Biological soil crusts of Arctic Svalbard and of Livingston Island, Antarctica

Biological soil crusts (BSCs) occur in arid and semi-arid regions worldwide including the Polar Regions. They are important ecosystem engineers, and their composition and areal coverage should be understood before assessing key current functional questions such as their role in biogeochemical nutrient cycles and possible climate change scenarios. Our aim was to investigate the variability of BSCs from Arctic Svalbard and the Antarctic Island, Livingston, using vegetation surveys based on classification by functional group. An additional aim was to describe the structure of BSCs and represent a classification system that can be used in future studies to provide a fast and efficient way to define vegetation type and areal coverage. Firstly, this study demonstrates huge areas occupied by BSCs in Arctic Svalbard, with up to 90 % of soil surface covered, dominated by bryophytes and cyanobacteria, and showing an unexpectedly high variability in many areas. Livingston Island has lower percentage coverage, up to 55 %, but is dominated by lichens. Our findings show that both Polar Regions have varied BSC coverage, within the sites and between them, especially considering their harsh climates and latitudinal positions. Secondly, we have classified the BSCs of both areas into a system that describes the dominant functional groups and local geography, creating a simple scheme that allows easy identification of the prevailing vegetation type. Our results represent the first contribution to the description of BSCs based on their functional group composition in Polar Regions

Superconducting motors for aircraft propulsion: the Advanced Superconducting Motor Experimental Demonstrator project

Abstract: The European Union-funded Advanced Superconducting Motor Experimental Demonstrator (ASuMED) project started in May 2017 with the purpose of demonstrating the benefits of a new, fully superconducting motor for reaching the targets established by the Flightpath 2050 plan. The project aims at a motor power density of 20kW kg−1 using a high-temperature superconducting (HTS) stator. The rotor will use HTS stacks operating like permanent magnets. A highly efficient cryostat for the motor combined with an integrated cryogenic cooling system and associated power converter will be used. This article provides a general overview of the prototype that is currently being assembled and that will be tested soon

Diskursive Landschaften? Positionierungen zur kulturellen Bildung(-spraxis) in ländlichen Räumen

Bender S, Lambrecht M, Rennebach N. Diskursive Landschaften? Positionierungen zur kulturellen Bildung(-spraxis) in ländlichen Räumen. In: Kolleck N, Büdel M, Nolting J, eds. Forschung zu kultureller Bildung in ländlichen Räumen. Methoden, Theorien und erste Befunde. Weinheim/Basel: Beltz Juventa; 2022: 191-206.Kulturelle Bildung erfuhr in den letzten Jahren viel Aufmerksamkeit. Dabei wurden ländliche und periphere Regionen jedoch eher vernachlässigt. Das breite Spektrum der sozial-, kultur- und bildungswissenschaftlichen Beiträge zielt darauf, das Forschungsdesiderat zu ländlichen Räumen teilweise zu beheben. Das Buch präsentiert Ansätze, Forschungsinteressen und erste Ergebnisse aus einer Förderrichtlinie des Bundesministeriums für Bildung und Forschung zu kultureller Bildung in ländlichen Räumen. Im Mittelpunkt stehen theoretische und methodische Herausforderungen der laufenden Forschung

Biological Soil Crust Diversity and Variability of the Artic and Antarctic

<p>Biological Soil Crusts (BSC) are important primary producers in the terrestrial habitats of the polar regions. We aim to provide a precise evaluation of the biodiversity and ecological adaptation of polar BSC. Arctic samples were collected in August 2015 in close vicinity to Ny Ålesund and Longyearbyen. Antarctic samples were collected in January 2015 from the area around the Spanish research station Juan Carlos I on Livingston Island, South Shetland Islands in the western Antarctic. Biodiversity of the samples will be investigated in Rostock and Kaiserslautern, whereas in Cologne we will use a metagenomic and metatranscriptomic approach to investigate the genetic adaptation of selected cyanobacteria and green algae to their habitat.</p> <p> The planned outline for the Cologne subproject includes metagenomic and metatranscriptomic analysis of the BSC samples. To enable comparison of the material collected on Spitsbergen and Livingston Island we will investigate a BSC dominated by <em>Nostoc</em> from each location and a BSC dominated by green algae (e.g. <em>Klebsormidium</em>). Furthermore, transcriptomic data of <em>Nostoc</em> and <em>Klebsormidium</em> cultures, which are exposed to different stress conditions, will be generated to complement our results.</p

Improved appreciation of the functioning and importance of biological soil crusts in Europe – the Soil Crust International project (SCIN)

Here we report details of the European research initiative "Soil Crust International" (SCIN) focusing on the biodiversity of biological soil crusts (BSC, composed of bacteria, algae, lichens, and bryophytes) and on functional aspects in their specific environment. Known as the so-called "colored soil lichen community" (Bunte Erdflechtengesellschaft), these BSCs occur all over Europe, extending into subtropical and arid regions. Our goal is to study the uniqueness of these BSCs on the regional scale and investigate how this community can cope with large macroclimatic differences. One of the major aims of this project is to develop biodiversity conservation and sustainable management strategies for European BSCs. To achieve this, we established a latitudinal transect from the Great Alvar of A-land, Sweden in the north over Gossenheim, Central Germany and Hochtor in the Hohe Tauern National Park, Austria down to the badlands of Tabernas, Spain in the south. The transect stretches over 20A degrees latitude and 2,300 m in altitude, including natural (Hochtor, Tabernas) and semi-natural sites that require maintenance such as by grazing activities (A-land, Gossenheim). At all four sites BSC coverage exceeded 30 % of the referring landscape, with the alpine site (Hochtor) reaching the highest cyanobacterial cover and the two semi-natural sites (A-land, Gossenheim) the highest bryophyte cover. Although BSCs of the four European sites share a common set of bacteria, algae (including cyanobacteria) lichens and bryophytes, first results indicate not only climate specific additions of species, but also genetic/phenotypic uniqueness of species between the four sites. While macroclimatic conditions are rather different, microclimatic conditions and partly soil properties seem fairly homogeneous between the four sites, with the exception of water availability. Continuous activity monitoring of photosystem II revealed the BSCs of the Spanish site as the least active in terms of photosynthetic active periods