Cultural Managers as “Masters of Interspaces”

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Global biomass production potentials exceed expected future demand without the need for cropland expansion

Global biomass demand is expected to roughly double between 2005 and 2050. Current studies suggest that agricultural intensification through optimally managed crops on today's cropland alone is insufficient to satisfy future demand. In practice though, improving crop growth management through better technology and knowledge almost inevitably goes along with (1) improving farm management with increased cropping intensity and more annual harvests where feasible and (2) an economically more efficient spatial allocation of crops which maximizes farmers' profit. By explicitly considering these two factors we show that, without expansion of cropland, today's global biomass potentials substantially exceed previous estimates and even 2050s' demands. We attribute 39% increase in estimated global production potentials to increasing cropping intensities and 30% to the spatial reallocation of crops to their profit-maximizing locations. The additional potentials would make cropland expansion redundant. Their geographic distribution points at possible hotspots for future intensification

Transdisciplinary global change research: the co-creation of knowledge for sustainability

The challenges formulated within the Future Earth framework set the orientation for research programmes in sustainability science for the next ten years. Scientific disciplines from natural and social science will collaborate both among each other and with relevant societal groups in order to define the important integrated research questions, and to explore together successful pathways towards global sustainability. Such collaboration will be based on transdisciplinarity and integrated research concepts. This paper analyses the relationship between scientific integration and transdisciplinarity, discusses the dimensions of integration of different knowledge and proposes a platform and a paradigm for research towards global sustainability that will be both designed and conducted in partnership between science and society. We argue that integration is an iterative process that involves reflection among all stakeholders. It consists of three stages: co-design, co-production and co-dissemination

Global biomass production potentials exceed expected future demand without the need for cropland expansion

Global biomass demand is expected to roughly double between 2005 and 2050. Current studies suggest that agricultural intensification through optimally managed crops on today's cropland alone is insufficient to satisfy future demand. In practice though, improving crop growth management through better technology and knowledge almost inevitably goes along with (1) improving farm management with increased cropping intensity and more annual harvests where feasible and (2) an economically more efficient spatial allocation of crops which maximizes farmers' profit. By explicitly considering these two factors we show that, without expansion of cropland, today's global biomass potentials substantially exceed previous estimates and even 2050s' demands. We attribute 39% increase in estimated global production potentials to increasing cropping intensities and 30% to the spatial reallocation of crops to their profit-maximizing locations. The additional potentials would make cropland expansion redundant. Their geographic distribution points at possible hotspots for future intensification

Global economic-biophysical assessment of midterm scenarios for agricultural markets-biofuel policies, dietary patterns, cropland expansion, and productivity growth

Land-use decisions are made at the local level. They are influenced both by local factors and by global drivers and trends. These will most likely change over time e.g. due to political shocks, market developments or climate change. Hence, their influence should be taken into account when analysing and projecting local land-use decisions. We provide a set of mid-term scenarios of global drivers (until 2030) for use in regional and local studies on agriculture and land-use. In a participatory process, four important drivers are identified by experts from globally distributed regional studies: biofuel policies, increase in preferences for meat and dairy products in Asia, cropland expansion into uncultivated areas, and changes in agricultural productivity growth. Their impact on possible future developments of global and regional agricultural markets are analysed with a modelling framework consisting of a global computable general equilibrium model and a crop growth model. The business as usual (BAU) scenario causes production and prices of crops to rise over time. It also leads to a conversion of pasture land to cropland. Under different scenarios, global price changes range between -42 and + 4% in 2030 compared to the BAU. An abolishment of biofuel targets does not significantly improve food security while an increased agricultural productivity and cropland expansion have a stronger impact on changes in food production and prices

Next generation breeding tools for chamomile: Evaluating genetic diversity, ploidy variation, and identifying marker-trait associations

Chamomile (Matricaria recutita L.) has a long history of use in herbal medicine with various applications, and the flower heads contain numerous medicinally active compounds. Next generation sequencing (NGS) approaches are applied to exploit genetic resources in the major crop plants to develop genomic resources, and to enhance breeding. Genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS) has been used to evaluate the genetic structure of cultivated populations in the non-model crop chamomile using 6495 SNP markers, and to perform a genome wide association study (GWAS) identifying sequences significantly associated with the medicinally important alpha-bisabolol content. Ploidy variation in chamomile was investigated by high-throughput flow-cytometry. Di-, tri- and tetraploid plants were identified, and in field trials characterized. Since seeds are not needed in the harvested product of chamomile, triploidy could be a way to obtain a sterile chamomile variety, omitting the problems of chamomile seeds lying up to 15 years dormant in the soil and facilitating crop rotation in the fields.Die Nutzung von Kamille (Matricaria recutita L.) als Arzneipflanze hat eine lange Tradition und umfasst einen weiten Anwendungsbereich. Die Blütenköpfe von Kamille enthalten eine Vielzahl an medizinisch wirksamen Inhaltsstoffen. Next-Generation Sequenzierungsmethoden (NGS) werden bei den Hauptkulturpflanzen verwendet, um genetische Ressourcen zu erschließen und die Züchtung zu unterstützen. Genotypisierungdurch- Sequenzierung (GBS) wurde bei der Nicht-Modellpflanze Kamille zur Charakterisierung der genetischen Diversität angewandt. Unter Nutzung von den erhaltenen 6495 hochqualitativen SNP-Markern wurden mittels einer genomweiten Assoziationsstudie (GWAS) DNA-Sequenzen identifiziert, die signifikant mit dem pharmazeutisch wichtigen Alpha-Bisabolol-Gehalt assoziiert sind. Die Ploidievariation in der Art Echte Kamille wurde mittels Hochdurchsatz-Durchflusszytometrie untersucht. Di-, tri- und tetraploide Pflanzen wurden identifiziert und in Feldversuchen charakterisiert. Da für das Ernteprodukt bei Kamille keine Samen benötigt werden, könnte Triploidie ein Weg sein, eine sterile Kamillensorte zu erzeugen. Mit einer sterilen Sorte könnte so das Problem gelöst werden, dass Kamillensamen im Boden bis zu 15 Jahre lang nach dem Anbau auskeimen, was den Fruchtwechsel auf den Ackerböden erheblich erschwert und u.a. zur Akkumulation von Kamillenkrankheiten führt

Longitudinal river zonation in the tropics: examples of fish and caddisflies from endorheic Awash river, Ethiopia

Primary Research PaperSpecific concepts of fluvial ecology are well studied in riverine ecosystems of the temperate zone but poorly investigated in the Afrotropical region. Hence, we examined the longitudinal zonation of fish and adult caddisfly (Trichoptera) assemblages in the endorheic Awash River (1,250 km in length), Ethiopia. We expected that species assemblages are structured along environmental gradients, reflecting the pattern of large-scale freshwater ecoregions. We applied multivariate statistical methods to test for differences in spatial species assemblage structure and identified characteristic taxa of the observed biocoenoses by indicator species analyses. Fish and caddisfly assemblages were clustered into highland and lowland communities, following the freshwater ecoregions, but separated by an ecotone with highest biodiversity. Moreover, the caddisfly results suggest separating the heterogeneous highlands into a forested and a deforested zone. Surprisingly, the Awash drainage is rather species-poor: only 11 fish (1 endemic, 2 introduced) and 28 caddisfly species (8 new records for Ethiopia) were recorded from the mainstem and its major tributaries. Nevertheless, specialized species characterize the highland forests, whereas the lowlands primarily host geographically widely distributed species. This study showed that a combined approach of fish and caddisflies is a suitable method for assessing regional characteristics of fluvial ecosystems in the tropicsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Effectiveness and safety of opicapone in Parkinson’s disease patients with motor fluctuations: the OPTIPARK open-label study

Background The efficacy and safety of opicapone, a once-daily catechol-O-methyltransferase inhibitor, have been established in two large randomized, placebo-controlled, multinational pivotal trials. Still, clinical evidence from routine practice is needed to complement the data from the pivotal trials. Methods OPTIPARK (NCT02847442) was a prospective, open-label, single-arm trial conducted in Germany and the UK under clinical practice conditions. Patients with Parkinson’s disease and motor fluctuations were treated with opicapone 50 mg for 3 (Germany) or 6 (UK) months in addition to their current levodopa and other antiparkinsonian treatments. The primary endpoint was the Clinician’s Global Impression of Change (CGI-C) after 3 months. Secondary assessments included Patient Global Impressions of Change (PGI-C), the Unified Parkinson’s Disease Rating Scale (UPDRS), Parkinson’s Disease Questionnaire (PDQ-8), and the Non-Motor Symptoms Scale (NMSS). Safety assessments included evaluation of treatment-emergent adverse events (TEAEs) and serious adverse events (SAEs). Results Of the 506 patients enrolled, 495 (97.8%) took at least one dose of opicapone. Of these, 393 (79.4%) patients completed 3 months of treatment. Overall, 71.3 and 76.9% of patients experienced any improvement on CGI-C and PGI-C after 3 months, respectively (full analysis set). At 6 months, for UK subgroup only (n = 95), 85.3% of patients were judged by investigators as improved since commencing treatment. UPDRS scores at 3 months showed statistically significant improvements in activities of daily living during OFF (mean ± SD change from baseline: − 3.0 ± 4.6, p < 0.0001) and motor scores during ON (− 4.6 ± 8.1, p < 0.0001). The mean ± SD improvements of − 3.4 ± 12.8 points for PDQ-8 and -6.8 ± 19.7 points for NMSS were statistically significant versus baseline (both p < 0.0001). Most of TEAEs (94.8% of events) were of mild or moderate intensity. TEAEs considered to be at least possibly related to opicapone were reported for 45.1% of patients, with dyskinesia (11.5%) and dry mouth (6.5%) being the most frequently reported. Serious TEAEs considered at least possibly related to opicapone were reported for 1.4% of patients. Conclusions Opicapone 50 mg was effective and generally well-tolerated in PD patients with motor fluctuations treated in clinical practice. Trial registration Registered in July 2016 at clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02847442)

Beitrag des Schienengüterverkehrs zur Energiewende

Die Verlagerung von Güterverkehren von der Straße auf die Schiene kann einen Beitrag zur Senkung des Energieverbrauchs im Verkehr leisten. Eine Studie im Auftrag des BMVI hat das Ziel, die Verlagerungspotenziale auf den Schienengüterverkehr und die Wirkungen auf den Endenergieverbrauch und die CO2-Emissionen abzuschätzen. Die Ergebnisse zeigen, dass eine wirksame Reduktion nicht alleine durch infrastrukturelle und technologische Maßnahmen erreicht werden kann, sondern durch eine Umgestaltung des Schienengüterverkehrssystems hin zu innovativen Dienstleistungskonzepten unterstützt werden muss