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Global climate change is expected to further raise the frequency and severity of extreme events, such as droughts. The effects of extreme droughts on trees are difficult to disentangle given the inherent complexity of drought events (frequency, severity, duration, and timing during the growing season). Besides, drought effects might be modulated by trees’ phenotypic variability, which is, in turn, affected by long-term local selective pressures and management legacies. Here we investigated the magnitude and the temporal changes of tree-level resilience (i.e., resistance, recovery, and resilience) to extreme droughts. Moreover, we assessed the tree-, site-, and drought-related factors and their interactions driving the tree-level resilience to extreme droughts. We used a tree-ring network of the widely distributed Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) along a 2,800 km latitudinal gradient from southern Spain to northern Germany. We found that the resilience to extreme drought decreased in mid-elevation and low productivity sites from 1980–1999 to 2000–2011 likely due to more frequent and severe droughts in the later period. Our study showed that the impact of drought on tree-level resilience was not dependent on its latitudinal location, but rather on the type of sites trees were growing at and on their growth performances (i.e., magnitude and variability of growth) during the predrought period. We found significant interactive effects between drought duration and tree growth prior to drought, suggesting that Scots pine trees with higher magnitude and variability of growth in the long term are more vulnerable to long and severe droughts. Moreover, our results indicate that Scots pine trees that experienced more frequent droughts over the long-term were less resistant to extreme droughts. We, therefore, conclude that the physiological resilience to extreme droughts might be constrained by their growth prior to drought, and that more frequent and longer drought periods may overstrain their potential for acclimation.
Background: Agroforestry systems have the potential to provide timber and wood as a domestic raw material, as well as an additional source of income for rural populations. In Central Asia, tree windbreaks from mainly poplar trees have a long tradition, but were largely cut down as source for fuel wood after the disintegration of the Soviet Union. As Central Asia is a forest-poor region, restoration of tree windbreaks has the potential to provide timber and wood resources to that region. This study aimed to assess the potential of tree windbreaks to contribute to domestic timber and wood production. Methods: This study rests on a GIS-based analysis, in which tree lines (simulated by line shape files) were intersected with cropland area. The tree data to calculate timber and wood volumes stem from a dataset with 728 single trees from a relevant range of climatic conditions. Results: The potential annually available timber volumes from tree windbreaks with 500 m spacing are 2.9 million m3 for Central Asia as a whole and 1.5 million m3 for Uzbekistan alone, which is 5 times the current domestic roundwood production and imports of the country. Conclusions: tree windbreaks offer untapped potential to deliver wood resources domestically as a raw material for wood-based value chains.
Analyzing the sustainable development of a given region can provide an important reference and guide for future orientation. The study selects Turpan (including Gaochang District, Shanshan County, and Toksun County) in Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of Northwest China as the study area and first investigates the essence of regional sustainable development. Based on the relevant data of the population, economy, and environment of Turpan from 2002 to 2018, we constructed an evaluation index system for three dimensions, namely, the population, economy, and environment, and analyzed them systematically. Specifically, we quantitatively calculated the comprehensive evaluation index, coupling degree, and coupling coordination degree of the sustainable development system of the study area. The study finds that Turpan has on some dimensions become increasingly sustainable, especially the economic development level has improved. The results show that the coupling coordination degree has increased from 0.3692 to 0.8894 during the period 2002–2018, which reflects the actual situation of Turpan and indicates that the proposed analysis method can effectively measure and evaluate the level of sustainable development in this region. Moreover, the study also puts forward main functional zoning of Turpan (i.e., Gaochang District as an optimized development zone, Shanshan County as a major agricultural production zone, and Toksun County as a key ecological function zone) and regional planning principles based on the population, economic, and environmental coupling analysis for the three jurisdictions in Turpan.
Crop model intercomparison studies have mostly focused on the assessment of predictive capabilities for crop development using weather and basic soil data from the same location. Still challenging is the model performance when considering complex interrelations between soil and crop dynamics under a changing climate. The objective of this study was to test the agronomic crop and environmental flux-related performance of a set of crop models. The aim was to predict weighing lysimeter-based crop (i.e., agronomic) and water-related flux or state data (i.e., environmental) obtained for the same soil monoliths that were taken from their original environment and translocated to regions with different climatic conditions, after model calibration at the original site. Eleven models were deployed in the study. The lysimeter data (2014–2018) were from the Dedelow (Dd), Bad Lauchstädt (BL), and Selhausen (Se) sites of the TERENO (TERrestrial ENvironmental Observatories) SOILCan network. Soil monoliths from Dd were transferred to the drier and warmer BL site and the wetter and warmer Se site, which allowed a comparison of similar soil and crop under varying climatic conditions. The model parameters were calibrated using an identical set of crop- and soil-related data from Dd. Environmental fluxes and crop growth of Dd soil were predicted for conditions at BL and Se sites using the calibrated models. The comparison of predicted and measured data of Dd lysimeters at BL and Se revealed differences among models. At site BL, the crop models predicted agronomic and environmental components similarly well. Model performance values indicate that the environmental components at site Se were better predicted than agronomic ones. The multi-model mean was for most observations the better predictor compared with those of individual models. For Se site conditions, crop models failed to predict site-specific crop development indicating that climatic conditions (i.e., heat stress) were outside the range of variation in the data sets considered for model calibration. For improving predictive ability of crop models (i.e., productivity and fluxes), more attention should be paid to soil-related data (i.e., water fluxes and system states) when simulating soil–crop–climate interrelations in changing climatic conditions.
Materialwissenschaftliche Analyse des Abbindeverhaltens von Holzklebstoffen am Beispiel von 1K-PUR
(2020)
Das Abbinden von Holzklebstoffen wird bisher anhand von Parametern bewertet, die kaum eine prozesstechnische Optimierung ermöglichen. Mithilfe von Oszillationsmessungen und einem an dem Klebeprozess angepassten Versuchsaufbau kann dieser jedoch detailliert erfasst werden. Am Beispiel durchgeführter Timesweep-Messungen kann der Klebeprozess in charakteristische Bereiche molekularer und struktureller Abläufe eingeteilt werden. Diese Methode wird anhand eines Polyurethan-Prepolymers zum Fügen von Holzwerkstoffen dargestellt und analysiert.
The productivity of forest ecosystems depends on the supply of both nutrients and water by soils. Therefore, the knowledge of the chemical and physical soil properties is crucial for assessing the soil
condition as well as the quality of forest sites. For this purpose, data are available from two nationwide Forest Soil Inventories (NFSI) on more than 1,800 sample plots of an 8 x 8 km grid. The inventories were conducted between 1986 and 1994 (NFSI I) and 2006 and 2009 (NFSI II) in accordance with harmonized surveying techniques. The LUCAS Project aims at the development of a harmonized dataset on land cover
and land use within the European Union (EU). Approximately 265.000 georeferenced plots on a 2 x 2 km grid were available from the European Soil Data Centre (ESDAC). Soil samples were taken in 2009 and in 2015 at approximately 10 % of these plots at the same locations. Considering two almost parallel running soil inventories, questions have arisen to their potential links to one another. In this study, the LUCAS soil data from the 2015 inventory were compared with the corresponding NFSI II data and reviewed under the aspect of representativeness. In order to enable an area weighted estimation for Germany the plots of the LUCAS program were attributed to the same 16 soil parent material groups used in the German NFSI data
using geographical coordinates. All classes were tested for significant and systematic differences between the inventories. To quantify C stocks, it is important to compare the depth level 0-20 cm of the LUCAS program to Germanies NFSI sampling scheme, where data available for the organic layer and the mineral soil down to 90 cm. The comparison of various chemical soil parameters showed clear differences between the inventories. The pH(H2O) and the C/N ratio derived from LUCAS 2015 was lower while carbon (C) and nitrogen (N) concentrations were higher compared to the NFSI II. The C and N stocks deviate even more from the NFSI II due to uncertainties in the estimation of bulk densities derived from maps. By contrast
Germany’s NFSI, were volume-based sampling was obligatory for almost all plots. As a result, fine earth stock estimates from map derived bulk densities could result in highly uncertain and overestimated stocks change rates. Higher C and N concentrations of the LUCAS inventory could be attributed to an insufficient separation of the organic layer from the mineral soil because if the separation is not practiced carefully, residues of the organic layer can contaminate the mineral soil sample and cause significant higher concentrations. The soil sampling of the NFSI focused explicitly of the systematic separation of both compartments. The number of the sampled forest plots of LUCAS 2015 showed a lack of representativeness because in the northern and southern parts of Germany an insufficient number of plots were sampled. Nevertheless, the proportion of the forest area of the total LUCAS inventory is comparable with Germany’s Third National Forest Inventory. The selected LUCAS 2015 samples comprise 25 % of the NFSI II plots which results in an insufficient coverage of various soil groups. This means that soil properties remain unconsidered and that the area-weighted extrapolation could become more difficult. Chemical soil parameter within in individual substrate groups differed between the sampling grids due to the smaller sample of LUCAS 2015 compared to the NFSI II. Moreover, the reduction of sampling plots results in an increase of uncertainties. Thus, the detection of changes in soil conditions could be more difficult in respect to repeated sampling. Soil inventory data are of importance in greenhouse gas reporting because C stocks the organic layer and the mineral soil down to 90 cm must be reported. The analysis of the NFSI II revealed
that the organic layer comprises 16 % of the C stored in the entire soil profile. The organic layer was not sampled in the LUCAS inventory. Nevertheless, changes in C stored in the organic layer is vulnerable to impacts of climate and other environmental and anthropogenic variables but the effects cannot be considered with LUCAS 2015. Due to the LUCAS 2015 mineral soil sampling depth down to 20 cm only 42 % of the stored C was detected in the entire soil profile. Therefore, data based on LUCAS 2015 are insufficiently qualified for the greenhouse gas reporting due to the lack of a sampled organic layer and the limitation to the sampling depth of 20 cm. Compared to Germany’s NFSI, the results based on the LUCAS
inventory revealed a smaller representativity and were associated with larger uncertainties as well as discrepancies. Consequently, the union of both data sets will not result in additional synergies.
The partitioning of bulk precipitation (PR) in forest ecosystems and its chemical composition depends on both meteorological factors, such as precipitation amount and intensity, evaporation rate, and wind speed, and stand structural factors, such as stand density, canopy structure, bark texture, and spatiotemporal distribution and density of foliage. We analysed fluxes of water and element contained therein of a mature European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forest stand on sandy soils in northeastern Germany. We applied a radially symmetrical setup within a stem distance gradient to measure stand precipitation (SP) with its components of throughfall (TF) and stemflow (SF), as well as to measure soil moisture, the chemical composition of the soil solution, the soil chemistry, and the fine root distribution. The chemical analysis of the constituents covered the macroelements (Ca, Mg, K, Na, Al, Fe, Mn, Si, S, P), the cations and anions NH4+, NO3–, Cl-, SO42-, and a few heavy metals (Cu, Pb, Zn). With an average PR of 620 mm a-1, the partitioning resulted in 79% TF, 6% SF, and 15% canopy interception. TF volume increased with distance to stem during summer, but decreased during winter. Clear spatial gradients with increasing concentrations from PR, to different classes of TF as the distance from the trunk decreased, to SF were observed for nearly all elements. The contact of precipitation with leaves and the canopy structures alters the chemical composition of TF and SF by transferring elements from dry deposition or leaching of intracellular materials from the canopy and leads to the input of larger amounts of macroelements and heavy metals with the SP into the soil. Spatial patterns of canopy structures thus affect the spatial variation of TF and its constituents, which also affects the spatial distribution of roots and, at least in phases, the chemical composition of the topsoil solution.
Nowadays regional data on forest soil properties are increasingly demanded for various questions concerning forest management practices like tree species selection, liming, harvest intensity or the detection of risk areas. Thus data related to climate change and its site specific drought effects on one hand and current soil nutrient status on the other is especially required to support decision making. Besides soil texture, soil organic carbon is one of the most important key factors controlling soil nutrient status (eg. cation-exchange capacity) and soil water storage (e.g. field capacity) in the glacial deposits of north eastern lowlands. In contrast to soil texture, which can be considered as stable over periods relevant to practical forest management, for mapping soil organic carbon and its distribution throughout the soil profile a more dynamic regionalization approach considering contemporary measurements is needed. For this purpose, data on contemporary soil organic carbon stocks is taken from the second National Forest Soil Inventory and additional regional sampling points in Brandenburg (Germany). Potential covariates representing the soil forming factors: parent material, organisms (vegetation), age, relief and climate are obtained with high spatial resolution from forest site mapping, forest inventory, digital terrain analysis and climate models. The proposed regionalization approach captures the concepts of SCORPAN modelling and depth functions. While for estimation of carbon stocks in the entire soil solum stepwise regression analysis and geostatistical techniques are involved, the methodology to derive and map relative depth functions is based on cluster analysis and classification tree approach. The intended benefits by splitting regionalisation into plot level and relative vertical depth gradients are to ensure consistency of solum stocks and single soil depths and to avoid the construction of artificial depth gradients. Furthermore, the procedure allows a straightforward interpretation of covariates in the sense of pedogenetic processes, which: (a) supports variable selection and exclusion of spurious covariates during model development and (b) may provide direct decision support regarding environmental and management effects on soil organic carbon. The obtained statistical models contain covariates related to all five soil forming factors. But, the conducted analyses especially point towards high influences of depth to groundwater table and mean slope of catchment area on soil organic carbon storage. Invoking geostatistical techniques shows no remaining variation, to be explained by spatial position and thus don’t improve overall model performance. Cluster analysis of relative depth gradients results in five Clusters of acceptable heterogeneity. The highest differences between the clusters are observed across the portions of carbon stored in the forest floor. Relative depth gradients are especially distinguished by tree species composition and stand age.
To cope with the challenges in forest management that are contemporarily caused by climate change, data on current chemical and physical soil properties are more and more necessary. For this purpose, we present a further amalgam of depth functions and SCORPAN modelling to provide data at arbitrary depth layers. In this concept, regionalisation is split up into the modelling of plot totals and the estimation of vertical distributions. The intended benefits by splitting up are: consistency between estimates on plot level and depth layer level, avoidance of artificial depth gradients, straightforward interpretation of covariates in the sense of pedogenetic processes, and circumnavigation of the propagation of uncertainties associated with separation between horizons during field sampling. The methodology was tailored to the circumstances within the north-eastern lowlands and the utilisation of current inventory data of the National Forest Soil Inventory (NFSI) in Brandenburg (Germany). Using the regionalisation of soil organic carbon (SOC) as an example, the application is demonstrated and discussed in detail. The depth to groundwater table and terrain parameters related to the catchment area were the main factors in SOC storage. The use of kriging did not improve the model performance. The relative depth gradients of SOC were especially distinguished by tree species composition and stand age. We suppose that interesting fields of application may be found in scenario-based modelling of SOC and when SOC serves as a basis for hydrological modelling.
An important component of the National Forest Soils Inventory (NFSI) is the investigation of inorganic and organic pollutants. Forests are able to filter out large quantities of these substances from the atmosphere and incorporate them into the soil for a long time. The aim of this study was the integrative evaluation of organic and inorganic pollutant concentrations in forest soils in the state of Brandenburg, Germany. With the help of principle component analysis, the pollutant concentrations can essentially be explained by three significant environmental components, which explain 76% of the total variance of all pollutants examined within the scope of the NFSI. The first component characterizes the extent of the atmospheric pollution caused by flue gases and fly ash from lignite combustion in the 1970s and 1980s and is mainly charged by the organic pollutants HCB and PAH, and the elements arsenic and chromium. This component shows positive relation to both spatially interpolated calcium-deposition data from the 1980s (as an indicator for the dust emission from coal combustion) and crown defoliation data of pine stands from the forest condition survey in the early 1990s. The depositions of zinc and cadmium from industrial sources, vehicle traffic and the use of fertilizers in agriculture mainly characterize the second principle component. The use of the pesticides DDT and lindane in the early 1980s and the associated pollutants input into the forest soils are expressed by the third component. In expanding the term archiving function of soils, the results illustrate their particular importance for the long-term archiving of anthropogenic inputs and the associated potential stress factors for forests.
Calls for a “sustainable bioeconomy” have recently begun to proliferate in academic and political circles as an answer to global challenges such as the rapidly increasing world population and changing environmental conditions due to climate change. To build economies that rely on various sources of biomass rather than on fossil-based resources, bioeconomy policies highlight a need to explore ways in which productivity in agriculture can be increased. While the focus on productivity growth has largely been inspired by technology optimism and modernisation thinking, the local knowledge of farmers and other rural stakeholders – as a means of contributing to socially and ecologically more sustainable bioeconomy pathways – has frequently been sidelined. This perspective article proposes and discusses a participatory approach to strategy formulation and evaluation in agricultural transformation and bioeconomy development that is based on the methodological toolbox MARISCO (Adaptive MAnagement of vulnerability and RISk at COnservation sites). By offering a means of developing a comprehensive knowledge map, bringing together both insights and perspectives from diverse local stakeholders, this approach enables a systemic evaluation of the social and ecological effects of intervention strategies on the ground. The article outlines the benefits – and challenges – of such a systemic and participatory approach and briefly sketches how the results can be utilised in more sustainable governance processes in the development of bioeconomy strategies. We conclude that our adapted MARISCO methodology offers a viable tool to make more visible the perspectives and knowledge of biomass producers for policymakers and to contribute to a much-needed discursive shift in bioeconomy debates towards more holistic and inclusive perspectives.
The COVID-19 pandemic has jolted societies out of normality, possibly creating new conditions for sustainability transformations. What does this mean for sustainability research? Because of the scope of the crisis, researchers have been heavily involved: not only have they had to speed up the pace of scientific production to provide urgently needed COVID-19 knowledge, but they have also been affected citizens. For sustainability science, this calls for an experience-based reflection on the positionality and orientation of research aiming to support sustainability transformations. Twenty sustainability researchers discussed their sustainability research on COVID-19 in three workshops based on the following questions: How does the pandemic—and the measures taken to deal with it—affect sustainable development? What can we learn from the pandemic from the perspective of societal transformation? The present discussion paper emerged from this multidisciplinary exchange among sustainability researchers, considering five topics: impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on sustainability transformations; learning for sustainability transformations; the role of solidarity; governance and political steering; and the role of science in society. Our discussions led to a meta-level reflection on what sustainability research can learn from research on COVID-19 regarding topics and disciplinary angles, time dimensions, the role of researchers, and how adequate preparation for both crises and long-term transformations requires interdisciplinary interaction.
The charcoal stock in a forest company is controlled based on the theoretical capacity of the masonry ovens (input) and shipped trucks (output). During the year, the company must monitor the stock for the purposes of accountability reports. This study proposes a more efficient and equally precise survey method that overcomes the challenges of the common monitoring system in Brazil. During this study, a new monitoring method based on digital stereoscopy from UAV images was developed, implemented and evaluated. The results were compared with a traditional topographic survey. A masonry oven's complex containing eight charcoal heaps was flown and surveyed using a multi-engine UAV, with an integrated Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) and RTK equipment. Two stereoscopic processing methods were applied: (1) very low quality and (2) high quality to image alignment, reconstruction of the dense cloud, face count and in three-dimensional mesh creation. Low quality products showed geometric deformities when compared to high quality, but resulted in similar estimation to the topographic survey. The results indicated that the charcoal heaps' volume estimation using UAV derived orthomosaics can replace the conventional method of GNSS RTK surveys with considerable gains in stockpile volume accuracy, inventory frequency, and safety. In the case of high accuracy parameterization, improvements in geometric precision and accuracy are also produced.
High-resolution recording and forecasting of peatlands under forests in northeast Brandenburg (Germany) using remotely sensed data (Radar ALOS-PALSAR and Sentinel 1). Peatlands are important in terms of CO2 storage, water cycling, biochemical cycles, biodiversity, and ecosystem services. Peatlands are constantly altered and damaged due to agriculture and drainage. Thus it is crucial to manage them sustainably. How? First step – locating and quantifying them with geospatial data and remote sensing methods since locating and collecting data in field is highly expensive and arduous in terms of labour and time. Our MAIN RESEARCH QUESTION therefore is: Is it possible to generate a method to record the location of peatlands under forests at high resolution using RS?.
360° virtual forest tours (VFTs), created by state-of-the-art virtual reality technology, contribute to the progression of academic e-learning and forest management. The article proposes a conceptual framework for 360° VFT production and use to supplement field courses. Reflective insights into the authors’ own learning process in the production of 360° VFTs, and a consideration of the general challenges of the medium are also presented. To conclude, the article summarizes the advantages of 360° VFTs for forestry education in an academic context.
Application of Land Surface Temperature Analysis in Urban Green Spaces: Case Studies from South Asia
(2021)
This paper demonstrates the use of remote sensing in planning urban green spaces (UGSs). UGSs emerged as a popular solution to combat the effects of Urban Heat Island, especially in tropical cities. UGS projects often need to identify priority implementation areas due to limited funding for UGSs. This study includes two Asian cities, namely Phnom Penh (Cambodia) and Chittagong (Bangladesh). It is not comparative, but it has identified priority administrative areas for future UGSs in both cities. We used Landsat 8 data and the remote sensing technique Land Surface Temperature (LST) analysis using radiance, temperature brightness and emissivity. LST data were then intersected with the administrative boundaries of the study areas. The identification of priority administrative areas for UGS considered both the area coverage and the percentage of coverage in terms of maximum LST within the administrative units’ boundaries. The result found 8 and 10 administrative units to be hotspots for UGSs, for Phnom Penh and Chittagong respectively. The proposed method will be useful to both government and non-government organizations alike, especially in tropical countries.
The destruction of habitats has not only reduced biological diversity but also affected essential ecosystem services of the Central European cultural landscape. Therefore, in the further development of the cultural landscape and in the management of natural resources, special importance must be attached to the habitat demands of species and the preservation of ecosystem services. The study of ecosystem services has extended its influence into spatial planning and landscape ecology, the integration of which can offer an opportunity to enhance the saliency, credibility, and legitimacy of landscape ecology in spatial planning issues. Objective: This paper proposes a methodology to detect red deer habitats for e.g. huntable game. The model is established on remote sensing based value-added information products, the derived landscape structure information and the use of spatially and temporally imprecise in-situ data (e.g. available hunting statistics). In order to realize this, four statistical model approaches were developed and their predictive performance assessed. Methods: Altogether, our results indicate that based on the data mentioned above, modeling of habitats is possible using a coherent statistical model approach. All four models showed an overall classification of > 60% and in the best case 71,4%. The models based on logistic regression using preference data derived from 5-year hunting statistics, which has been interpreted as habitat suitability. The landscape metrics (LSM) will be calculated on the basis of the Global Forest Change dataset (HANSEN et al. 2013b ). The interpolation of landcover data into landscape-level was made with the software FRAGSTAT and the moving window approach. Correlation analysis is used to identify relevant LSM serving as inputs; logistic regression was used to derive a final binary classifier for habitat suitability values. Three model variations with different sets of LSM are tested using the unstandardized regression coefficient. Results lead to an insight of the effect of each LSM but not on the strength of the effect. Furthermore, the predicted outcome is rather difficult to interpret as different units and scales for each LSM are used. Hence, we calculated the fourth model using the standardized regression coefficient. It harmonized the measurement units of the LSM and thus allowed a better comparison, interpretation, and evaluation.Conclusion: Our research reveals that applying a statistical model using coarse data is effective to identify potential red deer habitats in a significant qualitative manner. The presented approach can be analogously applied to other mammals if the relevant structural requirements and empirical habitat suitability data (e.g. home range, biotopes, and food resources) are known. The habitat preferences of red deer are best described by LSM concerning area-relation and wildlifeedge relations. Most important are edges between meadows, pastures or agricultural field and forest, as well as short paths between those elements for food resources. A large proportion of forest is important for species survival and positively influences the occurrence of red deer. Outcomes help to understand species habitat relation and on which scale wildlife perceives the landscape. In addition, they support the practical habitat management and thus the overall species diversity.
This policy brief introduces preliminary research results of the
Build4People project, funded by the German government as part
of the multi-phase focus programme “Sustainable Development
of Urban Regions”. Furthermore, the research agenda of the
upcoming main four-year Research and Development phase (RD
phase) will be introduced based on insights gained in previous
shorter funding periods. The Build4People research consortium
consists of representatives from four German universities and two
German companies with their respective research, implementation and dissemination partners in the Kingdom of Cambodia.
Build4People’s rationale is based on Phnom Penh‘s dynamic
economic growth, which is coupled with a local urbanisation and
construction boom. However, new buildings and neighbourhoods
are rarely constructed in a sustainable way with direct and
indirect negative environmental impacts. Issues of sustainability
are hardly addressed by decision-makers in the construction
sector, related ministries, city administrations or building users.
The overall aim of the multi- and trans-disciplinary Build4People
project during the RD phase is to support and analyse the
transformative shift in Phnom Penh’s current business-as-usual
urban development pathway towards a pathway with higher
sustainability and liveability levels. The entry points for the
research are the building and neighbourhood planning sectors.
Methods, tools and key instruments to achieve the objectives of
the RD phase are collaborative planning workshops, strategic
niche management approaches, transition management approaches and subsequent experimental implementation. All of these measures will generate applied knowledge for local stakeholders and a basis for evidence-based decision-making.
Urban quality of life as a people-driven approach serves as the
integrating link for all of our scientific, conceptional, analytical
and normative dimensions. During our research, we will jointly
conceptualize, measure and model urban quality of life and
consider its political dimension and its often-ambiguous
relationship to sustainability.
Biodiversity loss is an important topic considering climate change, global warming, and even the reasoning of current and future animal-related diseases, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. Urban biodiversity is also important because of the ecosystem services they provide, restorative benefits for well-being, and physical health of the people who live in urban areas. Each city has its own strategies to cope with this issue, and these strategies do not function without the contribution of habitants of the cities. We developed an index (BBS) of the existing possibilities to support urban biodiversity in Berlin to measure the awareness and willingness of the Berliners to participate and support urban biodiversity. A survey was conducted in a face-to-face situation in four districts of Berlin with 431 urban residents, measuring preference for three different levels of biodiversity, connectedness to residential greenspace, neighborhood and city, nature relatedness, and willingness in participatory actions around greenspace. The results show that the high biodiversity condition in a photo scenario was preferred by most residents, indicating the appreciation for urban biodiversity. The connectedness to the residential greenspace was high (and higher than the connectedness to neighborhood and city), showing large potential for quality of life. While the overall willingness to participate in actions to support urban greenspace was rather high, our index shows substantial differences in activities, which are perceived more or less. This is a key result for urban park management to increase urban biodiversity participation processes.
Im Rahmen eines vom Bundesamt für Naturschutz (BfN) mit Mitteln des Bundesministeriums für Umwelt, Naturschutz und nukleare Sicherheit (BMU) geförderten Erprobungs- und Entwicklungs-(E+E-)Vorhabens „Naturerfahrungsräume in Großstädten am Beispiel Berlin“ wurde in
einer viereinhalbjährigen Begleituntersuchung die Neueinrichtung von Naturerfahrungsräumen (NER) in Berlin wissenschaftlich untersucht.
Das zu Grunde gelegte Konzept der NER für Großstädte in Deutschland knüpft an die Vorarbeiten von Schemel & Wilke (2008) und Stopka & Rank (2013) an. Gegenstand der wissenschaftlichen Begleitung sind die neu eingerichteten Berliner NER „Wilde Welt“ am Spieroweg in Spandau, an der Moorwiese in Pankow und auf dem Kienberg in Marzahn-Hellersdorf. Alle drei untersuchten NER haben einen räumlichen Bezug zu Großwohnsiedlungen. Sie variieren sowohl in ihrer Größe (von 0,54 ha bis 1,58 ha) als auch in ihrer Vegetationsausstattung. Weiterentwicklungen des Konzeptes sind eine Anbindung der Pilotflächen an Einrichtungen der Kinder- und Jugendhilfe sowie die Beschäftigung von Kümmer(er)*innen. Darüber hinaus wurden Erfahrungen in der Einrichtung und im Betrieb bisheriger NER in ganz Deutschland ausgewertet.
Ziel der wissenschaftlichen Begleitung war es, in einem interdisziplinären Ansatz einerseits das Spielverhalten von Kindern in NER sowie die Akzeptanz dieser Räume zu untersuchen.
Andererseits ging es darum, die gesetzlichen und institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen, die für die Einrichtung und den Betrieb der NER förderlich oder hemmend wirken, zu analysieren.
Drittens sollte der Zusammenhang zwischen dem Spielverhalten der Kinder und der Entwicklung von Flora, Vegetation und Fauna auf diesen Flächen untersucht werden, um hieraus Rückschlüsse auf die Größe und Ausstattung von NER und auf die Notwendigkeit pflegerischer Eingriffe ziehen zu können.
In der Begleituntersuchung wurden die drei Arbeitsbereiche Lebensqualität (Spielverhalten, Gesundheitsvorsorge, (pädagogische) Begleitung durch Kümmer(er)*innen, Akzeptanz, Partizipation), Planungsqualität (gesetzliche Rahmenbedingungen, Betreiber*innen-Modelle, Flächengestaltung, Sicherheit und Haftung) und ökologische Qualität (Entwicklung von Flora, Vegetation und Fauna, Nutzungsspuren und Flächenentwicklung, Flächenpflege) unterschieden.
Entsprechend des Umfangs des Untersuchungsgegenstandes kam eine Vielzahl von Erhebungsmethoden zum Einsatz. Für den Bereich Lebensqualität war die Beobachtung des Spielverhaltens von Kindern ein wesentlicher methodischer Baustein. Darüber hinaus wurden Interviews mit relevanten Akteur*innen (Kümmer(er)*innen, Pädagog*innen, Kinder und Eltern) dieses Bereiches geführt.
Im Bereich der Planungsqualität sind mithilfe von Expert*inneninterviews Erkenntnisse über hemmende und fördernde Bedingungen in der Einrichtung und im Betrieb der NER gewonnen
worden. Zusätzlich wurde eine mit der Materie vertraute Anwaltskanzlei hinzugezogen, die den Stand des Wissens zur Bedeutung der Verkehrssicherungspflicht und zu den Möglichkeiten der planungsrechtlichen Verankerung von NER zusammenfassend darstellte.
Für den Bereich der ökologischen Qualität sind in den NER Flora (Gefäßpflanzenarten), Biotoptypen, Vegetationsstruktur und aussagekräftige Tiergruppen (Avifauna, Tagfalter und tag-
aktive Nachtfalter, Heuschrecken und Grillen) über einen Zeitraum von vier Jahren untersucht worden. Die Dokumentation von Trampelpfaden und eine Fotodokumentation des Zustands der Vegetationsentwicklung über die Jahre stellten einen weiteren methodischen Baustein dar.
Im Ergebnis zeigte sich, dass das Spielverhalten von Kindern auf NER wesentlich vielfältiger ist als auf herkömmlichen Kinderspielplätzen. Gerade die natürliche Ausstattung der NER und damit verbunden der Aufforderungscharakter der unterschiedlichen natürlichen Elemente führt zu einem komplexeren Spielverhalten, die Kreativität und Fantasie der Kinder wird gefördert.
Kinder machen nicht nur wichtige und vielfältige Naturerfahrungen, sie werden auch in ihrem Sozialverhalten positiv unterstützt. So profitieren gerade Kinder, die in einer Großstadt aufwachsen, wenig Zugang zur Natur haben und stärker unter dem Natur-Entfremdungssyndrom
leiden, von dem Besuch eines NER. Der Aufenthalt in natürlicher Umwelt wirkt sich auch positiv auf Gesundheitsaspekte aus, beispielsweise auf Selbstwirksamkeit, Wohlbefinden, Verantwortungsgefühl und Erholung.
Herauszustellen ist die Bedeutung des/der Kümmer(ers)*in für den erfolgreichen Betrieb eines NER. Dieser/Diese Kümmer(er)*in ist Ansprechperson für Kinder aber auch für pädagogische Fachkräfte, Eltern und die Nachbarschaft. Zudem sorgt er/sie für die Sicherheit und Sauberkeit im NER und beteiligt die Kinder bei der Pflege und dem Unterhalt im NER.
Viele Eltern unterstützen grundsätzlich den Besuch ihres Kindes in einem NER. Die Akzeptanz der Eltern hinsichtlich des Aufenthaltes der Kinder im NER ist besonders groß, wenn die Kinder bei der Planung und Einrichtung des NER beteiligt waren.
In Hinblick auf die planungsrechtliche Entwicklung ist es bedeutsam, dass neben der Einführung des NER im Bundesnaturschutzgesetz im Jahre 2009 nunmehr auch die Bestrebung besteht, den Begriff im Baugesetzbuch zu verankern. NER sollten als wichtige Bestandteile eines
städtischen Grünflächensystems gerade auch in hoch verdichteten Stadträumen in den Flächennutzungs- und Bebauungsplänen der Kommunen rechtssicher festgesetzt werden können. Vorbildhaft zeigen sich außerhalb Berlins 14 weitere Groß- und Mittelstädte, in denen
bereits NER oder dem Konzept entsprechende Flächen eingerichtet werden konnten. Einige andere deutsche Kommunen haben bereits von dem Konzept gehört und planen selbst die Einrichtung solcher Flächen. Diese Bestrebungen sind zu unterstützen.
Unsicherheiten in der Einschätzung der Verkehrssicherungspflicht für NER halten offenbar immer noch viele Kommunen davon ab, NER einzurichten und zu betreiben. Hierauf deuten Aussagen von Kommunalvertretern hin. Ein aktives Sicherheitsmanagement, das bereits in der Planung und Gestaltung der Flächen ansetzt, kann die Risiken für den/die Flächenbetreiber*in auf ein Minimum beschränken. Auch hier, das haben die Aussagen der Betreiber*innen von NER gezeigt, ist die institutionelle Verankerung eines/einer Kümmer(ers)*in und die vertrauensvolle Kooperation zwischen Flächeneigentümer*in, Flächenbetreibenden und für die Pflege Verantwortlichen für ein erfolgreiches Sicherheitsmanagement wesentlich.
Die ökologische Begleituntersuchung zeigte, dass die als Pilotflächen ausgewählten NER eine artenreiche Flora und Fauna aufweisen. Positiv für eine hohe Artenvielfalt der betrachteten Artengruppen ist eine Mischung aus unterschiedlichen Vegetationsbereichen, die eine hohe
Strukturvielfalt ergeben. Beim Kinderspiel kommt es zu leichten Abnutzungserscheinungen wie Trampelpfaden und Rindenschäden an Gehölzen. Die Nutzung führte im Untersuchungszeitraum nicht zu einem Verlust gefährdeter Tier- und Pflanzenarten und beeinträchtigte nicht
die Gesamtartenzahlen der untersuchten Tiergruppen. Das Kinderspiel sorgte allerdings für eine gewisse Dynamik in der Vielfalt der Pflanzenarten über die Zeit. Die Vegetationsstruktur wird davon aber nur kleinräumig beeinflusst. Andere Faktoren wie der Witterungsverlauf in den Untersuchungsjahren, die natürliche Sukzession sowie Bau-, Sicherungs- und Pflegemaßnahmen sind entscheidender. Da Bau- und Pflegemaßnahmen auch die Fauna beeinflussen, sollten diese behutsam durchgeführt werden und in für Flora und Fauna unproblematischen Zei-
ten erfolgen. Anfangsgestaltungen und Sicherungsmaßnahmen erhöhen aber auch die Strukturvielfalt, was auf längere Sicht zu einer Zunahme der Artenvielfalt führen kann. Die Nutzung der NER kann also im Rahmen der untersuchten Parameter im Untersuchungszeitraum als nachhaltig angesehen werden. Die NER blieben attraktiv für das Kinderspiel. Ein längerfristig angelegtes ökologisches Monitoring kann weitergehende Erkenntnisse liefern, um die richtige Balance zwischen Nutzungsintensität und ökologischer Flächenentwicklung zu finden.
Insgesamt lässt sich schon jetzt das Fazit ziehen, dass die Einrichtung von NER die Lebensbedingungen von Kindern und deren Familien in hochverdichteten Stadträumen wirksam verbessern kann. Als wichtiger Bestandteil des städtischen Grünflächensystems leisten Naturerfahrungsräume zudem einen wichtigen Beitrag für das Mikroklima und die Biotop- und Artenvielfalt in den Städten. Insofern ist zu hoffen, dass das Konzept der NER eine rasche Verbreitung in den Städten und Kommunen finden wird.
Cities at the fringe of the Taklimakan desert in NW China are prone to dust and sand storms with serious consequences for human well-being. The Kökyar Protection Forest was established in the 1980s as an ecological engineering project with the intent of protecting the city of Aksu, NW China, from these impacts. It is designed as a combination of poplar shelterbelts and orchards, irrigated by river water from the Aksu River, the main tributary of the Tarim River. Prevalent literature describes it as an afforestation project for combatting desertification with manifold positive effects for the economic, social, and environmental dimension of sustainable development. This paper sets out to challenge these claims by a sustainability assessment in which the plantation is examined from a broader perspective, embedding it to the wider context of social and environmental problems in South Xinjiang. Methods comprise evapotranspiration calculations, interviews, a socioeconomic household survey, stakeholder dialogues, and literature research. Results affirm its economic sustainability, but see a mixed record for the social sphere. From the nature conservation point of view, it has to be classified as unsustainable because its high irrigation water consumption results in the downstream desiccation and desertification of natural riparian forests along the Tarim River, causing a forest loss in the downstream area twice the size of the forest gain in the upstream area. There is a trade-off between artificial shelterbelt plantations for urban ecosystem services on the one hand side, and natural riparian forests and their biodiversity on the other hand side. The paper recommends restricting agricultural extension, and using locally adapted less water consuming agroforestry schemes to protect urban dwellers from dust stress.
Riparian forests are rare and valuable ecosystems in Central Asia, both due to their significance for biodiversity and to their provision of vital ecosystem services to local residents. However, the actual forest use behaviour is under-researched, official figures may not be trustworthy, and the question of over-use is up in the air. This paper sets out to shed light on riparian forest use behaviour by local residents using the example of Ak-Tal Village upon the Naryn River in Kyrgyzstan: Which economic use patterns do they practice (focusing on fuel wood and pasture)? Which other ecosystem services do they recognise? Is there forest over-exploitation? To answer these questions, this study builds on local knowledge, by applying the methods of focus group discussions and a household survey. Results show an extreme discrepancy between official wood consumption figures (50–60 m3 p.a.) and figures based on household wood consumption (310–404 m3 p.a.). The forest also serves as an important winter pasture over the seven months between October and April (stocking density 0.61 livestock units/ha), but payments for these ecosystem services are low, with annually 40 KGS/ha. Local residents are aware of additional material and nonmaterial ecosystem services of the riparian forest. Opinions diverge upon the question if there is forest over-exploitation, potentially because different stakeholders have different concepts of an optimal forest status. Consequently, optimal forest use behaviour can only be defined by the local users themselves, e.g., in a future stakeholder dialogue.
Peatlands in the European Union are largely drained for agriculture and emit 25% of the total agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. Drainage-based peatland use has also negative impacts on water quality, drinking water provision and biodiversity. Consequently, key EU environmental policy objectives include the rewetting of all drained peatlands as an essential nature-based solution. Rewetting of peatlands can be combined with site-adapted land use, so-called paludiculture. Paludiculture produces biomass from wet and rewetted peatlands under conditions that maintain the peat body, facilitate peat accumulation and can provide many of the ecosystem services associated with natural, undrained peatlands. The biomass can be used for a wide range of traditional and innovative food, feed, fibre and fuel products. Based on examples in Germany, we have analysed emerging paludiculture options for temperate Europe with respect to greenhouse gas fluxes, biodiversity and indicative business economics. Best estimates of site emission factors vary between 0 and 8 t CO2eq ha−1 y−1. Suitability maps for four peatland-rich federal states (76% of total German peatland area) indicate that most of the drained, agriculturally used peatland area could be used for paludiculture, about one-third of the fen area for any paludiculture type. Fen-specific biodiversity benefits from rewetting and paludiculture, if compared to the drained state. Under favourable conditions, paludiculture can be economically viable, but costs and revenues vary considerably. Key recommendations for large-scale implementation are providing planning security by paludiculture spatial planning, establishing best practice sites and strengthening research into crops, water tables and management options.
Biomass is an important metric for monitoring carabid populations and serves as an ecological indicator. Models that predict carabid weight based on body size represent a simple and straightforward method to estimate biomass and are therefore commonly used. However, such models are rarely evaluated against independent validation data. In this study, we evaluated the two widely used size-weight models by Szyszko (1983) and Booij et al. (1994) drawing on previously published independent data. Additionally, we developed and tested four new models to also evaluate the potential effect of taxonomic parameters; and compared model predictions with actual measurements of biomass using relative deviation graphs and observed versus predicted from regression. We show that the two models by Szyszko (1983) and Booij et al. (1994) contain systematic bias towards larger and smaller carabids, respectively, suggesting restricted applicability of such models. Additional taxonomic parameters improved weight predictions, indicating one possible solution to the issue of restricted applicability. We discuss further relevant limitations of size-weight models and their application and recommend a combined use of the models of Szyszko (1983) and Booij et al. (1994) for carabids ≥ 11.8 mm and < 11.8 mm, respectively.
Implications for insect conservation: Size-weight models are a suitable and simple method to estimate the biomass of carabids and have great potential to be used in monitoring schemes, the investigation of long-term trends and ecological studies. It is, however, essential that researchers pay special attention to potential restrictions in their applicability and methodological limitations.
Detailed knowledge of a soil’s lime requirement (LR) is a prerequisite for a demand-based lime fertilization to achieve the optimum soil pH and thus sustainably increasing soil fertility and crop yields. LR can be directly determined by the base neutralizing capacity (BNC) obtained by soil-base titration. For a site-specific soil acidity management, detailed information on the within-field variation of BNC is required. However, soil-base titrations for BNC determination are too laborious to be extensively applied in routine soil testing. In contrast, visible and near-infrared spectroscopy (visNIRS) is a time and cost-effective alternative that can analyze several soil characteristics within a single spectrum. VisNIRS was tested in the laboratory on 170 air-dried and sieved soil samples of nine agricultural fields of a quaternary landscape in North-east Germany predicting the soil’s BNC and the corresponding lime requirement (LRBNC) at a target pH of 6.5. Seven spectral pre-processing methods were tested including a new technique based on normalized differences (ND). Furthermore, six multivariate regression methods were conducted including a new method combining a forward stagewise subset selection algorithm with PLSR (FS-PLSR). The models were validated using an independent sample set. The best regression model for most target variables was FS-PLSR combined with the second Savitzky-Golay derivation as pre-processing method achieving R2s from 0.68 to 0.82. Finally, the performance of the direct prediction of LRBNC (R2 = 0.68) was compared with an indirect prediction that was calculated by the predicted BNC parameters. This resulted in slightly higher correlation coefficients for the indirect method with R2 = 0.75.
Liming agricultural fields is necessary for counteracting soil acidity and is one of the oldest operations in soil fertility management. However, the best management practice for liming in Germany only insufficiently considers within-field soil variability. Thus, a site-specific variable rate liming strategy was developed and tested on nine agricultural fields in a quaternary landscape of north-east Germany. It is based on the use of a proximal soil sensing module using potentiometric, geoelectric and optical sensors that have been found to be proxies for soil pH, texture and soil organic matter (SOM), which are the most relevant lime requirement (LR) affecting soil parameters. These were compared to laboratory LR analysis of reference soil samples using the soil’s base neutralizing capacity (BNC). Sensor data fusion utilizing stepwise multi-variate linear regression (MLR) analysis was used to predict BNC-based LR (LRBNC) for each field. The MLR models achieved high adjusted R2 values between 0.70 and 0.91 and low RMSE values from 65 to 204 kg CaCO3 ha−1. In comparison to univariate modeling, MLR models improved prediction by 3 to 27% with 9% improvement on average. The relative importance of covariates in the field-specific prediction models were quantified by computing standardized regression coefficients (SRC). The importance of covariates varied between fields, which emphasizes the necessity of a field-specific calibration of proximal sensor data. However, soil pH was the most important parameter for LR determination of the soils studied. Geostatistical semivariance analysis revealed differences between fields in the spatial variability of LRBNC. The sill-to-range ratio (SRR) was used to quantify and compare spatial LRBNC variability of the nine test fields. Finally, high resolution LR maps were generated. The BNC-based LR method also produces negative LR values for soil samples with pH values above which lime is required. Hence, the LR maps additionally provide an estimate on the quantity of chemically acidifying fertilizers that can be applied to obtain an optimal soil pH value.
Soil acidification is caused by natural paedogenetic processes and anthropogenic impacts but can be counteracted by regular lime application. Although sensors and applicators for variable-rate liming (VRL) exist, there are no established strategies for using these tools or helping to implement VRL in practice. Therefore, this study aimed to provide guidelines for site-specific liming based on proximal soil sensing. First, high-resolution soil maps of the liming-relevant indicators (pH, soil texture and soil organic matter content) were generated using on-the-go sensors. The soil acidity was predicted by two ion-selective antimony electrodes (RMSEpH: 0.37); the soil texture was predicted by a combination of apparent electrical resistivity measurements and natural soil-borne gamma emissions (RMSEclay: 0.046 kg kg−1); and the soil organic matter (SOM) status was predicted by a combination of red (660 nm) and near-infrared (NIR, 970 nm) optical reflection measurements (RMSESOM: 6.4 g kg−1). Second, to address the high within-field soil variability (pH varied by 2.9 units, clay content by 0.44 kg kg−1 and SOM by 5.5 g kg−1), a well-established empirical lime recommendation algorithm that represents the best management practices for liming in Germany was adapted, and the lime requirements (LRs) were determined. The generated workflow was applied to a 25.6 ha test field in north-eastern Germany, and the variable LR was compared to the conventional uniform LR. The comparison showed that under the uniform liming approach, 63% of the field would be over-fertilized by approximately 12 t of lime, 6% would receive approximately 6 t too little lime and 31% would still be adequately limed.
Despite being a natural soil-forming process, soil acidification is a major agronomic challenge under humid climate conditions, as soil acidity influences several yield-relevant soil properties. It can be counterbalanced by the regular application of agricultural lime to maintain or re-establish soil fertility and to optimize plant growth and yield. To avoid underdose as well as overdose, lime rates need to be calculated carefully. The lime rate should be determined by the optimum soil pH (target pH) and the response of the soil to lime, which is described by the base neutralizing capacity (BNC). Several methods exist to determine the lime requirement (LR) to raise the soil pH to its optimum. They range from extremely time-consuming equilibration methods, which mimic the natural processes in the soil, to quick tests, which rely on some approximations and are designed to provide farmers with timely and cost-efficient data. Due to the higher analytical efforts, only limited information is available on the real BNC of particular soils. In the present paper, we report the BNC of 420 topsoil samples from Central Europe (north-east Germany), developed on sediments from the last ice age 10,000 years ago under Holocene conditions. These soils are predominantly sandy and low in humus, but they exhibit a huge spatial variability in soil properties on a small scale. The BNC was determined by adding various concentrations of Ca(OH)2 and fitting an exponential model to derive a titration curve for each sample. The coefficients of the BNC titration curve were well correlated with soil properties affecting soil acidity and pH buffer capacity, i.e., pH, soil texture and soil organic matter (SOM). From the BNC model, the LRs (LRBNC) were derived and compared with LRVDLUFA based on the standard protocol in Germany as established by the Association of German Agricultural Analytic and Research Institutes (VDLUFA). The LRBNC and LRVDLUFA correlated well but the LRVDLUFA were generally by approximately one order of magnitude higher. This is partly due to the VDLUFA concept to recommend a maintenance or conservation liming, even though the pH value is in the optimum range, to keep it there until the next lime application during the following rotation. Furthermore, the VDLUFA method was primarily developed from field experiments where natural soil acidification and management practices depressed the effect of lime treatment. The BNC method, on the other hand, is solely based on laboratory analysis with standardized soil samples. This indicates the demand for further research to develop a sound scientific algorithm that complements LRBNC with realistic values of annual Ca2+ removal and acidification by natural processes and N fertilization.
Evaluating Soil-Borne Causes of Biomass Variability in Grassland by Remote and Proximal Sensing
(2019)
On a grassland field with sandy soils in Northeast Germany (Brandenburg), vegetation indices from multi-spectral UAV-based remote sensing were used to predict grassland biomass productivity. These data were combined with soil pH value and apparent electrical conductivity (ECa) from on-the-go proximal sensing serving as indicators for soil-borne causes of grassland biomass variation. The field internal magnitude of spatial variability and hidden correlations between the variables of investigation were analyzed by means of geostatistics and boundary-line analysis to elucidate the influence of soil pH and ECa on the spatial distribution of biomass. Biomass and pH showed high spatial variability, which necessitates high resolution data acquisition of soil and plant properties. Moreover, boundary-line analysis showed grassland biomass maxima at pH values between 5.3 and 7.2 and ECa values between 3.5 and 17.5 mS m−1. After calibrating ECa to soil moisture, the ECa optimum was translated to a range of optimum soil moisture from 7% to 13%. This matches well with to the plant-available water content of the predominantly sandy soil as derived from its water retention curve. These results can be used in site-specific management decisions to improve grassland biomass productivity in low-yield regions of the field due to soil acidity or texture-related water scarcity.
Dominant agricultural and food systems lead to continuous resource depletion and unacceptable environmental and social impacts. While current calls for changing agrifood systems are increasingly framed in the context of sustainability transitions, they rarely make an explicit link to transition studies to address these systemic challenges, nor do transition scholars sufficiently address agri-food systems, despite their global pertinence. From this viewpoint, we illustrate several gaps in the agri-food systems debate that sustainability transition studies could engage in. We propose four avenues for research in the next decade of transition research on agri-food systems: 1) Crossscale dynamics between coupled systems; 2) Social justice, equity and inclusion; 3) Sustainability transitions in low- and middle-income countries; 4) Cross-sectoral governance and system integration. We call for a decade of new transition research that moves beyond single-scale and sector perspectives toward more inclusive and integrated analyses of food system dynamics.
With increasing road encroachment, habitat fragmentation by transport infrastructures has been a serious threat for European biodiversity. Areas with no roads or little traffic (“roadless and low-traffic areas”) represent relatively undisturbed natural habitats and functioning ecosystems. They provide many benefits for biodiversity and human societies (e.g., landscape connectivity, barrier against pests and invasions, ecosystem services). Roadless and low-traffic areas, with a lower level of anthropogenic disturbances, are of special relevance in Europe because of their rarity and, in the context of climate change, because of their contribution to higher resilience and buffering capacity within landscape ecosystems. An analysis of European legal instruments illustrates that, although most laws aimed at protecting targets which are inherent to fragmentation, like connectivity, ecosystem processes or integrity, roadless areas are widely neglected as a legal target. A case study in Germany underlines this finding. Although the Natura 2000 network covers a significant proportion of the country (16%), Natura 2000 sites are highly fragmented and most low-traffic areas (75%) lie unprotected outside this network. This proportion is even higher for the old Federal States (western Germany), where only 20% of the low-traffic areas are protected. We propose that the few remaining roadless and low-traffic areas in Europe should be an important focus of conservation efforts; they should be urgently inventoried, included more explicitly in the law and accounted for in transport and urban planning. Considering them as complementary conservation targets would represent a concrete step towards the strengthening and adaptation of the Natura 2000 network to climate change.
Remotely sensed effectiveness assessments of protected areas lack a common framework: A review
(2022)
Effective protected areas reflect socio-ecological values, such as biodiversity and habitat maintenance, as well as human well-being. These values, which safeguard ecosystem services in protected areas, are treated as models for the sustainable preservation and use of resources. While there is much research on the effectiveness of protected areas in a variety of disciplines, the question is whether there is a common framework that uses remote sensing methods. We conducted a qualitative and a quantitative analysis of 44 peer-reviewed scientific papers utilizing remote sensing data in order to examine the effectiveness of protected areas. Very few studies to date have a wide or even a global geographical focus; instead, most quantify the effectiveness of protected areas by focusing on local-scale case studies and single indicators such as forest cover change. Methods that help integrate spatial selection approaches, to compare a protected area's characteristics with its surroundings, are increasingly being used. Based on this review, we argue for a multi-indicator-based framework on protected area effectiveness, including the development of a consistent set of socio-ecological indicators for a global analysis. In turn, this will allow for globally applicable use, including a concrete evaluation that considers the diversity of regional parameters, biome-specific variables, and political frameworks. Ideally, such a framework will enhance the monitoring and evaluation of global strategies and conventions.
Expectations of what forests and woodlands should provide vary among locations, stakeholder groups, and over time. Developing multifunctional forests requires understanding of the dynamic roles of traditions and cultural legacies in social-ecological systems at multiple levels and scales. Implementing policies about multifunctional forests requires a landscape and social-ecological perspective, and recognition of both spatial and temporal features at multiple scales. This study explores the dissemination of even-aged silviculture in central, eastern and northern Europe, and the consequences of choosing different vantage points in social-ecological systems for mapping of barriers, and to identify levers, towards multifunctional forest landscapes. Using a narrative approach, we first summarise the development of even-aged silviculture in four European regions. Next, we focus on Sweden as a keen adopter of even-aged silviculture, and identify levers at three groups of vantage points. They were (1) biosphere with biodiversity as short-hand for composition, structure and function of ecosystems, which support human well-being at multiple scales; (2) society in terms of different levels of stakeholder interactions from local to global, and (3) economy represented by value chain hierarchies and currencies. The emergence of even-aged silviculture >200 years ago formed an expanding frontier from central to northern Europe. Sustained yield wood production and biodiversity conservation encompass different portfolios of ecosystem aspects and spatio-temporal scales. Ignorance and lack of knowledge about these differences enforce their mutual rivalry. An exploratory review of six groups of stakeholders at multiple levels in the traditional industrial forest value chain highlights inequalities in terms of distribution of income and power across different levels of governance. This effectively marginalises other than powerful industrial actors. The distribution of financial results along the value chain is dynamic in space and time, and not all benefits of forest ecosystems can be measured using monetary valuation. There are also other currencies and incentives. A discussion of cultural trajectories in central and eastern European, Russian and Swedish forest management illustrates that forest history patterns repeat themselves. Longitudinal case studies of countries and regions can help foster holistic multi-dimensional and multi-level systems thinking. Application of deep levers of change is likely to require external drivers. A key challenge is to handle the manufacturing of doubt and decay of truth, i.e., the appearance of alternative facts, and the diminishing role of evidence and systems analyses in political and civic discourses. This transition is fuelled by new and rapidly evolving digital arenas.
Little is known about the emergence and development of novel governance approaches for forest ecosystem services provision, what drives them, and how they can be fostered. Existing frameworks often deal with single aspects of resource management and thus fail to assess processes, multi-level influences, and interacting dimensions and factors in a system-based understanding. In this article, we introduce the conceptual foundation and an empirical application of an adapted Social-Ecological System framework with additional elements that builds on the idea of complex and interlinked social-ecological-technical-forestry-innovation systems that allows for the identification of key factors for revealing forest ecosystem services dynamics to understand the emergence and development of such governance innovations. The development and testing of the framework was based on six case studies for knowledge co-creation. To showcase its application, two governance innovations were examined: a voluntary carbon market payment scheme in Germany and a network approach for forest-pasture management in Italy. The application of the framework reveals required adaptations to improve innovation by systematically unpacking the system dimensions and identifying fostering and hindering factors and their interdependencies. We highlight the output of a sound system-based information basis that allows for purposeful innovation conditioning by policy makers, practitioners, and other related actors.
Forests are key components of European multifunctional landscapes and supply numerous forest ecosystem services (FES) fundamental to human well-being. The sustainable provision of FES has the potential to provide responses to major societal challenges, such as climate change, biodiversity loss, or rural development. To identify suitable strategies for the future sustenance of FES, we performed a solution scanning exercise with a group of transdisciplinary forest and FES experts from different European regions. We identified and prioritized fifteen major challenges hindering the balanced provision of multiple FES and identified a series of potential solutions to tackle each of them. The most prominent challenges referred to the increased frequency and impacts of extreme weather events and the normative mindset regarding forest management. The respective solutions pointed to the promotion of forest resilience via climate-smart forestry and mainstreaming FES-oriented management through a threefold strategy focusing on education, awareness raising, and networking. In a subsequent survey, most solutions were assessed as highly effective, transferable, monitorable, and with potential for being economically efficient. The implementation of the solutions could have synergistic effects when applying the notion of leverage points. Seven emerging pathways towards the sustainable supply of FES have been identified. These pathways build on each other and are organized based on their potential for transformation: (1) shifting forest management paradigms towards pluralistic ecosystem valuation; (2) using integrated landscape approaches; (3) increasing forest resilience; (4) coordinating actions between forest-related actors; (5) increasing participation in forest planning and management; (6) continuous, open, and transparent knowledge integration; and (7) using incentive-based instruments to support regulating and cultural FES. These pathways can contribute to the implementation of the new EU Forestry Strategy to support the balanced supply of multiple FES.
Governance Innovations for forest ecosystem service provision – Insights from an EU-wide survey
(2022)
This paper analyses the occurrence of governance innovations for forest ecosystem service (FES) provision in the forestry sector in Europe and the factors that influence innovation development. Based on a European-wide online survey, public and private forest owners and managers representing different property sizes indicate what type of governance innovation activities they engage in, and why. To investigate forestry innovations as systems, the analysis focuses on biophysical, social and technical factors influencing innovation development. The results of our exploratory quantitative analysis show that most innovation activities identified are largely oriented towards biomass production. Accordingly, most forest owners implement efficiency-driven optimisation strategies for forest management and technological improvement for provisioning service supply, to generate income. In contrast, the provision of regulating and cultural services is not yet a prominent part of forestry innovation activities.Reasons are rooted in a market-oriented economic rationale focusing on timber production, a lack of financial resources to compensate for other FES provisions or institutions to provide backup and security to forest owners and managers for engaging in innovation development. Given that the provision of a wide range of FES is a politically well-established objective for forest management in Europe, a strategy is needed that helps to align actors and sectors for supporting and co-financing related forest management approaches and business models. The current revision of the forest related policy framework on EU level under the EU Green deal poses a window of opportunity for better fostering novel governance approaches for more sustainable FES provision.
Enduring sustainability challenges requires a new model of collective leadership that embraces critical reflection, inclusivity and care. Leadership collectives can support a move in academia from metrics to merits, from a focus on career to care, and enact a shift from disciplinary to inter- and trans-disciplinary research. Academic organisations need to reorient their training programs, work ethics and reward systems to encourage collective excellence and to allow space for future leaders to develop and enact a radically re-imagined vision of how to lead as a collective with care for people and the planet.
Forest ecosystems provide a range of goods and services that are essential to human well-being. Yet global environmental problems, increasing urbanization, industrialization pressures, and dominant market mechanisms put into jeopardy the long term sustainable provision of forest ecosystem services (FES). Markets tend to favor private goods, such as timber, and are typically less able to provide sustainable financing mechanisms for public goods and services, such as carbon storage, biodiversity conservation or recreational value. European forest owners and policy makers alike are looking for governance innovations that generate economic opportunity while ensuring the future provision of FES.
This systematic literature review aims to consolidate existing academic empirical research on local or regional level governance innovations in Europe concerned with generating forest-based revenue through FES provision. Thus, it complements conceptual literature dealing with challenges and opportunities of financing the provision of FES. When conducting the review we followed the process guidelines developed by ‘Collaboration for Environmental Evidence’ (Collaboration for Environmental Evidence, 2018). Out of a total of 3962 scanned papers, 23 papers containing 48 case studies were identified and analyzed in detail, to address the following guiding questions: (1) What types of FES related (governance) innovations for forest-based revenue generation exist and which FES do they address? (2) What are the motivations driving innovation development? (3) What are the implications for forest management? We found four types of governance innovations: forest product and organizational innovations which largely relate to provisioning FES; service innovations, which generally relate to cultural FES; and financial incentive systems or payment schemes targeting mostly regulating services. We identify potential synergies between two high-priority EU policy objectives: rural economic development and securing future FES provision. Currently, governance innovations’ forest management implications and associated impact on (future) FES provision are rarely addressed in this literature. We recommend future policy and research to give greater consideration to the interdependencies between securing a range of FES, (rural) economic development, and forest management, to realize potential synergies.
This Special Issue provides insights into conceptual approaches, methodological procedures and practice findings for the development and assessment of governance innovations for the sustainable provision of forest ecosystem services (FES) in Europe. We depart from the observation that the sustainable and balanced provision of FES requires novel policy, management and business approaches that need to overcome challenges in order to emerge, develop and flourish. These challenges are rooted in the diversity of forest ecosystems and institutional contexts, a lack of system understanding, of innovation dynamics, the public good character of many FES, and a production-oriented reference frame for forest management. We use a set of good governance innovation practices in form of new actor alliances and payment schemes as a basis for assessment and learning how to promote different kinds or bundles of FES. The contributing authors of the SI combine several methodological approaches to understand the working conditions of such innovations, including integrated mapping, stakeholder and governance analysis, and a forward-looking scenario approach for innovation assessment. Applying multi-methods and multi-actor approaches fruitfully orchestrated a constructive debate among stakeholders on the chances and challenges of governance innovations in Europe, to allow for their uptake in forest policy, business and practice.
An increasing number of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the German organic agri-food sector involves citizens through different community financing models. While such models provide alternative funding sources as well as marketing opportunities to SMEs, they allow private investors to combine their financial and ethical concerns by directly supporting the development of a more sustainable food system. Due to the low level of financial intermediation, community financing is characterized by close relations between investors and investees. Against this background, we apply the proximity concept from economic geography to explore spatial and relational aspects of community financing in the German organic agri-food sector. Based on a qualitative multiple case study approach, we find that the relevance of proximity is twofold. While different forms of proximity between SMEs and their potential investors are key success factors, proximity is also considered as one desired outcome of community financing. Furthermore, our results reveal that the extent to which SMEs rely on particular proximity dimensions distinguishes two different approaches to community financing.
Purpose
The present study explores the development of agri-food value chains from an organizational learning perspective, using the German organic food sector as an example. We illustrate how the development of local value chains unfolds over time and outline how facilitation can support this process.
Design/methodology/approach
The study used an action research design to facilitate change in practice and to create new knowledge. Data were collected through qualitative interviews, participant observation, and documentation of workshops and other learning activities. Data analysis and conceptualization followed a grounded theory approach.
Findings
The development process of value chains occurs in three phases, from joint exploration of the problem, through a phase of experimentation and implementation, to further cultivation of established collaborations among value chain actors. The development process oscillates between intra- and inter-organizational learning as well as explorative and exploitative activities.
Practical implications
The results of this study can help to understand and to further professionalize the practice of value chain development and provide guidance for facilitators and other stakeholder working in this field.
Theoretical implications
By drawing on the theory of exploration and exploitation, the study enhances the understanding of value chains collaboration in an inter-organizational setting. The study conceptualizes the development of agri-food value chains and the role of facilitators in the process.
Originality/value
There is little research to date that considers the development of value chains as a collaborative learning process. The presented grounded theory of local value chain development may inform further research on the transition towards a more sustainable agri-food system.
A large variety of organisations provides support for cooperative approaches in the field of research and innovation in agriculture, forestry and rural development, and acts as Innovation Support Services (ISS). The findings from ProAkis (2015) show that different types of organisations such as administrative offices, public or semi-public advisory services, rural academies/universities, producer organisations, other NGOs or private consultants engaged in the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation System (AKIS) can act as ISS. The funding of ISS can be public, private or a mix of both. A literature review indicates that studies often focus on the
larger “enabling environment” and the structure of the Agricultural Knowledge and Innovation Systems (AKIS). Moreover, many authors pay particular attention to the role of public or semi-public farm advisory organisations (Knierim et al., 2015; Sulaiman 2015). The paper is based on the analysis of more than 200 case studies of publically or privately funded interactive innovation projects within the EU and beyond. The selection of cases took place under the framework of the Horizon2020-funded European research and innovation project LIAISON. European and national databases contain several thousands of projects in agriculture, forestry and rural development. We selected projects applying the interactive innovation approach from a) EU programmes (EIP-Agri, Horizon2020, Interreg, and LIFE+); b) nationally/regionally or privately funded projects; and c) informal initiatives or networks in the agri-food, forestry, bioeconomy or nature conservation area. The results indicate that publically funded IIS play a core role for legal/administrative compliance of projects. Semi-public advisory services take up this role as well, and they are strong in linking farmers with scientists, technicians, entrepreneurs etc. However, they often exist and offer efficient ISS only for those industries that have a long tradition for a sector or area (e.g. dairy, pork, poultry or club fruit). This paper shows that different types of organisations (research institutes, farmers or producer organisations, NGOs, processing or marketing SMEs, or public bodies) provide various forms of support for the studied interactive innovation groups. No particular type of organisation such as the farm advisory services are more suitable than the other organisations for the delivery of ISS. Instead, it depends on former collaboration, the particular topic, objective or capacities available as well as the cultural/political context who engages in interactive innovation and provides innovation support.
There is a strong demand in media management to strengthen the bridge between theory and practice. Following the debate on rigor and relevance, the approach of engaged scholarship and arguments from our community, we see the need to develop a research agenda in dialogue with practice. Therefore, we explore the following questions: Which topics do media managers consider relevant to research? How can these issues be contrasted with the research agendas proclaimed by media management research?
To answer these questions, we first summarize current issues in media management research through a literature review. Second, current issues in media management practice are captured based on an online survey with German media managers (N=46). Finally, the two perspectives are contrasted to develop relevant questions for media management research and practice.
This article aims to build a better understanding of entrepreneurial communication and strategic communication. The term entrepreneurial is finding its way into the discussion of communication science in general and strategic communication in particular, for example, through the consideration of startups. So far, the term entrepreneurial communication remains vague, is hardly defined and is not systematically distinguished from strategic communication. By applying an analogies lens in the context of problematizing, differences between the terms entrepreneurial and strategic in entrepreneurial communication and strategic communication are explored based on selected given definitions. As a result, three unifying dimensions – development stage, mode, and logic – are developed to highlight fundamental differences between the two terms. To create potential for a future creation of entrepreneurial communication as research program, and to elaborate on future potential for strategic communication in relation to this, central theoretical approaches in entrepreneurship research and their potential to research entrepreneurial communication are explored.
The density of phytophagous insect pest populations is related (directly and indirectly) to several groups of factors that can be broadly divided into: abiotic, biotic and anthropogenic. Each extreme in the abiotic environment at a macro-level leads to a series of consecutive extremes in the biotic environment, which eventually results in micro-level responses in the individual organisms. The manifestation of factors acts in aggregate or in a sequence, creating a chain of processes around us. Insects very efficiently use the abundance of nutritional resources, resulting in a tremendous increase in their population density, and triggering control mechanisms through the emergence of parasitic and pathogenic infections (viruses, bacteria, fungi, microsporidia, protozoa and nematodes). The development of entomopathogenic infections in host populations is directly dependent on the characteristics of both the antagonist and the insect. It is associated with the lifestyle and life cycle of the insect, with features encoded in the mechanism of pathogen action, and limited by the pathogen’s virulence and pathogenicity.
Zukunftstechnologien üben schon seit geraumer Zeit Transformationsdruck auf Medienorganisationen aus (Küng, 2008). Medienorganisationen sind daher gezwungen, gezielt zu reagieren, sich zu verändern und zu lernen. Ein theoretisches Konstrukt, das diesen Prozess erklärt, ist die Theorie des organisationalen Lernens (OL) (Senge, 2006). In der allgemeinen Managementforschung ist OL bereits ein etablierter theoretische Ansatz (Dick, 2005), bei Medienorganisationen wurde OL bislang kaum erforscht (Bernhard & Will, 2021). Die strategische Orientierung der Organisation stellt eine Möglichkeit zur Förderung des OL dar (Seçkin-Halaç, 2019). Insbesondere die strategische Technologieorientierung (TO) könnte in Anbetracht von Zukunftstechnologien hilfreich für OL sein (ebd.). Vor diesem Hintergrund beschäftigt sich dieser Beitrag mit der folgenden Frage: Besteht ein Zusammenhang zwischen der Technologieorientierung (TO) und dem organisationalen Lernen (OL) in Medienorganisationen? Zur Beantwortung dieser Frage wurde eine explorative Onlineumfrage (Zeitraum: Dez. 2020 bis Jan. 2021) unter deutschen Medienmanager*innen (N=46) durchgeführt. Für die Untersuchung wurden die Instrumente von Hakala & Kohtamäki (2011) für die TO und von Marsick & Watkins (2003) für das OL übernommen. Die Umfragedaten wurden mithilfe der Rangkorrelation nach Spearman analysiert. Kernergebnis der Untersuchung ist, dass ein signifikanter Zusammenhang zwischen TO und OL besteht.
Conservation grazing uses semi-feral or domesticated herbivores to limit encroachment in open areas and to promote biodiversity. However, we are still unaware of its effects on wild herbivores. This study investigates the influence of herded sheep and goats on red deer (Cervus elaphus) spatial behavior by testing three a-priori hypotheses: (i) red deer are expected to avoid areas used by livestock, as well as adjacent areas, when livestock are present, albeit (ii) red deer increase the use of these areas when sheep and goats are temporarily absent and (iii) there is a time-lagged disruption in red deer spatial behavior when conservation grazing practice ends. Using GPS-telemetry data on red deer from a German heathland area, we modelled their use of areas grazed by sheep and goats, using mixed-effect logistic regression. Additionally, we developed seasonal resource selection functions (use-availability design) to depict habitat selection by red deer before, during, and after conservation grazing. Red deer used areas less during conservation grazing throughout all times of the day and there was no compensatory use during nighttime. This effect mostly persisted within 21 days after conservation grazing. Effects on habitat selection of red deer were detectable up to 3000 meters away from the conservation grazing sites, with no signs of either habituation or adaption. For the first time, we demonstrate that conservation grazing can affect the spatio-temporal behavior of wild herbivores. Our findings are relevant for optimizing landscape and wildlife management when conservation grazing is used in areas where wild herbivores are present.