Dietary-induced responses in the phagotrophic flagellate Oxyrrhis marina

Primary producers may be limited by different nutrients as well as by light availability, which in turn affects their quality as food for higher trophic levels. Typically, algae with high C:N and/or C:P ratios are low-quality food for consumers. Heterotrophic protists are important grazers on these autotrophes, but despite their importance as grazers, knowledge of food quality effects on heterotrophic protists is sparse. In the present study, we examined how differently grown Rhodomonas salina (nutrient replete, N-limited and P-limited) affected the phagotrophic flagellate Oxyrrhis marina. The functional response of O. marina (based on ingested biovolume) did not show significant differences between food sources, thus food uptake was independent of food quality. O. marina was weakly homoeostatic which means that its C:N:P ratio still reflected the elemental composition of its food to some extent. Food quality had a significantly negative effect on the numerical response of O. marina. Whereas N-limited R. salina and nutrient replete R. salina resulted in similar growth rates, P-limited algae had a significantly negative effect on the specific growth rate of O. marina. Hence, the lack of elemental phosphorus of O. marina feeding on P-limited algae caused a reduction in growth. Thus, despite their weaker homoeostasis, heterotrophic protists are also affected by high C:P food in a similar way to crustacean zooplankton.     

Teil V: Das Umweltinformationssystem der Universit?t Osnabrück

Zusammenfassung  Grundlage für die erste Stoff- und Energieflu?analyse der Universit?t Osnabrück und die Erstellung der ?kobilanz war eine umfangreiche und damit zeitaufwendige Datensammlung, — aufbereitung und — weiterverarbeitung. Um die Bilanzierung für die Folgejahre zu vereinfachen und die ermittelten Daten für ein ?ko-Controlling nutzen zu k?nnen, wurde ein Konzept für ein Umweltinformationssystem (UIS) der Universit?t erarbeitet. Es setzt sich zusammen aus der operativen Ebene mit den dezentralen Daten(banken) der Verwaltung, einer zentralen Datenbankebene, in der die ?kobilanz erstellt und Umweltkennzahlen berechnet werden, und einer Auswertungs- und Pr?sentationsebene als Schnittstelle zwischen Daten und ihren Nutzern. Das UIS wird mittelfristig als Teil des Management-Informationssystem implementiert, das die Universit?t als erste Hochschule Deutschlands zur Zeit entwickelt.      

Climate change mitigation strategies in the forest sector: biophysical impacts and economic implications in British Columbia,Canada

Managing forests to increase carbon sequestration or reduce carbon emissions and using wood products and bioenergy to store carbon and substitute for other emission-intensive products and fossil fuel energy have been considered effective ways to tackle climate change in many countries and regions. The objective of this study is to examine the climate change mitigation potential of the forest sector by developing and assessing potential mitigation strategies and portfolios with various goals in British Columbia (BC), Canada. From a systems perspective, mitigation potentials of five individual strategies and their combinations were examined with regionally differentiated implementations of changes. We also calculated cost curves for the strategies and explored socio-economic impacts using an input-output model. Our results showed a wide range of mitigation potentials and that both the magnitude and the timing of mitigation varied across strategies. The greatest mitigation potential was achieved by improving the harvest utilization, shifting the commodity mix to longer-lived wood products, and using harvest residues for bioenergy. The highest cumulative mitigation of 421 MtCO₂e for BC was estimated when employing the strategy portfolio that maximized domestic mitigation during 2017–2050, and this would contribute 35% of BC’s greenhouse gas emission reduction target by 2050 at less than $100/tCO₂e and provide additional socio-economic benefits. This case study demonstrated the application of an integrated systems approach that tracks carbon stock changes and emissions in forest ecosystems, harvested wood products (HWPs), and the avoidance of emissions through the use of HWPs and is therefore applicable to other countries and regions.