Productivity and forage quality of a phytodiverse semi-natural grassland under various management regimes

Grassland management experiment (GrassMan) was set up in 2008 on a permanent semi-natural grassland in the Solling uplands, Germany. The main research focus is on the ecosystem functioning of the phytodiverse grassland (e.g. productivity and forage quality, water and nutrient fluxes). The aim of our study was to analyse the effects of vegetation composition and functional diversity on productivity and forage quality of the semi-natural permanent grassland. Variation in sward composition was achieved by herbicide application and resulted in three sward types: control sward type (without herbicide application), monocot-reduced and dicot-reduced. Further management factors included different nutrient input levels (without fertilizer and 180-30-100 kg/ha of N-P-K per year) and use intensity (cut once or three times a year). Functional diversity was determined by estimation of the yield shares for each species in the species composition and their specific functional characteristics. Forage quality was analysed by near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). While sward type influenced the forage quality, yield variation was explained mainly by the management regime

Nonexistence results for the Korteweg-deVries and Kadomtsev-Petviashvili equations

We study characteristic Cauchy problems for the Korteweg-deVries (KdV) equation $u_t=uu_x+u_{xxx}$, and the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili (KP) equation $u_{yy}=\bigl(u_{xxx}+uu_x+u_t\bigr)_x$ with holomorphic initial data possessing nonnegative Taylor coefficients around the origin. For the KdV equation with initial value $u(0,x)=u_0(x)$, we show that there is no solution holomorphic in any neighbourhood of $(t,x)=(0,0)$ in ${\mathbb C}^2$ unless $u_0(x)=a_0+a_1x$. This also furnishes a nonexistence result for a class of $y$-independent solutions of the KP equation. We extend this to $y$-dependent cases by considering initial values given at $y=0$, $u(t,x,0)=u_0(x,t)$, $u_y(t,x,0)=u_1(x,t)$, where the Taylor coefficients of $u_0$ and $u_1$ around $t=0$, $x=0$ are assumed nonnegative. We prove that there is no holomorphic solution around the origin in ${\mathbb C}^3$ unless $u_0$ and $u_1$ are polynomials of degree 2 or lower.Comment: 17 pages in LaTeX2e, to appear in Stud. Appl. Mat

20 years of the European single market: growth effects of EU integration. Policy Brief #2014/02

The ongoing European integration has increased the economic growth of participating national economies. Calculating the cumulative gains in the real gross domestic product per capita resulting from the integration of Europe between 1992 and 2012, every national economy under consideration realized income gains from the European integration. Denmark and Germany saw the greatest gains per resident. If the values from only 1992 and 2012 are compared, every country except for Greece has been able to achieve a higher per capita income due to the European integration

Who profits most from globalization? Policy Brief #2014/01

Globalization, understood as the economic, political and social interconnection of countries, leads to increased economic growth. On average, the more a country proceeds its interconnection with the rest of the world, the greater its economic growth will be. If real per capita gross domestic product (GDP) is chosen as the reference index for the economic benefits of globalization, Finland can point to the largest gain from globalization from 1990 to 2011. Ranked according to this perspective, Germany holds fourth place out of a total of 42 economies evaluated

Maastricht 2.0 - Proposed reform of EU sovereign debt rules. Policy Brief #2012/05

The European Union’s regulations governing sovereign debt are based on the principle of equal treatment of all member states. The recommendations we make here concerning changes in European Union sovereign-debt reduction rules take account of national particularities, but are by no means arbitrary in nature. According to the calculations we present here, such reformed regulations would do far more to promote economic growth than would be the case under the Fiscal Compact’s European debt brake. By 2030, real gains in growth will amount to more than 450 billion euros more than the outcome that would presumably be obtained under the European debt brake