Entsorgung von Pflanzenschutzmittel-Restmengen

Currently, in the Federal Republic of Germany residual amounts of pesticide residues are not separately collected but usually disposed in sanitary landfills with household waste. A concept is presented to prevent this way of waste disposal. It recommends specific incineration methods or, in special cases, the underground disposal. Strategies for collecting systems are also discussed.     

Klima?nderungen: M?gliche Ursachen in Vergangenheit und Zukunft

In this overview two definitions of climate are presented, from the meteorological point of view and from the climate system’s point of view. The origin of climate change is discussed, i.e., externally forced variability and free, or internal variability that is caused without external trigger by internal instabilities of the system. Both, forced and free variability can appear as periodic, randomly quasi-periodic, and abrupt climate change. Finally, various possibilities of climate forecast are considered.

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Klima?nderungen: M?gliche Ursachen in Vergangenheit und Zukunft

Zusammenfassung  In diesem übersichtsartikel werden zwei Klimadefinitionen, die meteorologische und die systemanalytische, vorgestellt. Verschiedene Ursachen für Klima?nderungen werden vergleichend diskutiert: die extern angetriebene Klimavariabilit?t und die ohne ?u?eren Ansto?, aufgrund von internen Instabilit?ten im System ausgel?ste, freie oder interne Klimavariabilit?t. Sowohl die angetriebene als auch die freie Klimavariabilit?t kann sich durch periodische, zuf?llig periodische und abrupte Klima?nderungen bemerkbar machen. Abschlie?end werden die verschiedenen M?glichkeiten der Klimavorhersage betrachtet.

Professor Dr. Martin Claussen ist amtierender Direktor des Potsdam-Instituts für Klimafolgenforschung und Vorsitzender der Deutschen Meteorologischen Gesellschaft (Amtsperiode 2003–2005). Sein aktuelles Forschungsgebiet umfasst die Klimasystemmodellierung einschlie?lich der Pal?oklimamodellierung, wobei die Wechselwirkung zwischen dem physikalischen Klimasystem und der Biosph?re im Vordergrund der Forschung steht. Professor Claussen ist ausgebildeter Meteorologe und lehrt zurzeit Klimaphysik an der Universit?t Potsdam.     

Natural background concentrations of nutrients in the German Bight area (North Sea)

Natural background concentrations of nutrients are needed for the assessments of eutrophication processes and their status. Natural background concentrations of total nitrogen (TN) and total phosphorus (TP) were modelled for the rivers discharging into the German Bight and the Rhine considering individual catchment sizes, freshwater flows and soil types. These data were validated by comparison with data from unpolluted rivers. The consistency of modelled and some compiled nutrient concentrations was confirmed by their area-specific load dependency on freshwater discharges. Pristine inorganic nutrient concentrations were deduced from modelled relations to TN and TP in unpolluted rivers. Pristine nutrient gradients between rivers and offshore waters were estimated by linear mixing until a salinity of 32, continued by hyperbolic fits towards recent mean offshore values (salinity 34.5?C35). Based on these gradients and recent mean salinities, maps of pristine surface gradients were plotted for the whole German Bight. Variability was transferred from recent conditions as percentage of standard deviation. Reported historical nutrient data and concentrations from unpolluted rivers, coastal and offshore North Sea waters are discussed concerning their relations to natural background conditions.     

Klimaänderungen: Mögliche Ursachen in Vergangenheit und Zukunft

In this overview two definitions of climate are presented, from the meteorological point of view and from the climate system’s point of view. The origin of climate change is discussed, i.e., externally forced variability and free, or internal variability that is caused without external trigger by internal instabilities of the system. Both, forced and free variability can appear as periodic, randomly quasi-periodic, and abrupt climate change. Finally, various possibilities of climate forecast are considered.     

Rapid karyotyping in prenatal diagnosis: A comparative study of the ‘pipette method’ and the ‘in situ’ technique for chromosome harvesting

Rapid karyotyping in the second and third trimesters has important implications for the management of pregnancies at risk. From September 1985 to March 1992, 735 amniotic fluid samples sent to our laboratory for rapid karyotyping from 64 different diagnostic centres of the Federal Republic of Germany were included in a comparative study on harvesting for chromosome analysis using the ‘pipette method’ or the ‘in situ’ technique. The average time between preparation of the amniotic fluid and verbal notification of the analysed karyotype was 5·41 days. The ‘pipette method’ needed on average 4·65 days, and the ‘in situ’ technique 5·97 days. In comparison with other more invasive techniques available for rapid karyotyping such as cordocentesis and placental biopsy, amniocentesis and subsequent chromosome harvesting using the ‘pipette method’ and/or the ‘in situ’ technique proved very useful and efficient. The overall incidence of chromosome aberrations was 15·3 per cent. The high rate of structural chromosome aberrations and uncommon aneuploidies found in our investigation (12 per cent) indicates that for rapid karyotyping in the second and third trimesters, conventional cytogenetic techniques cannot be replaced by faster techniques based on fluorescent in situ hybridization on interphase cells in the near future.