Die Umsetzung der FFH-Richtlinie in der Agrarlandschaft

The EU Habitats Directive (92/43/EEC) does include provisions for setting up the Natura 2000-network of protected areas based on listed species and habitats, and in addition specific regulations on species protection. Three Quarters of all designated sites (SCI’s) do not only include natural habitat types in a strict sense like forests or water-bodies, but also agricultural land. 18?% of the SCI’s even include between 25 and 50?% agricultural land and 24?% above 50?%. 48 species and three habitat types listed under the Habitats Directive have a clear focus in agriculture. Another eleven habitat types are dependant from a nature-friendly low intensity use or management. A large proportion of these habitats and species are actually in an unfavourable conservation status. The paper analyses the impact of EU nature conservation on agriculture based on the species and habitats falling under the Habitats Directive. On the other hand indirect negative influences of agriculture are discussed, that may have considerable impact on the future development of the conservation status of endangered habitats and species.     

A stakeholder dialogue on European vulnerability

A stakeholder dialogue was embedded in the ATEAM project to facilitate the development and dissemination of its European-wide vulnerability assessment of global change impacts. Participating stakeholders were primarily ecosystem managers and policy advisers interested in potential impacts on ‘Agriculture’, ‘Forestry’, ‘Water’, ‘Carbon storage’, ‘Biodiversity’ and ‘Mountain environments’ sectors. First, stakeholder dialogue approaches to integrated assessment are introduced. Methodological considerations on stakeholder selection and dialogue implementation and evaluation follow. The dialogue content and process are evaluated from the perspectives of stakeholders and scientists. Its usefulness in the research process and the relevance of outcomes for stakeholders are particularly considered. The challenging compromises required to perform innovative research, which seeks to achieve both peer scientific credibility and societal relevance, are emphasized. Effective stakeholder dialogues play a substantial role in raising the visibility and meaningfulness of vulnerability assessments as critical means to improve awareness on global change and its potential worrying impacts on society. They further provide scientists with critical information on ecosystem management and sectoral adaptive capacity. These processes of mutual learning and knowledge exchange moreover foster a better understanding of the potential and limits of global change modelling and vulnerability assessment for policy and ecosystem management.

Application of the Weibull distribution to describe the vertical distribution of cesium-137 on a slope under permanent pasture in Luxembourg

The application of solutions of the Advection-Dispersion-Equation (ADE) for soil profiles is sometimes questionable. An alternative method, based on the Weibull distribution, has been developed, which can approximate the vertical distribution of radiocesium (137Cs) and allows extrapolation to account for the complete inventory. The structure of the equation allows simple parameters describing the soil depth profile to be derived. Reliable estimates of the total 137Cs inventory can help to explain the lateral distribution. This equation was used to analyse the 137Cs-activities of Chernobyl fall-out measured on a slope under permanent pasture in Luxembourg.     

Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons in pine and spruce shoots-temporal trends and spatial distribution

In the framework of the German environmental specimen bank one-year old spruce shoots (Picea abies) and pine shoots (Pinus sylvestris) serve as bioindicators for the atmospheric pollution. Sampling is performed in two urbanized areas in western and eastern Germany (Warndt and Duebener Heide, respectively), and in seven different rural locations. Prior to archiving conifer shoots are continuously analyzed for a set of 17 individual polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). The results from the two urbanized areas show that the atmospheric contamination with PAH has declined by about 75% between 1985 and 2004 at Warndt and by about 85% between 1991 and 2004 at Duebener Heide. However, summation operatorPAH concentrations stayed virtually constant at both locations since the end of the 1990s at levels of about 100 ng g(-1) wet weight (ww). In spruce shoots from rural areas current concentrations of PAHs are significantly lower and vary between 8 and 61 ng g(-1) ww. In all shoot samples the four low molecular aromatics phenanthrene, fluoranthene, pyrene, and chrysene dominate the pattern by contributing 60 to 90% to summation operatorPAH. The group of high molecular weight aromatics is dominated by benzo[b,j,k]fluoranthene, especially in spruce shoots originating from greater altitudes remarkable amounts of six and seven ringed PAHs could be detected. Despite the strong decrease of PAH concentrations in urban areas patterns of aromatics remained nearly unchanged in the observation period 1985 to 2004.     

Atmosphärische Deposition und Anreicherung von Schwermetallen und Stickstoff in Natura-2000-Gebieten Deutschlands

Purpose Under the Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution mosses are used to map the bioaccumulation of heavy metals and nitrogen throughout Europe. To this end, since 1990 mosses were sampled and analyzed chemically every five years. The goal of this article is to apply the moss survey data for assessing the bioaccumulation of Cd, Pb and N in German Natura 2000 Sites of Community Importance (SCI). Methods The temporal trends of the heavy metal bioaccumulation within SCIs were analyzed using a multi metal index (MMI) calculated by means of geostatistics and percentile statistics. For nitrogen, only monitoring values for 2005 were available for the assessment. The geostatistically estimated values of the metal and nitrogen concentrations in mosses were transformed to estimated deposition values by use of regression analyses. Subsequently, the results were integrated into the assessment of the German SCIs. Results Highest metal loads within SCIs were detected in 1990, followed by a continuous decrease to 2000 and a significant increase until 2005. Regarding N, a median of 1.5?% nitrogen in the dry mass was calculated. The deposition values calculated from the moss estimates resulted in median values of 0.33?g/ha/a for Cd, 8.2?g/ha/a for Pb and 16.7?kg/ha/a for nitrogen. Conclusions The Moss-Monitoring is the only environmental monitoring programme which enables statistically sound estimations of the exposure of SCI to environmental contaminants in terms of heavy metal and nitrogen deposition and bioaccumulation.     

Klimawandel und zukünftig mögliche temperaturgesteuerte Malariatransmission in Deutschland

Background, aim and scope On behalf of the Centre of Excellence for Climate Effects and Adaption (KomPass) of the German Federal Environment Agency (UBA) an Expert Information System on Climate Change and Adaption (FISKA) was developed. FISKA shall provide the governmental institutions with basic information and models on climate change impacts for the development and accomplishment of adaption strategies. In this paper the impact model on potential temperature-dependent malaria transmissions is presented. It shows how, together with the REMO and WettReg climate models implemented in FISKA, areas at risk of malaria can be identified. Materials and methods FISKA was developed as an open and modular expert information system and allows the exchange of data and information with other institutions. Climate change impacts are implemented as calculation engines. The system allows for implementing additional data and impact models to improve existing impact models. For the calculation of the temperature-dependent potential secondary malaria infections the basic reproduction rate was used and the according algorithms were implemented in two calculation engines. One engine allows the calculation of the secondary infections and the other allows the calculation of the seasonal transmission gates. Measured air temperatures for the period 1961–2007 were provided by the German Meteorological Service (DWD), data on future air temperatures were extracted from the climate models REMO and WettReg for the climate reference periods 1991–2020, 2021–2050, and 2051–2080. The respective secondary infections and the resulting seasonal transmission gates for each period were regionalised on the basis of an ecological land classification to analyse significant ecoregional differences. Results Comparing the climate reference period 1961–1990 and the following period 1991–2007, the proportion of Germany featuring a potential seasonal malaria transmission gate of one or rather two months has been reduced in favour of a three months transmission gate. Accordingly, in the period 1991–2007 malaria transmissions during three months are possible on 70?% of the German territory instead of 26?% in 1961–1990. The percentage of a four months transmission gate has increased from 0.02?% to 0.76?%, and even a five months transmission is possible on 0.15?% of Germany. For future periods the number of potential secondary infections increases and further extensions of the seasonal transmission gates were revealed. In case of REMO A1B in 2051–2080, almost whole Germany features thermal conditions allowing malaria transmissions during four or rather five months. Discussion Rising air temperatures lead to changes in the spatial structure of the ecological elementary factor temperature, which can, under otherwise identical conditions, facilitate the reproduction of pathogens (here Plasmodium vivax) and vectors (here Anopheles atroparvus) as well as the spread of diseases. The basic reproduction rate serves the calculation of secondary malaria infections, which are the infections of host by a vector under the assumption that every member of the host population is susceptible for the pathogen. Improved thermal conditions alone do not necessarily imply the development of a malaria epidemic. Other factors like population density or medical care and the presence of vector habitats are of major importance, however, not considered by the calculation engines. The example of malaria is intended to be a model for a range of temperature-dependent vector-borne diseases. Conclusions The impact model on temperature-dependent malaria infections shows exemplarily the information content and functionality of FISKA. Data and functionality of FISKA serve as an expert information system for the detection of risks due to climate change. The results can be published as interactive maps via the FISKA internet interface. From a technical point of view, every impact model based on a calculation engine can be implemented and published via the web interface, provided that the impact models and the resulting risk maps rely on scientific reliable assumptions and are documented comprehensively. Recommendations and perspectives An improvement of FISKA considering the European scale is technically possible. It would require the development of GIS- and model applications on the basis of Europe-wide basic and specific data. For small-scale model runs a dynamic modelling of the water balance including soil hydrology as well as consideration of microclimate effects are required.