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Global change is one of the major challenges our society faces in recent times and is becoming increasingly noticeable in all aspects of our lives. In the last ten years, reports about droughts in Europe increased, contrary to expected natural climate variations and are attributed as indicators of climate change. Droughts resulted in a severe decrease in water levels of lakes, rivers and reservoirs, posing socio-economic and environmental challenges. Climate scenarios by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) project increasing temperatures, more frequent, longer and/or more intense heat waves and warm spells, and an increase in aridity with short-term droughts in the upcoming decades for Western and Central Europe. Some areas – such as Northeast Germany – are already affected by negative water balances and the lowering of lake and groundwater levels. Additionally to possible challenges in water availability, excess nutrients and heavy metals from industrial emissions, agricultural fertilisers and land use changes lead to declining water quality. In the past century, extensive eutrophication and environmental pollution have become major water quality issues in many freshwater bodies.
Nonetheless, water and its availability in a sufficient quantity and quality are prerequisites for life and must be prioritised in future development. The European Union aims for a good status in all surface and groundwater bodies by 2027 regarding their ecological, chemical and quantitative status. However, a profound understanding of eutrophication, pollution sources, and water bodies' reference conditions – referring to pre-anthropogenic conditions – should be available for each system to apply integrated restoration strategies. Moreover, an in-depth understanding of long-term climate variability and its dynamics is indispensable to approach these climate change challenges and reliably predict water availability.
During the past decades, numerous paleoenvironmental studies have been carried out on Northern German sediment archives, using mainly lacustrine sediments to reconstruct hydroclimatic variability, often inferring lake-level variations as key indicators. However, most studies were carried out in areas affected by more maritime or continental climate. Studies from the transition zone are rare. Only few existing studies offer high-resolution records and/or robust chronologies, which limits the understanding of past environmental changes significantly. Besides, the Northern German lowlands have been anthropogenically affected since at least the Neolithic (~5.6 ka cal BP) and, in particular, forest composition and density have recently been shown to have at least partially an impact on lake-level variations. However, a reliable distinction between climatic impacts and anthropogenic interferences is widely missing, which is a problem because many studies were conducted on rather small lacustrine systems in which expected anthropogenic signals are higher, and single events may overprint the climatic signals. These biases lead to an incoherent picture of the past hydroclimatic variability in Northern Germany during the Holocene. To overcome this situation, it is inevitable to identify a suitable sedimentary archive from the transition zone – preferably a large lacustrine system in which natural (supra-)regional paleoenvironmental signals are expected to be not overprinted by single events. Moreover, it is necessary to establish robust chronologies and apply high-resolution methods to infer past environmental changes in a high temporal resolution. Taken together, this could contribute to an enhanced understanding of past environmental and climatic changes in Northern Germany.
This thesis consolidates the evidence for Schweriner See to act as a suitable sedimentary archive in Northern Germany for (supra-)regional climate reconstructions. Schweriner See is a large lowland lake in Northern Germany located within the transition zone from maritime to continental climate. In the first step, (paleo)lacustrine landforms, i.e. beach ridges, subaerial nearshore bar, and a silting-up sequence, are investigated along the north-eastern shoreline using a combined approach of sedimentology (e.g. grain size variations) and the relatively novel method of luminescence profiling offering relative age determinations to understand depositional processes and their chronological framework. Absolute age information is mainly inferred by OSL dating. Secondly, an important prerequisite to interpreting information obtained from lacustrine sediment archives is a thorough understanding of processes controlling sedimentation. Schweriner See is characterized by a complex morphometry, which influences in-lake processes, i.e. i) in-lake productivity, ii) carbonate precipitation and iii) wind- and wave-induced processes, resulting in a distinct spatial heterogeneity. This thesis shows that it is crucial first to understand sedimentary depositional processes and controlling mechanisms to i) select suitable coring location(s) and ii) reconstruct paleoenvironmental and hydroclimatic variations reliably.
Based on bathymetric considerations and inferred in-lake processes, two main coring locations were identified to infer i) the anthropogenic impacts and ii) hydroclimatic variations. Short sediment records from the shallow water areas (< 15 m water depth) cover the most recent environmental history of Schweriner See. A well-dated sedimentary record (210Pb/137Cs and 14C dating) links distinct sedimentary and geochemical changes with historical events. Schweriner See was extensively affected by lake-wide eutrophication and contamination, closely related to sewage and population dynamics within the catchment. The water quality only improved after the German Reunification in 1990 CE when sewage was precluded from Schweriner See. Contamination trends at Schweriner See showed similar trends to different archives along the southern Baltic Sea, implying a common regional driving mechanism, e.g. environmental legalisation.
A well-dated sediment record from the profundal zone (52 m water depth) allowed the reconstruction of large-scale atmospheric conditions during the past 3 ka cal BP by inferring winter temperature variability, the moisture source region and/or evaporative lake water enrichment, which resemble variations in the North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO). The NAO greatly influences the Central European climate, affecting, for example, surface air temperature, precipitation or storm tracks. During 3-2.8 ka and 2.1-0.8 ka cal BP, predominantly positive NAO conditions are reconstructed, which are characterized by warmer winter temperatures, moisture conditions bringing isotopically enriched precipitation from the southern/central North Atlantic to Northern Central Europe and/or warmer temperatures that may result in a higher evaporative isotopic lake water enrichment as a result of northwards displaced westerlies. Conversely, during 2.8-2.1 ka and 0.8-0.1 ka cal BP, results correspond to predominantly negative NAO phases influenced by southwards displaced westerlies. Frequent atmospheric blocking allows for the intrusion of northerly or easterly winds, resulting in colder winter temperatures, isotopically depleted precipitation from the Northern Atlantic and Arctic region and/or a lower evaporative lake water enrichment. In addition to these long-term changes in atmospheric conditions, short-term hydroclimatic variations have been reconstructed, mainly reflecting lake-level variations in conjunction with precipitation variability, with the proxy signal being additionally amplified by wind speed and wave motion. Comparisons with other archives support these results.
So far, the paleoenvironmental reconstruction is limited to the Late Holocene, but initial dating results imply possible interferences until the Late Pleistocene. Therefore, future studies should focus on extending the profundal record from Schweriner See further back in time, providing a high-resolution record covering both the Holocene and possibly the Late Pleistocene.
Abstract
We investigated four subaerial (paleo)lacustrine landforms at the north‐eastern shoreline of Schweriner See, north‐eastern Germany. These included two beach ridges, one subaerial nearshore bar and a silting up sequence located close to a fossil cliff, which marks the former maximum extent of Schweriner See. We used luminescence profiling with a SUERC portable OSL device (POSL) on all four sediment sequences in combination with sedimentological investigations such as grain size, loss‐on‐ignition and magnetic susceptibility to provide information on the various formations in a lacustrine depositional environment. The POSL reader was used on pre‐treated polymineral samples to gain an insight into luminescence distribution within the individual sediment sequences, but also among the four sequences. POSL proved valuable to understand depositional processes, which were not visible in lithology or sedimentological parameters. With somewhat larger uncertainty this method provides relative chronologies of the sediment sequences. Additionally, we carried out radiocarbon dating and full optical stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating to establish a chronological framework. OSL ages proved to be more reliable to date beach ridges in this setting than radiocarbon samples, which were severely influenced by sediment reworking. This combined approach of sedimentological analyses, luminescence profiling and absolute age determinations revealed details in depositional processes at Schweriner See which otherwise would have remained undetected. Furthermore, it helped to set these subaerial (paleo)lacustrine landforms in a chronological framework.
Im Mitteldevon wurde im heutigen Gebiet von Rügen-Hiddensee und der östlich angrenzenden Ostsee eine über 1500 m mächtige Abfolge kontinentaler und rand- bis flachmariner Sedimente abgelagert, die durch 10 Bohrungen einer Untersuchung zugänglich geworden sind. Unterdevon fehlt; die Abfolge lagert mit großer Lücke und diskordant kaledonisch deformierten ordovizischen Schichten auf. Sie geht kontinuierlich in Oberdevon über. Geröll-, Lithoklasten und Quarzkorn-Analysen belegen die Herkunft der Sedimente von einem sedimentär-metamorphen Liefergebiet - den Mitteleuropäischen Kaledoniden im SW bis W des devonischen Rügen-Beckens. Geochemische und petrographische Ergebnisse unterstreichen ihre Ablagerung im Übergang eines aufgearbeiteten Orogens zu einem Kontinentalgebiet im Vorfeld der kaledonischen Hochlage. Faziesanalysen führen zu dem Schluss, dass Sedimentfazies und -zyklizität durch eine materialliefernde Hochlage im SW, variierende Subsidenz, klimatische Variationen (saisonale bis episodische Niederschläge, Austrocknung) sowie durch Transgressionen aus einem marinen Gebiet im SE bestimmt waren. So ergeben sich zwei große Faziesbereiche: (1) terrigene Red-Beds mit Molasse-Charakter – die Old Red-Fazies (ORF) im eigentlichen Sinn; (2) eine rand- bis flachmarine Fazies – die so bezeichnete Litoral-Marine Fazies (LMF). Zwischen beiden existieren Verzahnungen und Übergänge mit transgressivem bzw. regressivem Charakter. Aufgrund einer generellen „Absenkung“ veränderte sich Sedimentationsraum von einer vorwiegend kontinentalen Ebene im tieferen Mitteldevon über einen sandigen Flachschelf am Ende des Mitteldevons zu einem Karbonatschelf im Oberdevon. Diese Entwicklung korreliert gut mit den Phasen des globalen Meeresspiegelanstiegs in diesem Zeitraum. Die sedimentologischen, petrographischen, geochemischen und mineralogischen Analysen erlauben eine detaillierte Rekonstruktion der Ablagerungsmilieus. Das Material der terrigenen Red Beds (ORF) wurde durch ephemere Ströme und Schichtfluten auf eine weite flache Alluvialebene gebracht und auf ephemeren Überschwemmungsebenen sowie distal auf terrigenen Mud Flats und in ephemeren Tümpeln abgelagert. Dabei unterlagen die oberflächennahen Sedimente saisonaler Austrocknung und Evaporation (Bildung von Trockenriss-Feldern, Calcretes, teils Spuren von Gips/Anhydrit). Demgegenüber bezeugen lokal verbreitet auftretende grüne und graue Horizonte mit gehäuften Pflanzenresten und Sporen zeitweilig wasserbedeckte Gebiete und Bedingungen erhöhter Humidität und bevorzugten Pflanzenwuchses (Küstenniederungen). Zahlreiche marine Einschübe, die den SE-Teil des Arbeitsgebietes bereits im Eifel erreichten, und mit der Zeit im zunehmenden Maße auch den Westteil beeinflussten, signalisieren die marginale Lage des Rügen-Beckens zu einem sich im SE anschließenden marinen Ablagerungsraum. Sie führten zu einer zunehmenden Marinität der mitteldevonischen Abfolgen und zur Bildung des zweiten Faziesbereiches (LMF) aus tidal-lagunären und litoralen bis flachmarinen Sedimenten. Phasenweise ansteigende fluviatile Transportkraft führte zur Schüttung gröberer, vorrangig sandiger, seltener konglomeratischer Sedimente und zur Kompensation der Beckensubsidenz, was sich in Abfolgen progradierender Küstenlinien und deltaischen Küstenvorbaus widerspiegelt. Des weiteren führt die intraformationelle Aufarbeitung der Sedimente zur Bildung zahlreicher Intraklasten-Horizonten. Die Klimaproxies signalisieren semiaride Bedingungen in Übereinstimmung mit der paläogeographischen Lage Vorpommerns und Balticas im Devon im südlichen Trockengürtel bis äquatorialen Feuchtgürtel. Mittels der Faziesverteilung, der Sediment- und base level-Zyklizität und der Milieuentwicklung ist es möglich, ein zeitlich-räumliches Faziesmodell zu konstruieren mit Rückschlüssen auf die generelle Entwicklung des vorpommerschen Mitteldevons. Paläogeographisch existieren enge Verbindungen zu den polnischen Devonvorkommen; vorrangig zur Koszalin-Chojnice-Zone (NW-Polen), darüber hinaus in SE’ Fortsetzung vermutlich bis zur Radom-Lublin-Region und dem Heilig-Kreuz-Gebirge. Sie sind an den Südrand des Old Red-Kontinents einzuordnen und wurden in einem perikratonalen, sich nach SE vertiefenden Becken entlang dessen Peripherie abgelagert. Variierende Subsidenz und Mobilität kaledonischer Grundgebirgsblöcke modifiziert die Faziesmuster in diesem Becken. Während die Sedimentation in Südpolen bereits im Unterdevon begann bzw. sich teils kontinuierlich an das Silur anschließt, wurde der vorpommersche Ablagerungsraum erst ab der Wende Ems/Eifel in das Sedimentationsgeschehen einbezogen. So bildete die Rügen-Senke den nordwestlichsten Ausläufer des polnischen Perikratonalraumes. Ihre ursprüngliche Ausbreitung nach Südwesten, Nordwesten und Nordosten ist aufgrund post-devonischer Denudation nicht rekonstruierbar, jedoch wahrscheinlich begrenzt durch das Fennoskandische Hoch im N und einer materialliefernden kaledonischen Grundgebirgshochlage im SW.
A large portion of the earth's surface is covered with various vegetation classes (i.e. grassland, wetland and agricultural area, forest) of many diverse species and canopy configurations. The ability to assess and to monitor canopy parameters, such as biomass, leaf area index, and vegetation water content, is of vital importance to the study of different agronomic processes. Remote sensing techniques provide a unique capability towards probing different vegetation types and canopy by operating at different bands, observation angle etc. Over the past decades, significant progress has been made in remote sensing techniques of land processes specially vegetation characteristics through development of advanced ground-based, airborne and space-borne microwave sensors, methods and approaches such as theoretical, semi-empirical and empirical models, needed for analyzing the data. These activities have sharply increased in recent years since the launch of different active and passive satellites and sensors. Remote Sensing (RS) science and techniques combined with ground truth data can provide new tools for advanced agricultural crop applications. It has been demonstrated that RS has the ability to estimate biophysical parameters of agricultural crops over time at local, regional, and global scales. In this study, RS images in visible/near infrared (VIS/NIR) domain as well as microwave domain combined with ground truth data were used to assess biophysical parameters of agricultural crop during their whole growing season at Durable Environmental Multidisciplinary Monitoring Information Network (DEMMIN) test site in North East Germany. Ground truth studies were carried out for 31 weeks during 17th April – 13th November 2013 over three crop lands including winter wheat, barley and canola. Landsat 8 OLI, Landsat 7 ETM+ were used for the VIS/NIR studies and TerraSAR-X synthetic aperture radar (SAR) images were used to study biophysical parameters of agricultural crops in microwave part of electromagnetic spectrum. The analysis was conducted by calculating different vegetation indices (VIs) to estimate the biomass (fresh and dry), LAI, and vegetation water content (VWC) of three crops using Landsat 8 OLI and Landsat 7 ETM+ combined with ground truth data. A new concept of Soil Line retrieval from Landsat 8 image was also developed to estimate plant biophysical parameters using soil line related vegetation indices in optical domain of electromagnetic spectrum. Different approaches including univariate, multivariate stepwise regression and semi-empirical water cloud model was also used to estimate the biophysical parameters of agricultural crop using TerraSAR-X data in microwave domain of electromagnetic spectrum. Perhaps the most important conclusion of this study is that the RS approach can provide useful information about estimating agricultural crop parameters over time and local scale, which can therefore provide valuable information to aid the agronomy community.
Wadi Wurayah area is located in the north of Fujairah Emirates between the towns of Khor Bidiyah Fakkan and Oman on the Gulf Coast Line in Fujairah Emirates, United Arab Emirates. It lies within a priority World Wide Fund for Nature ( WWF) Global 200 Ecoregions ( ecoregion 127, Arabian Highland Woodlands and Shrublands ), a rich diversity of sheltering rare and endangered mountainous and freshwater habitats and species , and providing opportunities for the revival and sustenance of local livelihoods. However, as most of the United Arab Emirates and the region , the area is undergoing dramatic changes linked to economic diversification and promotion of tourism. The United Arab Emirates in 1999 approved the programmed of work from the UN convention of Biological Diversity ( CBD). This momentum must be used wants it or disappear. In a first move , the United Arab Emirates established the federal Environment Agency ( FEA) that produced the Environmental Law of 1999 with the role to encourage each to Emirates assess its land and coastal / marine resources, formulate plans for establishing protected areas , upgrade those that may already exist , and help implement the environment law. In early 2006, UAE created its first Ministry of Environment and Water ( MEW ), which was before the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. Environmental issues and a greater role of the civil society are now higher on the agenda of the United Arab Emirates government , partner of the Emirates Wildlife Society ( EWS ), the World Wide Fund for Nature ( WWF) - UAE Project Office is the only international conservation NGOs operating in the UAE that plays a pioneering role in partnering with local- governmental institutions to establish win- win solutions. The United Arab Emirates is making tremendous efforts in diversification is the development of tourism. Too often tourism mass , With all of its negative environmental consequences is privileged. However, the more traditional Emirates are seeking alternatives that would preserve their environment and respect the traditional lifestyles of the local communities. This study aims to help a sustainable biosphere reserve integrating oneself local traditional and lifestyle with the conservation of biodiversity and habitat inimitable by providing a model of economical incentives unique to the region . In order to further the implementation of the Wadi Wurayah Biosphere Reserve, this study will: • Implement a set of carefully - targeted actions in Wadi Wurayah and its hinterland and therefore Fujairah Emirates. • Work to demonstrate the feasibility and viability of combining environmental protection in a sensitive area with the preservation of traditional activities. • Support the capacity building of key national and local authorities and selected partners in the Emirates of Fujairah and the UAE So that they have the awareness and skills to fully realize the aims of the study . To set out and develop options for sustainable natural resource management in the proposed Wurayah Biosphere Reserve , one of the UAE as examples of marginal dry lands , building on environmental information system was the best choice using Geographic information systems (GIS ) as a tool. This has been classified to there steps of work: Field Survey and Analysis Lab Office work. As a first step, this study used to survey this area in the light of the work done by the EWSWWF and the Fujairah Municipality, to evaluate the potential and the feasibility of the creation of a Biosphere Reserve. The traditional field survey has been carried out in three batches between January 2007 and January , 2009 for sample collection using specially tailored database forms that suit the properties and nature of the variables measured, and the database . Design The information obtained from field survey included the Landscape and their local classification and distribution , local habitats , water catchments areas , local rangeland systems and indigenous agro -ecological zones. This information in addition to the laboratory analysis has then be transformed into GIS format, and overlaid with the base maps of the study area in order to produce a georeferenced maps. Various types of maps required according the selected works related to area of study have been used as an input data for the GIS system An integrated management methodology / approach has been proposed associated with the plan of work throughout the forthcoming years. The plan of work is designed to be as consistent as possible with that of the concept of the UNESCO 's Man and Biosphere Program.
Peatlands contribute to a wide range of ecosystem services. They play an important role as carbon sinks in their natural state, but when they are drained, they cause carbon emissions. Rewetting drained peatlands is required to reduce carbon emissions and create new carbon sinks. However, drained peatlands are commonly used as grassland or croplands; therefore, alternative agriculture schemes are required following rewetting. Paludiculture, i.e., agriculture on wet and rewetted peatlands, is an option in these areas after rewetting to produce biomass sustainably. Monitoring of peatland management is challenging, yet needed to ensure a successful rewetting and plantation of, e.g., Phragmites australis and Typha spp., two plants which are commonly used in paludiculture. Remote sensing is an excellent tool for monitoring the vegetation composition of vast rewetted peatland regions. However, because many peatland species have similar spectral characteristics, such monitoring is ideally based on high-spatial, high-temporal hyperspectral images. Data that complies with all these requirements does not exist on a regular basis. Therefore, we assessed the potential for mapping peatland vegetation communities in the Peene and Trebel river basins of the federal state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany, using multi-date hyperspectral (PRISMA) data. We used regression-based unmixing to map fractions of different peatland vegetation classes. Results were analyzed with regard to the contribution of multi-date observations and, in comparison, to multispectral datasets (Landsat-8/Sentinel-2). Our results showed that different classes are best mapped at different observation dates. The multi-date hyperspectral datasets produced less Mean Absolute Error (MAE = 16.4%) than the single-date hyperspectral images (ΔMAE + 1%), with high accuracies for all classes of interest. Compared to the results obtained with multispectral data from similar acquisition dates and annual spectral-temporal metrics (STM), the results from hyperspectral data were always clearly superior (ΔMAE + 4%). Besides the superior performance during comparisons, our results also indicate that information that can be derived from the hyperspectral data with the regression-based unmixing goes clearly beyond that of discrete classification. With more hyperspectral sensors coming up and an expected higher availability of multi-data hyperspectral imagery, these data can be expected to play a bigger role in the future monitoring of peatlands.
Underground hard coal mining operations irreversibly disrupt the pre-existing mechanical equilibrium of the geological media. The employment of high-recovery methods modifies the stress field of the sedimentary sequence, generating movement and faulting of the rock layers above and below mined seams. These new fracture zones do affect the original conditions of the hydrogeological system by modifying flow pathways and increasing the permeability of the rock sequence. Moreover, the surface area of rock exposed to air and water is increased, conditioning the water-rock interaction. Despite this rather clear conceptualization, flow and reactive transport processes in fractured overburdens are rarely modeled simultaneously. Discrete setups that consider fractures and porous matrix require extensive characterization of both media, which is impractical for regional case studies. As a result, most post-mining models explicitly ignore fracture structures by employing the equivalent porous approach or even both media with lumped parameter models. However, omitting either medium represents a delicate simplification, considering that mining-related fractures control the rate and direction of water flow within moderately permeable but relatively highly porous rock sequences.
In this dissertation, the specific contribution of fractured and matrix continua to the transient discharge and water quality of a post-mining coal zone is quantified and evaluated. For this purpose, dual and multiple interacting continua models are employed to simulate fluid flow and reactive mass transport in fractured and variable water-saturated rock sequences. The effectiveness of the models is evaluated by simulating the origin, generation and transport of acid mine drainage (i.e., water with elevated concentrations of hydrogen, iron, sulfate and chloride) within the shallow overburden of the Ibbenbüren Westfield. Compared to other coal districts in Germany, this area is strongly delimited by the local geology and topography, resulting in a well-defined hydrogeological system to test the models. Petrographic and chemical analyses performed on core samples from the area show the strong influence of mining-derived fractures on the water-rock interaction within the Carboniferous sequence. The presence of oxidized pyrite along with amorphous iron hydroxide phases in weathering fronts on both sides of the fractures demonstrates the exchange of solutes and gases between the fractured and the porous matrix media.
Based on the previous evidence, the TOUGHREACT software is employed to characterize flow and reactive transport processes in the Westfield. However, each of the two processes is simulated at separate stages to have more control in the adjustment of sensitive parameters for which little information is available. For the flow component, a dual continuum model, with Richard’s equations is used to characterize the unsaturated water flow in both fractured and matrix media. Under this approach, the model adequately reproduces the bimodal flow behavior of the discharges measured in the mine drainage for the years 2008 and 2017. Simulation results show how the fractured continuum generates intense discharge events during the winter months while the rock matrix controls smooth discharge limbs in summer, when water is slowly released back to the fractures. With the flow component calibrated, the second part of the study incorporates the geochemical processes into the model based on actual data from the rock samples. Their simulation requires extending the two-continuum setup to a multiple continua model with five nested block strings: one for the fractures and four for the rock matrix. This further subdivision prevents under-representations of kinetic reactions with short equilibrium length scales and numerical instabilities due to lack of chemical and flow gradients. As a result, the new multiple continua model provides good agreement with respect to long- and short-term concentrations and discharge trends measured in the mine drainage. The flow of oxygen and meteoric water through the fractured continuum leads to a high and steady release of hydrogen, iron and sulfate ions derived from pyrite oxidation in the matrix continua closest to the fractures. Moreover, high chloride concentrations result from the mixing and gradual release of relatively immobile solutes in the matrix as they interact with percolating water in the fracture. Both findings are equally congruent with the reactive pyrite oxidation and iron hydroxide precipitation fronts identified in the fractured core samples.
In the end, the multiple continua models, the simulation procedure and the results of the benchmark and sensitivity analysis scenarios developed for the Westfield pave the way for the application of the approach in other mining zones. The first candidate emerges in the Ibbenbüren Eastfield, where a coupled elemental-isotopic approach included in this thesis has confirmed that water-conducting fracture zones are primary elements for solute generation and transport in the first 300 meters of the overburden. In the latter case, calibration and verification of the models can be complemented with measurements of δ34S in sulfates and δ18O, δ2H, and Tritium in water.
Mind the gap: Information gaps and bridging options in assessing in-situ conservation achievements
(2008)
The biodiversity crisis has gained political attention on a global level. The “2010 Target” of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD) aims to significantly reduce the loss of biodiversity by 2010. In order to achieve this, a network of representative and effectively managed protected areas is to be established. The effectiveness of protected areas thus represents one indicator for progress towards the CBD’s 2010 Target. However, indicators require information. The present study, in a first step, reviews the availability of open access long-term ecological data for assessing protected area effectiveness. This review shows two parallel – though contradictory – phenomena: data overkill and data scarcity. While the number of online databases providing open access data on biodiversity has grown tremendously, no long-term ecological data for a larger set of protected areas can be openly accessed. Reasons for this data scarcity are discussed. Based on this lack of information, in a second step, a method to bridge information gaps through social science research is aspired. An innovative Conservation Success Framework is developed, which defines and relates conservation needs, conservation capacity and conservation actions, its three main components. The basic assumption is that conservation can only be successful where the conservation capacity exists that is required to implement the conservation actions determined by the conservation needs. The framework was used to develop open and closed questionnaires for application in two Mexican biosphere reserves, the Sierra Gorda and the Sierra de Manantlán. As "conservation success" is often immeasurable in protected areas in practice due to unspecific conservation objectives the term is for the case studies substituted by “conservation achievements”, i.e. clearly noticeable effects from conservation actions. Overall, almost 60 interviews were conducted with different stakeholder groups. The gained information is validated through social science research techniques, such as triangulation of perspectives and active and passive observation. Based on this, conservation needs are identified and conservation capacities summarised and discussed for both case study sites. Implemented conservation actions addressing identified conservation needs and conservation capacity constraints are then analysed. In addition, noticeable effects from conservation actions on the state of biodiversity at case study sites, i.e. the conservation achievements, are described. Where locally available, non-open access data (as opposing open access data) are used to verify the findings from the social science research. Identified conservation achievements at both case study sites are evident both from quantitative information (for example forest cover increase according to non-open access data) and qualitative information (for example perceived change in the occurrence of illegal activities according to interviews). In addition, rather “intangible” indicators that can only be revealed through qualitative surveys are identified for both sites. This study thus highlights the crucial importance of integrating different types of data, ecological and socio-economic, as well as quantitative and qualitative ones. The present study concludes with a series of recommendations 1) to local practitioners at the two case study sites, and 2) to the international conservation community. Local practitioners may benefit from the present study because its results provide for each site a) an overview of existing conservation needs and implemented conservation actions; b) an easy way to identify action gaps; c) a baseline to identify progress indicators; and d) an overview of diverse perspectives on the current effectiveness of the biosphere reserves. These benefits are considered of particular importance as they can be influential in the revision of the site’s management plans, which both are now approximately ten years old and will soon be revised. The international conservation community will not be able to make a clear statement in the year 2010 about the effectiveness of protected areas on a global level due to a lack of information and transparency. However, the year 2010 should not be considered an end point for measuring progress in in-situ conservation; instead protected area quality standards must be created, effectiveness evaluations institutionalised and efforts to foster regular reporting must continue. Consequently, a scheme of consolidated actions from local to national and international level is proposed that could help to sustainably bridge existing information gaps and close them on the long run. In the end, progress reporting on the effectiveness of protected areas, and other indicators, can only improve if different governance levels “mind the information gaps” in cooperation, until continued information gathering and sharing hopefully closes these gaps one day.
Semi-arid Mongolia is a highly sensitive region to climate changes, but the region’s Holocene paleoclimatic evolution and its underlying forcing mechanisms have been the subject of much recent debate. Here we present a continuous 7.4 ka sediment record from the high-altitude Shireet Naiman Nuur (Nuur = lake) in the central Mongolian Khangai Mountains. We extensively dated the sediments and analyzed elemental composition and bulk isotopes for lake sediment characterization. Our results show that 14C-dating of bulk organic carbon and terrestrial macrofossils provide a robust and precise chronology for the past 7.4 ± 0.3 cal ka BP at Shireet Naiman Nuur and 14C-ages are mostly in stratigraphic order. The 14C-based chronology is confirmed by paleomagnetic secular variations, which resemble the predictions of spherical harmonic geomagnetic field models. The very good chronological control makes paleomagnetic secular variation stratigraphy a powerful tool for evaluating and refining regional 14C-chronologies when compared to the record presented here. The lake sediment proxies TOC, N, log (Ca/Ti) and log (Si/Ti) reveal increased lake primary productivity and high growing season temperatures from 7.4 ± 0.3 to 4.3 ± 0.2 cal ka BP, which is likely the result of stronger summer insolation and pronounced warming. Reduced summer insolation thereafter results in decreased productivity and low growing season temperatures at Shireet Naiman Nuur from 4.3 ± 0.3 cal ka BP until present day. The globally acknowledged 4.2 ka event also appears as a pronounced cooling event at Shireet Naiman Nuur, and additional abrupt cooling events occurred during minima in total solar irradiance at ∼3.4, 2.8 and 2.4 ka BP. Low lake primary productivity and growing season temperatures are likely the result of longer ice cover periods at the high-altitude (2,429 m a.s.l.) Shireet Naiman Nuur. This leads to shorter mixing periods of the lake water which is supported by more positive δ13CTOC because of increased incorporation of dissolved HCO3
− by aquatic producers during periods of longer ice cover.
Im neoliberalen Wettbewerb um Einwohner, Touristen und Unternehmen gehören diskursive Repräsentationen zu den wichtigsten Zuschreibungen von Städten und Regionen. Dies trifft besonders auf schrumpfende Regionen zu, welche dem Druck des interregionalen und internationalen Wettbewerbs besonders ausgesetzt sind. Diese Repräsentationen werden dabei durch sprachliche Äußerungen und Handlungen erschaffen. Diese Dissertation untersucht anhand der drei Städte Rostock, Stralsund und Greifswald, welche unterschiedlichen diskursiven Repräsentationen sich jeweils aus den Sprecherpositionen der überregionalen Printmedien, des Stadtmarketings und der touristischen Angebotsseite durch Airbnb-Angebote ergeben. Durch den methodischen Ansatz der lexikometrischen Diskursanalyse werden verschiedene schriftliche Produkte analysiert. Während die Berichterstattung in den Medien Rostock und Greifswald eine starke und dynamische Stadtentwicklung zuschreibt und sie sich damit von den Stigmata der schrumpfenden Städte und Regionen lösen, nimmt Stralsund eine untergeordnete Rolle ein und scheint tatsächlich eher durch einen Schrumpfungsdiskurs geprägt zu sein. Die Selbstdarstellung der Städte durch das Stadtmarketing hebt erwartungsgemäß die positiven Aspekte der jeweiligen Stadt hervor. Dabei wird jedoch durch jede Stadt ein anderer Schwerpunkt gewählt. Auch die touristischen Darstellungen der Städte durch die Airbnb-Angebote erzeugen trotz räumlicher Nähe und damit ähnlichen Ausgangssituationen jeweils sehr unterschiedliche Aspekte des städtischen Tourismus hervor. Während in Rostock das Flair und Ambiente der studentisch geprägten Quartiere hervorgehoben wird, wird in Greifswald der klassische Strandurlaub am Bodden beworben. Stralsund profitiert in der touristischen Darstellung stark von seinem Status als UNESCO-Weltkulturerbe.
Although the Pleistocene deposits exposed in the steep coastal cliffs of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern have been studied for more than a century, the depositional conditions of many lithostratigraphic units remain unclear. There is, in particular, a question whether the individual tills (locally more than 9 successive till units) are mainly subglacial deposits or resedimented (mass flows) in origin (at least in part). The Pleistocene deposits preserve information concerning the former glacial depositional processes. Detailed micromorphological analysis of these deposits can provide key information regarding these processes and thereby aid in the reconstruction of former glacial environments. The island of Rügen is located on the southwestern Baltic Sea coast and was situated in the marginal zone of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet during the last glacial period (Weichselian). Therefore, the region is considered as an ideal area for reconstructing the complex fluctuations in the position of the margin of this ice sheet as it expanded across the Baltic Sea and into northern Germany. Successive glacial advances and retreats of the ice sheet can be reconstructed by specific glacial sedimentation processes and flow-direction criteria derived from a variety of glacial deposits. The investigation area is located near Sassnitz on Rügen, where an imbricated and folded Weichselian succession disconformably overlies Maastrichtian chalk bedrock. The individual till units were sampled for micromorphological analyses to identify the former depositional conditions. Detailed description of the sedimentology and variation in facies, the description of macroscale deformation structures provides the context for the detailed micromorphology study. The three dimensional analysis of the microfabrics is based on the microstructural mapping methodology which enables the identification and interpretation of polyphase deformation within subglacial sediments.
Die Idee von UNESCO-Biosphärenreservaten besteht darin, den Erhalt der biologischen Vielfalt mit der nachhaltigen Regionalentwicklung unter Beteiligung der Bevölkerung zu verbinden. Inwiefern die Idee unterstützt und in der eigenen Lebensweise berücksichtigt wird, wurde exemplarisch für die Bürgermeisterinnen und Bürgermeister aus drei Regionen analysiert. In Deutschland sind die UNESCO-Biosphärenreservate im Bundesnaturschutzgesetz rechtlich gesichert und gehören in den Zuständigkeitsbereich der Landesumweltministerien. Damit fehlt es ihnen oftmals an Zuständigkeiten, Personal und Geldern über naturschutzfachliche Themen hinaus. Mit dem Auftrag der Gewerbeförderung und dem Ausbau der Infrastruktur ergänzen die Gemeinden die naturschutzfachlichen Kompetenzen der deutschen UNESCO-Biosphärenreservate. Daher ist eine Zusammenarbeit für den Erfolg entscheidend. Die Forschungsfrage lautet somit: Wie ist die Idee der UNESCO-Biosphärenreservate in dem Wissen, den Einstellungen und dem Handeln der Bürgermeisterinnen und Bürgermeister aus den UNESCO-Biosphärenreservaten Schaalsee, Schorfheide-Chorin und Südost-Rügen verankert? Den Anforderungen der qualitativen Sozialforschung entsprechend, wurden die Bürgermeisterinnen und Bürgermeister der drei UNESCO-Biosphärenreservate 2010 interviewt. Das neuartige Konzept Verankerung der UNESCO-Biosphärenreservats-Idee bei Bürgermeisterinnen und Bürgermeistern ergab sich aus einem abduktiven Forschungsprozess: Er bestand aus einem Wechselspiel zwischen der Analyse von 45 leitfadengestützten Interviews nach der Grounded-Theory-Methodologie und dem Studium der sozialwissenschaftlichen Forschungen zu Akzeptanz, Partizipation und Governance in Schutzgebieten. Das Konzept Verankerung umfasst drei Dimensionen: Wissen, Einstellung und Handeln. Diese wurden mit jeweils vier bis fünf Kategorien gefüllt, die durch die explorative Analyse der Interviews identifiziert wurden. Orientiert an der Gesamtbeurteilung der Vor- und Nachteile des UNESCO-Biosphärenreservates vor Ort konnten die Bürgermeisterinnen und Bürgermeister in fünf unterschiedliche Typen der Verankerung unterteilt werden: Für die Unterstützer bringt das Biosphärenreservat vor Ort deutlich mehr Vorteile als Nachteile. Sie verfügen über umfangreiches Wissen zum Biosphärenreservat und zeigen eine hohe Eigeninitiative zur Umsetzung der Biosphärenreservats-Idee. Für die Befürworter überwiegen ebenso die Vorteile gegenüber den Nachteilen, jedoch nicht so deutlich wie bei den Unterstützern. Sie wissen weniger genau über das Biosphärenreservat vor Ort Bescheid, beteiligen sich aber bei Projekten der Biosphärenreservats-Verwaltung. Für die Unentschiedenen sind die Vor- und Nachteile des Biosphärenreservates ausgewogen. Sie kennen im Prinzip die Aufgaben von Biosphärenreservaten, konkrete Aktivitäten vor Ort sind ihnen aber kaum bekannt. Bei formellen Beteiligungsverfahren haben sie negative Erfahrungen in der Zusammenarbeit mit der Biosphärenreservats-Verwaltung gemacht. Sie loben jedoch einzelne Projekte. Für die Kritiker überwiegen die Nachteile gegenüber den Vorteilen des Biosphärenreservates. Sie bemängeln die Beteiligung der Gemeinden bei der Ausweisung des Biosphärenreservates als unzureichend und beanstanden die Zusammenarbeit mit der Biosphärenreservats-Verwaltung in formellen Beteiligungsverfahren. Sie sind Einheimische und haben im Alltag sehr starke Einschränkungen durch das Biosphärenreservat erfahren. Die Unbeteiligten können weder Vor- noch Nachteile des Biosphärenreservates benennen. Sie wissen kaum etwas über die Aktivitäten der Biosphärenreservats-Verwaltung und arbeiten selten mit ihr zusammen. In der komparatistische Analyse der Typen in den drei Biosphärenreservaten zeigen sich folgende Unterschiede: Im Biosphärenreservat Schaalsee sind die meisten Unterstützer und Befürworter zu finden, so dass dort die Biosphärenreservats-Idee am stärksten bei den Bürgermeisterinnen und Bürgermeistern verankert ist. Im Gegensatz dazu sind im Biosphärenreservat Südost-Rügen die meisten Kritiker. Im Biosphärenreservat Schorfheide-Chorin ist der Anteil der Unentschiedenen am größten. Diese Unterschiede sind eine Momentaufnahme und unterliegen einem ständigen Wandel. Da es durch die Kommunalwahlen regelmäßig zu neuen Konstellationen kommt, sollte diese Untersuchung nach jeder Wahl wiederholt werden. Die Ergebnisse können nicht mit der Verankerung der Biosphärenreservats-Idee bei der Bevölkerung gleichgesetzt werden, wie eine Gegenüberstellung mit den Ergebnissen einer Bevölkerungsbefragung aus 2010 gezeigt hat. Alles in allem liefert das Konzept Verankerung der Biosphärenreservats-Idee und die Differenzierung der Bürgermeisterinnen und Bürgermeister in Typen der Verankerung einen neuen Ansatz zur Analyse von Stakeholdern im Schutzgebietsmanagement. Es gibt dem Management eine bessere Handlungsorientierung: Es geht darum, eigenverantwortliches Handeln der Bürgerinnen und Bürger differenziert anzuregen und zu unterstützen.
Coastal and marginal seas – like the Baltic Sea – serve as natural reaction sites for the turnover and accumulation of land-derived inputs. The main location for the modification and deposition of the introduced material is, in most cases, not the water mass, but the sediment. Its key function as central reactor in the interaction between land and sea has so far been insufficiently studied and assessed. This study was part of the interdisciplinary SECOS project that aimed to identify and evaluate the service functions of sediments in German coastal seas in the context of human use with a focus on the Baltic Sea. One of its goals was to assess sediment functions related to the intermediate storage or final sink of imported material like nutrients and contaminants, and quantify their inventory as well as their mass accumulation rates on multi-decadal to multi-centennial time scales. For that, a detailed examination of the natural and anthropogenic processes that interfere with sediment accumulation in the south-western Baltic Sea basins is essential.
In der Promotionsschrift mit dem Thema „Das Kusnezk-Becken in Sibirien: Entwicklungsstrategien zur Modernisierung einer altindustriell geprägten peripheren Region“ wurde im ersten Schritt eine wirtschafts- und sozialgeographische Regionalanalyse durchgeführt, die sich auf die Auswertung russischer Fachtexte, Geschäftsberichte und Statistiken stützt. Als Bewertungsmaßstab für die Entwicklungs- und Modernisierungsmaßnahmen wurden u.a. die Ziele der 2007 erstellten „Strategie zur sozioökonomischen Entwicklung der Oblast‘ Kemerovo in langfristiger Perspektive“ (Entwicklungsstrategie 2025) in einer Halbzeitbilanz genutzt. Das Kusnezk-Becken bildet etwa ein Viertel der Fläche der Oblast‘ Kemerovo, erzeugt jedoch über 90 % der Wertschöpfung der Region. Die Ergebnisse der Analyse wurden mit 27 russischen Spezialisten diskutiert. Darüber hinaus wurden die Modernisi-rungs- und Diversifizierungsanstrengungen in der Oblast‘ Kemerovo mit denen in deutschen altindustriellen Regionen verglichen, und zwar mit dem Ruhrgebiet und dem Braunkohlerevier Niederlausitz. Methodisch wurde ein raumkommunikativer Ansatz gewählt. Die Probleme einer Altindustrieregion, die Programme der Unternehmen (Geschäftsberichte) und der Oblast‘-Verwaltung sowie die sich daraus ergebenden Programmräume wurden miteinander verschnitten. Als Leitprogramm diente 2007 erstellte langfristige Entwicklungsstrategie der Oblast‘ Kemerovo bis 2025. Da bereits neun Jahre des Programmzeitraums verflossen sind, konnten Ziele und Maßnahmen der anfangs erwähnten Halbzeitbilanz unterzogen werden. Nachfolgend werden die Programmblöcke Wachstumssicherung, Diversifizierung und Innovation beleuchtet. Insgesamt sind bereits einige aus anderen Altindustrieregionen bekannte klassische Instrumentarien zur Modernisierung eingesetzt worden. Vieles scheiterte an Halbherzigkeit und Finanzknappheit. Es wurde deutlich, dass besonders wichtige Projekte (insbes. bei der Innovationsförderung) von der Föderation initiiert worden sind. Das gilt auch für die „Entwicklungsstrategie 2025“. Sie wurde von einem regierungsnahen Projektbüro in St. Petersburg erstellt. Insgesamt scheint sich eine starke Zielabweichung von der Entwicklungsstrategie 2025 zu ergeben. Allerdings ist dabei zu berücksichtigen, dass einige Effekte aufgrund des zu kurzen Zeitraums seit der Implementierung noch nicht messbar sind. Insgesamt ist hervorzuheben, dass allein mit der Initiative dieser Entwicklungsstrategie die weitere Verabschiedung von etlichen branchenspezifischen Programmen auf der Ebene der Oblast’ angeregt werden konnte. Eine der wichtigsten Thesen der Arbeit ist folgende: Wenn eine periphere Region ihre Industriestrukturen erhalten und entwickeln will, dann sollte sie dies staatlich kontrolliert in eigener Regie durchführen können. Es bedeutet für die Modernisierung einer peripheren Altindustrieregion, dass staatliche Institutionen insgesamt mehr leisten müssen als beispielsweise in den begünstigten zentral gelegenen Metropolregionen des europäischen Russlands wie Moskau oder St. Petersburg.
Arne Bünger leistet mit den Ergebnissen seiner Untersuchungen der Innovations- und Adaptionsfähigkeit, der Nachhaltigkeitsorientierung sowie der Identifizierung von verschiedenen Akteurstypen in der Schweine- und Geflügelproduktion einerseits und der Algen- und Insektenproduktion andererseits einen Beitrag zum besseren Verständnis von sozio-technischen Transformationen und stärkt den bislang unterrepräsentierten Raum- und Akteursbezug in der Transformationsforschung. Dies und eine Analyse von Innovationspotenzialen und Nachhaltigkeitsorientierung im tri-nationalen Vergleich tragen zur Schließung von aktuellen Forschungslücken bei.
The multi-level perspective has been criticized for being functionalistic and paying little attention to actor-based perspectives. Nevertheless, for the identification and assessment of potential change agents in a sustainability transition, a clear conceptual and methodological approach is necessary. This paper, thus, develops a multi-dimensional typology of niche, regime, and hybrid actors, which is conceptually grounded in transition studies and empirically illustrated by a cluster analysis based on a survey of pig and poultry farmers in Germany, France, and the Netherlands. Animal husbandry is chosen as a case study because a significant share of the environmental impact within the agri-food system is attributed to this sector and there is evidence for resistance to change by mainstream actors. Conceptually, the paper provides a framework of constitutive elements for different kinds of actors and contributes to an extension of the niche–regime dichotomy by adding the group of hybrid actors. The empirical results show that cluster analysis is a suitable approach to identify conceptually meaningful differences among interviewed farmers. Among pig and poultry farmers, the regime actors are by far the largest group. The smaller group of hybrid actors, however, has large potential to act as boundary spanners. A particularly interesting finding is that several larger farms are among the group of niche actors which hints at the possibility that larger farms are not necessarily resistant to change.
Die dynamische Bevölkerungsentwicklung Ostdeutschlands seit 1990 zeigt am Beispiel der Entstehung einer Residualbevölkerung die unterschiedlichen Variationen der Selektivität von Wanderungen: Einer Bevölkerung, die aufgrund langfristig wirkender selektiven Wanderungsverluste im ländlich-peripheren Raum ein spezifisches demographisches Verhalten aufweist.
Der Wanderungsverlust Ostdeutschlands mit über 2,5 Millionen Menschen hat tiefgreifende Auswirkungen auf die alters-, geschlechts- und bildungsspezifische Bevölkerungsstruktur der neuen Bundesländer hinterlassen. Auch wenn die jungen Generationen zumeist das politisch geeinte Deutschland leben, existieren mit Blick auf die vorliegenden demographischen Prozesse und Strukturen bis heute nahezu zwei deutsche Staaten.
Die Entwicklungen sowie die Auswirkungen insbesondere der räumlichen Bevölkerungsbewegung wurden entsprechend dem Stand der Forschung vor dem Hintergrund der Situation Ostdeutschlands vorgestellt und die darauf aufbauenden Forschungsthesen benannt. Das bisher nur theoretische Konstrukt der Residualbevölkerung, die Interdependenz aus natürlicher und räumlicher Bevölkerungsbewegung, wurde anhand von unterschiedlichen demographischen Parametern (u. a. hohe Fertilität, hohe Mortalität, starke Wanderungsverluste, großes Frauendefizit, Überalterung) eingeordnet und damit als messbar definiert.
Am Beispiel Mecklenburg-Vorpommerns konnte anschließend gezeigt werden, wie sich die Bevölkerungsstruktur des ehemals jüngsten Bundeslandes aufgrund der selektiven Migration innerhalb eines Vierteljahrhunderts in das älteste umkehrte. Um diesen Verlauf nachzuvollziehen, wurden auf Gemeindeebene die unterschiedlichen Bewegungsentwicklungen ab 1990 dargestellt: Der Rückgang der Sterblichkeit, der Wiederanstieg der Fertilität sowie der sich manifestierende Wanderungsverlust junger Frauen. Daran anschließend zeigten Strukturberechnungen, wie sowohl das Billeter-Maß als auch Geschlechterproportionen, die umfassenden Auswirkungen der Bewegungen auf den Bevölkerungsstand und dessen Struktur Mecklenburg-Vorpommerns: Einen stetigen Rückgang der Bevölkerungszahlen, ein über-proportionales Frauendefizit in jüngeren Altersjahren und eine fortlaufend beschleunigte Alterung der Bevölkerung.
Vor dem Hintergrund dieser Rahmenbedingungen wurde für die Zeiträume 1990-2001 und 2002-2013 jeweils eine Clusteranalyse durchgeführt, die als Ergebnis eine Typisierung von Gemeinden hinsichtlich einer messbaren Residualbevölkerung ermöglichten. Entsprechend der Vordefinition eines solchen migrationellen Konstruktes konnte für etwa jede fünfte Gemeinde in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern solcherart demographische Bedingungen identifiziert werden. Diese Gemeinden liegen tendenziell im Binnenland und fern der Zentren – eine zentrale Verortung konnte nicht festgestellt werden. Von Gemeinde zu Gemeinde unterschieden sich die demographischen Parameter teils stark, so dass von einflussreichen lokalen (nicht betrachteten) Rahmenbedingungen ausgegangen werden muss.
Dagegen konnten auch Gemeinden ohne residuale Züge identifiziert werden. Etwa jede dritte Gemeinde Mecklenburg-Vorpommerns wies keine Parameter einer Residualbevölkerung auf. Diese Regionen waren vor allem in der Nähe der Zentren und der Küste zu finden. Die verbliebenen Gemeinden zeigten nur kurzfristig oder nur im geringfügigem Maße Indizien für eine solche Bevölkerung – das betraf etwa die Hälfte aller Gemeinden im Land.
Nach der gesamtgemeindlichen Analyse wurde die Bevölkerungs- und Sozialstruktur der dabei betroffenen Gemeinden Strasburg (Um.) im Landkreis Vorpommern-Greifswald und Dargun im Landkreis Mecklenburgische Seenplatte detailliert analysiert. Die Bevölkerungsentwicklung beider Betrachtungsgemeinden entsprach der vieler ostdeutscher Kleinstädte im ländlichen Raum nach der politischen Wende: Während die Gemeinden in der DDR Bevölkerungswachstum erfuhren oder zumindest gleichbleibende Bevölkerungszahlen als regionales Zentrum aufwiesen, verursachte die Abwanderung vor allem junger Menschen und ein manifestierter Sterbeüberschuss nach 1990 stetig rückläufige Zahlen.
In diesen beiden Gemeinden wurden dann nicht gesamtgemeindliche Bevölkerungszahlen analysiert, sondern vielmehr die Zusammensetzung einer Gemeindebevölkerung vor dem Hintergrund ihres Migrationsstatus differenziert. Für den Zeitraum 1979-2014 wurden deshalb anhand dieses Status die Bevölkerungen beider Gemeinden in Sesshafte und Zugezogene unterteilt. Aufgrund der sowohl vorhandenen Sterbe- als auch Geburtsstatistik war es möglich, die natürliche und räumliche Bevölkerungsbewegung der insgesamt fast 22.000 Men-schen direkt herauszuarbeiten. Die sesshafte Bevölkerung repräsentiert dabei die Menschen, die am ehesten dem Typus „Residualbevölkerung“ entsprechen.
Nach Berechnung der Mortalitäten für unterschiedliche Zeiträume ergab sich tendenziell eine höhere Sterblichkeit bzw. geringere Lebenserwartung der Sesshaften gegenüber den Zuzüglern bei Frauen wie Männern. Wurden darüber hinaus die Zugezogenen nach Lebensdauer in den Betrachtungsgemeinden differenziert, ergab bei beiden Geschlechtern eine längere Zugehörigkeit zu den Gemeinden auch eine höhere Sterblichkeit. Damit wurde einerseits die generell höhere Mortalität des ländlich-peripheren Raums gegenüber dem urbanen Raum bestätigt. Andererseits entspricht die höhere Sterblichkeit der sesshaften gegenüber der der nichtsesshaften Bevölkerung den Vorüberlegungen zur Residualbevölkerung.
Darüber hinaus wurde zusätzlich der Parameter „Bedürftigkeit“ berücksichtigt. Hier konnte erwartungsgemäß für beide Betrachtungsgemeinden die höchste Sterblichkeit der von Sozial-leistungen betroffenen Menschen festgestellt werden. Je länger dabei die Bezugsdauer, umso höher war die aufgezeigte Mortalität – dies sogar zumeist vor der sesshaften Bevölkerung. Bezieher von Sozialhilfe waren im Vergleich zu Beziehern von Wohngeld am stärksten betroffen; Unterschiede bei Männern besonders stark vertreten. Die Nichtbezieher wiesen bei beiden Geschlechtern die geringste Sterblichkeit auf.
Neben der Mortalität wurde als zweite Variable der natürlichen Bevölkerungsbewegung die Fertilität der beiden Bevölkerungsgruppen untersucht. Hier ergaben sich jedoch keine signifikanten Unterschiede zwischen beiden Bevölkerungsgruppen
Im Bereich der Periodenfertilität wiesen Zuzügler gegenüber den Sesshaften eine erhöhte Fertilität auf. Berechnungen der Kohortenfertilität ergaben wiederrum eine leicht höhere Fertilität der Sesshaften. Auch eine detaillierte Analyse der Zuzüglerinnen offenbarte kein einheitliches Bild. Mit Blick auf die Bedürftigkeit war festzustellen, dass die Bezieherinnen eine deutlich höhere Fertilität gegenüber Nichtbezieherinnen – unabhängig von der Bezugsdauer – aufwiesen. Im Ergebnis wurde damit zwar die generell höhere Fertilität des ländlich-peripheren Raums gegenüber dem urbanen Raum bestätigt. Die entsprechenden Vorüberlegungen zur Fertilität der sesshaften gegenüber der nichtsesshaften Bevölkerung konnten aber nicht eindeutig verifiziert werden.
Die gesamtheitliche Betrachtung der Gemeindeberechnungen zeigte demzufolge ein zweitgeteiltes Bild: Die Ergebnisse der Mortalität bestätigen die Annahmen zur Residualbevölkerung, die Ergebnisse der Fertilität nur in Teilen. Auch wenn die festgestellten Fertilitäts- und Morta-litätsunterschiede ortsbehaftet sind – sei es durch Umwelteinflüsse vor Ort oder die Art der Menschen zu leben: Je länger die Menschen in Regionen mit einem bestimmten Fertilitäts- und Mortalitätsniveau leben, umso stärker passen sie sich diesem an – in beide Richtungen.
Vor dem Hintergrund sowohl der Typisierung aller Gemeinden als auch der beiden Betrach-tungsgemeinden ist zu konstatieren, dass beide Variablen der natürlichen Bevölkerungsbewegung nichtgleichberechtigt nebeneinander zur Erklärung einer Residualbevölkerung fungieren müssen. Unter der Beibehaltung der theoretischen Annahmen ist dementsprechend zukünftig von einer Residualbevölkerung mit Schwerpunkt einer hohen Mortalität einerseits und mit Schwerpunkt einer hohen Fertilität andererseits auszugehen. Das bisher in der Literatur benannte Frauendefizit stellt darüber hinaus nur einen Parameter unter mehreren dar und sollte bei nachfolgenden Betrachtungen nicht als alleiniger Indikator dienen.
Unter Berücksichtigung der Ergebnisse sowohl aus beiden Gemeinden als auch aus den Clus-teranalysen wurde ein Modell einerseits zur Entstehung der Residualbevölkerung, andererseits zum Wirken der selektiven Migration generell erstellt. In Abhängigkeit von Alter und Geschlecht und unter Voraussetzung einer langfristig konstanten Wanderungsbewegung konnte so der theoretische Einfluss der räumlichen Bevölkerungsbewegung auf die Bevölkerungsstruktur – und damit indirekt auch auf die natürliche Bevölkerungsbewegung – vereinfacht projiziert werden.
Der ostdeutsche ländlich-periphere Raum ist abschließend als Sonderform des ländlich-peripheren Raums einzuordnen. Die hier gezeigte Residualbevölkerung kann als ein Indikator für – den gesellschaftlichen, kulturellen und wirtschaftlichen Verwerfungen geschuldeten – langfristige Wanderungsverluste eingeordnet werden. Die überproportional ausgeprägte Bedürftigkeit im ländlich-peripheren Raum kann deshalb auch als ein Merkmal der Sesshaftigkeit eingeordnet werden.
Insofern ist die Residualbevölkerung, vor dem Hintergrund der darüber hinaus als perspektivisch ungünstig erachteten Zukunftsaussicht, als Bevölkerungsgruppe eines Raumes abnehmender Entwicklungsstufe zu verstehen. Es ist daher ratsam, einerseits eine Verbesserung der Lebenssituation betroffener Menschen in ländlich-peripheren Räumen zu erwirken und andererseits diesen Herausforderungen raumplanerisch stärkeres Gewicht zu verleihen. Die zukünftige dahingehende Gestaltung ländlich-peripherer Räume in Ostdeutschland bedarf aus Sicht des Autors deshalb mehr an Autarkie sowie flexibler Kreativität.
This thesis aims at improving the current representation of adaptation in economic frameworks of climate change by a) accounting for the time-dependent evolution of the adaptive capacities of countries and b) quantifying unwelcome feedbacks of the adaptation process. In this context, it is proposed that economic assessments of climate change incorporate adaptation as a cyclic and phase-dependent process while devising their cost methodologies. A phase-dependent process acknowledges the existence of adaptation barriers while a cyclic process accounts for potential unwanted feedbacks of adaptation. By analyzing economic assessments against this framework, it is shown that dependencies between phases of adaptation and phases altogether are often disregarded. Furthermore, potential negative consequences associated with adaptation are rarely considered and adaptation is generally assumed to be unconstrained. The assumption of unconstrained adaptation is only acceptable in the context of high adaptive capacity. This concept was further investigated through a review of vulnerability assessments regarding their operation of the adaptive capacity component. It was found that adaptive capacity is mostly equated to proxies that reflect the knowledge, financial and livelihood capacities of the system under analysis. With this theoretical considerations in mind, a dynamic representation of adaptive capacity was elaborated at a country-level. The Human Development Index (HDI) was used as a proxy of the adaptive capacity of countries and its evolution in time extrapolated. The time required for countries to achieve developed world standards of human development was then estimated. The results indicate that between 2005 and 2020, half of the world population will live in countries with low adaptive capacity. This percentage is then progressively reduced to 15% in the year 2050, with marked regional differences. The time required for a country to achieve an appropriate level of development sets a clear constraint on when, and to what extent, the country can engage on climate change adaptation. This does not imply that adaptation will not take place before development occurs. Rather, it calls for adaptation options to be tailored in order to t the current and future adaptive capacities of countries. Obtaining higher levels of adaptive capacity is likely to be associated with negative consequences for the climatic system. The statistical relation between HDI and per-capita emissions of countries was established and future projections made. Between 2010 and 2050 approx. 300 Gt of CO2 are estimated to be associated with the increase of adaptive capacities of current developing countries. This value represents about 30% of the allowed CO2-budgets to restrict global temperatures to an increase of 2 degrees by 2100 compared to pre-industrial times - conditional to a 25% risk of failing to meet the target. For the case of sea-level rise, the modelling framework DIVA (Dynamic Interactive Vulnerability Assessment) was used in order to illustrate the drawbacks of a simplistic representation of adaptation. The results show that adaptation via the construction of protective infrastructure might be economically feasible for particular countries. For others, modeled results fail to provide a clear choice between adaptation or inaction. The assumption of unconstrained adaptation resulted in the valuation of costly protection options whose financial and knowledge requirements can be at odds with the capacities of some coastal countries - namely developing countries. Further, infrastructural protection as adaptive measure to prevent coastal damages can have the counter-productive effect of raising the amount and value of assets at risk. This is a direct result of DIVA disregarding the potential unwelcome feedbacks of adaptation itself. In conclusion, the full potential of economic assessments of climate adaptation is likely to remain unlocked as long as adaptation continues to be misrepresented. The methodologies discussed in this work provide a way forward to alleviate this deficiency in forthcoming assessments. For the case of sea-level rise, the modeling framework DIVA (Dynamic Interactive Vulnerability Assessment) was used in order to illustrate the drawbacks of a simplistic representation of adaptation. The results show that adaptation via the construction of protective infrastructure might be economically feasible for particular countries. For others, modeled results fail to provide a clear choice between adaptation or inaction. The assumption of unconstrained adaptation resulted in the valuation of costly protection options whose financial and knowledge requirements can be at odds with the capacities of some coastal countries - namely developing countries. Further, infrastructural protection as adaptive measure to prevent coastal damages can have the counter-productive effect of raising the amount and value of assets at risk. This is a direct result of DIVA disregarding the potential unwelcome feedbacks of adaptation itself. In conclusion, the full potential of economic assessments of climate adaptation is likely to remain unlocked as long as adaptation continues to be misrepresented. The methodologies discussed in this work provide a way forward to alleviate this deficiency in forthcoming assessments.
Growth corridors have been an instrument of
economic development for decades but have gained new
attention in regional economic development policies in recent years, e.g., in Sub-Saharan Africa or Southeast Asia.
They are seen by policy makers and private businesses as
catalysts of regional economic integration, pushing traditional businesses into increasingly complex international
value chains. However, the outcomes of such development
initiatives are still barely understood. Critics argue that development policies are based on simplified models that are
unable to sufficiently address the complexity of regional
development. Policies on value-chain development, for
example, can lead to conflicts, external dependencies,
land rush, and a polarization of wealth. Growth corridors
often go hand-in-hand with socio-economic transformations and land-use conflicts. This paper first discusses the
theoretically possible desired and undesired regional socio-economic effects of modern corridors. Second, we illustrate the potential and challenges to realize integrative
(or inclusive) development by contrasting three growth
corridors: the SAGCOT growth corridor in Tanzania, the
Walvis Bay-Ndola-Lubumbashi Development Corridor
(WBNLDC) in Namibia, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and the
growth corridors in the Greater Mekong Subregion (GMS)
Die Herausforderungen des globalen Klimawandels stehen seit mehreren Jahrzehnten auf der gesellschaftlichen und politischen Tagesordnung. Die Folgen der Erderwärmung haben das Potential, die heute bestehenden ökologischen, sozialen und wirtschaftlichen Systeme in unbekanntem Ausmaß zu stören. Ungeachtet dieser Tatsache bleibt die mediale Aufmerksamkeit auf das Thema größtenteils überschaubar. Das Ziel der Arbeit ist es, ein Bild der Tagesschau Medienagenda im Jahr 2022 zu zeichnen. Im Fokus steht hierbei die Berichterstattung über die Klimakrise im Verhältnis zu anderen sozio-ökonomischen Krisen, wie der COVID19-Krise, der Wirtschaftskrise, der Energiekrise und dem Angriffskrieg gegen die Ukraine. Zur inhaltlichen Auswertung der Tagesschau-Hauptsendung wurde eine qualitative Inhaltsanalyse durchgeführt. Über theoretische Annäherungen, wie den Agenda-Setting-Ansatz und den Framing-Ansatz, konnten Rückschlüsse über die Medienwirkung und das Verhältnis der Krisen zueinander getroffen werden. In der computerbasierten Auswertung mit MAXQDA wurde herausgestellt, dass die Klimakrise mit anderen gesellschaftsrelevanten Themen um Sendeplätze konkurriert. Vor allem der Kriegsausbruch in der Ukraine dominierte die Berichterstattung im Jahr 2022. Darüber hinaus wurde die Klimakrise in der Tagesschau vor allem als Thema politischer Konflikte geframed. Im Jahr 2022 war außerdem der Frame der Klimakrise als Teil multipler Krisen präsent. Dieser suggerierte eine Gleichwertigkeit aller aufkommenden Konflikte, welche der Klimakrise und ihren tiefgreifenden Folgen nicht gerecht wird. Um diese Rolle angemessen zu berücksichtigen, muss der Journalismus innovative Wege finden, um eine ressortübergreifende Berichterstattung des Themas zu erreichen. Nur so können die komplexen wissenschaftlichen Erkenntnisse über die Erderwärmung als Basis für die dringliche Abmilderung der Klimakrise vermittelt werden. Verschiedene Ansätze einer solchen Berichterstattung werden diskutiert.
Geopolymers (GPs) are inorganic binders created by adding alkaline solution (e.g. KOH) to silicates such as furnace slag, fly ash or clay to dissolve Si and Al that polymerises and precipitates to form an inorganic binder material while hardening. GP properties are similar to ordinary Portland cement regarding their high compressive strength or low shrinkage but they are particularly notable for a high resistance to acid and fire. However, the most significant advantage of GP cements is their low CO2 footprint. The most common clay used as GP raw material is kaolin. The aim of this study is to investigate the suitability of illitic clays as a cheaper alternative to kaolin and determine the necessary preparation steps required to produce effective GP binder materials. Three clays dominated by dioctahedral 2:1 layer silicates, in particular interstratifications of mica and smectite were investigated: (1) Illitic clay from Friedland, Northern Germany, containing an irregularly stacked illite-smectite interstratification (R0 I-S), (2) rectorite from Arkansas, USA, as a regular interstratification of mica and smectite, and (3) clay stated as “sárospatakite” from Füzérradvány clay deposit, Northern Hungary, containing a long range ordered I-S (R3). The three types of I-S interstratification-rich clays were extensively characterised and the Friedland clay, as the most probable raw material for GP production, was studied in more detail including several size fraction analyses. These results are used to investigate and determine the parameters necessary to produce suitable precursors for GP binders. Different approaches of clay activation to yield a highly reactive material by milling and heating were examined. Milling was found to be suitable as a preparation step after heating breaking up sintering aggregates to create pathways for the alkaline solution, but not as a substitute for heating. Important parameters for the precursor design such as temperature, time, and heating rate are determined and discussed. Geopolymerisation is considered to be a multi-parameter system and is influenced strongly by the degree of dehydroxylation, Si:Al ratio, or amount of 5-fold coordinated Al. However, in contrast to kaolin-based systems, none of these parameters explain why the illitic Friedland clay heated to 875 °C was found to be most suitable for GP binders. Based on leaching experiments and specific surface area (AS) measurements of the heated Friedland clay, a conceptual model is presented to explain the observed relationship between the heating temperature and the subsequent compressive strength of the GP cement. An optimum between the counteracting reactions of decreasing AS (fewer particles must be covered with GP phase) and decreasing Si+Al dissolved (less GP phase created) is necessary, which exists at 875 °C for the Friedland clay. In this state enough GP phase is created to bind all remaining sintering aggregates to form a cement with high compressive strength. This relationship can be expressed as (Si+Al) / AS (sum of dissolved Si and Al divided by the surface area of grains that must be covered with GP phase), and can be used as a predictive tool for determining the optimal heating temperature. The results presented in this thesis indicate that illitic clays are suitable raw materials as GP binders if the necessary preparation steps of dehydroxylation, sintering and grinding are made. Proxies used to evaluate the optimal conditions for making GP binders are determined including the (Si+Al) / AS ratio as a key relationship that controls the cementation process and determines its ultimate hardness.
The exchange of water and dissolved elements between the continents and the oceans occurs via different routes in the hydrological cycle, such as rivers, atmospheric exchange, and submarine groundwater discharge (SGD). In addition, the elemental fluxes in the coastal waters may strongly depend on benthic water-solid-microbe interactions close to the sediment-water interface. It is becoming increasingly recognized that SGD can impact diagenesis and act as a source of water and dissolved substances for coastal ecosystems. The qualitative and quantitative assessment of SGD is still challenging as it requires the identification of suitable geochemical tracers for the complex hydrological and biogeochemical processes in the subterranean estuary. In this study, geochemical analyses were combined with geophysical, hydrological, and biological investigations to gain insights into the mechanisms driving SGD in coastal waters. In addition, onshore ground and surface waters were evaluated to identify the processes controlling the potential end member. The surveys were performed along the Baltic Sea coast: Warnow River and Wismar Bay in Germany, the Gulf of Gdańsk and Puck Bay in Poland, and Hanko Bay in Finland. The results suggest that the analyzed surface water system was strongly impacted by seasonal variations, while SGD displayed a much more stable composition throughout the year. New areas of SGD were also identified along the Baltic Sea. It was also observed that anthropogenic coastal infrastructures could promote SGD affecting the water balance and the benthic fluxes. At other sites, the SGD was associated with natural structures such as pockmarks. The stable isotopic composition of the fresh component of SGD was close to the meteoric water at most sites; however, old groundwaters from distinct aquifers were identified. Combining all sites, SGD showed high variability, ranging from near 0 to up to 300 L m-2 d-1, and the saline SGD was more dominant than the fresh component. The fluxes obtained at one site were even higher than the surface runoff. SGD was higher on sandy sediments, but the elemental fluxes were relatively low. Despite low SGD at muddy sites, interfacial elemental fluxes, enhanced by intense diagenesis in the top sediments, resulted in higher chemical fluxes to the water column. The sediment porewater gradients at the SGD impacted sites suggest that the advective upward flow of groundwater increased the elemental fluxes across the sediment-water interface. Therefore, the dissolved substances of SGD are partly impacted by the processes in the soil zone and aquifer during groundwater development, and partly impacted by the early diagenetic process in the surface sediments. Overall, this study shows the importance of SGD for the biogeochemical cycles of coastal waters. Moreover, 6 it can be concluded that a combination of interdisciplinary approaches can provide a better understanding and assessment of SGD in a specific environment. Although all the studies presented here are local, the methodology and results presented in this thesis can be replicated and thus provide assistance in other coastal areas.
A hydroxy-sodalite/cancrinite zeolite composite was synthesized from low-grade calcite-bearing kaolin by hydrothermal alkali-activation method at 160 C for 6 h. The effect of calcite addition on the formation of the hydroxy-sodalite/cancrinite composite was investigated
using artificial mixtures. The chemical composition and crystal morphology of the synthesized zeolite composite were characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, infrared spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy, and N2 adsorption/desorption analyses. The average specific surface area is around 17–20 m2g-1, whereas the average pore size lies in the mesoporous range (19–21 nm). The synthesized zeolite composite was used as an adsorbent for the removal of heavy metals in aqueous solutions. Batch experiments were employed to study the influence of adsorbent dosage on heavy metal removal eciency. Results demonstrate the effective removal of significant quantities of Cu, Pb, Ni, and Zn from aqueous media. A comparative study of synthesized hydroxy-sodalite and
hydroxy-sodalite/cancrinite composites revealed the latter was 16–24% more effcient at removing heavy metals from water. The order of metal uptake effciency for these zeolites was determined to be Pb > Cu > Zn > Ni. These results indicate that zeolite composites synthesized from natural calcite-bearing kaolin materials could represent effective and low-cost adsorbents for heavy metal removal using water treatment devices in regions of water hortage.
Open and analysis-ready data, as well as methodological and technical advancements have resulted in an unprecedented capability for observing the Earth’s land surfaces. Over 10 years ago, Landsat time series analyses were inevitably limited to a few expensive images from carefully selected acquisition dates. Yet, such a static selection may have introduced uncertainties when spatial or inter-annual variability in seasonal vegetation growth were large. As seminal pre-open-data-era papers are still heavily cited, variations of their workflows are still widely used, too. Thus, here we quantitatively assessed the level of agreement between an approach using carefully selected images and a state-of-the-art analysis that uses all available images. We reproduced a representative case study from the year 2003 that for the first time used annual Landsat time series to assess long-term vegetation dynamics in a semi-arid Mediterranean ecosystem in Crete, Greece. We replicated this assessment using all available data paired with a time series method based on land surface phenology metrics. Results differed fundamentally because the volatile timing of statically selected images relative to the phenological cycle introduced systematic uncertainty. We further applied lessons learned to arrive at a more nuanced and information-enriched vegetation dynamics description by decomposing vegetation cover into woody and herbaceous components, followed by a syndrome-based classification of change and trend parameters. This allowed for a more reliable interpretation of vegetation changes and even permitted us to disentangle certain land-use change processes with opposite trajectories in the vegetation components that were not observable when solely analyzing total vegetation cover. The long-term budget of net cover change revealed that vegetation cover of both components has increased at large and that this process was mainly driven by gradual processes. We conclude that study designs based on static image selection strategies should be critically evaluated in the light of current data availability, analytical capabilities, and with regards to the ecosystem under investigation. We recommend using all available data and taking advantage of phenology-based approaches that remove the selection bias and hence reduce uncertainties in results.
The dissertation aims at developing means to integrate conservation and development in biosphere reserves in Madagascar. Despite a multitude of concepts such as UNESCO biosphere reserves, Integrated Conservation and Development Projects and community-based natural resource management, gaps between conservation and development remain to exist. In a qualitative case study in Mananara-Nord and Sahamalaza Iles-Radama Biosphere Reserves in Madagascar data was collected on biosphere reserve management, local use of natural resources and socio-cultural aspects that influence natural resource use. Furthermore, natural values local people associate with the forest were investigated. Analysis revealed that management capacities constitute a limiting factor in biosphere reserve management. Collaboration between management, local people and international organisations fosters the achievement of both conservation and development. However, collaboration is only possible if (i) clear rules are formulated and (ii) partners have a vision in common. Based on the theory of social capital, newly introduced and locally existent rules/institutions having an influence on the use of natural resource were categorized in bonding, linking and bridging social capital. Furthermore, the perception of natural values was classified in instrumental and non-instrumental values and assigned to ecosystem services identifying the importance of nature for human well-being. With the capabilities approach Amartya Sen defined human well-being as the achievement of those capabilities a person considers valuable. This includes aspects that assure livelihoods on the one hand and aspects that are conducive to well-being on the other, thus both being relevant for development. In the dissertation capabilities are based on both instrumental and non-instrumental natural values and consequently offer an opportunity to demonstrate and characterise the relationship between nature and human well-being. Social and natural values provide orientation for a biosphere reserve management. The category bonding social capital (social values) describes local socio-cultural aspects in communities and their importance for collaborative processes. Natural values provide the management with guiding principles to foster nature conservation and to integrate locally existent capabilities. Supporting and furthering these capabilities enables the development of new capabilities of all concerned persons. The dissertation demonstrates various possibilities to build bridges between (i) nature conservation and development, (ii) natural and social sciences, (iii) formal regulations and local socio-cultural aspects and (iv) diverse actors. Implementation of a social monitoring is recommended together with local stewards and Malagasy students to collect information about the perception of natural and social values and use them as guiding principles for biosphere reserves. Collaboration with national and international scientific institutions can foster this process.
Durch die Entstehung neuer Pilgerwege erhoffen sich die Initiatoren eine touristische Erschließung peripherer Räume. Ähnlich beim Projekt des Pommerschen Jakobsweges, welches das Küstenhinterland des südlichen Ostseeraumes im Zuge der Revitalisierung einer kulturhistorischen Pilgerroute touristisch aufwerten soll. Ziel dieser tourismusgeographischen Studie ist es, das Potential des Pommerschen Jakobsweges im Hinblick auf die Nachfrageseite zu untersuchen und Handlungsmöglichkeiten aufzuzeigen. Die Arbeit dient zudem als Konzeption und Leitlinie für zukünftige Projekte und setzt sich kritisch mit gegenwärtigen Forschungsergebnissen auseinander. Der Fokus der Untersuchung wird dabei auf die reisespezifischen Aspekte des Pilgerns sowie die Funktion des Pilgerweges als touristisches Produkt gelegt. Als Ergebnis wurden fünf Reiseformen herausgearbeitet, die inmitten des alternativen Pilgertourismus eine besondere Rolle übernehmen und die nachgewiesene, starke Nachfrage an peripheren Pilgerwegen mitgestalten.
Climate change has strongly affected mountain forests through an increasing intensity and frequency of disturbances and forest dieback in recent decades. However, given the strong relevance of forest dieback and potential impacts on forest stakeholders and local inhabitants, it is surprising that this research field is seldom investigated to date. Therefore, this study deals with the perception of climate change-related consequences as well as possible silvicultural adaptation strategies for the Bavarian Forest. Since it can be assumed that various forest ecosystem services will be increasingly in demand in the future, participation by all stakeholders is essential. Therefore, a sequential, mixed-method approach (qualitative and quantitative survey) allows developing concrete guidelines and strategies for adaptive management, in which the diverse social demands on forests can be adequately taken into account.
Perception of climate change-related forest dieback in mountain forests among the local population
(2023)
Mountain forests provide multiple benefits but are threatened by climate change-induced forest dieback. Although many studies summarize perceptions of forest ecosystem services, relatively few deal with mountain forests. The local population’s perception of forest dieback in mountain forests in relation to climate change has rarely been investigated so far. Their perspective is relevant as local people are often deeply attached to “their” forests, they actively use forest ecosystems and—as voters and taxpayers—they need to support the state’s adaptation and funding measures. Therefore, this study investigates the climate change and forest dieback perception of local inhabitants in two mountain areas of Southern Germany (the German Alps and the Bavarian Forest) with a quantitative survey based on representative online samples (n = 709). Relying conceptually on van der Linden’s (J Environ Psychol 41:112–124, 2015. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2014.11.012) climate change risk perception model, the results show that experiential processing, cognitive and socio-cultural factors are related to locals’ forest dieback and climate change perception, while socio-demographics show no or few connections. Nearly two-thirds (64.7%) of the respondents perceive moderate to strong forest dieback, while more than half (55.0%) of the respondents already observe consequences of climate change. The perceptions of climate change and forest dieback are positively correlated with medium to high strength. This shows that forest dieback could be interpreted as an indicator of climate change, which is difficult to observe due to its long-term nature. We identify three groups of respondents regarding preferred forest adaptation strategies to climate change. In general, respondents support nature-based forest adaptation strategies over intense measures.
Glacitectonic deformation in the Quaternary caused the tectonic framework of large-scale folds and displaced thrust sheets of Maastrichtian (Upper Cretaceous) chalk and Pleistocene glacial deposits in the southwestern Baltic Sea area.
A wide spectrum of methods has been compiled to unravel the structural evolution of the Jasmund Glacitectonic Complex. The analyses of digital elevation models (DEM) suggest a division into two structural sub-complexes – a northern part with morphological ridges striking NW–SE and a southern part with SW–NE trending ridges. Geological cross sections from the eastern coast (southern sub-complex) were constructed and restored using the software Move™ and the complementary module 2D Kinematic Modelling™.
The final geometric model of the southern sub-complex shows a small-scale fold-and-thrust belt. It includes three different orders of architectural surfaces (see PEDERSEN, 2014): erosional surfaces and the décollement (1st order), thrust faults (2nd order), and beds outlining hanging-wall anticlines as well as footwall synclines (3rd order). Thrust faults of the southern structural sub-complex are mainly inclined towards south, which indicates a local glacier push from the S/SE.
The glacitectonic structures have a surface expression in form of sub-parallel ridges and elongated valleys in between. Geomorphological mapping and detailed landform analyses together with the structural investigations provide an insight into the chronology of sub-complexes formation. The northern part of the glacitectonic complex is suggested to have been formed before the southern one, considering the partly truncated northerly ridges and their superimposition by the southern sub-complex.
Although there is a high number of scientific publications on the glacitectonic evolution of Jasmund, these presented models often lack a consistent theory for the development integrating all parts of the 100 km2 large complex. Therefore, the combination of all results leads to a more self-consistent genetic model for the entire Jasmund Glacitectonic Complex.
Late Pleistocene glacitectonism at the southern Scandinavian Ice Sheet margin caused folding and thrusting of Upper Cretaceous chalk layers and Pleistocene glacial deposits in parts of the southwestern Baltic Sea area in Europe. Beside Møns Klint (SE Denmark), the Jasmund Glacitectonic Complex (JGC) on Rügen Island (NE Germany) is a similar striking example of glacitectonic deformation creating large composite ridges. In spite of a long research history and new results from modern datasets, the structural development of the JGC is still poorly understood, especially the detailed evolution of the southern JGC and its relationship to the northern JGC remain enigmatic. In this contribution, we demonstrate how the understanding of the JGC benefits from the application of established structural geological methods comprehending the formation of fold-and-thrust belts. The methods include cross-section balancing of the eastern coast (southern JGC) and quantification of the amount of folding and faulting. The proposed geometric model shows the current fold-and-thrust stack of glacially deformed sedimentary strata ca. 5720 m in length evolved by shortening from the original length (11,230 m) by 5510 m (49.1%). We present a spatial and temporal development of fault-related folding with a transition from detachment folds through fault-propagation folds to fault-bend folds. Together with morphological information from a digital elevation model, the thrust faults mapped in the cliff section are mainly inclined towards the S to SW and imply that a local glacier push occurred from the south. These results highlight the complexity and individual architecture of the JGC when compared to other Pleistocene and modern glacitectonic complexes. Resolving its structural development provides new insight into the deformation history and shortening of this spectacular glacitectonic complex lying in the southwestern Baltic Sea region.
Der inhabergeführte Einzelhandel steht vor besonderen Herausforderungen bei der Einführung und Etablierung digitaler Kundenkommunikationsmaßnahmen (KKM). Im vorliegenden Beitrag wird untersucht, welche Maßnahmen im Zuge der Coronapandemie eingeführt worden sind und welche dieser Maßnahmen besonders zukunftsfähig sein können. Darüber hinaus wird die Bedeutung von regionalen Netzwerken beim Wissenstransfer über digitale Maßnahmen betrachtet. Für die Untersuchung wurde in den drei Bundesländern Nordrhein-Westfalen, Sachsen und Sachsen-Anhalt im März 2022 eine Online-Befragung von Inhabern durchgeführt und durch fünf Experteninterviews im April und Mai 2022 ergänzt. Für die Vergleichbarkeit der gewonnenen Ergebnisse wird eine großflächige Handelsstudie der IHK Köln und dem ibi Research Institut Regensburg aus dem Jahr 2020 herangezogen. Dabei stellte sich heraus, dass insbesondere die digitale Sichtbarkeit für den Erhalt der inhabergeführten Einzelhandelsgeschäfte in Zukunft von zentraler Bedeutung sein wird. Ferner präsentieren sich die sozialen Medien mit ihrer perspektivisch ausgestatteten Verkaufsfunktion als geeignetes Instrument. Außerdem konnten durch eine differenzierte Betrachtung von Branchen und Zielgruppen sowie unterschiedlichen Ansätzen für den Einstieg in die digitale Kundenkommunikation zukunftsfähige und individuelle Maßnahmen identifiziert werden.
The objectives of the present work are to relate the spatial distribution of benthic macrofauna in the Baltic Sea to patterns in environmental variables describing near-bottom hydrographical conditions and sediment characteristics, analyzing the data for two various spatial extents. The first case study is devoted to an exploratory statistical description of the prevailing ecological structure within the limited area attached to the region of the Mecklenburg Bight. Key environmental descriptors of spatial distribution of macrofaunal communities were disclosed within the area of investigation: water depth, regarded as a proxy for other environmental factors, and total organic content. Distinct benthic assemblages that are discriminated by particular species (Hydrobia ulvae–Scoloplos armiger, Lagis koreni–Mysella bidentata and Capitella capitata–Halicryptus spinulosus) were defined. Each assemblage is related to different spatial subarea and is characterized by a certain variability of environmental factors. This study represented the basis for the predictive modelling of species distribution in the selected investigation area, which constituted the next part of the investigation. Species-specific models predicting the probability of occurrence relative to environmental and sedimentological characteristics were developed for 29 representative macrofaunal species using a logistic regression modelling approach. Subsequently, the technique for a predictive modelling of species distributions in response to abiotic parameters based on single-factor logistic regression models, utilizing Akaike’s information criterion (AIC) and Akaike weights for multimodel inference, was used. Thus, probabilities of occurrence for selected exemplary species (Arctica islandica, Hediste diversicolor, Pygospio elegans, Tubificoides benedii and Scoloplos armiger) were modelled and mapped. Finally, the investigation proceeded on a large spatial scale. The discriminating ability of such factors as salinity, bathymetry, and sediment characteristics (considered only generally due to the lack of more detailed data) to explain the occurrence of typical macrozoobenthic species on the Baltic Sea-wide extend was tested. Full coverage macrofauna distribution maps, though being increasingly demanded, are generally lacking, with information being merely restricted to point observations. In contrast to spatial interpolation, periled by presence of short distance changes in community structure and dependence of the result on density of the samples, predictive habitat suitability modelling allows to objectively produce distribution maps at a level of detail limited only by the availability and resolution of the environmental data. Various literature sources and available databases were analyzed in respect to the information on macrozoobenthos distribution in the Baltic Sea, resulting in the compilation of an extensive list of taxa and an inventory dataset on species distribution for the whole Baltic Sea. The study demonstrates the need to analyze species’ relationships in gradient systems such as the Baltic Sea and provides a basis for a tool to predict natural and anthropogenic forced changes in species distribution.
In 1992, the international regime 'Agenda 21' was agreed upon. Accordingly, countries worldwide have been undergoing reforms in their water management into Integrated Water Resources Management (IWRM). The implementation is promoted by international actors. The main institutional aspects of IWRM are the river basin approach, clear property rights allocation, and application of economical instruments. In former centrally planned economies, the process of IWRM implementation has been coincided with transformation for the market economy. The implementation of institutional aspects of IWRM in countries under transition is connected with high transaction costs. Against this background, the comparative empirical study was initialised in order to analyse institutional change of water management towards IWRM in Vietnam and in Poland. Two models of river basin organisations were examined. Consequently, pros and cons of decentralised polycentric and hierarchical unicentric river basin organisations have been evaluated. Formal institutions were studied with the use of an in-depth review of legislation in Vietnam and in Poland. The EU Water Frame Directive (EU WFD) and other international policies were also examined. For the empirical study in Vietnam and in Poland, actors were interviewed as experts. The results of the study on both countries were discussed separately, and conclusions were drawn in a comparative manner. Water management reforms towards IWRM in Vietnam and in Poland have been generating multi-level governance processes including international, national and sub-national levels. The implementation of IWRM in Vietnam is supported by international donor agencies. In Poland, the implementation of the EU WFD is coordinated by the European Commission in a hierarchical manner. In comparison to international joint-development projects in Vietnam, the European Commission enforces international IWRM policy more effectively. Since the resumption of ODA in early 1990s, water resources management has been institutionalised in Vietnam by international support. In 1998, a Water Law was established in Vietnam. The intended separation of water resources management from water service provisions caused fragmentation between the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment, and the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, respectively. This ‘silo-effect’ has been intensified by the competition for international ODA. The power struggles affect even agencies within ministries. Polycentric river basin committees have been established as entities subordinated to the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, as well as the Ministry of Natural Resources and Environment. However, because of weak property rights allocation and the absence of administrative powers, the river basin organisations work ineffectively. The river basin has not yet been established as a sub-national area of political action. Decisions sustained to be made at central level and are affected by the information problem due to largely centralised organisations of Vietnamese water management. The sub-national level is characterised by very low planning and management capacities. In Poland, unicentric river basin organisations were established in 1991. They are aligned with hydrological borders. Water resources planning and management are carried out according to river basins and water regions in order to implement the EU WFD. The river basin has been established as a new area of decision-making. Conflicts between local-governments have been resolved after the reforms. Nevertheless, spatial management planning, environmental protection planning, water service delivery, etc., are further carried out by local self-governments. To integrate water resources planning and management with these services, horizontal coordination is of critical importance. However, this is hampered by problems of ‘spatial fit’. Moreover, a high degree of horizontal cross-border communication increases information problems in hierarchical organisations. Thus, features of polycentric governance models become increasingly important in order to fully implement the EU WFD in Poland.
Monitoring of Calcite Precipitation in Hardwater Lakes with Multi-Spectral Remote Sensing Archives
(2017)
Mit zunehmend beobachtbaren Klimawandelauswirkungen steigt die Bedeutung, die Klimawandelanpassung als Ergänzung zu Vermeidung hat. Das gilt für Industrieländer wie für Entwicklungsländer, für ökologische wie soziale Systems und insbesondere für sozial-ökologische Systeme. Um wirksame Anpassungseffekte erzielen zu können, müssen Anpassungsmaßnahmen jedoch durchführbar sein. Welche Faktoren die Durchführbarkeit behindern oder steigern, wird am Beispiel dreier deutscher Biosphärenreservate (Mittelelbe, Schaalsee und Südost-Rügen) mittels Experteninterviews und eine qualitativen Meta-Analyse wissenschaftlicher Publikationen über Hindernisse und Erfolgsfaktoren für Anpassung untersucht. Die Ergebnisse zeigen verschiedene Schlüsselkategorien an Faktoren, beispielsweise Klimawandelwahrnehmung, verfügbare Wissens- sowie finanzielle und personelle Ressourcen, den politischen und den sozio-ökonomischen Kontext. Die insgesamt identifizierten Faktoren umfassen sowohl interne, als auch externe Faktoren: - intern: Klimawandelwahrnehmung und Klimawandelwissen/-information - extern: verfügbare Ressourcen und politische und ökonomische Rahmenbedingungen Daher müssen Ansätze, die die Durchführbarkeit von Klimawandelanpassungen steigern wollen, interne und externe Faktoren integrieren. Vor diesem Hintergrund wird ein theoriebegründetes Konzept zur Steigerung der Durchführbarkeit entwickelt. Es setzt sich aus fünf Bausteinen zusammen: 1) anpassungsunterstützende Klimawandelwahrnehmung stärken 2) bestehende Klimawandelwissen verbessern 3) No-regret und robust Anpassungsoptionen identifizieren 4) die politische Unterstützung für Anpassung steigern 5) ausreichende finanzielle und personelle Ressourcen sowie Infrastruktur bereitstellen Diese Bausteine in die Tat umzusetzen erfordert gemeinsame, disziplin- und sektorenübergreifende Anstrengungen von Wissenschaft, Politik und Gesellschaft. Aufgrund ihres Selbstvertändnisses sind Biosphärenreservate geeignete Instrumente und Lernlaboratorien, um solche Anstregungen zu unterstützen und Modellregionen zur Steigerung der Durchführbarkeit von Klimawandelanpassungen zu sein. Effectively applying these building blocks requires cross-sectoral, concerted efforts between science, policy and society. Due to their concept, biosphere reserves appear well suited to foster such efforts and to become model regions to enhance the feasibility of climate change adaptation.
The primary objective of this study is to practically apply geostatistical tools that can help to improve an evaluation of groundwater quality for a particular area. The Nam Dinh area, an area of 70 x 70 km2, located in the Southern part of the Red River Delta, was selected as a source for different data sets to be used as case studies. A set of geostatistical tools has thus been applied to the different real data sets which were collected from the coastal Quaternary aquifers in the different campaigns. This gives us a yardstick by which the success of a specific approach can be measured. Throughout the thesis a series of the case studies are, in turn, represented in order to get insight into and an understanding of what various geostatistical tools can do and, more importantly, what their shortcomings are. There are nine different methods of data analyses use in this thesis, which include: (1) Major Ion Comparison, (2) Graphic Plots, (3) Exploratory Statistical Data Analysis, (4) Variogram Analysis, (5) Spatial Estimation Using Kriging, (6) Cluster Analysis, (7) Principle Component Analysis, (8) Multivariate Regionalization Analysis, and (9) Contamination Risk Mapping Using Indicator Kriging. First, major ion comparison and graphic analysis are performed in order to get a general hydrogeochemical view of the collected datasets, before stepping into a further geostatistical approach. By these analyses, various groundwater types are observed and a general hydrochemical trend is visualized using Stiff- and Piper diagrams as well as site maps. The major ion ratios in relation to TDS concentration are compared to investigate the origin of water. Second, a statistical exploratory data analysis is applied to describe the important features of the data by which the character of a specific hydrogeochemical variable might be recognized. Deviations from the Gaussian probability model are detected and appropriate transformations for a formal analysis in geostatistics are selected. Since the Theory of Regionalized Variables (Mathéron 1971; short term: Geostatistics) assumes Gaussian distribution the hydrochemical variables used here are checked for normality. These analyses show that although the data are facing some problems such as outliers and they are very positively skewed at the linear scale, this can effectively be minimized by transforming the data to log-scale. Third, both variogram analyses and Kriging techniques are used to spatially estimate a rectangular 36x36 estimation grid within an area of 70 x 70 km based on the sampled locations (85, 45 and 74 and 38 visited locations for the Pleistocene RS, the Pleistocene DS, the Holocene RS, the Holocene DS, respectively). These estimated values are then used to map the spatiotemporal variability of groundwater quality. In practice, estimation of unknown values and mapping of concentrations of a specific variable can, of course, easily be created by many available software programs. However, error variances are always present in any estimation due to a level of uncertainty, so the reliability of how these estimates could be yielded has also been evaluated in this case study. A critical assessment of all possible variations, tightly related to the seasonal change, directional influence, spatial distribution and prediction error is conducted and concluded. Fourth, Cluster Analysis (CA), Principle Component Analysis (PCA) and Multivariate Regionalization Analysis (RA) are applied to three main datasets of all Quaternary aquifers in the Nam Dinh area to discover the relationships among measured hydrochemical parameters by which we can detect and regionalize major factors which have an impact upon groundwater quality. These approaches are also to overcome the plethora of data that is usually a common problem for any one who has already tackled groundwater data. In this case study both clustering and R mode principal component analyses are thus performed based on the following parameters: The log-transformed concentrations of all measured major ions and of NO3-, NO2-, NH4+, PO42-, i.e. 11 variables from three different datasets of the main aquifers. By cluster analysis three classes of water types, ranging from freshwater to brackish-saltwater types, are typically grouped. Finally, Indicator Kriging (IK) is performed to evaluate the risks of arsenic contamination. The focus of this approach is to assess contamination risk expressed as probability of exceeding threshold- values. The region may thus be subdivided into “safe” and “unsafe” zones on the basis of probability maps which mark contaminated all places where the risk of arsenic contamination exceeds a given threshold for drinking water purpose. By this case study, it is shown that Indicator Kriging is a useful method which has some advantages for many contamination studies. Firstly, it is well known as the non-parametric technique which can be appreciably used when a dataset does not reach normal shape or nearly normal shape as in this situation. Secondly, the outlier problem that often exists in any analysis can be overcome when applying this method. Thirdly, it can be applied in practice to delimit a study area into “safe zone” or “unsafe zone” from which decision-making on the water supply can be decided for the remediation of a contaminated water source or selecting an appreciative source for exploitation. The combined use of spatial (Geostatistics) and multivariate statistical measures have proven to be of major assistance in questions of assessing groundwater quality especially in less sampled regions. A major advantage lies in the possibility of simultaneously creating spatial estimates as well as estimation confidence limits.
Tourism is booming on global level since many decades and developing countries often capture tourism as a lever to push up their economy. Many regions in Vietnam invest lots of money in this development hoping to change the traditional economic structure. Located in the North Central Vietnam, about 170 km from Ha Noi capital to the south at the coastline, Sam Son is known as an ideal location for holiday makers. Currently the number of tourist has been counted to millions. Realizing its potential, the local authorities decided to enlarge and improve tourism to become the biggest tourism center in the North Central part of Vietnam. As many mass tourism destinations, Sam Son is facing several hidden drawbacks, which are generated by a (too) fast growth. Thats why unexpected problems may occur very soon. One path to mitigate weaknesses and to strengthen the positive impacts of tourism is to develop tourism in a more sustainable manner. As the very first step Sam Son needs to delineate a proper strategy and to establish a powerful "Destination Management System". Although several studies have been conducted already, the destination lacks reliable empirical data. This research intends to fill the gap by supplying concrete information with specific focus on “making tourism more sustainable”. In the study methodological triangulation has been applied to collect data and information. Besides literature review and secondary data analysis, two surveys - statistically well secured - have been conducted: A household survey with more than one thousand questionnaires to record the situation and opinion of local people and a visitor survey with 1139 face-to-face interviews to collect structural data about current guests in Sam Son as well as to explore their behaviour. Moreover expert and stakeholder interviews were included to supplement the information basis. As the research acquired the information directly from local people and from tourists by face-to-face interviews several weaknesses could be unveiled which official statistical data cannot show. There are three facets out of balance in terms of economic benefit: Compared with the political awareness and the financial support the tourism sector does not ensure the livelihood of an adequate number of people; the economic benefits from tourism are very unequally distributed and also the spatial dimension indicates a strong imbalance - only people living directly in the core area of tourism participate in tourism sector, the positive impact of tourism does not reach till the outskirts. In addition social and environmental problems are recognized by a majority of local people as consequences of tourism in the region. Regarding the touristic demand side a very low level of satisfaction has been detected: A small variety and low quality of touristic offers are the main reasons of dissatisfaction. The most exiting finding is that tourists treasure environment in the destination, whereas this aspect is underestimated in the locals view. In addition, tourists are really willing to pay for an improvement of environmental and touristic quality! Even if the amount of voluntary payments is very low, the total sum can enable the local government to develop the destination in a very proper way. Although this is a case study the results deliver valuable information and furthermore a concrete delineated roadmap for all destinations, which are in the same situation as Sam Son today. It is an example how to analyze and evaluate the present condition and how to continue in a proper way towards a more sustainable tourism development.
The non-natural substances in commonly used UV protection creams such as TiO2, are known to have a photocatalytic side effect, which is very harmful to human skin. This study presents some properties of clays and clays minerals concerning UV protection potential, which can be very helpful for the development of new UV protection cream generation. Clays and clay minerals are demonstrated that they have potential to absorb UV-radiation. The structures of clay particles in cream were shown to be dependent on the layer charge of clay minerals. The total amount of Fe2C>3 in chemical composition of clay plays a key role in determining the UV-absorption ability of the clay matter. Moreover, the UV-absorption ability also depends on the expandable or non- expandable property of the clay. The studies were also performed on the mixtures of wool-wax-alcohol cream and nanosuspension obtained by the extraction of fungi mass Ganoderma pfeifferi by using plantacare together with clay. The combination of clays and nanosuspension increased its UV-absorption ability. The skin model test was performed in vivo in mouse ears with skin flora Escherichia coli and infectious bacteria Staphylococcus aureus in order to determine the effects of cream samples on skin under UV irradiation and skin infection. From the results of characterization of clays and clay minerals properties in UV protection cream, this study also brings some ideas about products designing.
Using geopolymers can reduce significant amounts of CO2-emissions during the production compared to Portland cement. Although illite/smectite clays are very abundant on earths crust and rich in SiO2 and Al2O3, studies of their geopolymerization potential are rare. Thus, the illite/smectite clay of Friedland (NE Germany) was calcined (850 °C) and ground to form a reactive metaclay and then mixed with synthetic gibbsite (to test the effect of Al-concentration) and 6 molar NaOH or KOH, in order to study their geopolymerization at 25, 50 and 75 °C within 28 days. The raw clay, the precursors, and the geopolymers were characterized by XRF, XRD, SEM-EDX, Flame-AAS, nitrogen adsorption and compressive strength test. 25 °C was too low to initiate the geopolymerization of illite/smectite. Increasing the curing temperature increased the reactivity of meta-illite/smecite. Si and Al dissolution was confined to the first 24 h, followed by the hardening of the geopolymers within 28 days. At 50°C, KOH-activation formed amorphous and mesoporous aluminosilicates, which significantly cemented the particles and agglomerates of the metaclay. Consequently, geopolymers with high compression strength (~38 N/mm2) were formed. Adding 10 wt% Gibbsite (precursor Si/Al = 2.1) to the metaclay strengthened the formation of amorphous aluminosilicates and increased the compression strength of the geopolymer by 20 % from 38 - 45 N/mm2. At 75 °C, the reactivity of the metaclay in NaOH was higher than in KOH. NaOHactivation at that temperature formed geopolymers with high compression strength (~30 N/mm2) due to the cementation by microporous phillipsite (K-, Na-zeolite) crystals. Thus, alkali-activation of the calcined and ground meta-illite/smectite from Friedland form high strength geopolymers under hydrothermal conditions.
Abstract
Interbedded contourites, turbidites and pelagites are commonplace in many deep‐water slope environments. However, the distinction between these different facies remains a source of controversy. This detailed study of calcareous contourites and associated deep‐marine facies from an Eocene–Miocene sedimentary succession on Cyprus clearly documents the diagnostic value of microfacies in this debate. In particular, the variability of archetypical bi‐gradational contourite sequences and their internal subdivision (bedding, layering and lamination) are explored. Contourites can be distinguished from turbidites, pelagites and hemipelagites by means of carbonate microfacies in combination with bed‐scale characteristics. Particle composition provides valuable information on sediment provenance. Depositional texture, determined by the ratio between carbonate mud and bioclasts, is crucial for identifying bi‐gradational sequences in both muddy and sandy contourites, and normally‐graded sequences in turbidite beds. Equally important are the type and preservation of traction structures, as well as the temporality and impact of bioturbation. Shell fragmentation under conditions of increased hydrodynamic agitation (textural inversion) is recognized as a carbonate‐specific feature of bioclastic sandy contourites.
Schutzgebiete sind Gebiete, die speziell zum Schutz und zur Sicherung der Biodiversität sowie natürlicher und damit verbundener kultureller Ressourcen ausgewiesen sind. Europäische Gesellschaften stellen im Schnitt zwischen 20 % und 30 % ihrer Flächen unter Schutz. Dadurch sind viele Interessen berührt. Der Umgang mit diesen erfordert zudem ein hohes Maß an Verantwortung. In der vorliegenden Dissertation werden neue beziehungsweise verbesserte Instrumente für die Planung und das Management von Schutzgebieten aufbereitet. Diese sind vom Autor an der Schnittstelle zwischen Forschung und Management-Praxis“ entwickelt worden. Die Dokumentation erfolgt vor dem Hintergrund der aktuellen Diskussion um Funktionen, Aufgaben und Entwicklung der globalen Schutzgebietssysteme. Schwerpunkt der Aufbereitung sind die technisch–planerischen Instrumente. Dabei wird das Konzept eines Integrierten Managements unter Zusammenführung ökologischer, ökonomischer und soziokultureller Aspekte hinterlegt. Die dargestellte IPAM-Toolbox (IPAM für Integrated Management of Protected Areas) ist ein interaktives Expertensystem, das für ein einzelnes Schutzgebiet eine Standortbestimmung (Self-Assessment), spezifische Empfehlungen (Recommendations) und den Zugriff auf vorselektierte Detailinformationen (Knowledge Base) ermöglicht. Es ist für alle europäischen und internationalen Schutzgebietstypen verwendbar. Die derzeit verfügbaren Informationen beziehen sich hauptsächlich auf (Zentral- und Ost-) Europa. Das System ist mittlerweile in Forschung, Lehre und Planungspraxis im Einsatz. Es ist multilingual (derzeit sieben Sprachen) und kostenlos verfügbar (www.ipam.info). Dem Expertensystem ist ein Lebenszyklusmodell für Schutzgebiete hinterlegt, welches Planung und Management in drei Phasen (Vorphase, Planungsphase, laufendes Management) und 25 Aktivitätsfelder (FoAs für Fields of Activity) untergliedert. Dadurch können die Informationen fokussiert bereitgestellt werden. Aufbauend auf Vorarbeiten wird Integriertes Schutzgebietsmanagement anhand von acht disziplinsformenden Prinzipien (Forming Principles) als neue wissenschaftliche Disziplin verstanden und definiert. Im zweiten Teil der Dissertation wird der Einsatz neuer bzw. weiter entwickelter Ansätze, Technologien und Instrumente anhand von Beispielen aus der Forschungs-, Planungs- und Beratungspraxis dargestellt. Diese Beispiele beleuchten die jeweiligen Gebiete, die Frage- und Aufgabenstellung, fokussieren aber auf die angewandten Methoden. Die Ergebnisse sind exemplarisch und illustrierend hinzugefügt. Die Projekte (Auswahl siehe unten) sind unterschiedliche Beispiele für aktuelle Fragen im Schutzgebietsmanagement bzw. in der Schutzgebietsplanung. Sie werden diskutiert unter den Aspekten: Methode im Kontext: Wie ist die angewandte Methode aus der Ergebnisperspektive zu beurteilen? Stellung im Lebenszyklus: Wie kann das Projekt im Lebenszyklus des Schutzgebietes eingeordnet werden? Disziplinen: Welches disziplinäre Design war erforderlich, die Planungs-/Managementaufgabe zu lösen? Bezug zu Forming Principles? Welche der postulierten Grundprinzipien von Schutzgebietsmanagement als neuer Wissenschaft sind durch das Projekt berührt? Als Selektionskriterien für die Projekte werden Innovationsgrad, Relevanz und Übertragbarkeit sowie die Praxistauglichkeit bzw. praktische Relevanz herangezogen. Da die Projekte allesamt Auftragsprojekte sind, wird unterstellt, dass sie zu einem hohen Grad den aktuellen Bedarf im Schutzgebietsmanagement widerspiegeln. Die Aufbereitung der Projekte folgt der Struktur der FoAs. Durch Beispiele abgedeckt sind die folgenden FoAs: Entwicklung von Idee und Vision, Machbarkeitsprüfung, Eingliederung in Schutzgebietssysteme, Planungshandbuch, Kommunikation und Partizipation in der Planungsphase, Grundlagenerhebung, Einrichtungskonzept, Leitbild und Rahmenkonzept, Entwicklung von (regionalen) Wirtschaftsprogrammen, Ermittlung der Management-Effektivität, Verträglichkeitsprüfungen und Beschränkungen, Forschung und Monitoring, Kommunikation und Partizipation im laufenden Management, Entwicklung der Schutzgebietsregion sowie der Bereich Besuchermanagement, Dienstleistungen und Infrastrukturen. Naturgemäß illustrieren die Beispiele jeweils nur Teilaspekte der umfassenden FoAs. Durch die Darstellung soll der aktuelle Stand des Methodenwissens in diesem Bereich gesichert und für kritische Reflexion und Weiterentwicklung zur Verfügung gestellt werden. In der zusammenfassenden Aufbereitung kann gezeigt werden, dass die Forming Principles sich in den Projekte tatsächlich identifizieren lassen, dass sie in Planungsschritten sowie in der Evaluierung in besonderer Intensität festzustellen sind. Planung und Evaluierung haben auch einen starken Bezug zu anderen FoAs und einen hohen interdisziplinären Ansatz. Sie werden als besonders anspruchvolle und erfolgskritische FoAs identifiziert. Als möglicherweise weiterführende Forming Principles wären Wissensmanagement und Ethik zu diskutieren. Die dargestellten Projekte lassen sich einem, meist mehreren FoAs zuweisen, die Liste der FoAs scheint für mitteleuropäischen Kontext vollständig zu sein. Darüber hinaus werden als zusätzliche FoAs Law Enforcement und Entwicklungszusammenarbeit zu prüfen bzw. zu erarbeiten sein. Im Abgleich der angewandten Schutzgebietskonzepte wird diskutiert, ob integriertes Management von Schutzgebieten auch einen neuen Typ von Schutzgebieten, nämlich „Schutzgebiete der dritten Generation“ konstituieren kann. In Schutzgebieten der dritten Generation spielen die Forming Principles für integriertes Management eine konstituierende Rolle. Ein weiterführender Handlungs- und Forschungsbedarf wird sichtbar.
This thesis aims to develop a palaeogeographic and chronostratigraphic model of the southwestern Baltic Sea area, to improve our understanding of the depositional history of the Late Pleistocene on both a local and a transregional scale. New sedimentological, palaeontological and numerical age data will be presented from three reference sites located at the coast of NE Germany. So far, the chronostratigraphic assignment of Saalian and Weichselian sediments of NE Germany has been based mainly on lithostratigraphic methods and on sparse numerical age data, resulting in a fragmentary age database. Modern sedimentological approaches, such as facies analyses, have been applied only at a few isolated profiles. Thus, a reliable reconstruction of the depositional environments and their stratigraphic positions is still missing for the study area, which makes the correlation between Pleistocene successions from NE Germany and other circum-Baltic regions problematic. To address these lithostratigraphic and geochronologic issues, three crucial profiles were re-investigated using a multiproxy approach, including sedimentological, geochronological, and palaeontological techniques. The Glowe and Kluckow sites are located on the peninsula of Jasmund (Rügen Island), whereas the Klein Klütz Höved (KKH) section is situated between Wismar and Travemünde at the coast of the Mecklenburg Bay. The age-constraining of critical horizons was conducted by luminescence dating of feldspar and quartz grain minerals. Together, these successions represent the Late Saalian to Late Weichselian period and give rise to the following picture. The Glowe and Kluckow sections reveal that ice-free conditions dominated the study site between 47 and 42 ka. Deposition occurred in a steppe-like environment with moderate summers and cool winters. Meandering and braided river systems inhabited by various freshwater species, such as Anodonta cygnea, Pisidium amnicum and Perca fluviatilis, shaped the landscape. A subsequent cooling phase resulted in the establishment of a periglacial landscape and the formation of ice-wedges. This phase is shown in this thesis to be connected to the Klintholm advance documented at 34±4 ka in Denmark. Furthermore, the data indicate the formation of a lacustrine basin during the transition of MIS 3 to MIS 2 under sub-arctic climate conditions. A potential link to the Kattegat ice advance (29 – 26 ka) will be proposed. At 23±2 ka, the study area was characterised by proglacial and ice-contact lakes related to the Last Glacial Maximum ice advance of the Scandinavian Ice Sheet (SIS). This is the first documented SIS advance of Weichselian age, which reached Jasmund at 22±2 ka. The KKH sedimentary succession comprises deposits of Late Saalian to Late Weichselian age: after a period of deglaciation between ~139-134 ka (Termination II; MIS 6), which is preserved in a glaciofluvial sequence deposited in a braided river system, a lacustrine environment was established in an arctic to subarctic climate. During this time, the landscape was vegetated by typical Late Saalian flora communities. The Eemian interglacial is represented by lacustrine to brackish deposits covering the reference pollen zones 1 to 3. During this initial part of the Eemian, thermophile forest elements spread (Quercus, Ulmus), indicating a deciduous forest. The presence of brackish ostracods represents the influence of a marine transgression between 300 and 750 years after the beginning of the Eemian period. A hiatus of more than 90,000 years separates the Eemian from the overlying Late Weichselian sediments. During the Late Weichselian period, the deposition at KKH was dominated by glaciolacustrine and subglacial facies, where the first Weichselian ice advance occurred at 20±2 ka. The sedimentological and geochronological findings in this thesis provide valuable information for the reconstruction of the palaeoenvironmental history from the Late Saalian to Late Weichselian period. The Late Saalian palaeoenvironmental setting is reconstructed, including Termination II and the initial phase of the Eemian interglacial. Furthermore, the Eemian marine transgression is shown to have occurred 300 to 750 years after the beginning of this interglacial. The first proven Weichselian advance of the SIS approached NE Germany between ~23 and ~20 ka. In contrast, there is no evidence to support a pre-LGM advance of Weichselian age to the study area, as proposed by several authors, neither at Glowe and Kluckow, nor at the KKH site. Based on the presented results, and contra what was previously assumed, the MIS 3 Ristinge and Klintholm advance of the SIS, documented in Denmark, did not reach NE Germany.
Nebenströme der Agrar- und Ernährungswirtschaft – vom Abfallprodukt zur wertvollen Ressource!?
(2023)
Die Nutzung von organischen Abfällen und Nebenströmen ist ein wichtiger Baustein für die Transformation zu einem nachhaltige(re)n Agrar- und Ernährungssystem. Die damit einhergehenden Kreislaufsysteme werden in der Literatur unter dem Begriff der Circular Bioeconomy diskutiert. Der Beitrag greift diese Diskussionen auf und liefert empirische Befunde aus der Raps- und Zuckerrübenproduktion, wo große Mengen an Nebenströmen speziell auf der Verarbeitungsstufe anfallen (z. B. Presskuchen, Extraktionsschrot, Rübenschnitzel, Melasse). Für diese organischen Stoffe haben sich unterschiedliche Verwertungspfade etabliert, sodass sie mittlerweile ein wichtiges Element der betrieblichen Wertschöpfung darstellen. Die Verwertung geschieht in beiden Bereichen durch intersektorale Vernetzungen, die sich je nach Wertschöpfungspotenzial und Lager‑/Transportfähigkeit der Biomasse über verschiedene Raumebenen erstrecken (lokal/regional, national, international). Ebenso spielen unternehmerische Merkmale wie auch der institutionelle Kontext eine Rolle bei der Nebenstromverwertung.
Circular economies are an important pillar of sustainable production and consumption. This particularly applies to the agri-food industry, which is characterised by large amounts of organic waste and by-product streams posing a serious challenge for many food producers. Therefore, respective firms increasingly adopt circular economy business models (CEBMs) to manage these resource flows effectively. However, there is only little knowledge on the functioning of CEBMs in bio-based industries, especially from a socio-economic perspective. We address this gap by exploring enablers and motivations behind such business models as well as the institutional contexts they are embedded in. In methodological terms, we adopt a case study approach using the example of potato production in Lower Saxony (northwest Germany). The core of the paper is a qualitative in-depth analysis of four potato processors, adopting varying business models to valorise their by-product streams (e.g. peels, scraps, pulp) either ‘in-house’ or in partnerships with external partners. The findings show that the implementation of CEBMs results from a complex interplay of internal and external enablers, with economic considerations as the main impetus for the management of biological reverse cycles. Thereby, we found a shifting economic logic in the assessment of potato by-products from disposable waste to valuable resources for other sectors (e.g. livestock farming, bioenergy, biofuels). While being encouraged by targeted policies, the companies studied feel increasingly affected by emerging sustainability discourses, prompting them to (re)design and (re)frame their CEBMs in view of environmental and societal issues.
Der Begriff Nachhaltigkeit hat längst Eingang in den deutschen Sprachgebrauch gehalten. Doch
wie verhält es sich mit dem Verständnis zum Paradigma Nachhaltigkeit, welches sich im
soziologischen, ökonomischen und ökologischen Wirkungsgefüge bewegt? Aufgrund ihrer
sozialen Relevanz, ihrer distributiven Verflechtungen und ihrer Bedeutung für den
Wohlfahrtsstaat kommt Unternehmen eine große Bedeutung zu. Hilfreich für die Erforschung
des komplexen und dynamischen Nachhaltigkeitsprozesses sind individualisierte Sichtweisen in
räumlichen Abgrenzungen. Biosphärenreservate, die weltweit von der UNSECO als
Modellregionen für nachhaltige Entwicklung als solche anerkannt wurden, bieten sich hierfür
an. Die übergeordnete Forschungsfrage dieser Arbeit lautet daher: Wie wird in den UNESCOBiosph
ärenreservaten die nachhaltige Entwicklung, speziell verantwortungsvolles Wirtschaften,
exemplarisch verwirklicht?
Eine Einordnung in den Nachhaltigkeitsdiskurs zeigt aktuelle Perspektiven auf und stellt die
Nachhaltigkeitsforschung im Kontext der Biosphärenreservate sowie die Bedingungen für
verantwortungsvolles Wirtschaften vor. Als forschungsrelevante Zielgruppen wurden die
Verwaltungen der UNSECO-Biosphärenreservate (BR), Multiplikatoren der Wirtschaft (z.B.
kommunale Wirtschaftsförderungen, IHK, Handwerkskammern, Bauern- und
Wirtschaftsverbände) sowie Unternehmen in bzw. an BR identifiziert. Mithilfe von
leitfadengestützten Experteninterviews und hybriden Fragebögen erfolgte die Datenerhebung,
die mit der Grounded Theory bzw. grafisch ausgewertet wurden.
Die Datenerhebung hat gezeigt, dass BR-Verwaltungen bislang überwiegend für
Umweltschutzbelange mandatiert und für die Einflussnahme hinsichtlich verantwortungsvollen
Wirtschaftens auf Kooperationspartner angewiesen sind. Wirtschaftsbezogene Aktivitäten sind
innerhalb ihrer Netzwerke der Partnerbetriebe etabliert, sie fokussieren überwiegend die
Direktvermarktung regionaler Produkte und die Inwertsetzung der naturverträglichen
Tourismusangebote. Innerbetriebliche Prozesse werden von einigen BR-Verwaltungen mit
Beratungsangeboten zu Umweltmanagementsystemen (z.B. EMAS) begleitet. Etliche BR weisen
wenn überhaupt nur einen geringen Besatz an Industrie- oder Dienstleistungsunternehmen, ihre
Verwaltungen haben daher auch kaum Berührungspunkte zu den Betrieben des sekundären und
tertiären Sektors außerhalb der Tourismusbranche. Die auf repräsentative Kulturräume
ausgerichteten Zonierungskonzepte der BR können diesbezüglich überdacht werden. Deutlich
wird, dass Handlungskompetenzen in wirtschaftsorientierten Themenkomplexen (Beratung zu
Fördermöglichkeiten, Innovationen, Technologieanwendung, Unternehmensgründung, mobiles
Arbeiten, Aus- und Weiterbildung, Vereinbarkeit von Beruf und Familie, Fachkräftesicherung,
Zertifizierungen, Produktentwicklung, Prozessoptimierung, Digitalisierung) nach Institutionen
durch die Wirtschaftsvertreter überwiegend den IHK, den Handwerkskammern und
Wirtschaftsförderungen und weniger den BR-Verwaltungen zugeschrieben werden.
Mehrheitlich beurteilen die befragten Unternehmen die Handlungsfähigkeit von BRVerwaltungen
hinsichtlich des Naturschutzes, der Vermarktung regionaler Produkte und
Dienstleistungen sowie von Agrarumweltmaßnahmen positiv. Dagegen ist den Unternehmen
die Handlungsfähigkeit der BR-Verwaltungen auf den Gebieten der Verkürzung von
Planungsverfahren, der Prozessinnovation, des Energiemanagements und der
Fachkräftesicherung weitestgehend unbekannt. Eine große Mehrheit der Unternehmer meint
zudem, dass sich die Ziele und Aktivitäten der BR-Verwaltungen vorrangig auf
Naturschutzmaßnahmen beziehen. Weiterhin meinen sie, richtet die sich die Unterstützung von
Unternehmen überwiegend auf die Vermarktung regionaler Produkte und traditionelles
Handwerk. Die 17 Nachhaltigkeitsziele der Vereinten Nationen haben bislang keinen
breitenwirksamen Bekanntheitsgrad in der befragten Unternehmerschaft gefunden.
In einem integrierten Verständnis fließen ökologische und soziale Aspekte der Nachhaltigkeit in
die konzeptionellen Grundlagen der BR ein, die ökonomische Dimension dagegen reduziert sich
oft auf die Bereiche Landwirtschaft und Tourismus. Weiterführende Aktivitäten hinsichtlich
nachhaltigen Wirtschaftens überlassen BR-Verwaltungen derzeit überwiegend der Expertise
wirtschaftsfördernder Institutionen, die sich aus ihrer Sicht originär mit innerbetrieblichen
Prozessen befassen.
Der Austausch von Grundlagendaten oder Ergebnissen bisheriger Datenerhebungen zwischen
den BR-Verwaltungsstellen – einem potenziellen Wesensmerkmal von Modellregionen – wird
durch das Fehlen entsprechender Infrastruktur deutlich erschwert, bzw. ist nicht möglich.
Technische und personelle Ressourcen für die digitale Datenaufbereitung und -pflege in den BRVerwaltungen
sind überwiegend nicht vorhanden.
Mit der Anerkennung eines BR durch die UNESCO muss auch seine Anerkennung als
Modellregion für nachhaltige Entwicklung durch alle beteiligten Interessengruppen
einschließlich seiner Bewohner einhergehen.
Certain basal Teleostei from the Early Jurassic of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania (Germany) and the Late Jurassic of the Franconian Alb (Bavaria, Germany), the Swabian Alb (Baden-Württemberg, Germany) and the western Jura-Mountains (Ain, France) are described. The present doctoral dissertation includes four studies, dealing with representatives of “Pholidophoriformes”, Leptolepidae and Orthogonikleithridae. These studies include anatomical descriptions of new taxa and reviews of poorly known fishes. Furthermore, the stratigraphic and palaeobiogeographical distributions of the examined taxa are discussed.
Tidal flats represent the transition zone between the terrestrial and marine realm. They are subject to pronounced dynamics due to distinct tidal and seasonal variations of physical, chemical, and biological parameters significantly influencing redox-sensitive element cycles. Thus, redox-sensitive trace metals may be suitable indicators for variations in bioproductivity and microbial activity. Therefore, seasonal and tidal dynamics of manganese, iron, molybdenum, uranium, and vanadium were studied in the water column and sediments of tidal systems of the German Wadden Sea (southern North Sea) in the years 2007 to 2009 involving also previously analysed data from year 2002. To demonstrate the response of the trace metal cycles on phytoplankton blooms and enhanced biological activity time series data of nutrients and phytoplankton dynamics were also involved in this study. Pronounced cycling is seen for pelagic manganese revealing distinctly higher values during low tide. Complex seasonal cycling showing maxima of dissolved manganese in spring and late summer and a depletion period in early summer is caused by benthic-pelagic coupling and reflection of exhaustion and replenishing periods in the surface sediments. Vanadium dynamics are coupled to the manganese cycling due to vanadium scavenging and release during manganese oxide formation and reduction, respectively. Molybdenum and uranium behave almost conservatively following changes in salinity and thus, being slightly enhanced during high tide. Deviations from conservative behaviour are found to occur during breakdowns of summer phytoplankton blooms. In the following, significant enrichments of manganese, molybdenum, iron, and uranium are observed in the shallow pore waters. These coherences are assumed to be caused by a tight coupling of geochemical, biological, and sedimentological processes. Intense release of organic matter during the breakdowns of algae blooms leads together with enhanced bacterial activity in summer to the formation of organic- and trace metal-rich aggregates which are deposited and incorporated into the tidal surface sediments. Microbial decomposition of the aggregates and corresponding shifts in redox-conditions effect a release of dissolved trace metals into the pore water. Subsequently, the trace metals are fixed in the sediment as sulphides, adsorbed to organic compounds or released to the overlying bottom water. Furthermore, two tidal systems, one from the East Frisian and one from the North Frisian Wadden Sea are compared. Although, both areas show different hydrodynamical, sedimentological, and ecological conditions similar manganese dynamics are observed implying that this is a common behaviour in the entire Wadden Sea. However, distinct quantitative differences appear showing a 6-fold higher level of dissolved manganese in the water column of the East Frisian area. This is explained by a higher manganese release from tidal flat sediments and a larger sediment area/water volume ratio compared to the North Frisian area. Detailed time-series data of the nutrients phosphate, silica, and nitrite+nitrate are used to verify model simulations and to calculate nutrient export budgets considering tidal and seasonal variations. The model results imply an export of nutrients from the tidal flats into the open waters of the German Bight which is in the same order of magnitude as the combined discharge of the rivers Elbe, Weser, and Ems. To investigate the importance of the Wadden Sea as a potential manganese source for the North Sea, transects were carried out into several tidal flat areas of the North Frisian Wadden Sea. The results suggest that the North Frisian Wadden Sea is a less important source for dissolved manganese compared to the East Frisian area. In contrary, the export of particulate manganese seems to be more important showing distinctly higher concentrations in the North Frisian study areas in summer. The influence of sediment permeability and bioturbation on trace metal budgets of the pore waters are investigated in natural and experimentally manipulated tidal flat sediments. Advective pore water transport in highly permeable sandy sediments and bioturbation promote exchange processes at the sediment/water interface probably leading to reduced nutrient and trace metal enrichments in the shallow pore waters. Furthermore, the penetration of oxygen into deeper sediment layers induces a release of sulphidic bound molybdenum to the pore water. During laboratory experiments with natural anoxic sediments an effective oxidative molybdenum release is determined during resuspension of the sediments in oxic seawater. Thus, pronounced sediment resuspension during storm events is suggested to cause significant release of molybdate from displaced anoxic sediment components thereby enhancing the molybdate level of the open water column. In addition to the examination of recent biogeochemical processes, the paleo-environmental influence on geochemical and microbiological processes in Holocene and Pleistocene sediments of the East Frisian study area were analysed in an interdisciplinary study. It is found that the microbial abundance and activity are higher in the Holocene than in the Pleistocene sediments. However, this is mainly caused by present environmental conditions. The impact of the paleo-environment on the microbiology is less pronounced. The lithological succession affects hydrological processes which enable the transfer of electron donors and acceptors for present early diagenetic processes into deep sediment layers. The paleo-environmental imprint is still detectable but the modern biogeochemical processes dominate in the sediment-pore water system.
Die vorliegende Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit der holozänen Landschaftsentwicklung der Mecklenburgischen Seenplatte unter dem Einfluss des Menschen. Neben eigenen geomorphologischen, bodenkundlichen und sedimentologischen Untersuchungen ergänzen geochronologische und paläoökologische Analysen Dritter das verwendete interdisziplinäre Methodenspektrum. Hinzu kommt die Auswertung archäologischer Funde, archivalischer Quellen und aktueller Messreihen. Die Ergebnisse liefern neue Erkenntnisse über die holozäne Boden- und Reliefentwicklung sowie über (paläo-) hydrologische Schwankungen von Grund- und Seewasserspiegeln. Ferner ergeben sich neue Aspekte der regionalen Siedlungs- und Landnutzungsgeschichte. Für den umfassenden landschaftgenetischen Ansatz konnte auf die im Vergleich zu bisherigen Studien höchste OSL-Datierungsdichte für das nördliche Mitteleuropa zurückgegriffen werden. Neben der Überprüfung der eigenen Daten erlaubt der Blick in die Befundsituation angrenzender Gebiete die Ableitung gesamtlandschaftlicher Aussagen zur nacheiszeitlichen Entwicklung des nordostdeutschen Jungmoränengebietes. Die Diskussion über die Wirkung natürlich-klimatischer und anthropogener Einflussgrößen auf das landschaftliche Gefüge, gerade in Bezug auf die hydrologische Entwicklung bzw. die Veränderungen im regionalen Gewässernetz, erhält eine neue profunde Datengrundlage. Zur qualitativen Gewichtung der einzelnen Faktoren innerhalb einer langzeitlichen Betrachtungsebene ist die landschaftsgenetische Differenzierung zwischen anthropogen unbeeinflussten Phasen (Spätglazial bis Mittelholozän) und Zeiträumen starker anthropogener Einflüsse (Spätholozän) nötig. Vor dem Hintergrund der intensiven Kulturlandschaftsentwicklung Mitteleuropas birgt die räumliche und zeitliche Varianz des anthropogenen Einflusses in der Landschaft innerhalb der letzten 1000 Jahre hierbei eine besondere methodische Herausforderung.
The Müritzeum is a nature discovery centre and a museum in the heart of the Mecklenburg Lake District. It is the first natural history museum in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, with natural history collections that are over 150 years old, and are still growing today. The collections contain about 290 000 specimens from the fields of botany, zoology and geology. An extensive library and an archive are also
part of the museum. Collecting, preserving and researching natural history are our main spheres of activity. The exhibition in the Müritzeum offers the visitor a comprehensive insight into the development of the nature and landscape of northeastern Germany and of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern and the Lake Müritz region in particular. The largest aquarium for indigenous freshwater species in Germany enables visitors to imagine themselves in the underwater world of the Mecklenburg Lake District.
Based on extensive investigations along the coast and in the coastal waters of NE Germany, a lithostratigraphic classification of the Holocene coastal deposits is presented. Their characteristics, i.e. the lithofacies, reflect the spatial change in hydrodynamics, sediment supply, salinity, bioproduction, etc. in the accumulation space. The displacement of the facies associated with the sea-level rise of the Baltic Sea led to the formation of regularly occurring vertical depositional sequences. From these regular profiles, four lithostratigraphic formations and two subformations of the coastal deposits can be delineated as approximately homogeneous sedimentary bodies, which are described in detail, defined in terms of their spatial extent and classified with regard to the time of accumulation.
According to a basic model, the formation of the coastal barriers in the southwestern Baltic can be divided into four evolutionary stages which are characterized by different rates of sea-level rise and varying relations between sediment supply and accommodation space. This model is tested using the example of a strandplain of the island Usedom, along with a local sea-level curve that reflects even smaller fluctuations of the water table and a detailed chronostratigraphy based on OSL measurements that allows the correlation of the morphodynamics with specific climatic phases. The resulting evolution scheme generally confirms the basic model but the timing of the stages depends on the inherited relief and has to be adjusted locally. A comparison with barriers from the W and SW Baltic region shows that the development during the past 5000 years was controlled by climate fluctuations which caused minor variations of the rather stable sea level and consequential changes in sediment supply, accommodation space and foredune deposition. Progradation decline can mainly be related to cool and windy climate phases which centered around 4.2, 2.8, 1.1, and 0.3 ka b2k, while increasing progradation correlated with warmer climate around 3.5, 2.0, and 0.9 ka b2k. The climate warming and the increasing sea-level rise in the recent past, however, led to shrinking progradation rates and may indicate a critical point beyond which the main progradation trend of the past turns into erosion.
Urban Green Areas – their functions under a changing lifestyle of local people, the example of Hanoi
(2013)
Hanoi is a rapidly developing city - in terms of area, population and economy. It also has to face social and environmental problems that often accompany the fast development of a city. Increasing environmental pollution leads to a decrease in living conditions, such as clean water, housing, social services, etc., for most of the city’s inhabitants. Other well-known social problems in cities worldwide also occur in Hanoi nowadays, for example inequality, food supply, and unemployment. In addition, the society is altering; lifestyle- change is a permanent process. Today, it seems that the changing process in Asian countries is rather leap-frogging than continuously. Although many research projects concerning to urban green areas in Hanoi have been completed recently, less is known about utilization of parks&gardens in a practical and systematic way. This study aims at contributing to fulfills the gaps with up-to-date facts and figures of parks’ utilization in the inner city of Hanoi. Based on “grounded theory”, triangular methodology was applied to collect empirical data in four main parks in the inner city of Hanoi namely: Thong Nhat, Bach Thao, Hoan Kiem, and Lenin. Scientific observations, visitor countings were done in 2010-2011; including 2143 face-to-face interviews to park users covering the course of the year and a small online-poll of 113 responses. Thirteen interviews with experts have been done in several phases and taken into account for discussing and testing hypotheses. Empirical results have shown that utilization of the parks is in abundance in terms of the use - numbers as well as activities. A comparison between the courses of the day for parks in Berlin and Hanoi shown that the time of using parks in Hanoi is earlier in the day. In details, there is 25% and 1.4% of total daily visitors went to parks in Hanoi and Berlin,, respectively. However, the biggest peak in park-visiting time for both cities is in the afternoon. The findings also clarified that students and retirees are the major users even though there is some different in structures of park user among the four parks. The length of stay depends on how large and interesting a park is. In this aspect, Hanoi parks are very poor in facilities showing by a long list of missing facilities in the parks. However, as there is no alternative, parks in Hanoi still attract a high number of visitors. In general, results from this study have shown a close relationship among socio-economic and political situations in Vietnam with UGAs and its utilization. Influencing factors on parks’ utilization were also indentified, which are social changes, lifestyle changes, economic situation, conflicts in land usage, and maintaining cost for UGAs. Three given hypotheses were confirmed: i) the demand of public UGAs in inner Hanoi will grow mid-term and increase strongly long-term; ii) Hanoi’s residents will claim strongly for more parks in the future; ii) The number of conflicts inside the area of UGAs, among the visitors will occur very soon and require a specific master plan for the development and the management of UGAs. Finally, based on the weaknesses of UGAs in Hanoi recently, two groups of recommendations were also suggested to improve UGAs. Firstly, in terms of quality – quantity: • Retain each square meter of green space as UGA – do not unblock any green space for construction; • The existing UGA have to be well maintained. Secondly, in terms of management – planning: • Elaborate a UGA-masterplan for (inner) Hanoi; • Keep UGA management in the responsibility of public bodies; • Implement participation of affected population defector in the process of planning and management (as it has already been written in planning guidelines); • Be aware of potential conflicts among park user groups; • Establish an UGA monitoring system – involving regular (or even permanent) countings based on up-to-date technology; Realize horizontal partnering structures.
Die Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit den Bereichen Verkehrs- und Raumentwicklung sowie den demographischen und wirtschaftlichen Veränderungen. Dabei wurde mit der verknüpfenden Betrachtung zwischen alternativen Antriebskonzepten im Pkw-Markt und der Erzeugung von erneuerbaren Energien ein bisher nur wenig betrachtetes Forschungsfeld bearbeitet. Für eine derartige Betrachtung bieten sich die ländlichen Räume an, da der motorisierte Individualverkehr dort eine besondere Bedeutung besitzt. Die Mobilitätswende kann einen wichtigen Beitrag zur Regionalentwicklung für die Untersuchungsgebiete leisten, da so die regional erzeugte Energie als direkter Wertschöpfungsbeitrag vor Ort verbleibt. Darüber hinaus könnten die privaten Haushalte von einem nicht weiter steigenden Mobilitätsbudget profitieren. Somit kann die Mobilitätswende einen Beitrag zur Sicherstellung der verkehrsräumlichen Mobilität leisten und die Chancen zur Teilhabe am gesellschaftlichen Leben im ländlichen Raum verbessern. Aus ökologischen Gesichtspunkten erscheint die lokale Mobilitätswende ebenfalls vorteilhaft. Einerseits werden durch den Technologiewandel die Pkw-Emissionen gesenkt. Andererseits sinken die CO2-Emissionen durch die Verwendung regional nachhaltig erzeugter Energie. Für den erforderlichen Infrastrukturaufbau wurde ein Vorschlag gemacht, der einen Kompromiss zwischen Ausbauzielen, Kostenverträglichkeit und Flächenabdeckung darstellt.
Die Dissertation beschäftigt sich mit der für die Humangeographie aktuellen Assemblage-Theorie. Thematisch fokussiert sich die Arbeit auf die Nutzung der Fischbestände und die Zusammenkunft dieser Nutzung mit Politik. Dadurch weist das bearbeitete Thema einen klaren Bezug zu aktuellen gesellschaftlichen Entwicklungen und zur derzeitigen wissenschaftlichen Diskussion auf. Die Stärke der Arbeit liegt in den Überlegungen zur Assemblage-Theorie und deren Operationalisierung für die geographische Forschung. Ausgangspunkt dieser Überlegungen bildet das Buch ‚Tausend Plateaus Kapitalismus und Schizophrenie, Band 2‘ von DELEUZE, G. und GUATTARI, F. in der deutschen Übersetzung von 1992. Darauf aufbauend wird näher auf die Denk- und Herangehensweise eingegangen und der thematische Fokus (Fischereipolitik) mit dem theoretischen Ansatz (Assemblage) verkettet.
Die vorliegende Arbeit behandelt die Gewässernetzentwicklung im Bereich der Pommerschen Haupteisrandlage (W2), des eng benachbarten Frühpommerschen Vorstoßes (W2max) und der südlich angrenzenden Sanderflächen in einem Ausschnitt, der ungefähr zwischen Krakow, Goldberg und Malchow im mittleren Mecklenburg gelegen ist. Ziel der Untersuchungen ist die Verknüpfung geomorphologischer, bodenkundlicher, paläobotanischer, paläolimnologischer, archäologischer und historischer Befunde zur paläohydrographischen Rekonstruktion der Gewässer seit dem Spätpleistozän, eines etwa 14.000 Jahre umfassenden Zeitraums. Die hierbei präferierte multidisziplinäre Bearbeitungsweise limnischer Sedimentsequenzen aus Seebohrungen in Verbindung mit landseitigen bodenkundlich–geomorphologischen Kartierungen stellt (noch immer) ein Novum in der Gewässerforschung Mecklenburg-Vorpommerns dar und liefert wichtige Ergänzungen zu Modellvorstellungen der Gewässerentwicklung. Thematische Schwerpunkte werden für die verknüpfte, spätpleistozäne Becken– und Durchbruchstalentwicklung, die fortan archivierte limnisch–telmatische Sedimentationsgeschichte, die Wasserstandsentwicklung und die Wechselwirkung Mensch und Gewässer gesetzt. Zugleich erlauben die bodenkundlichen Arbeiten im Gewässerumfeld Aussagen zur Bodengenese und Landnutzungsgeschichte besonders innerhalb der Nossentiner–Schwinzer Heide. Im Zuge der palynologischen Bearbeitung der Seesedimente durch Dritte liegt desweiteren eine lückenlose Vegetationsgeschichte des Untersuchungsgebietes seit dem Allerød vor, die ebenso wertvolle Ableitungen zur regionalen Siedlungs- und Landnutzungsgeschichte erlaubt. Diatomeen–basierte paläolimnologische Aussagen ebenfalls Dritter fokussieren auf die postglaziale Trophie– und die Wasserstandsentwicklung der untersuchten Seen.
Archaeological discoveries in the Tollense Valley represent remains of a Bronze Age battle of ca.1300–1250 BCE, documenting a violent group conflict hitherto unimagined for this period of time in Europe, changing the perception of the Bronze Age. Geoscientific, geoarchaeological and palaeobotanical investigations have reconstructed a tree- and shrubless mire characterised by sedges, reed and semiaquatic conditions with a shallow but wide river Tollense for the Bronze Age. The exact river
course cannot be reconstructed, but the distribution of fluvial deposits traces only a narrow corridor, in which the Tollense meandered close to the current riverbed. The initial formation of the valley mire dates to the transition from the Weichselian Late Glacial to the early Holocene.
The site at the southern shore of Krakower See shows the Quaternary geology of the surrounding
area. The local Quaternary sequence comprises a thickness of 50–100m of Quaternary deposits while
the surface morphology is dominated by the ice marginal position of the Pomeranian moraine, which
passes through the area. The bathymetry of the lake basin of Krakower See indicates a predominant
genesis by glaciofluvial erosion in combination with glacial exaration. Past research in this area has focussed
on the reconstruction of Pleniglacial to Holocene environmental changes, including lake-level
fluctuations, aeolian dynamics, and pedological processes and their modification by anthropogenic
land use.
Toarciconiopteryx dipterosimilis gen. et sp. nov. is described from the Lower Toarcian of Grimmen (Western Pomerania, Germany) based on a hind wing. This enigmatic wing superficially resembles a dipteran forewing, but analysis in detail establishes that it belongs to the Neuroptera. We assign it to the Coniopterygidae with great confidence by its great concordance with the hind wings of that family, but a small possibility remains that it might belong to the Dipteromantispidae, although the very derived haltere-like hind wings of all its known members are entirely unlike it. We, therefore, consider it to be the oldest record of Coniopterygidae. We create the new subfamily Toarciconiopteryginae subfam. nov. for it, which is distinguished from other Coniopterygidae by its hind wings possessing two branches of RP and a proximal forking of M. These conditions are also known in some Sialidae (Megaloptera), supporting the hypothesis that Coniopterygidae is the sister group of all other Neuroptera, as Megaloptera is considered by most authors to be sister to Neuroptera. New interpretations of some aspects of the Coniopterygidae venation are proposed.
: Compacted bentonite is currently being considered as a suitable backfill material for sealing
underground repositories for radioactive waste as part of a multi-barrier concept. Although showing
favorable properties for this purpose (swelling capability, low permeability, and high adsorption
capacity), the best choice of material remains unclear. The goal of this study was to examine and
compare the hydration behavior of a Milos (Greek) Ca-bentonite sample (SD80) in two types of
simulated ground water: (i) Opalinus clay pore water, and (ii) a diluted saline cap rock brine using
a confined volume, flow-through reaction cell adapted for in situ monitoring by X-ray diffraction.
Based on wet-cell X-ray diffractometry (XRD) and calculations with the software CALCMIX of the
smectite d(001) reflection, it was possible to quantify the abundance of water layers (WL) in the
interlayer spaces and the amount of non-interlayer water uptake during hydration using the two
types of solutions. This was done by varying WL distributions to fit the CALCMIX-simulated XRD
model to the observed data. Hydrating SD80 bentonite with Opalinus clay pore water resulted
in the formation of a dominant mixture of 3- and 4-WLs. The preservation of ca. 10% 1-WLs and
the apparent disappearance of 2-WLs in this hydrated sample are attributed to small quantities of
interlayer K (ca. 8% of exchangeable cations). The SD80 bentonite of equivalent packing density
that was hydrated in diluted cap rock brine also contained ca. 15% 1-WLs, associated with a slightly
higher concentration of interlayer K. However, this sample showed notable suppression of WL
thickness with 2- and 3-WLs dominating in the steady-state condition. This effect is to be expected for
the higher salt content of the brine but the observed generation of CO2 gas in this experiment, derived
from enhanced dissolution of calcite, may have contributed to the suppression of WL thickness. Based
on a comparison with all published wet-cell bentonite hydration experiments, the ratio of packing
density to the total layer charge of smectite is suggested as a useful proxy for predicting the relative
amounts of interlayer and non-interlayer water incorporated during hydration. Such information is
important for assessing the subsequent rates of chemical transport through the bentonite barrier.
All-embracing human activities have transformed one-third to one-half of the Earth’s land surface. There is a strong correlation of human well-being with ecosystem function, including poverty alleviation programs as well as enhancements of the health sector. To assess and evaluate the progress and outcome of initiatives stringent periodic observation is necessary. The presented approach combines the strengths of remote sensing and GIS analysis with social research applications. The Bach Ma National Park as an area under investigation was designated as protected area in 1991 and extended in 2008. The national park is uninhabited, but in the surrounding buffer zones approximately 62000 to 79000 people live in rural areas and in mostly impoverished conditions. The comprehensive nature conservation efforts of the Vietnamese Government during the last two decades has led to growing forest coverage of both plantation and natural forests. Nevertheless, the decreasing biodiversity and ongoing illegal logging and hunting activities in the national park are seen as major threats to conservation initiatives in the future. The remote sensing component consists of an analysis of a time series of Landsat images with seven steps ranging from 1973 to 2010. The resulting land cover analysis had 13 different classes. The accuracy assessment revealed an overall accuracy ranging from 84 to 90%. The basis for the second monitoring component was the Landsat images. A total of 25 different landscape metrics on the landscape, class, and patch level were calculated by FRAGSTATS. The third monitoring component is itself divided into two parts. This part consists of a qualitative social research study with 26 expert interviews. The second part consists of 61 standardized questionnaires and an evaluation by SPSS. The assessment reveals a more or less stable forest cover, but with a considerable degradation process during the last four decades. Urban areas outside of the national park have increased in size considerably. For dense and medium forest patches an increasing fragmentation and isolation of patches was observed. Patches of natural forests and habitats of thousands of species have declined dramatically, a trend that is related to a decreasing core area characterised by its undisturbed conditions. The Landsat images and landscape metrics reveal the major differences between the national park and surrounding areas. Despite extensive alterations near the border, remaining forest patches in the national park are still bigger and less fragmented. Nevertheless, the third monitoring component revealed undiscovered changes in the forest beyond the possibilities of used images and metrics. It includes illegal logging and hunting activities. Non-timber forest products are similar to faunistic species collected for both the subsistence of the local residents and associated markets as important sources of income. Based on this bisection, local residents as well as certain strangers are responsible for the activities in the forest. The plan of national park management is to intensify existing monitoring and patrolling in the forest to limit the exploitation and impact in relevant zones. Furthermore, the importance of a network of protected areas has attracted increasing attention. The assessment of the questionnaires reveals that deforestation and also reforestation were the key aspects of historical land cover change. Additionally, for the local residents the conversion of forests into arable land as income alternative is of major importance. Capacity development is not only one priority of the Bach Ma management but also of the international community for all of Vietnam. The tourism industry, one of the most promising opportunities of recent years, stands to support both national park management as well as the local residents. For local residents the extraction of non-timber forest products is an essential portion of the income. The current pilot policy 126/QD-TTg in the extension zone of the national park and research on an appropriate sharing mechanism is of the utmost importance. The established and presented monitoring components are cost-effective and can be used to regularly assess the land cover change of a protected area. They can be implemented together or individually into existing monitoring schemes. A smart combination of pre-existing datasets is necessary to overcome the inconsequential amount of money for monitoring procedures. Supplemented by socio-economic monitoring and the demands as well as impacts of human activity need to be integrated. These extensive requirements for prospective monitoring are only feasible with comprehensive and reliable collaborations.
This thesis aims to investigate effects of anthropogenic environmental impact on the Richards Bay area. Located on the east coast of South Africa, Richards Bay Harbour evolved into the country’s premier bulk cargo port. The Associated change in land-use and industrial as well as agricultural pollution pose environmental, ecological and human health risks. Here, sedimentological and geochemical investigations focus on the port as final sink for environmental and industrial pollutants, such as metal concentrations, organochlorine pesticides and microplastics.
The study is based on investigations of surface sediment samples from the water-sediment interface to identify spatial distribution patterns, as well as sediment cores to follow temporal changes. Endmember modelling of grainsize distributions, proved to be a viable parameter to distinguish different accumulation spaces and enabled the classification into six harbour sub-basins. Subsequent investigations on the content of microplastics, Polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and Low-density polyethylene (LDPE), showed that these different types of microplastics predominate in two different areas: PET appears to be directly tied to higher populated (tourism) beaches, while LDPE is deposited in low-current sub-basins. Increased metal concentrations link to activities at the bulk cargo berths, where especially Cr and Cu concentrations exceeded the local sediment guideline thresholds. In the areas of high metal concentrations, bioindicators (ostracods, foraminiferas, diatoms) also indicate increased shares of malformed specimens. Multiple recovered sediment cores recorded changes in recent export practices, indicating ceased Cu handling and increased Cr handling over the past decade. Noticing multiple possible influencing factors on elemental distributions, created by the surrounding geological and industrial impact, the usefulness of different normalisers (Al, Fe, Rb, Ti and silt fraction) for Cr, Cu, Co and Pb concentrations was compared and site specific baseline metal concentrations were defined. This identified Al and Rb to be effective normalisers in Richards Bay and Fe or Ti to be affected by local conditions. Data of organochlorine pesticide pollution was gathered in the area of Richards Bay, Goedertrouw Dam and Umlalazi River. The two dominant groups of contaminants detected are dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (ΣDDT, 12 – 350 ng g-1), linked to the use of malaria vector control, and hexachlorocyclohexanes (ΣHCH 35 – 230 ng g-1), an agricultural insecticide. Both indicate recent entry and exceed sediment quality guideline limits, raising concern for local communities and estuarine environments. Seismic data was used to investigate the preindustrial evolution of the incised valley system and bayhead delta at Richards Bay Harbour. A stratigraphically supported development model was created. The thesis shows that harbour sediment is an important sink for inorganic and organic contaminants. Each investigation on environmental pollutants, such as metals, pesticides, microplastics or bioindicator analyses, indicates their deposition in distinct harbour sub-basins. Therefore, their effect can be spatially differentiated and related to plausible sources of pollution. Richards Bay thus represents a variously affected system along the South African coast, in which it is necessary to take environmental protection measures in terms of sustainable and environmentally friendly management.
The occurrence and distribution of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) in aquatic systems is a matter of global concern and poses significant toxicological threats to both organisms and human health. Despite the extensive use of OCPs for pest and disease control in southern Africa, relatively few studies have examined the occurrence and toxicological risks of OCP residues in the region. This study investigates the composition, distribution, and potential sources of OCP contamination in sediments from Richards Bay, a rapidly developing industrial port on the northeast coast of South Africa. Surface sediments collected from Richards Bay Harbour and surrounding areas indicate that OCP contamination in the region is widespread. Total concentrations (∑OCP) in surface samples ranged from 135 to 1020 ng g−1, with hexachlorocyclohexanes (∑HCH; 35–230 ng g−1) and dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethanes (∑DDT; 12–350 ng g−1) the dominant contaminant groups detected. Metabolite isomeric compositions indicate that the presence of aldrin and endosulfan likely result from historical agricultural usage, while recent input of γ-HCH, heptachlor, and endrin may be linked to the illegal use of old pesticide stockpiles. Total DDT concentrations were dominated by p,p′-DDT (80 ± 64 ng g−1), which was attributed to its ongoing use in malaria vector control in the region. A 210Pb-dated sediment core revealed that OCP input to the local environment increased dramatically from relatively low concentrations in the mid-1940s (∑OCP, 355 ng g−1) to peak levels (∑OCP, 781 ng g−1) in the 1980s/1990s. An overall decrease in ∑OCP concentration from the mid-2000s is likely related to restrictions on use following the Stockholm Convention in 2004. Despite current restrictions on use, OCP concentrations exceeded sediment quality guidelines in the vast majority of cases, raising concerns for protected estuarine and mangrove habitats in the area, as well as for local fishing and farming communities.
This thesis aims at bridging the gap of deficient understanding of effective buffer zone management. The overall research goal of the thesis is to evaluate buffer zone effectiveness and to identify factors influencing effective buffer zone management in forest biosphere reserves. To address the multi-facetted issue of buffer zone effectiveness an integrative research design was applied. To answer the raised research questions a combination of social science (quantitative and qualitative approaches) and natural science (remote sensing) was chosen. To gain global insights into buffer zone management (research question 1) the quantitative approach of social science research was chosen. As part of a global telephone survey of BR management conducted by the research project in which the thesis was embedded, BR managers were asked to evaluate different management aspects. Between July and December 2006, managers from 225 BRs in 79 countries were interviewed, which corresponds to an overall response rate of 42 %. Answers were statistically analyzed using SPSS 17.0. To obtain detailed information of factors influencing buffer zone management (research question 2) the qualitative social science research approach was applied. A case study was conducted in the Lore Lindu Biosphere Reserve, Sulawesi, Indonesia between March and May 2008. Following the snowball sampling approach 47 semi-structured interviews and seven group discussions were carried out representing the local, sub-national, and national level associated with the BR management. These interviews and discussions provide important insights into the institutional dimensions and their interaction within the context of BR management including e.g. implementation of rules and the distribution of responsibilities for buffer zone management. Interviews were conducted in the national language Bahasa Indonesia, fully recorded, and subsequently transcribed and translated into English. Analysis was carried out with ATLAS.ti to specify categories and to formulate theorems. To evaluate buffer zone effectiveness in terms of reducing deforestation in the core area of Lore Lindu Biosphere Reserve (research question 1), satellite image analysis was performed using a GIS. A time series of LANDSAT scenes from 1972, 1983, 1999, 2002, and 2007 was used to classify homogeneous areas of forest cover to ultimately detect deforestation. Deforestation rate was computed for the periods before and after management establishment in 1998. The combination of all three research methods provided important insights into buffer zone management of BRs. Thus, based on these findings, recommendations to improve buffer zone management (research question 3) could be drawn. Overall, the evaluation of buffer zones depicts their importance for BR management effectiveness. Analysis revealed buffer zone effectiveness as important success factor, while it explicitly depends on both the implementation of the BR concept at the national level and coordination of stakeholders on the local level. As more and more PAs create buffer zones to integrate the local people, they may face similar problems. The case study from Lore Lindu exhibited important preconditions for successful buffer zone management. From a methodological perspective the thesis calls for the need of integrated research approaches across disciplines to adequately assess both buffer zone and PA effectiveness. Generally, it is recommended to pay special attention to pre-Seville BRs in the future, since most of these BRs still lack the three zone scheme. Analysis of the case study area revealed particular weaknesses in implementing central elements for effective BR management, such as the four goals of the Seville Strategy, even 15 years after inauguration. Thus, the thesis shows that not only the quantity of PAs but also the quality of its management and thus effectiveness is an important indicator for global conservation targets. Finally, it can be summarized that the idea of establishing buffer zones within BRs and PAs in general, is the right way forward to enhance PA effectiveness and to achieve global reduction of biodiversity loss. Integrating the people living within and adjacent to PAs, must be given more attention in the future. Establishment of buffer zones, where this integration and cooperation is a necessity, should be the central conservation measure, not only within BRs but also within PAs in general.
Diese Studie basiert auf der Annahme, dass die Analogien zu kaltzeitlichen Ökosystemen Mitteleuropas nicht im hohen Norden Europas bzw. Nordasiens zu suchen sind, sondern dass man sie viel weiter im Süden in den kühl-kontinentalen Gebieten von Innerasien erwarten kann. Die kaltzeitlichen Weichtierfaunen Mitteleuropas unterscheiden sich wesentlich von den gegenwärtigen subpolaren Mollusken-Beständen durch das Auftreten einer Reihe von Steppenarten. Darunter befindet sich auch das xerotherme Element Pupilla triplicata, welches rezent ebenfalls in Zentralasien vorkommt. In diesem Zusammenhang ist auch bezeichnend, dass kaltzeitliche Mollusken-Leitarten, z. B. Vallonia tenuilabris, Vertigo pseudosubstriata oder Pisidium stewarti, zunächst aus dem Quartär Mitteleuropas beschrieben und überraschend Jahrzehnte später rezent in Zentralasien entdeckt wurden. Weitere „Lebende Fossilien“, beispielsweise rezente Belege von Pupilla loessica, waren deshalb noch zu erwarten. Entsprechende vergleichende Untersuchungen von pleistozänen mitteleuropäischen und rezenten zentralasiatischen Faunen fehlten bisher. Zur Beleuchtung der Geschichte der quartären Umwelt in Europa wird deshalb mit diesem Beitrag ein neuer Weg gegangen. Die Grundlage für diese Studie bilden zahlreiche Rezent-Aufsammlungen von zentralasiatischen Gastropoden-Gemeinschaften aus dem Tienschan (Kirgisien, Kasachstan), dem Russischen Altai und dem Baikal-Gebiet (Russland) sowie aus der N-Mongolei. Außerdem liegt auch aus dem Quartär (Mittel- und Jungpleistozän) von Zentralasien, insbesondere aus S-Tadschikistan, S-Kasachstan und N-China, Mollusken-Material vor. Wegen unterschiedlicher Vorstellungen zur Systematik innerhalb einiger Gruppen der Gastropoden in Zentralasien, betroffen sind u. a. die Vertiginidae, Pupillidae und Valloniidae, und wegen aktueller Revisionen, z. B. zur Gattung Vallonia, waren für den angestrebten objektiven Vergleich rezenter und fossiler Faunen Teilrevisionen erforderlich, die nicht nur zoogeographische Probleme neu beleuchten sondern auch die Beschreibung neuer Spezies beinhalten. Neue Erkenntnisse zu den Vertiginidae liegen vor allem zur Verbreitung von Vertigo substriata, V. lilljeborgi, V. genesii, V. geyeri, V. alpestris und V. parcedentata in Zentralasien vor. Die aktuellen zoogeographischen Daten dieser bis in die jüngste Vergangenheit als „Europäische Endemiten“ bewerteten Arten, sind für die Interpretation paläozoogeographischer Prozesse im eurasischen Raum von größter Bedeutung. Bei den Pupillidae wurden bspw. Pupilla alluvionica, P. altaica und P.seminskii neu beschrieben. Kartiert wurde die Verbreitung einer bisher aus Zentralasien unbeschriebenen Form von Pupilla, welche gehäusemorphologisch der mitteleuropäischen Kaltzeitleitart P. loessica entspricht. Offenbar handelt es sich um ein „Lebendes Fossil“. Der Verbreitungsschwerpunkt von P. cf. loessica befindet sich im stärker kontinental geprägten SE-Altai. Für den konkreten Vergleich pleistozäner Kaltzeit-Faunen des mitteleuropäischen Raumes mit rezenten Faunen in Zentralasien orientierte sich der Verfasser exemplarisch an Mollusken-Assoziationen, die Vallonia tenuilabris enthalten. V. tenuilabris ist im Pleistozän des mitteleuropäischen Raumes eine der am weitesten verbreiteten kaltzeitlichen Leitarten und ist rezent als kälteadaptierte Form bspw. auch in Zentralasien häufig. Unter Fokussierung auf V. tenuilabris und deren Begleitfaunen ergab sich die praktikable Chance, stellvertretend fossile und rezente kälteangepasste Faunen miteinander zu vergleichen. Dabei konnte verdeutlicht werden, dass die pleistozänen kaltzeitlichen Faunen Mitteleuropas die engsten Beziehungen zu den rezenten Faunen im südlichen Taigagürtel (Altai, N-Mongolei, Baikal-Gebiet) aufweisen. Die rezenten Habitate von V. tenuilabris in Zentralasien befinden sich erwartungsgemäß in Gebieten mit Jahresdurchschnittstemperaturen, die deutlich unter 0°C liegen. Die bevorzugten Habitattypen reichen zwar von mesophilen Wiesen, lichten Wäldern bis in die feuchteren Hochgebirgszonen, jedoch zeigt die Art eine deutliche Präferenz zu feuchteren Habitaten, wie Sümpfe, Auen und Gewässerufer, feuchte Wiesen und Hochgebirgs-Tundren. Für die Interpretation fossiler Gemeinschaften bedeutet dies, dass V. tenuilabris nicht, wie so oft angenommen, eine ausgesprochene Leitart kaltzeitlicher Steppen darstellt, sondern viel eher feuchtere kaltzeitliche Phasen bzw. feuchtere Habitate dominiert.
ABSTRACT
The small terrestrial gastropod Vertigo pseudosubstriata Ložek, 1954 is one of the rarest glacial indicator species in the Pleistocene of Central and Eastern Europe. In all, this species has been found at only about 15 sites in Europe. V. pseudosubstriata was initially described as a fossil in Central Europe and was discovered only later alive in Central Asia. With regard to its modern distribution, 25 habitats with V. pseudosubstriata have been examined in Tien Shan and in the central and southern Altai. These findings seem to capture the contemporary distribution of the species and provide information on the boundaries of its ecological requirements. These data are of great significance for the interpretation of the fossil assemblages. Since the few fossil specimens in Europe date from very different glacial periods in the Elsterian, Saalian Complex and Weichselian, it can be concluded that V. pseudosubstriata apparently immigrated in at least three distinct waves. Most of the Pleistocene specimens in eastern Central Europe and Eastern Europe are reported from archaeological sites of the Upper Middle Weichselian (Gravettian), roughly between 33 and 29 ka cal
bp. In this paper, we review all reported modern and fossil occurrences and discuss the species' ecological range.
Autoclaved aerated concrete (AAC) is a building material that combines heat insulation
properties with sufficient mechanical strength for masonry construction. Compared to
ordinary concrete, the matrix is highly porous (>50%) and hardened by a hydrothermal curing
process at 150°C - 200°C. During this process, quartz sand and portlandite react to form first
calcium silicate hydrates (C-(A)-S-H) with Ca/Si ratios <1.3 and then tobermorite. Especially
tobermorite, which has a much larger crystallite size than C-(A)-S-H, provides improved
mechanical strength. This reaction sequence is influenced by many parameters and
additives of which calcium sulfate is probably the most important. Despite several attempts to
investigate these hydrothermal reactions, the actual reaction mechanism involved when
adding sulfate ions is not fully understood. It has been suggested that the addition of ca.
1.5 wt% significantly improves the mechanical properties due to the enhanced formation and
arrangement of tobermorite in the porous matrix. Since the sulfate content in AAC waste is
exceeding regulatory threshold for low-quality reuse in some countries, the aim of this study
was to investigate in detail the reaction mechanisms involving sulfate addition. Such
knowledge may open up the possibility to improve AAC production and to avoid the need for
sulfate addition. To achieve this goal, this research work focused on investigating the
hydrothermal curing process to determine the sequence of hydrothermal reactions and the
spatial distribution of the phases formed. For this purpose, a new setup for in situ X-ray
diffraction was specifically designed to study hydrothermal reactions and to conduct time
intensive experiments on a normal laboratory diffractometer. In order to quantitatively
evaluate the in situ measurements by Rietveld analysis using TOPAS, it was also necessary
to develop atomistic structure models for C-(A)-S-H phases. This was made possible by
adopting a supercell approach that was previously used to describe turbostratically stacked
clay minerals. The structure models, derived from tobermorite, are placed in an otherwise
empty supercell to simulate the C-(A)-S-H nanostructure. Adopting these methodological
advances, it was possible to obtain absolute phase quantities from in situ data and to track
the reaction kinetics of the hydrothermal curing process. These results were then combined
with ex situ X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. Confirming previous studies,
the major effect of sulfate ions was the formation and decomposition of hydroxylellestadite. It
was further revealed that C-(A)-S-H formation was delayed during hydroxylellestadite
formation, which is supposed to support the silicate ion diffusion and hence the tobermorite
formation at a stage critical for improved hardening of AAC. This can be linked to the
formation of lower amounts of capillary pores in the range of 1-5 µm, as observed by
scanning electron microscopy, and therefore a lower concentration of inherent defects that
resulted in the improved mechanical properties. This research work highlights how important the spatial distribution of crystallites is for the properties of a building material and how this
distribution can be influenced by small alterations in reaction chemistry.
This work first sets out to find if economic, ecological, or social incentives drive consumers towards or against dietary decisions (Contribution A). It then develops a framework of TCA for food to describe economically conveyed incentives that are tied to ecological and social indicators within the food market (Contribution B). The framework is subsequently enhanced and broadened to include a deeper understanding and broader field of indicators for more holistic TCA calculations (Contributions C and D). Lastly, based on these calculations, TCA of food is implemented in a factual use case as the framework and calculations are deployed for commodities of a German supermarket chain; then consumer, as well as expert feedback is used for the discussion on socially responsible campaigning and policy change (Contribution E).
There is broad scientific consensus that current food systems are neither sustainable nor resilient: many agricultural practices are very resource-intensive and responsible for a large share of global emissions and loss of biodiversity. Consequently, current systems put large pressure on planetary boundaries. According to economic theory, food prices form when there is a balance between supply and demand. Yet, due to the neglect of negative external effects, effective prices are often far from representing the ‘true costs’. Current studies show that especially animal-based foodstuff entails vast external costs that currently stay unaccounted for in market prices. Against this background, we explore how informational campaigning on agricultural externalities can contribute to consumer awareness and tolerance of this matter. Further, we investigate the socially just design of monetary incentives and their implementation potentials and challenges. This study builds on the informational campaign of a German supermarket displaying products with two price tags: one of the current market price and the other displaying the ‘true’ price, which includes several environmental externalities calculated with True Cost Accounting (TCA). Based on interpretations of a consumer survey and a number of expert interviews, in this article we approach the potentials and obstacles of TCA as a communication tool and the challenges of its factual implementation in agri-food networks. Our results show that consumers are generally interested in the topic of true food pricing and would to a certain extent be willing to pay ‘true prices’ of the inquired foods. However, insufficient transparency and unjust distribution of wealth are feared to bring about communication and social justice concerns in the implementation of TCA. When introducing TCA into current discourse, it is therefore important to develop measures that are socially cautious and backed by relevant legal framework conditions. This poses the chance to create a fair playing (‘polluter pays’) with a clear assignment of responsibilities to policy makers, and practitioners in addition to customers.
The dissertation looks at bioeconomy innovation at different levels through the lens of economic geography. By progressing from the meta to the micro-scale, it tries to find answers to how the interrelated concepts of bioeconomy and innovation are embedded in these respective contexts while consecutively concretising bioeconomy and de-fuzzing it. To do that, it adopts a mixed-methods approach that starts general and ends specific, going from the meta-scale of literature over the macro-scale of three distinct areas in which bioeconomy is discussed to the meso-level of central actors of a European funding network before, lastly, considering case studies at the micro-scale. Throughout, the thesis aims to spatialise the bioeconomy by shedding light on the term and its drivers across multiple geographic layers. It thereby not only offers new insights into dimensions of innovation in the bioeconomy but also contributes to the discipline of economic geography by applying some of its essential theoretical ideas to an emerging political framework.
Governance and Management of Tourism in two Biosphere Reserves in Ecuador: Galapagos and Sumaco
(2014)
Tourism is multi-faceted phenomenon and various stakeholders, levels of government, and sectors are closely interlinked. Governmental and non-governmental institutions, local communities, diverse professionals, and different sectors and tourists do show various perspectives about the management of tourism. In this dissertation, a comprehensive analysis on the current situation of tourism in two biosphere reserves (Galapagos and Sumaco) in Ecuador is presented. Tourism is considered as one of the key strategies to promote environmental conservation and socio-economic development of local communities living in these places. UNESCO biosphere reserves are protected areas of extraordinary natural and cultural value, conceived as places for reconciliation between conservation and development. The concept of sustainable tourism can be seen as an umbrella that unites various forms of tourism in these protected areas (e.g. ecotourism, community-based tourism). The primary objective was to evaluate the main factors of success and failure in the management of tourism and its contribution to biodiversity conservation. Thus, a detailed review of the legal, political, and institutional framework of the country and a description of the two biosphere reserves (physical, biogeographic, demographic, socio-economic, institutional and legal elements) was given. Data collection for the case studies (Galapagos and Sumaco) was performed by the combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. As for qualitative tools, in-depth semi-structured interviews with the main stakeholders in both biosphere reserves were applied. Experts and specialists in the management of protected areas, as well as representatives of different sectors directly and indirectly associated with tourism were interviewed. Moreover, surveys were applied to two different target groups. Tourists were surveyed in order to establish their socio-demographic profile, travel preferences, and degree of knowledge about sustainable tourism, as well as their perception of the sustainability of tourism in the destinations visited. Furthermore, residents in both reserves were surveyed in order to find out about their socio-demographic characteristics, their main economic activities for supporting themselves and their attitude towards tourism, their level of knowledge about biosphere reserves, and their perception about advantages or disadvantages of living in a biosphere reserve. In general, although tourism is a concept that could be developed in accordance with the environment in these natural areas, in the case of Galapagos it is one of the main risk factors for the conservation of biodiversity in the archipelago due to the increasing number of tourists. In contrast, in Sumaco tourism could be an important sustainable alternative to mining, oil extraction and hydroelectric projects, which are the current threats to the conservation of the area. From the environmental point of view, there are serious problems in both reserves, mainly linked to the contamination of water resources. Such pollution imposes risks to the health to both, residents and tourists. The lack of freshwater is particularly critical in Galapagos, given its insular habitat. The invasion of exotic species in Galapagos is one of the most serious threats to the conservation, while deforestation in combination with illegal logging and mining activities is the greatest danger in Sumaco. In terms of sociocultural factors, migration processes undoubtedly shape the attitudes and values of the current population in both reserves. In Galapagos most residents are immigrants, whereas in Sumaco a significant portion are Kichwa people who belong to the area’s native population. In general, the inhabitants in both areas have not yet developed a true environmental awareness. The distribution of human population groups is also associated with the different types of tourism. In both reserves, tourist services offered by local communities have low quality standards and are targeted on a market segment consisting of tourists with a low budget. Thus, the community revenues obtained from tourism are generally only a small percentage of the total tourism market. This situation is much more noticeable in Galapagos where large companies that operate luxury cruises and hotels gain most of their revenues from tourism. Many of them have their headquarters in the main cities of Ecuador and abroad, which means that they pay their taxes in those cities and not in the places where they operate. Inequality in the distribution of the economic benefits of tourism leads to a situation of frustration and discontentment among the residents of the regions involved. Despite this situation, tourism is still a profitable business and residents try to make the most of it, no matter the cost impacts. Temporary and illegal tourism activities is often the normal state of the things: unregistered houses that offer rooms for tourists, taxi drivers who offer tours without being in possession of permits, tourist boat owners, tour guides and even large tourist companies that operate without legal licenses. This situation inevitably leads to a decrease of the quality of services, an uncontrolled increase of business, a consequent dumping of prices and the overall decline of the destination. Ultimately, this means fewer tourists, more environmental degradation and less economic benefits for residents. In this context, there is a serious conflict between the local community and large foreign companies. Governance and management of tourism are essential elements to ensure its development in a sustainable way. The country has a large number of laws, rules, regulations, and plans that regulate the development of sustainable tourism legally and institutionally, especially in protected areas. However, monitoring and law enforcement are major constraints for achieving proper management of tourism. This problem is particularly noticeable in small communities such as Galapagos and Sumaco where interpersonal relationships of kinship and friendship are close, which complicates control and regulation. There are some serious limitations regarding the technical and logistical capacity of the institutions responsible for controlling and managing the tourist activity; they consist mainly in the lack of staff and funding. Galapagos, given its special status, has increased the number of funding managers and staff members for controlling and management, but in many cases, these people are not fully qualified for their positions. Sumaco has only few tourism experts who can help to develop the tourism. The coordination and planning among all stakeholders involved in tourism is still a work in progress to ensure proper management of the tourist destinations. In any case, local communities are developing important initiatives in both biosphere reserves. After all, sometimes planning, coordination and local activities do not necessarily coincide with the national agenda. In general, in both biosphere reserves it is necessary to ensure higher standards of education, both formal and informal. Also it is urgent that the government as a regulating entity ensures the equitable participation of local communities in tourism benefits, control, monitoring, and law enforcement. Moreover, there is the need to encourage and ensure integrated planning of tourism in the different levels of government: local, regional, and national. Sustainable tourism means that the protection of cultural heritage and natural resources is granted at least the same level of importance as the involved economic interests. The unique nature that currently attracts tourists to Galapagos and Sumaco should be preserved not only for ensuring the continuity of the tourism activity itself, but also in order to safeguard biodiversity and natural resources for the coming generations. Responsible tourism practices which care about their social and environmental impacts are not necessarily opposed to economic interests. On the contrary, they need each other for a long-term development.
Die vorliegende Arbeit behandelt die holozäne Küstenentwicklung im Raum Darss-Zingst-Hiddensee, die eng an die Interaktion von eustatischen Meeresspiegelschwankungen, neotektonischen Bewegungen der Erdkruste und dem zugeführten Sedimentvolumen gebunden ist. Es sind mehrere Ziele der Untersuchungen zu nennen: Zunächst relevant ist die Kartierung der holozänen Sedimentabfolge und der liegenden pleistozänen Deckschichten im Untersuchungsgebiet, das neben den Nehrungen auch das angrenzende Seegebiet der Ostsee und die rückseitigen Lagunen umfasst. Anschließend ist die Modellierung der Transgressionsbasisfläche notwendig, um das im Holozän unter marinen Bedingungen umgelagerte Sedimentvolumen abschätzen zu können. Eine Kernfragestellung bildet die Sedimentbilanz. Vor allem für das Teilgebiet Zingst mit östlich angrenzendem Windwatt und Barriere-Inseln sind die Sedimentquellen, die zur Aufschüttung dieses Nehrungskörpers geführt haben, unklar. Die potentielle Materialbereitstellung umliegender Kliffe (Fischland, Altdarss) ist im Verhältnis zum Nehrungsvolumen relativ gering. In Kombination mit geochronologischen Untersuchungen der Sedimentsequenz ergeben sich im Gesamtraum Schlussfolgerungen über die Ablagerungsdynamik, die zur Ausbildung der gegenwärtigen Küstenlandschaft geführt hat. Anhand der Befunde wurde ein paläogeographisches Modell der Küstenentwicklung für das Gebiet abgeleitet. Diese Ergebnisse bilden die Grundlage zur Entwicklung zukünftiger Szenarien der Küstengenese mit Hilfe von morphodynamischen Prozessmodellen, die weiterführende Aufgabenstellungen bieten. Aus Sichtweise des Küstenschutzes und vor dem Hintergrund beschleunigter Anstiegsprognosen des Meeresspiegels sind die gewonnenen Erkenntnisse von hoher Bedeutung.
The establishment and management of protected areas has become a universally accepted way to conserve biodiversity and the wide range of goods and services they offer. Sustainable management of forest resources requires good decision-making from a range of different stakeholders. This dissertation develops a model based on spatial data and expert judgments to assess the vulnerability of the most threatened species of fauna and flora in a selected protected area. Based on the study objectives, the availability of data and technology, the study concludes vulnerability as composed of multidimensional losses, which can be measured as a function of the three components: exposure, sensitivity and adaptive capacity. In order to measure vulnerability, the research applies the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), a well-known multi-criteria decision making approach, using the open access Super Decisions software in a spatial database context with the help of Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
Quang Xuong is considered as one of the most developed districts in Thanh Hoa Province in terms of agricultural. The major purpose of this research is to find good places to suggest for annual crops production in the case study. Therefore, the assessment of land potential productivity, land suitability, and land cover/land use change in different periods is essential for making strategies of sustainable agricultural development as this will help land-users and land managers to discover the potential and limitations of the current existing land conditions to make appropriate policies and plans for future land use. Its results will provide basic information to make reasonable decisions for investments and rational reclamations of cultivated land before and after each crop season in order to meet the objectives of sustainable development in terms of economic efficiency, social acceptability, and environmental protection. The research site is located at latitudes 19 degree 34 minute N - 19 degree 47 minuteN and at longitudes 105 degree 46 minute E - 105 degree 53 minute E. The total area is about 227km2; in which 128km2 is in use for agricultural activities. Based on soil classification methods by FAO-UNESCO (1988), the agricultural land is classified into six main soil groups, including Arenosols, Salic Fluvisols, Fluvisols, Gleysols, Acrisols, and Leptosols, 12 soil units and 18 sub-units. The largest area belongs to the Fluvisols group with 9358.29ha and the smallest area is identified as the Leptosol group with 219.33ha. Most of the soil in this district has low to moderate nutrition, but in general, they are still suitable for agricultural production. There are 42 land units defined in the land mapping, which can be different from each other by one or more land characteristics. The land mapping unit is created from the overlay of all thematic maps of soil chemicals, soil physical characteristics, and relative topography together by application of GIS techniques. It presents land characteristics and properties in this case study and will be used in comparasion with a particular crop requirement for growth in land suitability evaluation process. A certain land unit may be suitable for one or more types of different land use. It is also classified as highly suitable for a specific land utilization type, but less suitable or unsuitable for other crops. For example, in this study, land unit 26 is determined as highly suitable (S1) for growing paddy rice and maize, but it falls into moderately suitability (S2) for groundnut crop by using parametric (square root) method used in this thesis. Depending on the kind of crops need to be evaluated and its requirement for development compared with each land unit characteristics, land-users will determine the best suitable place for crop production. Identification of land use change in different periods of time has become a central key to monitoring of land resources. It is relatively important for effective land management to protect the land resources, especially the land used for agricultural production from overuse and environmental changes. The sprawl of inhabitant areas, development of rural infrastructures, and industrialization are responsible for serious losses of agricultural land. In this study, remote sensing techniques were applied to studying the trends of land cover change in the abovementioned district in a period of about 24 years from 1989 to 2013. ArcGIS software was adopted to develop the land cover and the change of land use maps from 1989 to 2013. Two satellite images with moderate resolution were collected from USGS Earth Explorer website, Landsat5 TM for 1989 and Landsat8 OLI & TIRS for 2013. After image geo-processing, the images were classified into six land cover categories by applying supervised classification method (Maximum Likelihood). The six main obtained land cover types were built-up areas, agricultural land, forest land, water surface area, salty land, and unused land. The overall accuracies of land cover maps for 1989 and 2013 were 94.08% and 92.91%, respectively. The results of change detection analysis indicate that the cultivated, water surface and unused lands decreased by 22%, 17%, and 91%, respectively. In other side, the built-up and salty land increased by 78%, 58%, respectively and forest land increased from 52.69ha in 1989 to 395.76ha in 2013. The assessment of land potential productivity for agricultural production and land suitability for selected annual crops was based on FAO guidelines for land evaluation (FAO, 1976, 1985, and 1993) which were adopted and slightly modified for compatibility with Vietnamese conditions. All related data were stored, analyzed, mapped and presented in ArcGIS software. Weighted Linear Combination Method developed by Hopkins (1977) and GIS techniques were used to analyze and determine the land potential for agricultural use in the study area. The results show that 5.26%, 83.10%, 10.06%, and 1.57% of the investigated areas were assessed as high potential, moderate potential, low potential and very low potential for growing crops. Regarding land suitability evaluation, the simple limitation, parametric (square root), and AHP methods were used to evaluate the suitability levels for selected crops, including paddy rice, sweet potato, groundnut, maize, potato, sesame, soybean, and green pepper. The obtained results indicate that each applied method provides different results of land suitability level for a specific crop in certain land units compared to the other two methods, and OM, soil pH, soil texture, and relative topography were found out as the main limitation factors which affected land suitability level. The study also suggests that three different methods as abovementioned can be expanded and applied in other places with the appropriate factors used for land suitability evaluation according to particular area conditions.
Kurze Inhaltszusammenfassung in einer weiteren Sprache (Englisch): Muong Lay is one of the important social and economic areas in Northwestern Vietnam. Landslides occur frequently in the area and seriously affect local livelihoods and living conditions. Therefore, the problem of landslide hazard and mitigation for a sustainable development of this area is significant. The spatial analysis of landslide hazard assessment in the mountainous regions in Muong Lay is important to address this development challenge. This study focuses on the application of GIS and RS to landslide hazard assessment, especially for support of GIS modeling to landslide hazard susceptibility for Muong Lay area. By using Remote sensing with LandSat TM image and aerial photos of scale 1:50,000 and using statistical models with GIS-software’s ENVI3.4, ILWIS3.0, PCI9.0 and ARC/GIS9.1, the study tries to evaluate and estimate the landslide in relation with naturally different elements of natural conditions such as geology, geomorphology, geology-engineering, tectonics, hydrology, rainfall, etc… Especial, the study firstly aims to produce the causal factor maps by verifying digital data. These factors then will be applied in a methodology based on statistical methods such as: “bivariate statistical analysis” and “multivariate statistical analysis” approach to calculate the susceptibility level of each class of each factor to landslide. The integration of Geographic Information System (GIS) and Remote Rensing (RS)for landslide hazard zonation and assessment is a valid approach. In these researches various methods for image integration and information extraction have been analysed and evaluated in detail.
The main objective of this research was to enhance the understanding of the inte¬ractions of bentonite with iron in the near field of a HLW-repository. One target was to investigate natural Fe-rich bentonites as a possible analogue. Another topic was to recognize the mineralogical interaction of bentonite with iron powder simulating the contact of bentonite with steel containers (thermodynamic approach). An additional objective was to explore the idea that bentonites have a specific dissolution potential (kinetic approach). In order to take the thermodynamic approach, compacted MX80 bentonite and Friedland clay were used as starting materials for clay/iron interaction experiments in per¬colation systems (Clay/Iron-ratio = 0.1). The natural processes were studied by examining a tropical wea¬thering profile of serpentiniz¬ed diabase from the Thanh Hoa province of Vietnam. The kinetic approach was taken by investigating a series of well characterized bentonites, 9 from API-standard series, 12 from the BGR-collection and 4 others, all of them saturated with deionized water (liquid/solid-ratio = 10/1) and NaCl 1N solution (liquid/solid-ratio = 4/1) for 30 days, followed by exposing the soft gels to mechanical agitation by overhead shaking corresponding to two energy levels (20 rpm and 60 rpm). XRD and TEM – EDX measurement were the major analytical techniques applied in this research, with FT-IR and XRF analyses as additional tools to characterizing the structure and composition of the smectites. Thermodynamic Approach MX80 bentonite and Friedland Clay clearly show that chemical and mineralogical changes have occured in the reaction products. They are exemplified by the neoformation of serpentine and chlorite in certain mixed layer phases. The smectite in the reaction products had also undergone changes especially in the constitution of the octahedral and tetrahedral sheets as well as in the interlayer space. These alterations were evident by the difference in key peak positions and ratios of XRD-patterns, and by TEM-investigations, as well as by different positions and intensities of FT-IR-bands of octahedral and tetrahedral features. The alteration was also seen in the bulk chemical composition data (XRF). MX80 bentonite and Friedland clay show various types and stages of alteration under different experimental conditions. The alteration can be described as “illitization” in open reaction systems and “smectitization” in closed reaction systems. The degree of alteration was controlled by the degree of chemical activities (ion strength, Fe- & Si-activity, con-centration). Higher reactivities give higher degrees of dissolution and release of Si from clay minerals. The oxidation of native iron (Fe0 → Fe2+) was recognized as the main driving force for dissolution, but also the oxidation of Fe2+ (Fe2+ → Fe3+) appeared to reverse an open to a closed reaction system by increased Si-pre¬cipitation. The thermodynamic modelling of C/I-experiments by Mingliang Xie (GRS mbH) verified identified mineralogical alterations in the reaction products. Generally, the contact with metallic iron caused a strong increase in dissolution potential. The reason for this is the reducing potential of oxidation of iron which raised pH to become alkaline and increase dissolution of Si from clay particles. The mineralogical transformations recognized in the experiments, such as the neoformation of serpentine and chlorite phases, were also observed in the tropical weathering profile of serpentinized diabase. The wellknown fast development of Fe-rich montmorillonite in alteration of ultramafic rocks (e.g., Schnellmann, 1964) was also identified by mineralogical investigation of the weather¬ing profile. This confirms that smectitization is linked with higher Fe-activities also in nature. Fe2+ was present in this system and during oxidation acted as driving force for alteration. The reduction potential of Fe-oxidation caused an increase of pH into alkaline conditions. Kinetic Approach The hypothesis that smectite clays have a specific dissolution potential emanated from the study. This would mean that high amounts of Fe and Mg in the octahedral sheet can accelerate alteration in agreement to what was early proposed by Cicel & Novak (1976). The larger ion diameter of Fe and Mg in comparison with Al may well be responsible for a higher sheet stress, which would facilitate dissolution of smectites. The idea proposed Kaufhold & Dohrmann (2008) concerning a mechanism that makes Ca- and Mg-cations in the interlayer space stabilize quasicrystals is also supported by the present study. The performed investigation indicate which mechanisms that serve to protect smectites from undergoing alteration and which promote alteration. Stable smectites, i.e. those with a low specific dissolution potential, were called here “Sleepers”, while fast reacting bentonites, which have a high specific dissolution potential, were termed “Sprinters”. Smectites react with different rates of reaction in laboratory experiments. As said, each smectite sample has its specific potential for dissolution and this potential is controlled by the composition of both the octahedral sheets and the interlayer space. Increasing amounts of octahedral Fe and Mg compared to octahedral Al increase the specific dissolution potential. This potential is also affected by the ion radius, implying that the larger ion radius of Fe and Mg compared to Al increases the mechanical sheet stresses in the octahedral sheet. In summary, this means that, the investigations have confirmed the initial hypothesis concerning the impact of the composition of the octahedral sheet. It results primarily from the pH during the formation of the smectite clay and therefore serves as a geological fingerprint. The Al-Fe ratio in the octahedral sheet influences the stability of the interlayer: A) Aloct > 1.4 and Feoct > 0.2 (per (OH)2 O10) favour delamination of quasicrystals. The swelling pressure increases by a co-volume process between the delaminated layers wiht higher numbers of quasicrystals for Na-dominant population of the interlayer space (Laird, 2006). The microstructural components including both small and large particles and parts of them have a very small ability to move and undergo free rotation. Such Na-montmorillonites are consider as stable phases and have only a low specific dissolution potential. They are „Sleepers“. B) Aloct > 1.4 and Feoct < 0.2 or Aloct < 1.4 and Feoct > 0.2 (per (OH)2 O10) promote demixing of monovalent and divalent interlayer cations (Laird, 2006). In the case of Ca and Mg-dominant interlayers, quasicrystal can break Na-bearing interlayers and help to maintain the quasicrystal structure. Such Ca and Mg-mont¬morillonites can be also be taken as „Sleepers“ because of their low specific dissolution potential. Depending on the octahedral composition, certain cations in the inter¬layer can stabilize bentonites against mineralogical changes. Montmorillonites stabilized by high concentration of Na-cations were classified as belonging to category A, while montmorillonites stabilized by high Ca, Mg-cations in the interlayer sheet were grouped in category B. The classification of a smec¬tite into the categories A or B defined above can be best achieved by IR analyses that yield useful chemical information concerning the composition of the octahedral sheets. Smectites with Na as stabilizing interlayer cation (group A) have shown δAlAlOH-bands with increasing wavenumbers for increasing octahedral Al in FT-IR spectra. The other reaction type of smectite, with Ca, Mg-cations in the interlayers (group B), is characterized by a decreasing octahedral Al-amount for increasing wavenumbers of δAlAlOH-bands in such spectra. Also the FT-IR δAlFeOH-bands are different in the two reaction types of smectite. Increasing octahedral Fe-amounts were mirrored by decreasing wavenumbers of δAlFeOH-bands. However, smectites of group B do contain higher Fe-amounts for the same wavenumber than smectites of group A. Expected alteration of bentonite close and far from a steel canister In the early interaction of smectite-rich clay – the “buffer” - and steel, the system behaves as being chemically closed. Within the clay barrier, Si will be dissolved from clay mineral particles in accordance with its specific dis¬solution potential. The dissolved Si can stay by contributing neoformation of mont¬morillonite layers in mixed layer phases. The interlayer charge decreases by substitution of Mg by Al, which leads to an increase in the swelling pressure. Also minor Si-precipitation may occur if not all the dissolved Si is used up by the neoformed montmorillonite layers. Such precipitation of Si will cause cementation of some quasicrystals and lead to a reduction in porosity. Enhanced temperature and additional Fe-activity, representing an increased reduction potential, increases notably the amount of dissolved Si at the interface between bentonite and steel canister, and as a consequence there will be significant precipitation of Si. The resulting cementation of quasicrystals is ac¬com¬panied also by their collapse which induces broadening of pores. This caused the channel-like migration of infiltrating solutions and switches the system into an open one. Thermodynamic predictions indicate that “illite” will be generated close to the steel canister (via “illitization”) and kaolinite or pyrophyllite to be formed farther away (via smectitization). The “illitization” process results in higher interlayer charges and lower swelling pressures. In contrast, the formation of smectite reduces interlayer charges and promotes higher swelling pressures. At the end of the thermodynamic evolution, the swelling pressure will drop also far from the canister because kaolinite and pyrophyllite are non-swelling minerals. In both cases, the applications of so-called “Sleeper”-bentonites are required to slow the reaction progress. For designers of the engineered barriers in a repository, i.e. the canister and the “buffer” clay, some basic rules are recommend on the basis of the present study. Thus, the presence of native Fe or Fe2+-cations in the clay or in accessory minerals in it, or emanating from the canisters, will speed up the reaction process and make it extensive. Likewise, use of Fe-poor “buffer” clay, representing “Sleepers”-type are suitable for slowing down the reaction. Copper as canister material, and very dense Na-rich montmorillonite of group A as “buffer” seem to be ideal rather than steel/iron and less dense Ca-saturated clay.
The research aims at assessing the impacts of the Benefit Sharing Mechanism (BSM) pilot policy on the socioeconomic factors and natural-resource management in the co-management area between the Bach Ma National Park and the Thuong Nhat community. This is a new approach in Special-Use Forests (SUFs) management in Vietnam, which is needed to assess the scaling up of a national policy on co-management of SUFs in the future. A case study was undertaken in the Bach Ma National Park, which was one of the two national parks chosen to pilot the BSM policy under the Prime Minister’s Decision No 126 (Government-126 2012). In this study, both qualitative and quantitative data was collected on BSM implementation schemes; their impacts on local natural-resource use; local awareness of rights, benefits, and responsibilities when participating in the BSM; and local perspectives on the BSM’s achievements, failures, and future potential. Analysis revealed that the local community strongly supported the BSM implementation in the Bach Ma NP, displaying a high level of demand for the measures and significant involvement. Furthermore, thanks to the local people’s participation in the BSM implementation, their household incomes increased and their awareness and practices of NTFP sustainable use and forest protection in the co-management area improved”. The BSM implementation also exposed three main areas of weakness. These included poor compliance with the sustainable-harvest regulations, the apparent over-complexity of the the harvest-application procedures, and the users’ low contributions to the village fund after the NTFP harvest. The current research revealed that, although the local awareness and compliance with the BSM procedures increased annually after BSM implementation, the level of self-management and compliance was still quite low and needed to be improved. Furthermore, some conflicts have arisen between NTFPs users from village to village in Thuong Nhat and between local traders and NTFP collectors. Besides, the research identified two major negative practices: overexploitation of NTFPs and taking advantage of the NTFPs harvest to cut trees or trap animals. This dissertation presents various possibilities for improvement of the BSM implementation through (i) raising local people’s awareness; (ii) simplifying BSM procedures; (iii) clarifying incentives and tasks of BSM actors to enhance co-patrolling and monitoring activities; and (iv) creating good incentives either based on the livelihood program for those who actively comply with the BSM regulations or direct payments to those who join forest-protection activities. Finally, the research scrutinized certain challenges to future duplication of the BSM in other SUFs in Vietnam. To expand the BSM approach to other SUFs, the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development needs to develop a guideline for BSM implementation to encourage the relevant stakeholders’ involvement. The guideline for national BSM implementation should take account of the differences between local contexts, as well as create the necessary, flexible regulations to be applicable in practice. Therefore, based on the guideline, additional steps are necessary for the development of appropriate specific measures in the course of the BSM implementation at the provincial and local levels.
Die Entstehung und Herausgabe von touristischen Karten der DDR. Eine historisch-kritische Analyse
(2018)
Mit der vorliegenden Dissertation wird erstmals ein zeitlich umfassender Überblick über die touristische Verlagskartographie in der DDR gegeben. Als „Leitverlag“ steht der Landkartenverlag bzw. Tourist Verlag im Mittelpunkt der Arbeit, dessen Geschichte zugleich den Untersuchungszeitraum 1945–1994 vorgibt. Darüber hinaus werden weitere Verlage, kartographische Betriebe und Institutionen betrachtet, die im Osten Deutschlands mit der Herstellung und Herausgabe von touristischen Karten befasst waren.
Das halbe Jahrhundert ostdeutscher Verlagsgeschichte lässt sich in fünf inhaltlich abgrenzbare Entwicklungsphasen einteilen. Phase 1 (1945–1952) war gekennzeichnet durch eine von der Besatzungsmacht UdSSR überwachte und im Aufbau befindliche Verlagslandschaft. In jenen Jahren gelang es nur dem von Kurt Schaffmann gegründeten Landkartenverlag, eine volle Sortimentsbreite touristischer Karten (Stadtpläne, Wanderkarten, Verkehrskarten) aufzubauen, jedoch vorerst noch regional eingeschränkt. In Phase 2 (1953–1965) wurde durch die Verstaatlichung von Verlagen und der sich anschließenden Konzentration der Herausgabe die Grundlage für ein staatlich kontrolliertes Verlagswesen geschaffen. Dabei war zugleich die Sortimentsvielzahl zugunsten einer klar formulierten Programmstruktur aufgegeben worden. Für Phase 3 (1966–1976) war die Herstellung und Herausgabe eines komplett neuen Verlagsprogramms prägend. Vorausgegangen waren Beratungen in Moskau und Ost-Berlin, die zu verschärften Sicherheitsmaßnahmen im Kartenwesen führten. Fortan wurden alle für die Öffentlichkeit bestimmten Karten nur noch mit verzerrten Maßstäben produziert. Phase 4 (1977–1989) beinhaltet die Tätigkeit des VEB Tourist Verlag Berlin/Leipzig, der neben Karten nun auch für touristische Literatur verantwortlich zeichnete. Bis auf Koeditionen mit Verlagen benachbarter sozialistischer Staaten stagnierte die Kartenherausgabe, denn zunehmend wurden Kapazitäten durch den Devisen bringenden Kartographieexport in die BRD gebunden. In der Phase 5 (1990–1994) gelang es dem Tourist Verlag nicht, eine gefestigte Stellung in der gesamtdeutschen Marktwirtschaft zu erringen. Durch den Verkauf seitens der Treuhandanstalt an J. Fink – Kümmerly + Frey ließ sich das Schicksal nur um wenige Jahre hinauszögern; am Ende stand die Liquidation des traditionsreichen Unternehmens. Damit wird zugleich der Schlusspunkt der Betrachtungen fixiert.
Im Laufe ihrer Geschichte war die ostdeutsche Verlagskartographie verschiedensten Restriktionen unterworfen. Zensur in Form sogenannter Genehmigungsverfahren, Bevormundung durch staatliche Anleitung und Kontrolle sowie die Sicherheitsdoktrin der sowje-tischen Führungsriege gaben den Rahmen vor, in dem Karten für die Öffentlichkeit entstehen konnten. Seit Mitte der 1960er Jahre führte die ausschließliche Verwendung von verzerrten Kartengrundlagen zu Erzeugnissen, in denen das Ermitteln von exakten Streckenlängen unmöglich wurde. Zusammen mit diversen Tarnmaßnahmen für Grenzgebiete, Militärobjekte und Industrieanlagen sowie weiteren Manipulationen des Karteninhalts, entstand ein von Fachleuten und Nutzern oft kritisiertes Verlagsprogramm.
Während in den ersten Jahren nach Ende des Zweiten Weltkriegs noch zahlreiche Stadtpläne in den Handel gelangten, wurde ab Mitte der 1960er Jahre nur noch eine eingeschränkte Anzahl von Orten mit adäquatem Kartenmaterial bedacht. Zudem sind die Erzeugnisse fortan mit sogenannten „gleitenden Maßstäben“ erstellt worden. Die Pläne genügten für die grobe Orientierung, touristischer Inhalt war sorgsam eingearbeitet.
Als Ausgangsmaterial für Wander- und Touristenkarten in verschiedenen Maßstäben diente ab 1966 die von der staatlichen Kartographie eigens zur Verfügung gestellte,
verzerrte Übersichtskarte im Maßstab 1 : 200 000. Fuß- und Radwanderer bekamen die daraus resultierenden Auswirkungen am meisten zu spüren. Da auch das Kartenbild recht grob war, genoss diese Kartengruppe einen allgemein schlechten Ruf.
Bei den Verkehrskarten haben sich die Verzerrungen umso weniger bemerkbar gemacht, je länger die zu fahrenden Strecken waren. Wegen ihres Detailreichtums wurden die Karten sogar im Ausland geschätzt – Mairs Geographischer Verlag aus Stuttgart hatte die „Reise- und Verkehrskarte“ in seine international bekannte Reihe der „Generalkarten“ integriert.
Somit ist insbesondere den touristischen Karten, die zwischen 1965 und 1989 produziert worden sind, eine unzureichende Note zu attestieren. Die differenzierte Betrachtung des Gesamtzeitraumes zeigt aber auch, dass Pauschalurteile über die touristische Kartographie in der DDR nicht angemessen sind.
The deep geological underground represents an important georesource for the short-
term storage of renewable energy and the long-term reduction of greenhouse gas emissions. To ensure the economic viability and safety of any subsurface storage project, detailed characterisation of the quality and integrity of the reservoir and its cap rock is required. This characterisation includes the accurate determination of the petrophysical properties, such as porosity and permeability, as well as the potential mineral reactions, such as the dissolution of reactive phases, which may occur during the lifespan of such a project. Clay minerals are common components of many reservoir systems and, depending on their type and structure, can have a significant impact on storage and transport properties. These processes are, however, currently not well understood. In order to address these issues, the main focus of this thesis is on mineralogical analyses using X-ray diffraction (XRD) and microstructural studies using focused ion beam scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) together with micro X-ray computed tomography (µXCT) to gain a better understanding of the influence of clay minerals on reservoir and cap rock properties.
A central part of this thesis focuses on the analysis of clay minerals and pore structures of the Bebertal Sandstone of the Parchim Formation (Early Permian, Upper Rotliegend), which is considered a natural analogue for the tight reservoir sandstones of the North German Basin. Two illite polytypes with a variety of characteristic structures have been identified in the Bebertal sandstone. Disordered 1Md illite forms the majority of the observed structures, which include omnipresent grain coatings, altered permeable feldspar grains and pore-filling meshwork structures. Trans-vacant 1M illite represents the second and youngest generation of authigenic illite and occurs as fibrous to lath-shaped particles that grew into open pore spaces and led to a significant reduction in porosity and permeability during late diagenesis. Based on these results, a model for the formation of illite polytypes in the aeolian layers of the Bebertal sandstone was developed that describes the temporal and spatial evolution of porosity and permeability during diagenesis. Information from this model was then used to improve the prediction of permeability of the Bebertal sandstone based on µXCT pore space models and direct numerical simulations. To achieve this, a micro-scale pore space model was created that allowed the simulation of permeability reduction by clay minerals by including nanoporous illite domains based on a novel morphological algorithm. By performing Navier-Stokes-Brinkman simulations, more accurate predictions of permeabilities with respect to experimentally determined values were obtained compared to conventional Navier-Stokes simulations.
The detailed characterisation of the Bebertal sandstone has shown that natural reservoir rocks are usually complex heterogeneous systems with small-scale variations in texture,
composition, porosity and permeability. Flow-through experiments on the Bebertal sandstone revealed that the coupled geochemical and hydrodynamic processes that occur during the dissolution of calcite could not be predicted by reactive transport models. Therefore, as part of this thesis, a novel approach for developing synthetic sandstones at low temperatures based on geopolymer binder was developed. It is shown that simpler and more homogeneous porous materials can be produced with porosity and permeability values in the range of natural sandstones. These can be used to better understand the dynamic and coupled processes relevant to the storage of renewable energy in reservoir rocks through improved experimental constraints.
The final part of this thesis reports on a detailed clay mineral and pore space study of
three shale formations and one mudstone that were identified as potential seals for the Mt. Simon sandstone reservoir in the Illinois Basin. During the Illinois Basin - Decatur Project, this reservoir was used for the sequestration of one megaton of supercritical carbon dioxide. In order to better assess the quality of the sealing units and to better understand the role of the intergranular clay mineral matrix as potential pathway for fluid migration, a multi-scale evaluation was conducted that included thin section analysis, quantitative evaluation of minerals by scanning electron microscopy (QEMSCAN), mercury intrusion capillary pressure (MICP) measurements, quantitative XRD and high-resolution FIB-SEM. The results allow for the classification of the studied formations into primary and secondary seals and emphasise the importance of three-dimensional clay-mineral-related pore structure characterisations in cap rock studies. XRD proved the most reliable method for the identification and quantification of clay minerals in the studied cap rocks and mudstones. In contrast, FIB-SEM and QEMSCAN provided the spacial constraints for reconstructing fluid flow pathways within the clay mineral matrix.
Overall, this thesis highlights the importance of the precise identification of clay minerals in geological reservoirs and their cap rocks. It also illustrates the need for three-dimensional characterisation and modelling of the associated small pore structures for an improved understanding of the rocks diagenetic history as well as the prediction of the transport and storage properties of these crustal reservoir systems.
Diagenetic illite growth in porous sandstones leads to significant modifications of the initial pore system which result in tight reservoirs. Understanding and quantifying these changes provides insight into the porosity-permeability history of the reservoir and improves predictions on petrophysical behavior. To characterize the various stages of diagenetic alteration, a focused ion beam – scanning electron microscopy (FIB-SEM) study was undertaken on aeolian sandstones from the Bebertal outcrop of the Parchim Formation (Early Permian Upper Rotliegend group). Based on 3D microscopic reconstructions, three different textural types of illite crystals occur, common to many tight Rotliegend sandstones, namely (1) feldspar grain alterations and associated illite meshworks, (2) tangential grain coats, and (3) pore-filling laths and fibers. Reaction textures, pore structure quantifications, and numerical simulations of fluid transport have revealed that different generations of nano-porosity are connected to the diagenetic alteration of feldspars and the authigenic growth of pore-filling illites. The latter leads to the formation of microstructures that range from authigenic compact tangential grain coatings to highly porous, pore-filling structures. K-feldspar replacement and initial grain coatings of illite are composed primarily of disordered 1Md illite whereas the epitaxially grown illite lath- and fiber-shaped crystals occurring as pore-filling structures are of the trans-vacant 1Mtv polytype. Although all analyzed 3D structures offer connected pathways, the largest reduction in sandstone permeability occurred during the initial formation of the tangential illite coatings that sealed altered feldspars and the subsequent growth of pore-filling laths and fibrous illites. Analyses of both illite pore-size and crystallite-size distributions indicate that crystal growth occurred by a continuous nucleation and growth mechanism probably controlled by the multiple influx of potassium-rich fluids during late Triassic and Jurassic times. The detailed insight into the textural varieties of illite crystal growth and its calculated permeabilities provides important constraints for understanding the complexities of fluid-flow in tight reservoir sandstones.
There is a current need for developing improved synthetic porous materials for better constraining the dynamic and coupled processes relevant to the geotechnical use of underground reservoirs. In this study, a low temperature preparation method for making synthetic rocks is presented that uses a geopolymer binder cured at 80 °C based on alkali-activated metakaolin. For the synthesised sandstone, the key rock properties permeability, porosity, compressive strength, and mineralogical composition, are determined and compared against two natural reservoir rocks. In addition, the homogeneity of the material is analysed structurally by micro-computed tomography and high-resolution scanning electron microscopy, and chemically by energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. It is shown that simple, homogenous sandstone analogues can be prepared that show permeability-porosity values in the range of porous reservoir rocks. The advance in using geopolymer binders to prepare synthetic sandstones containing thermally sensitive minerals provides materials that can be easily adapted to specific experimental needs. The use of such material in flow-through experiments is expected to help bridge the gap between experimental observations and numerical simulations, leading to a more systematic understanding of the physio-chemical behaviour of porous reservoir rocks.
Understanding the interaction between climate variability and ice sheet behavior is critical due to scenarios of future climate warming and the consequent contribution of Greenland ice sheet melting to sea-level rise and its potential to influence thermohaline circulation. This thesis investigates the role of ocean forcing by the West Greenland Current (WGC) on the dynamics of West Greenland ice sheet behavior, with focus on Jakobshavn Isbræ, in the Disko Bugt area of central West Greenland. High-resolution sediment cores, obtained during a cruise of the RV ‘Maria S. Merian’ in 2007, provide a long-term Holocene perspective on climate variability off West Greenland. These records cover the last 8000 years with increasing resolution through to periods of historical and instrumental data series. Paleoenvironmental reconstructions, based on the calcareous and agglutinated benthic foraminiferal assemblage, reveal significant variations in the water mass properties (e.g. temperature and salinity) of the WGC. From 8 to 6 cal. ka BP, a relatively warm WGC enhances meltwater production (ice retreat) in Disko Bugt. Holocene ‘thermal optimum-like’ conditions prevailed from 5.5 to 3.5 cal. ka BP, associated with minimum ice sheet extent in eastern Disko Bugt. Long-term cooling of oceanographic conditions is recognized from c. 3.5 cal. ka BP towards the present day. Superimposed on this millennial scale cooling trend, centennial scale variability within the WGC is reconstructed: i) the 2.7 cal. ka BP ‘cooling event’; ii) the Roman Warm Period; iii) the Medieval Climate Anomaly; and iv) the Little Ice Age. Over the past 100 years, oceanographic conditions remain relatively cool and multidecadal variability in the WGC’s ocean temperatures show close correlation with the ice marg in position of Jakobshavn Isbræ and phases of the Atlantic Multi-decadal Oscillation (AMO). Cold (warm) phases correlate with stabilization/re-advance (retreat) of Jakobshavn Isbræ and a negative (high) index of the AMO. It has been demonstrated that variations in ocean temperature are an important factor that influence ice sheet behavior on a range of times scales, underlining the close coupling of ice-ocean interactions during the Holocene. Warmer ocean temperatures influence the stability of marine terminating ice sheets and glaciers, causing basal melting and glacier acceleration, whereas ocean cooling supports stabilization and advance of ice margin.
Bentonite is currently proposed as a potential backfill material for sealing high-level radioactive waste in underground repositories due to its low hydraulic conductivity, self-sealing ability and high adsorption capability. However, saline pore waters, high temperatures and the influence of microbes may cause mineralogical changes and affect the long-term performance of the bentonite barrier system. In this study, long-term static batch experiments were carried out at 25 °C and 90 °C for one and two years using two different industrial bentonites (SD80 from Greece, B36 from Slovakia) and two types of aqueous solutions, which simulated (a) Opalinus clay pore water with a salinity of 19 g·L−1, and (b) diluted cap rock solution with a salinity of 155 g·L−1. The bentonites were prepared with and without organic substrates to study the microbial community and their potential influence on bentonite mineralogy. Smectite alteration was dominated by metal ion substitutions, changes in layer charge and delamination during water–clay interaction. The degree of smectite alteration and changes in the microbial diversity depended largely on the respective bentonite and the experimental conditions. Thus, the low charged SD80 with 17% tetrahedral charge showed nearly no structural change in either of the aqueous solutions, whereas B36 as a medium charged smectite with 56% tetrahedral charge became more beidellitic with increasing temperature when reacted in the diluted cap rock solution. Based on these experiments, the alteration of the smectite is mainly attributed to the nature of the bentonite, pore water chemistry and temperature. A significant microbial influence on the here analyzed parameters was not observed within the two years of experimentation. However, as the detected genera are known to potentially influence geochemical processes, microbial-driven alteration occurring over longer time periods cannot be ruled out if organic nutrients are available at appropriate concentrations.
The UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme has been active in South Africa for almost 20 years. The country currently has six designated biosphere reserves with a few sites in various stages of the nomination process. Within the South African context, agencies are using a series of seemingly different instruments to practice landscape-scale management. The UNESCO biosphere reserve concept sometimes finds it difficult to obtain prominence amongst these different landscape initiatives. Biosphere reserves are special sites wherein sustainable development is promoted. For this reason, the biosphere reserve concept has much to offer towards long-term sustainable socialecological land management. In our modern age of population growth, dwindling natural resources and a general disconnectedness of humans from nature due to large scale urbanization, there is an urgent need for innovative ways in which to showcase sustainable living practices. South Africa has limited natural, economic and social resources and therefore needs to prioritize where these resources could best be allocated. This dissertation comprises the history of the MAB Programme in South Africa, as well as a multicase study on five existing biosphere reserves. Results from this study indicated that not all biosphere reserves are equally effective in their implementation of the three functions of biosphere reserves and that all biosphere reserves in South Africa face an uncertain future due to pressing challenges. Collective results of the multicase study as well as literature reviews were used to inform options for the future effective implementation of the MAB Programme in South Africa. Options that could contribute towards effective biosphere reserves include more sustainable funding support, and community-based demonstration projects. In addition a new suite of criteria to inform the selection of future biosphere reserves was developed. Biosphere reserves need to be optimally located in order to secure long-term efficiency and effectiveness. These sites need to be representative of biodiversity, efficiently managed and persistent in the long run. Presently in South Africa, new sites for biosphere reserves are nominated in an ad hoc manner. Should their locations be selected discerningly, they offer many benefits to the South African social and environmental landscape that should be recognized and utilized. The final suite of selection criteria are structured according to four subsections, namely a general section that addresses national matters of general concern to the MAB Programme, and three sections covering the three biosphere reserve functions of conservation, sustainable development and logistic support. This suite of biosphere reserve selection criteria for South Africa is being put forward for deliberation and discussion at local, provincial and national level. It has the potential to be of valuable assistance in selection processes for future effective and efficient biosphere reserves that will proudly earn their place in the South African landscape as “special places for people and nature”.
Serbian Tertiary ultrapotassic province is part of widespread but not voluminous basaltic magmatism in Serbia. Two principal groups of ultrapotassic rocks are recognized; the lamproite affinity group (LAG) and the kamafugite affinity group (KAG). My results demonstrate three dominant low-pressure evolutional processes: magma mixing and fractional crystallization, analcimization and heteromorphism. The two suites of ultrapotassic rocks show large ranges of Sr and Nd isotopic values but a restricted variation of Pb isotopes. LAG is characterized by wide ranges of Sr and Nd isotopes (87Sr/86Sri 0.70735- 0.71299, 143Nd/144Ndi 0.51251-0.51216). KAG is isotopically homogeneous with a limited range of Sr-Nd isotopes (87Sr/86Sri 0.70599-0.70674, 143Nd/144Ndi 0.51263-0.51256). The Pb isotope compositions of both groups are similar (206Pb/204Pb 18.581-18.832, 207Pb/204Pb 15.624-15.696 and 208Pb/204Pb 38.744-38.987), and fall within the pelagic sediment field resembling Mesozoic flysch sediments from the Vardar ophiolitic composite suture zone. Highly variable Sr and Nd isotopic signatures of primitive-LAG rocks correlate with REE fractionation and enrichment of the HFSE. I explain this correlation using vein+wall-rock melting model, invoking the presence of different metasomatic domains (veins with phlogopite, Cpx and F-apatite) that are out of isotopic equilibrium with the peridotite wall rock. Relatively uniform Sr and Nd isotopic data of KAG rocks, similar trace element patterns and small but regular variations of HFSE ratios, indicate different degrees of melting of a relatively homogeneously metasomatized mantle source. Geochemical modelling implies the role of phlogopite, apatite and Ti-oxide in their mantle source.
Are old regions less attractive? Interregional labour migration in a context of population ageing
(2021)
Abstract
Regional demographic change is often conceptualized as a circular process, where out‐migration continuously worsens conditions of population ageing and shrinkage. Thus, if migration acts as a consequence as well as cause of ageing, migration patterns should be influenced by the age structure of origin and destination regions. This paper analyses individual‐level migration decisions of full‐time employees across 326 German regions between 1997 and 2013 using binary choice models. The results show that individuals are more likely to migrate out of and less likely to migrate towards ageing regions. Moreover, the identified patterns are consistent with age‐selective migration reinforcing ageing processes and polarization of demographic structure.
This work scrutinises the policy shift in Germany with the change in leitmotif from biotechnology to bioeconomy and examines the associated implications at various levels. The emergence and implementation of innovation policy funding programmes show that the policy transition did not follow a linear sequence. Neither excessive prioritisation nor neglect of a selected sector can be confirmed in this analysis. However, the policy shift from biotechnology to bioeconomy has not only consequences in terms of its content, but also affects the spatial distribution of R&D funding. Against the background of existing polarisation tendencies and the growing acknowledgement of inclusive innovation policy approaches, this study examines the importance the bioeconomy can assume in the reduction of regional disparities. In ‘organisationally thick’ regions, depending on the involvement of private actors, specialisation and regional branching can be observed. It is found that, for rural regions, the bioeconomy can be an appropriate tool for regional development, since other industries are often not present.