Assessing land use and flood management impacts on ecosystem services in a river landscape (Upper Danube, Germany)

Rivers and floodplains provide many regulating, provisioning and cultural ecosystem services (ES) such as flood risk regulation, crop production or recreation. Intensive use of resources such as hydropower production, construction of detention basins and intensive agriculture substantially change ecosystems and may affect their capacity to provide ES. Legal frameworks such as the European Water Framework Directive, Bird and Habitats Directive and Floods Directive already address various uses and interests. However, management is still sectoral and often potential synergies or trade‐offs between sectors are not considered. The ES concept could support a joint and holistic evaluation of impacts and proactively suggest advantageous options. The river ecosystem service index (RESI) method evaluates the capacity of floodplains to provide ES by using a standardized five‐point scale for 1 km‐floodplain segments based on available spatial data. This scaling allows consistent scoring of all ES and their integration into a single index. The aim of this article is to assess ES impacts of different flood prevention scenarios on a 75 km section of the Danube river corridor in Germany. The RESI method was applied to evaluate scenario effects on 13 ES with the standardized five‐point scale. Synergies and trade‐offs were identified as well as ES bundles and dependencies on land use and connectivity. The ratio of actual and former floodplain has the strongest influence on the total ES provision: the higher the percentage and area of an active floodplain, the higher the sum of ES. The RESI method proved useful to support decision‐making in regional planning.BMBF, 033W024A, ReWaM - Verbundprojekt RESI: River Ecosystem Service Index, Teilprojekt

CDOM retrieval using measurements of downwelling irradiance

As it can strongly influence the availability of light and thus primary production, coloured dissolved organic matter (CDOM) affects the function of lake ecosystems. Therefore reliable methods are required for the monitoring of CDOM concentration. A new method using downwelling irradiance was tested for applicability in four selected lakes of the Bavarian Osterseen Lake District, which consists of 19 naturally connected freshwater lakes of different trophic level. The method separates between the direct and diffuse part of the incident light in order to handle the strong variability of the underwater light field. It is implemented in the software WASI, which is capable to retrieve water constituents by inverse modeling. During field campaigns downwelling irradiance measurements using RAMSES sensors were made in different depths. Simultaneously, water samples were taken in three depths (0.5 m, 2 m and Secchi disk depth), from which the absorption coefficient of CDOM, aY, was derived in the range from 190 to 900 nm using photometric absorption measurements. Concentration (defined as aY at 440 nm) ranged from 0.33 to 1.55 m-1 ± 0.04 m-1, the spectral slope at 440 nm from 0.0120 to 0.0184 nm-1 with a mean of 0.0145 ± 0.0008 nm-1. These laboratory measurements from water samples were compared to CDOM concentration obtained by inverse modeling of downwelling irradiance measurements using WASI. For sensor depths lower than 1 to 1.5 m large uncertainties were observed. The measurements in 2 m depth and at Secchi disk depth yielded good correlation between water sample and WASI derived data (R^2 = 0.87) with a mean standard deviation of 0.06 m-1 for the determined CDOM concentrations. This new method is an alternative to laboratory analysis of water samples from in situ measurements of CDOM concentration

The Importance of Cultural Ecosystem Services and Biodiversity for Landscape Visitors in the Biosphere Reserve Swabian Alb (Germany)

Agricultural landscapes play an important role in providing different ecosystem services. However, the current trend of land use intensification in Central Europe involves the risk of trade-offs between them. Since cultural ecosystem services (CES) are less tangible, they are often underrepresented in landscape management decisions. To highlight this subject we evaluated CES in agro-ecosystems in the biosphere reserve Swabian Alb (Southwestern Germany). We conducted a survey among visitors to investigate their usage of the landscape, their perception as well as valuation of CES, and interrelations with biodiversity. The results show the presence of various types of usage related to cultural services, the most prominent being recreation and landscape aesthetics. People declared a high affinity to nature and biodiversity awareness. A participatory mapping task revealed their appreciation of biodiverse and ecologically relevant places such as protected species-rich grasslands, traditional orchards and hedgerows. Several socio-demographic differences emerged, e.g., between age classes and local/non-local visitors. We conclude that our exemplary methodical approach was successful in capturing the CES and their link to biodiversity in the investigated biosphere reserve, while identifying priority fields of action concerning the integration of CES into management and planning of cultural landscapes, ultimately serving as guides for local decision-makers

Measuring writing literacy. The development of a standardized test for grade 4 to 9

Kinder und Jugendliche mit mangelnder Schreibkompetenz sind in ihrer gesellschaftlichen Teilhabe beeinträchtigt. Daher ist eine möglichst frühe Förderung dieser nötig. Eine valide und reliable Diagnostik ist hierfür unabdingbar. Zurzeit existiert jedoch im deutschen Sprachraum kein Diagnoseverfahren zur Schreibkompetenz, das theoretisch fundiert, psychometrisch abgesichert und in der schulischen Praxis anwendbar ist. Der vorliegende Beitrag will in einem ersten Ansatz zeigen, wie diese Lücke geschlossen werden könnte. Es wird die Entwicklung eines Testverfahrens vorgestellt, welches auf Basis eines Modells des Schreibprozesses entwickelt wurde und verschiedene theoretische Ansätze berücksichtigt. Neuartig ist, dass mit dem Verfahren der Versuch unternommen wird, für den Schreibprozess wichtige Einzelkompetenzen explizit zu testen. Am Beispiel einer Subskala wird die Vorgehensweise erläutert. Erste Ergebnisse zu den psychometrischen Eigenschaften dieser Skala (basierend auf einem Sample von N=541 Kindern und Jugendlichen der 4. bis 9. Klassenstufe) werden berichtet. (DIPF/Orig.)Children and adolescents with poor writing skills have difficulties participating in society, which is why they need to receive support as early as possible. This requires a valid and reliable diagnostic procedure. However, no theoretically-grounded, psychometrically-sound diagnostic procedure for writing skills that can be applied in school-based practice currently exists for the German-speaking countries. The present research makes an initial attempt to close this gap. We present a testing procedure developed on the basis of a model of the writing process that takes various theoretical approaches into account. What is novel is our attempt to explicitly test individual competences that are important for the writing process. We demonstrate our approach using one sub-scale as an example, and report initial results on the psychometric properties of this scale (based on a sample of N = 541 children and adolescents in Grades 4 through 9). (DIPF/Orig.

[Experience of disease, relationship and sexuality in patients with COPD].

Experience of disease, relationship and sexuality in patients with COPDObjectives: We aimed to determine the impacts of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) on the patient's relationship and sexuality. Methods: In a multicentric study 105, 52 of them female, non-selected COPD patients who were married or in a partnership were interviewed about their partnership and sexuality. Results: Average age was 64.1 ± 9.2 years. Patients with a more severe COPD had a lower Self-Illness-Separation (SIS), i. e. they reveal significantly higher burden of suffering. Life satisfaction and satisfaction with partnership, sexuality and sexual intercourse has decreased significantly since the diagnosis (p < 0.05). Desire and frequency to be sexually active have also decreased (p < 0.001). 61 % of the respondents felt increasingly dependent from their partner. Conclusion: The results underline that patients have a stage-dependent emotional distance to their illness, the partnership develops in direction of dependency, and sexuality deteriorates with increasing severity of the COPD. The PRISM test proved to be a great way to illustrate this development and to start a conversation with the patients about it. COPD patients and their partners should be referred to the potential impact of the disease on their partnership and sexuality and should be supported in their potential solutions considering gender-specific aspects