Das Projekt "SP 1.4 Evaluation of nutrient and pollutant cycles of livestock production systems and manure management systems in the North China Plain" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Hohenheim, Institut für Agrartechnik, Fachgebiet Verfahrenstechnik der Tierhaltungssysteme (440b) durchgeführt. The increasing specialization and intensification of the agricultural food production in the North China Plain is leading to restrictions in nutrients and production cycles at farm and regional levels. As a result, livestock production in the North China Plain is entailing serious environmental negative impacts related to manure surpluses and recycling of nutrients, mainly leading to problems associated with water, soil and air pollution. On the other side higher nutrient demands in the local crops is leading to the purchase of chemical or mineral fertilizers when local or on-farm nutrients are not available. Therefore, the efficient use of organic fertilizers not only depends on their availability in the farms, but also on their nutritional composition. Likewise, soil nutrient requirements and plant physiological needs have to be taken into consideration. Indeed, the closer the nutrient cycles and the lower the environmental negative impacts and farm losses are, the greater the chances for a more sustainable resource use in the North China Plain. In the context of the IRTG, aspects of livestock farming in production systems in terms of widely closed nutrients cycles will be integrated. The material flows in different animal husbandry systems will be analysed and the environmental impacts dependent on livestock farming techniques, farms operability and their respective management will be investigated. The applicability and effectiveness of the technical and organizational measures for the reduction of material losses and, the environmental burdens caused by livestock and manure mismanagement in the North China Plain will be reviewed. The benefits and profits for the local cropping systems as result of the application of organic fertilizers originated from livestock farming will be both, ecologically and economically, evaluated as an alternative to replace the use of mineral fertilizers.
Das Projekt "Impacts of well and Human Intrusion on Khulan (Wild Ass) and other threatened species in the Gobi Desert" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Freiburg, Forstzoologisches Institut, Professur für Wildtierökologie und Wildtiermanagement durchgeführt. The importance of the Gobi environment to the conservation of Khulan and other threatened wildlife and to the future of the pastoral livestock production is undeniable. At the present time, Mongolia is anticipating development of a commercialized agricultural sector that could easily cause greater intrusion of human activities in the Gobi environment than current pasto-ral livestock production. Development of other sectors of the Mongolian economy, especially mining and road construction, could also impact environmental security in general and habitat needs of the khulan and associated wildlife in the Gobi environment in particular. Work is required to clarify to what extent (if any) the wild ass is affected or competes with domestic livestock and other human intrusions, and to what degree. On the basis of these findings, ma-nagement steps for both khulan protection and rural livelihood/water resources development can be developed.
Das Projekt "Impact of urbanisation on the allergenicity of birch pollen grains" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Technische Universität München, Fakultät für Medizin, Klinik und Poliklinik für Dermatologie und Allergologie am Biederstein durchgeführt. Evidence is compelling for a positive correlation between urbanisation and increment of allergic sensitisation and diseases. The reason for this association is not clear to date. Some data point to a pro-allergic effect of anthropogenic factors on susceptible individuals. Data analysing the impact of environmental - natural and anthropogenic - factors on the allergenicity of allergen carriers such as pollen grains are scarce, and if applicable only taken from in vitro experimental designs. This study will analyse one of the most common allergy inducers in northern Europe - the birch pollen. Under natural exposure conditions, birch pollen will be analysed with respect to their allergenicity. Within an interdisciplinary research team this study will evaluate the effect of natural (e.g. soil, climate, genetic background) and anthropogenic (e.g. traffic pollutants) factors on birch pollen in a holistic approach including analysis of allergen bioavailability, release of pollen associated lipid mediators from birch pollen grains, in vitro immunostimulatory activity and in vivo allergenic potential. These data collected in the time course of three years will significantly add to our understanding how urbanisation and climate change influence the allergenicity of birch pollen and will help us in the future to set up primary prevention studies.
Das Projekt "D3: Impacts of environmental change on climate and ecosystem in southern Ecuador" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Philipps-Universität Marburg, Fachgebiet Klimageographie und Umweltmodellierung durchgeführt. Subproject within the DFG research unit 816: Biodiversity and Sustainable Management Of a Megadiverse Mountain Ecosystem in South Ecuador The main aim of the project is to unveil the impacts of climate and land use change on the regional climate of the ecosystem platform, to examine effects of climate change on biodiversity for selected organismic groups by testing two different approaches, to investigate atmospheric nutrient deposition from remote sources in the framework of the NUMEX experiment as well as its future development under environmental change, and to support the research unit by providing data on vegetation activity based on remotely sensed data. Subject 1 encompasses an in-depth analysis of weather situations with an anomalous zonal overturning Walker circulation (El Niño/La Niña events) by means of a comprehensive data set gathered during previous studies. Additionally, a coupled model suite of a regional climate (WRF) and a SVAT model (CLM) will be used to conduct simulation runs for the joint scenarios of land use and global climate change. Subject 2 uses downscaled temperature data for the climate change scenarios to test effects on biodiversity with the species-area approach and the energetic-equivalence rule for moths, soil mites and trees. Subject 3 observes fog- and rain-water deposition including a back-trajectory modelling encompassing. Remotely sensed products of atmospheric chemistry and future climate/emission scenario runs are applied to disentangle present-day and future atmospheric fertilization of the mountain forest and its remote sources. Subject 4 makes vegetation products (NDVI, LAI, GPP) of different sensors available to the research unit.
Das Projekt "Study on the practical application of the new framework methodology for measuring the environmental impact of ICT - cost/benefit analysis / SMART 2012/0064" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Öko-Institut. Institut für angewandte Ökologie e.V. durchgeführt. The objective of this study is to support the Commission in identifying the most promising options for integrating the methodologies that are applied for measuring greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and energy footprint of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), into concrete environmental policy measures. Furthermore, the study will perform a cost-benefit analysis for each identified option in order to analysis benefits and risks for enterprises implementing these measures, while putting a special emphasis on small and medium-scale enterprises (SME). The overarching objectives are to provide key input to the Commission in its decision-making process for defining relevant policy measures for 'greening' the ICT products and services, and to create a level-playing field so that customers of ICT solutions - be they public or private customers - can compare the performance of different solutions with one another and make well-informed purchasing choices.
Das Projekt "TRENCH (Tree-Ring Environmental Network for Climate Change Monitoring): Developing a tree-based indicator system for environmental change impacts on forest ecosystems in southern Ecuador" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg, Institut für Geographie durchgeführt. The suggested project aims at the development of a tree-ring based indicator system on climate and environmental change impacts on forest ecosystems in Southern Ecuador. We follow a multiparameter approach that shallintegrate various information sources in wood into one indicator system by modelling approaches. We will measure quantitative variations of wood anatomical parameters in relation to climate soil and soil factors. Long- erm growth rates of trees and diurnal amplitudes of stem diameter variations shall be measured with high-resolution electronic dendrometers. In addition, interannual variations and long-term trends of various stable isotope species over the past 30 years shall be analyzed. By combining of growth data and stable carbon and oxygen isotope analyses it is possible to distinguish if changes in intrinsic water use efficiency are caused by changes of assimilation or stomatal conductance. Analyses of stable nitrogen isotopes in wood allow conclusions about changes of soil nutrient cycling that is expected with worldwide increasing rates of nitrogen input in tropical forest ecosystems. The project will work anelevation gradient, including tropical dry forests, perhumid mountain rainforests and very wet treeline ecotones towards the paramo. The nutrient manipulation experiment NUMEX simulates the impact of increasing atmospheric nutrient input so that reactions of intrinsic water use efficiency and other growth parameters of specific tree species of all forest ecosystems can be studied. To detect nutrient-triggered species-specific changes in the reaction pattern on short-term drought events, intra-annual variations of stable carbon and oxygen isotopes shall be carried out for the past six years.
Das Projekt "Microbial Diversity and Functionality in Cold Water Coral Reef Ecosystems (MiCROSYSTEMS) (EuroDIVERSITY 83)" wird vom Umweltbundesamt gefördert und von Leibniz-Zentrum für Marine Tropenökologie (ZMT) GmbH durchgeführt. Cold-water coral reefs thriving on carbonate mounds have been discovered in the late 90-s off western Ireland and recently off Morocco. Mound building seems to be a fundamental but still enigmatic strategy of Life, developed since Precambrian times onwards. Various arguments suggest that microorganisms are playing a major role in reef development and biodiversity. Mounds may find their origin at the confluence of fluxes from external (oceanic) and internal origin (geofluids). Long cores taken in 2004 showed that the 'Pen Duick- mounds off Morocco, in which microbial action was demonstrated by an strong emission of hydrogen sulfide, may be considered as giant biogeochemical reactors. MiCROSYSTEMS proposes to turn the Pen Duick mounds into a natural laboratory through the following actions and experiments:- Biotope exploration and characterization of biodiversity through geophysical and video imaging, targeted microbiological profiling, evaluation of present and past oceanic conditions,- Microbial diversity census and evaluation of the functional link microbes-metazoans through metazoan species analysis, biogeochemical and molecular fingerprinting, laboratory culturing, fauna-microbe interactions analysis, evaluation of microbially mediated processes of carbonate precipitation,- Assessment of the impact of biodiversity changes through the development of a reactor technology to simulate and assess the functionality of the micro-ecological niches and the impact of environmental changes.The MiCROSYSTEMS project closely dovetails with European projects on deep-water coral ecosystem conservation and with IODP Expedition 307. The project will foster a Europe-Maghreb cooperation on the Moroccan margin and contribute to the ICoMM initiative within the Census of Marine Life Programme.
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