From Understanding to Sustainable Use of Peatlands: The WETSCAPES Approach

Of all terrestrial ecosystems, peatlands store carbon most effectively in long-term scales of millennia. However, many peatlands have been drained for peat extraction or agricultural use. This converts peatlands from sinks to sources of carbon, causing approx. 5% of the anthropogenic greenhouse effect and additional negative effects on other ecosystem services. Rewetting peatlands can mitigate climate change and may be combined with management in the form of paludiculture. Rewetted peatlands, however, do not equal their pristine ancestors and their ecological functioning is not understood. This holds true especially for groundwater-fed fens. Their functioning results from manifold interactions and can only be understood following an integrative approach of many relevant fields of science, which we merge in the interdisciplinary project WETSCAPES. Here, we address interactions among water transport and chemistry, primary production, peat formation, matter transformation and transport, microbial community, and greenhouse gas exchange using state of the art methods. We record data on six study sites spread across three common fen types (Alder forest, percolation fen, and coastal fen), each in drained and rewetted states. First results revealed that indicators reflecting more long-term effects like vegetation and soil chemistry showed a stronger differentiation between drained and rewetted states than variables with a more immediate reaction to environmental change, like greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Variations in microbial community composition explained differences in soil chemical data as well as vegetation composition and GHG exchange. We show the importance of developing an integrative understanding of managed fen peatlands and their ecosystem functioning.

HANSEATIC LEAGUE - HISTORY & CIVILIZATION

The book presents\ua0the history and culture of the Hanseatic League, a multinational trade union established in Northern Europe during the Middle Ages.\ua0Its content deals with the political and commercial organization of the union, the architecture and the applied arts of its cities, the shipbuilding of the goods transportation and the socio-religious organization of life

Inshore Commercial Fisheries in the Service Economy : Session 1 Small-Scale Fisheries Research - towards sustainable fisheries using a multi-entry perspective

The study frames a traditional industry in transition with the aim to understand the ways in which a work-identity is formed in the service economy along the west coast of Sweden. More specifically, we want to understand how diversified inshore commercial fisheries are discursively established and negotiated as a service enterprising subject in three everyday relationships; authorities, customers and colleagues. The theory behind the study lies within the application of cultural analysis and discourse-analysis (du Gay and Hall 1998) with a focus on three theoretical concepts; governance (Hajer 1996) experienced authenticity (Di Domenico and Miller 2010) and work identification (du Gay and Hall 2002). Field-notes from participation and observations, together with thirty-five in-depth qualitative work-life interviews were generated and analyzed between 2011 and 2014 in 16 inshore commercial fisheries along the west coast of Sweden. The fieldwork was conducted within three EU-funded areas, where small-scale fisheries are considered having a potential to further diversify by developing for instance tourism activities, (FLAGs) of one in particular is a focused case of study.Discourses of the inshore commercial fishery in the service economy play out in three prominent relationships, those to authorities, customers and colleagues. First, in meetings on various levels of fisheries management, narrative threads are commonly used to negotiate and enlighten changes from various situated perspectives. Both authorities and fishermen are aware of the contemporary coastal commercial fisheries in decline, but based on different knowledge basis and views of the future of fisheries. Secondly, in service work discourses from participant observations in fisheries service enterprising, “experienced authenticities” are negotiated, between fishermen and their customers. Third, in fishing discourses from interviews and observations in relation to colleagues and fishing, the fishery is constructed and negotiated between sets of “we” and “them”, to establish work identity.To sum up, authorities and fishermen form and negotiate small-scale inshore commercial fisheries as modern and sustainable from different knowledge basis. The study addresses opportunities, challenges and expectations that permeate the coastal commercial fishing in a service-oriented economy

Klimawandel vor unserer Haustür: Wie sich unser Leben heute bereits verändert = Climate change at our doorstep: How our lives are already changing

DAS REKLIM JUBILÄUMSMAGAZIN berichtet in Geschichten und Bildern von der Themenvielfalt und den Ergebnissen des Forschungsverbundes und erläutert, wie die Wissenschaft im Dialog mit der Gesellschaft arbeitet, um Fragen unserer Zeit aufzugreifen. Lassen Sie sich begeistern! THE REKLIM ANNIVERSARY MAGAZINE reports, in stories and images, on the research network’s findings and broad range of focus areas. In addition, it demonstrates how the research community can and is working in dialogue with society in order to address the most pressing questions of our time. Check it out

Circumventing the law that humans cannot see in the dark: an assessment of the development of target marking techniques in the prosecution of the bombing offensive during the Second World War

Royal Air Force Bomber Command entered the Second World War committed to a strategy of precision bombing in daylight. The theory that bomber formations would survive contact with the enemy was soon dispelled an it was obvious that Bomber Command would have to switch to bombing at night. The difficulties of locating a target at night soon became apparent. In August 1941, only one in three of those crews claiming to have bombed a target had in fact been within five miles of it. And yet, less than four years later, it would be a very different story. By early 1945, 95% of aircraft despatched bombed within 3 miles of the Aiming Point and the average bombing error was 600 yards. How, then, in the space of four years did Bomber Command evolve from an ineffective force failing even to locate a target to the fomidable force of early 1945. In part, the answer lies in the advent of electronic navigation aids that, in 1941, were simply not available. By 1945, electronic aids such as GEE, Oboe and H2S were widely in use. Secondary lierature on the bombing offensive tends to attribute the improvement in bombing performance to the introduction of these aids. However, the introduction of these aids was only part of the story. These aids could not, in themselves, circumvent the law that human beings cannot see in the dark. Having reached the target area with the benefit of navigation aids, some form of idenfifying the Aiming Point was necessary if the target was to be accurately bombed. Part of the reason for the effcetiveness of Bomber Command by early 1945 therefore lies in the development of techniques for the identification and marking of targets. Although the development of navigation aids is well documented, the development of techniques for target marking has received much less attention. The aim of this thesis is to examine this largly neglected aspect of the bombing offensive. The key question asked is: what difference did the introduction of taregt marking techniques make to the performance and efficacy of Bomber Command

LPIS Workshop: 'LPIS applications and quality', Sofia (Bulgaria), 17-18 September, 2008

This report contains overview of annual workshop on Land Parcel Identification System (LPIS) which took place in Sofia (Bulgaria), 17-18th of September, 2008. The workshop is targeted the technological responsible persons from the member state administrations. This year workshop ¿LPIS applications and quality¿ aimed to identify and discuss the key technological issues and examples of solutions that are relevant for operating a LPIS in the environment of administration and control system for direct payments to the European farmers in the framework of the CAP. The topics covered during the workshop included: geomatics aspects of the LPIS; data quality issues with a focus on quality management and quality policy; interaction of LPIS applications with control process and monitoring of the rural development measures; country status reports, in particular focusing on ¿lessons learnt¿ during completion of LPIS in Bulgaria and Romania as well as pilot project of LPIS creation in Croatia.JRC.G.3-Agricultur

Big data in Antarctic sciences – current status, gaps, and future perspectives

This paper was initiated by a multidisciplinary Topic Workshop in the frame of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft Priority Program 1158 “Antarctic Research with Comparative Investigations in Arctic Ice Areas”, and hence it represents only the national view without claiming to be complete but is intended to provide awareness and suggestions for the current discussion on so-called big data in many scientific fields. The importance of the polar regions and their essential role for the Earth system are both undoubtedly recognized. However, dramatic changes in the climate and environment have been observed first in the Arctic and later in Antarctica over the past few decades. While important data have been collected and observation networks have been built in Antarctica and the Southern Ocean, this is a relatively data-scarce region due to the challenges of remote data acquisition, expensive labor, and harsh environmental conditions. There are many approaches crossing multiple scientific disciplines to better understand Antarctic processes; to evaluate ongoing climatic and environmental changes and their manifold ecological, physical, chemical, and geological consequences; and to make (improved) predictions. Together, these approaches generate very large, multivariate data sets, which can be broadly classified as “Antarctic big data”. For these large data sets, there is a pressing need for improved data acquisition, curation, integration, service, and application to support fundamental scientific research. Based on deficiencies in crossing disciplines and to attract further interest in big data in Antarctic sciences, this article will (i) describe and evaluate the current status of big data in various Antarctic-related scientific disciplines, (ii) identify current gaps, (iii) and provide solutions to fill these gaps.</p