der Ziele 3 & 6 der GK WNS (Gesamtkonzeption Waldnaturschutz) dar.
Mit steigendem Energiebedarf wachsen in den kommenden Jahren zugleich die Herausforderungen, neue Formen einer nachhaltigen Energieerzeugung zu entwickeln. In diesem Zusammenhang nahm in den vergangenen Jahren der Anbau von 'Energiepflanzen' kontinuierlich zu, womit sich zugleich auch der Nutzungsdruck auf landwirtschaftliche Nutzflächen kontinuierlich erhöhte. Zudem hatte dies verschiedene landschaftsökologische Probleme zur Folge, da betroffene Landschaften nicht nur einen wesentlichen Teil ihres ökologisch-funktionellen, sondern auch ihres ästhetischen Wertes verloren (z.B. Biodiversitätsverlust, Grundwasserbelastung). Im Projekt wird (am Beispiel einer typischen Kulturlandschaft Norddeutschlands) untersucht, wie der ökologische Wert von Energiepflanzen-Äckern durch eine kombinierte Anlage von Blühstreifen und halboffenem Waldrand verbessert werden kann. Forschungsfragen sind: - Können Blühstreifen (in Kombination mit halboffenen Waldrändern) die Biodiversität von Agrarlandschaften fördern? - Können halboffene Waldränder in Kombination mit Blühstreifen als Ausbreitungskorridore von Arten in Agrarlandschaften dienen (Minimierung des Barriereeffektes)? - Kann der Eintrag von Stickstoff aus Energiepflanzen-Äckern in die angrenzenden Lebensräume durch das Vorhandensein von Blühstreifen minimiert werden? Im Projekt werden experimentell Blühstreifen entlang von Ackerrändern hergerichtet. Dabei kommt eine Einsaat mit unterschiedlichen Pflanzenarten zum Einsatz, die auch früher auf Äckern der betreffenden Region angebaut wurden. Solche Blühstreifen werden im Kontakt zu geschlossenen bzw. halboffenen Waldrändern angelegt, um den Artenaustausch und das Potential der Blühstreifen (in Kombination mit den Waldrändern) zur Minimierung der Barrierewirkung von Energiepflanzen-Äckern und ihren Beitrag zur Erhaltung der Biodiversität in Agrarlandschaften zu untersuchen.
Black carbon (BC) residues from the incomplete combustion of vegetation and fossil fuels are ubiquitous in soil, sediment and water. Due to its stability, BC is an important component of the slow cycling global carbon pool. Analysis of BC in environmental matrices such as soils and sediments is complicated by its diverse nature. Sediments are the quantitatively most important sink in the global black carbon cycle and represent archives of BC deposition on local and regional scales, but the identification and apportionment of the BC sources (fossil fuel combustion versus vegetation fires) remain unclear to date. Benzene polycarboxylic acids (BPCA) are molecular markers specific for BC and are used to measure quantity and quality of BC. The method provides information about the degree of condensation and allows characterization of different forms of BC (e.g. charcoal, soot). Recent advances in BPCA analysis improved the method in terms of sample preparation and made analyses faster and more accurate. Compound specific radiocarbon (14C) dating is a powerful tool in geochemistry and archaeological sciences to trace the fate of specific molecules in soils and sediments. Up to now, 14C measurements are inaccurate for BC, as established methods measure 14C contents of oxidation resistant bulk carbon. In the proposed research project, I will follow a novel approach for BPCA separation with subsequent determination of its 14C contents. This technique will allow to precisely estimate the apportionment of sources of BC found in sediments and the age of black carbon in soils. In this project I will take advantage of an existing set of well-dated lake sediment samples. These sediment cores feature undisturbed lamination, thus providing a high-resolution record of BC depositions over more than two centuries. Analyzing this unique sample set, the qualitative and quantitative information yielded by the BPCA method and the novel approach for radiocarbon dating of BC molecular markers will be used to construct a historical record of black carbon emissions. The data will be used to apportion the measured BC concentrations to either fossil fuel or biomass burning since pre-industrial times and to identify the type of BC being preferentially preserved in aquatic sediments. The outcome of the project will help to elucidate the environmental fate of BC and will be an important contribution to the accurate calculation of a global BC budget.
Soils store about twice as much carbon (C) than exists in the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (CO2). Terrestrial ecosystems are driving forces in the global carbon cycle and, if acting as carbon sinks, can become key to mitigate increasing CO2 concentrations in the atmosphere. Global warming probably will affect soil organic carbon (SOC) decomposition and will determine how much carbon will be transferred to the atmosphere or sequestered in soils. The project takes up urgent tasks, also pointed out during the IPCC meeting on terrestrial carbon stocks (IPCC, 2003), including a) factoring out effects causing carbon stock changes, b) employing high-technology measurements, e.g. isotope tracers, molecular markers, and c) elucidating soil mechanisms in addition to measuring fluxes. The aspects b) and c) are especially considered for the project. Lignin is one of the main constituents of the cell walls of woody plants and a large contributor to soil organic matter (SOM). The lignin macromolecule is generally believed to be relatively resistant against microbial degradation. Consequently, lignin residues are considered to form a large proportion of the stock of old, slowly degradable organic matter in the soil. However, analytical information of lignin biodegradation has mostly been addressed in short-term (days to weeks) in-vitro experiments. In-vivo experiments mimic natural processes in soils over many years much better but are sparse. Direct molecular-level information on long-term lignin turnover could come from field studies using the natural stable isotopic difference between C4 plant and C3 plant isotopes. When C4 vegetation replaces C3 vegetation, the new isotopically heavier C4-derived carbon subsequently replaces the old decaying C3 carbon. Thus, increasing ?13C values are directly related to the proportion of the new C4-derived biomass, and can be used to estimate the residence time and pool size of individual soil organic matter components. Stable carbon isotope analysis has been successfully applied to bulk soil organic matter and solvent-extractable compounds such as soil n-alkanes, but only very recently to individual lignin monomers, although analytical limitations still exist. In the project we will expand the number (arable soil, grassland) and types (forest) of studied ecosystems combined with different treatments (time, soil pH, nitrogen (N) availability, tillage). This project may provide a novel, improved analytical tool to gain isotopic information of lignin in plants and soil organic matter. It may also help to clarify our fundamental understanding of the global carbon cycle and thus carbon sequestration in soils, and will improve urgently needed plot based and global turnover models.
Das beantragte Vorhaben soll ein verbessertes Feuerrisiko-Management unter Nutzung von Fernerkundungsdaten unterstützen. Die Methode wird in einem Untersuchungsgebiet in der Provinz Alberta, welches zusammen mit dem Nutzer gewählt wurde, angewendet und getestet. Durch die spezifischen Bedingungen in Kanada (Sonnenstand, Bewölkung) bieten SAR Daten entscheidende Vorteile. C-Band Daten und X-Band Daten werden im Zusammenhang mit Modellierungs-Lösungen für das Feuerrisiko Management in Wert gesetzt. Bei den Feuerereignissen handelt es sich meist um natürliche Vorkommnisse, die durch die lokalen Wetter, Vegetations-, Boden- und Schneebedingungen begünstigt werden. Mit dem Aufbrechen der Schneedecke im Frühjahr und den einsetzenden Austrieb der Vegetation steigt das Risiko für Feuer signifikant. Neben den Zeitpunkt des Verschwindens der Schneedecke sind insbesondere der Zustand des Boden (gefroren / aufgetaut) und der Status der Vegetation ( greening ) von Bedeutung. Dieses multifaktorielle Zusammenwirken soll mittels eines multisensoralen Ansatzes untersucht werden. Es ist beabsichtigt, Forschungs- und Entwicklungsarbeiten im Bereich SAR Methodik und Produktentwicklungen von den Partnern VISTA und Hatfield in zwei kooperierenden Projekten durchzuführen. Dieses ermöglicht, eine synergetische Nutzung der Fernerkundungsdaten anhand der jeweiligen Arbeitsschwerpunkte und Erfahrungen und eine Zusammenwirken der spezifischen Aufgabenbereiche und Kompetenzen der beiden Partner. Neben der Fernerkundung werden auch flächenhafte Modellierungsansätze mit dem Prozessmodell PROMET, verwendet. Hierdurch können Informationen bereitgestellt werden, die aus der Fernerkundung allein nicht zu jedem Zeitpunkt und für jeden Ort zur Verfügung stehen. Durch die Zusammenarbeit werden die Dienste der Partner verbessert, als auch die bestehenden Entwicklungen an neue Fragestellungen angepasst und die Anwendungsbereiche erweitert um zukünftig weitere Dienste zu etablieren.
Research aims - The aim of this project is to demonstrate whether increased biodiversity and net primary production lead to increased carbon storage in the ecosystem, especially in the largest carbon pool, the mineral soil, and thus reduces the release of greenhouse gases. Climate change (nitrogen deposition, summer droughts, vegetation fire) - We will analyse plant-soil feedbacks in laboratory experiments, using our newly build Multi Isotope labelling in Controlled Environment (MICE) facility, and in three of the field sites (tropical, temperate, boreal) using transplanted model mini-ecosystems. Global change includes many processes, and we focus on three processes, key to the terrestrial carbon cycle, i.e. increasing chronic atmospheric nitrogen deposition, widespread summer droughts, and more frequent wildfires, with yet unknown consequences for the carbon cycle. We will use the MICE facility to manipulate mini-ecosystems (plants and soil from the three field sites) and expose them to four climatic scenarios: todays equivalent climate (corresponding to the site), increased nitrogen deposition, drought and post-fire conditions (by pyrolising the plant biomass). The plant-soil system will be labelled with stable isotopes (13C, 15N) in order i) to investigate the changes in organic matter dynamics when climate changes are applied and ii) to produce highly labelled experimental material that could be traced in the field. We will transplant the manipulated mini-ecosystem, from the MICE facility to the three URPP GCB sites Siberia, Laegeren and Borneo (tropical, temperate, boreal). The mini-ecosystems will contain highly labelled material (13C and 15N in fresh biomass and charred biomass) in order to follow fluxes related to C losses from the soil (CO2 and organic matter dissolved in water), as well as processes involved in the stabilisation of soil C (microbial, physical and chemical mechanisms). Using a large number of replicates will allow us to follow the underlying processes of C stabilisation in soil and vegetation at a high spatial and temporal precision. Biodiversity experiment - We will use the MICE chambers to grow different species of trees and grasses labelled with 13C (and potentially 15N, 18O and 2H) under todays climatic conditions. Then we recombine the different species (1, 2, 4, 8 species) and transplant them to the temperate site at Laegeren. In the field we can follow the total carbon fluxes and the contributions from the isotopically labelled decomposing biomass, and the living biomass.
Remotely sensed vegetation indices are widely used to detect greening and browning trends; especially the global coverage of time-series normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) data which are available from 1981. Seasonality and serial auto-correlation in the data have previously been dealt with by integrating the data to annual values; as an alternative to reducing the temporal resolution, we apply harmonic analyses and non-parametric trend tests to the GIMMS NDVI dataset (1981-2006). Using the complete dataset, greening and browning trends were analyzed using a linear model corrected for seasonality by subtracting the seasonal component, and a seasonal non-parametric model. In a third approach, phenological shift and variation in length of growing season were accounted for by analyzing the time-series using vegetation development stages rather than calendar days. Results differed substantially between the models, even though the input data were the same. Prominent regional greening trends identified by several other studies were confirmed but the models were inconsistent in areas with weak trends. The linear model using data corrected for seasonality showed similar trend slopes to those described in previous work using linear models on yearly mean values. The non-parametric models demonstrated the significant influence of variations in phenology; accounting for these variations should yield more robust trend analyses and better understanding of vegetation trends.
Vegetation & Ecosystems: Within the vegetation research statistical and special hyperspectral analysis procedures are used to develop new methods to predict canopy biochemistry, such as nitrogen and carbon concentration or water content. Biochemical processes are all related to the foliar chemistry of vegetation and thus to the carbon and nitrogen cycles. Hence, biochemical information products contribute to many environmental applications. For instance ecosystem models can be parameterized with the generated products that can help to better understand CO2 fluxes and net primary production (NPP) in the framework of the Kyoto Protocol. Traditional measurement of forest canopy level biochemistry is time-consuming, expensive and spatially constrained. Remote sensing allows for repeatable and continuous prediction of biochemical information over a wide spatial scale and thus facilitates the understanding of ecosystem functions. For the retrieval of biochemistry products to be used for environmental applications, the transfer of the developed methods from airborne hyperspectral to spaceborne data is fundamental. This transfer involves spectral and spatial up-scaling. Additionally, spaceborne reflectance data contain angular effects due to the sensor field of view and observation geometry, which can finally influence biochemistry estimates. However, multi-angular reflectance data contain added information about vegetation structure. Since correct biochemistry mapping is linked to accurate vegetation structure, forest biochemistry products may be improved with multi-angular data. Our goals in the field of biochemistry prediction are to transfer the developed airborne-based methods to spaceborne data and to evaluate different methods for up-scaling. Water resources: The SNF project targets at the key aim of the joint EU, ESA GMES initiative to establish operational services for the assessment of water resources in terms of quality, quantity and usage. It has been defined as a major challenge in the scope of GMES activities and it is of crucial importance in most developing countries and at a global level (EC, 2005). RSL is developing new methodology (semi-empirical and analytical methods) for the retrieval of water constituents in order to establish scientific algorithm development activities with special emphasis on APEX retrieval algorithms for water constituent s retrieval and the discrimination of macro phytes and algae types. Thanks to the unique performance, the APEX instrument will facilitate the observation of regional scale features (e.g., Harmful Algae Blooms) and enable the study of complex waters with unprecedented accuracy. The development of remote sensing algorithms to retrieve phytoplankton species and physiology is a challenging endeavor of high importance to assess biological activities in the water and therefore water quality by better means. (abridged text)
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