Florix, an index to assess plant species in floodplains for nature conservation – Developed and tested along the river Danube

Natural floodplains are ecosystems with a diverse mosaic of habitats and site conditions, but also highly threatened due to anthropogenic pressures. Plant species occur in all habitat types and can indicate their value for nature conservation. To improve sustainable management of rivers and floodplains, several indices such as the River Ecosystem Service Index (RESI) have been developed. However, there are so far no assessment schemes for the entire range of floodplain plants. The common assessment approaches like biological integrity, achievement rates or threatened species (Red list), applying to other species groups or other ecosystems, are not appropriate in floodplains. Legal obligations and the need to restore floodplains clearly call for an index assessing the ecological value in a reference area which can be combined with a 5-scale assessment in accordance to established assessments like RESI or the Water Framework Directive. Five typical characteristics describing vascular plants’ adaptation to floodplain habitats were identified. These can be derived from published data sets available for all species in Germany. We checked these indicators for multicollinearity and selected three of them: species number, hydrodynamic indicators, nature conservation indicators. Species number highly correlate with habitat indicators and geographic occurrence. For the selected three indicators we determined thresholds to group habitats and their indicator rate to five classes (very low to very high value for nature conservation). These thresholds are valid for the river Danube and for the habitat types scrutinized in this study. The Florix approach was sensitive in data sets testing active against former floodplains and protected against unprotected areas: For the entire reference region ‘Danube floodplain’, Florix values were higher in the active floodplain and in the protected areas. Only the habitat type ‘water bodies’ showed better scores for habitats in the former floodplain, for ‘softwood forests’ the status of being part of a protected area had no effect. Florix results were validated in two case studies differing in land use intensity. The region with dominant agricultural use showed significantly lower values than that with a higher portion of forests and grasslands. Florix can be used for a floristic conservation status assessment at single habitat level or for the entity of a study region in comparison to a reference region. It allows to identify main pressures and to complement a habitat-type based evaluation. To achieve higher comparability, we should strive for a generalized monitoring in Europe like it is common in aquatic ecosystem monitoring

Robot Phonotaxis in the Wild: a Biologically Inspired Approach to Outdoor Sound Localization

Cricket phonotaxis (sound localization behavior) was implemented on an autonomous outdoor robot platform inspired by cockroach locomotion. This required the integration of a novel robot morphology -- Whegs -- with a biologically-based auditory processing circuit and neural control system, as well as interfacing this to a new tracking device and software architecture for running robot experiments. In repeated tests, the robot is shown to be capable of tracking towards a simulated male cricket song over natural terrain. We discuss what was learned about the auditory control circuit dealing with the outdoor sound stimulus, the need for a motor feedback mechanism to better regulate the drive signal, and plans for future work incorporating additional sensory systems on this platform

Oekoeffiziente Duenger - Entwicklung zur Minimierung der Stickstoffemissionen in Wasser und Luft Schlussbericht

Feeding the world's population today is due to the use of mineral fertilizers in agriculture. Usually, mineral fertilizers supply nitrogen in form of nitrates which can be leached into the ground water or (after reduction) get lost into the atmosphere as gaseous nitrogen compounds (e.g. N_2O). These losses are on the one hand of ecological concern and on the other hand cause reduced agricultural yields. The development of ecoefficient fertilizers aims at an increase of fertilizer use efficiency and at the same time at a reduction of the ecological problems of nitrogen fertilization. Within the scope of this research and development project new nitrification inhibitors, slow release fertilizers and biodegradable materials as fertilizer coatings were investigated with regard to their chemical, technical and agricultural potential. A new nitrification inhibitor has been developed and already introduced into the market. New slow release fertilizer and coating materials show promising perspectives for a further generation of ecoefficient fertilizers. (orig.)SIGLEAvailable from TIB Hannover: F00B329+a / FIZ - Fachinformationszzentrum Karlsruhe / TIB - Technische InformationsbibliothekBundesministerium fuer Bildung und Forschung (BMBF), Bonn (Germany)DEGerman

A small wall-walking robot with compliant, adhesive feet

Abstract – The ability to walk on surfaces regardless of the presence or direction of gravity can significantly increase the mobility of a robot for both terrestrial and space applications. Insects and geckos can provide inspiration for both novel adhesive technology and for the locomotory mechanisms employed during climbing. For this work, Mini-Whegs™, a small quadruped robot that uses wheel-legs for locomotion, was altered to explore the feasibility of scaling vertical surfaces using compliant, adhesive feet. Modifications were made to reduce its weight, and its legs were redesigned to enable its feet to better attach and detach from the substrate, mimicking homologous actions observed in animals. The resulting vehicle is selfcontained, power-autonomous, and weighs only 87 grams. Using pressure-sensitive tape, it is capable of walking up a vertical surface, walking upside-down along an inverted surface, and transitioning between orthogonal surfaces. Index Terms – Biologically inspired robotics, wall-climbing robots, adhesive-based climbing vehicles

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technologies for testing a model of cricket phonotaxi