The Baltic Sea as a time machine for the future coastal ocean

Coastal global oceans are expected to undergo drastic changes driven by climate change and increasing anthropogenic pressures in coming decades. Predicting specific future conditions and assessing the best management strategies to maintain ecosystem integrity and sustainable resource use are difficult, because of multiple interacting pressures, uncertain projections, and a lack of test cases for management. We argue that the Baltic Sea can serve as a time machine to study consequences and mitigation of future coastal perturbations, due to its unique combination of an early history of multistressor disturbance and ecosystem deterioration and early implementation of cross-border environmental management to address these problems. The Baltic Sea also stands out in providing a strong scientific foundation and accessibility to long-term data series that provide a unique opportunity to assess the efficacy of management actions to address the breakdown of ecosystem functions. Trend reversals such as the return of top predators, recovering fish stocks, and reduced input of nutrient and harmful substances could be achieved only by implementing an international, cooperative governance structure transcending its complex multistate policy setting, with integrated management of watershed and sea. The Baltic Sea also demonstrates how rapidly progressing global pressures, particularly warming of Baltic waters and the surrounding catchment area, can offset the efficacy of current management approaches. This situation calls for management that is (i) conservative to provide a buffer against regionally unmanageable global perturbations, (ii) adaptive to react to new management challenges, and, ultimately, (iii) multisectorial and integrative to address conflicts associated with economic trade-offs

The repeatability of cognitive performance:A meta-analysis

This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from The Royal Society via the DOI in this record.Behavioural and cognitive processes play important roles in mediating an individual's interactions with its environment. Yet, while there is a vast literature on repeatable individual differences in behaviour, relatively little is known about the repeatability of cognitive performance. To further our understanding of the evolution of cognition, we gathered 44 studies on individual performance of 25 species across six animal classes and used meta-analysis to assess whether cognitive performance is repeatable. We compared repeatability (R) in performance (1) on the same task presented at different times (temporal repeatability), and (2) on different tasks that measured the same putative cognitive ability (contextual repeatability). We also addressed whether R estimates were influenced by seven extrinsic factors (moderators): type of cognitive performance measurement, type of cognitive task, delay between tests, origin of the subjects, experimental context, taxonomic class and publication status. We found support for both temporal and contextual repeatability of cognitive performance, with mean R estimates ranging between 0.15 and 0.28. Repeatability estimates were mostly influenced by the type of cognitive performance measures and publication status. Our findings highlight the widespread occurrence of consistent inter-individual variation in cognition across a range of taxa which, like behaviour, may be associated with fitness outcomes.PKYC is supported by Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (PE1801); JOvH was funded by an ERC consolidator grant (616474). MC and this research was supported by a grant from the Human Frontier Science Program to ASC and JM-F (RGP0006/2015)

Food webs under changing biodiversity - Top-down control

Report on effects of changing predation pressure on benthic and pelagic specie

Aktuelle Beiträge zur Energiediskussion Band 1: Ein Alternativszenarium zur Energiepolitik

Am 30. Mai 1979 stellte Herr Dr. Erhard Eppler "Ein Alternativszenarium zur Energiepolitik" vor, das in der öffentlichen Energiediskussion beträchtliche Beachtung, aber auch viel Kritik fand. Es ist das Ziel dieses Beitrages, die in dem "Alternativszenarium" dargelegten energiepolitischen Vorschläge und Strategien kritisch zu analysieren und zu bewerten. Insbesondere soll untersucht werden, ob das "Alternativszenarium" auf wissenschaftlich belastbaren Fakten und Analysen, auf nachvollziehbaren und in sich konsistenten Schlußfolgerungen aufbaut und ob die vorgeschlagenen energiepolitischen Maßnahmen Grundlage einer realitätsbezogenen Energiepolitik sein können. Dabei stehen unter anderem folgende Fragen im Vordergrund: a. Ist das Szenario in sich konsistent? D.h. sind die Fakten und Argumente logisch aufeinander aufgebaut und in sich schlüssig oder gibt es Widersprüche? b. Sind in dem "Alternativszenarium" alle wichtigen (auch übergreifenden) Aspekte des Energieproblems angesprochen? c. Sind die durchgeführten Rechnungen fehlerfrei und beruhen sie auf sachlich richtigen Annahmen? d. Sind die abgeleiteten Schlußfolgerungen plausibel und die vorgeschlagenen Maßnahmen technisch-wirtschaftlich realisierbar oder sind sie primär Ausfluß politischer Vorstellungen? e. Sind die Überlegungen nachvollziehbar? D.h. sind die zugrunde gelegten Annahmen und Zahlen vollständig und überprüfbar? Es ist nicht die Absicht dieses Berichtes, auf alle in dem "Alternativszenarium" angesprochenen Aspekte einzugehen, sondern wir haben uns auf die uns wesentlich erscheinenden Aussagen konzentriert

Aktuelle Beiträge zur Energiediskussion Band 2: Energiewende? Analysen, Fragen und Anmerkungen zu dem vom ÖKO-Institut vorgelegten "Alternativ-Bericht"

Im März 1980 stellte das "Öko-Institut", Freiburg, der Öffentlichkeit unter dem Titel "Energie-Wende, Wachstum und Wohlstand ohne Erdöl und Uran" ' einen Alternativ-Bericht zur Energieversorgung in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland vor. Das zentrale Ziel dieser Energiestudie ist es, nachzuweisen, daß die Bundesrepublik Deutschland ohne den Einsatz von Kernenergie (und langfristig, d.h. im Jahre 2030, ohne Erdöl) auskommt und trotzdem wirtschaftliches Wachstum möglich ist, so "wie die gängigen optimistischen Prognosen der maßgeblichen Wirtschaftsinstitute es erhoffen" /S. 9ff, S. 25/ . In diesem Zusammenhang ist es ein weiteres Hauptanliegen der Studie, eine "neue"obere Grenze" des Energiebedarfswertes zu bestimmen, um "auch für die konventionellen wachstumseuphorischen Zukunftsprognosen den Energiebedarfswert an"(zugeben)", der $\underline{höchstens}$ befriedigt werden $\underline{muß}$, um selbst deren Verwirklichung von der Energieversorgung her möglich zu machen". [...

How old are you—Evaluation of age reading methods for the invasive round goby (Neogobius melanostomus, Pallas 1814)

In the Baltic, the first observation of the round goby (Neogobius melanostomus, Pallas 1814) was made in 1990. Within the past decade the species became invasive and spread rapidly throughout the Baltic Sea. Studies about the fishes potential impacts on resident species promote the need for an increasing knowledge of their basic stock structures such as growth rates, longevity and mortality, which all rely on accurate estimates of age. Former studies on the round goby have used several different age reading techniques. In this study, we compared three standard otolith preparation methods for ageing and present the best procedure for the invasive round goby. The results showed significant differences in age estimates of the same fish between the different preparation methods and between readers. The estimation of the first annulus, the first year, was the most problematic. The overall agreement was lowest when reading the whole otoliths while the best performance was achieved with sectioned and stained preparation method. Depending on method used the growth estimates also differed. The results question comparability between previous studies and highlight the importance of harmonised aging procedures for the round goby for obtaining correct estimates of population parameters such as growth rate, age at maturity, and longevity

Altered phosphorylation but no neurodegeneration in a mouse model of tau hyperphosphorylation

The role of hyperphosphorylation of tau in Alzheimer's disease is still unsolved. Here we describe a novel transgenic mouse model, expressing a pseudohyperphosphorylated (PHP) variant of the longest human CNS tau isoform in forebrain neurons. We report that pseudohyperphosphorylation decreases phosphorylation at T205 while other sites (T212, S262) are less or not affected compared to mice expressing wildtype tau. Despite the differences in phosphorylation, the subcellular distribution of tau is not affected and mice do not develop highly aggregated states of tau. PHP tau expressing mice do not show any evidence for neurodegeneration as determined from morphometric measurements of neocortical regions, caspase activation, analysis of mitochondrial dysfunction, or determination of spine densities. In agreement, no differences in learning and memory are observed. The data indicates that moderate levels of modified tau alone are not sufficient to induce tau aggregation or neurodegeneration in transgenic mice. With our model it becomes possible to study the effects of hyperphosphorylation at conditions which may prevail in an early preaggregation state of the disease

Energiewende Analysen, Fragen und Anmerkungen zu dem vom OEKO-Institut vorgelegten 'Alternativ-Bericht'

SIGLEDEGerman