As one of the most ambitious national energy transition initiatives worldwide, the German Energiewende is attracting a huge amount of attention globally in both policy and research circles. The paper explores the implementation of Germany's energy transition through the lens of organisation and ownership in urban and regional contexts. Following a summary of the principal institutional challenges of the Energiewende at local and regional levels the paper develops a novel way of conceptualising the institutional to urban and regional energy transitions in terms of agency and power, ideas and discourse, and commons and ownership. This analytical heuristic is applied to a two-tier empirical study of the Berlin–Brandenburg region. The first tier involves a survey of the organisational landscape of energy infrastructures and services in cities, towns and villages in Brandenburg. The second tier comprises a case study of current, competing initiatives for (re-)gaining ownership of the power grid and utility in Berlin. The paper draws conclusions on the diverse and dynamic organisational responses to the Energiewende at the local level, what these tell us about urban and regional energy governance and how they are inspired by – or in opposition to – new forms of collective ownership resonant of recent debates on reclaiming the commons. It concludes with observations on how relational approaches to institutional research and the notion of the commons can guide and inspire future research on socio-technical transitions in general, and urban energy transitions in particular. 相似文献
Deep emission cuts rely on the use of low carbon technologies like renewable energy or carbon capture and storage. There is considerable uncertainty about their future costs. We carry out a sensitivity analysis based on Gauss Quadrature for cost parameters describing these technologies in order to evaluate the effect of the uncertainty on total and marginal mitigation costs as well as composition changes in the energy system. Globally, effects in total cost often average out, but different regions are affected quite differently from the underlying uncertainty in costs for key abatement technologies. Regions can be either affected because they are well suited to deploy a technology for geophysical reasons or because of repercussions through international energy markets. The absolute impact of uncertainty on consumption increases over the time horizon and with the ambition of emission reductions. Uncertainty in abatement costs relative to expected abatement costs are however larger under a moderate ambition climate policy scenario because in this case the marginal abatement occurs in the electricity sector where the cost uncertainty is implemented. Under more ambitious climate policy in line with the two degree target, the electricity sector is always decarbonized by 2050, hence uncertainty has less effect on the electricity mix. The findings illustrate the need for regional results as global averages can hide distributional consequences on technological uncertainty. 相似文献
Behavioral studies of gynandromorphism, also called as sex mosaic, contribute to the understanding of the relationship between morphological gender and sexual identity of an animal. Few studies have focused on the behaviors of gynandromorphic spiders because of a scarcity of gynandromorphic individuals in the field. In this study, we collected a gynandromorphic spider, Myrmarachne formicaria (De Geer 1778) (Araneae: Salticidae), from the field and examined its morphology and sex-specific behavior in the laboratory. The right half of the gynandromorphic spider presented male characteristics and the left half female characteristics. It showed courtship behavior to M. formicaria females and agonistic behavior to the males. These results indicate that the gynandromorphic spider’s sexual identity is male. Our findings suggest that a spider can exhibit behaviors of male sexuality, although the external morphology has the characteristics of both sexes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report of a gynandromorphic individual and its behavior in the genus Myrmarachne.
Regional Environmental Change - This paper synthesizes what is known about the physical and biophysical impacts of climate change and their consequences for societies and development under... 相似文献
The microhabitat of Symbion pandora (Cycliophora) was described by recording the prevalence and distribution of two life cycle stages, namely feeding individuals
and chordoid cysts on the mouth appendages of 65 Norway lobsters. The commensals infested lobsters with a carapace length
>35 mm, while the intensity of the commensals increased with host size up to more than 1,100 feeding individuals and 173 chordoid
cysts. Feeding individuals and chordoid cysts were found on all six pairs of mouth appendages, but were rare on Mxp3. A Kruskal–Wallis
analysis of variance showed that the distribution of the two stages over individual segments deviated significantly from random
expectations (P<0.001). Feeding individuals densely aggregated on a few medial segments, generally those that are pervaded by suspended food
particles during host feeding. Chordoid cysts, which arise from non-feeding females occurred in low numbers and were more
evenly distributed over the segments, often aggregating on the lateral parts and in the articulations of the segments. Based
on these findings we suggest that the feeding activity of S. pandora is synchronized with that of the host. 相似文献
Since the early 2000s routine fish surveys have recorded increasing numbers of snake pipefish, Entelurus aequoreus, in the northeast Atlantic. Fishermen and divers have also commented on this increase and pipefish have started to appear
in the diet of seabirds and other marine predators. This paper collates information from these diverse sources and assesses
the current status of snake pipefish. We found compelling evidence of a dramatic increase in the abundance of snake pipefish
starting around 2003 and continuing up to the present (2006) and a range expansion northwards to Spitzbergen and the Barents
Sea. Since 2004 snake pipefish have been increasingly recorded in the diet of many species of seabird breeding in colonies
around the coast of the UK, and in Norway, Iceland and the Faeroe Islands. Information on the nutrient value of snake pipefish
is currently lacking but their rigid, bony structure makes them difficult for young seabirds to swallow and there are numerous
records of chicks choking to death. Thus, in the case of avian predators during the breeding season, it appears unlikely that
increased abundance of snake pipefish will provide a useful alternative prey. The reason for the rapid and dramatic increase
in numbers of snake pipefish is currently unclear but such events are characteristic of marine ecosystems and will almost
certainly have an effect on food web dynamics. 相似文献