Public life and economic activity was reduced to a minimum as part of measures to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, which changed the demand on the energy market. Energy consumption and CO2 emissions fell sharply to levels never seen before in times of peace. This reduction, however, was not constant in all regions, as CO2 emissions in Europe fell lower than those in other regions on the planet. Economists at Friedrich-Alexander-Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and in Switzerland are have been investigating how the reduction in demand for energy affected CO2 emission levels in Europe.
Professor Christine Schmitt, geographer at the University of Passau, is part of an international research team that proves – in a “Nature” article – that tropical African mountain forests store more carbon than previously thought.
The newly funded EU Horizon 2020 project Safeguard will address the decline of wild pollinators, its effects on biodiversity and ecosystem services, and options to restore pollinator diversity.
All over the world, climatic influences, insects and other arthropods, as well as microorganisms cause a constant decomposition of deadwood. This natural decomposition releases significant amounts of carbon into the environment and therefore has a major impact on the Earth's carbon cycle. This has been proven by a new study published in Nature. The speed and causes of deadwood decomposition were investigated at 55 forest sites on six continents. Dr Andreas Hemp and Dr Claudia Hemp from the University of Bayreuth investigated deadwood decomposition in different climatic zones on Mount Kilimanjaro.
The speed at which deadwood decomposes in forests depends on the climate as well as on fungi and insects. An international research team has now determined the annual contribution made by deadwood to the global carbon cycle and quantified the importance of insects in the decomposition of wood for the first time.
Temperatures on Earth have had a significant influence on the course of evolution. A particularly high number of new species of marine animals emerged after geologically short cooling periods that had already been preceded by a much longer cooling period. This is the conclusion reached by researchers from the Universities of Bayreuth and Erlangen-Nuremberg in a new study that has now been published in the journal PNAS. By combining empirical data and computer simulations, they have found that the influence of rapid climate change on biodiversity is significantly influenced by longer-lasting climate trends in previous periods of the Earth’s history.
The tropical mountain forests of Africa store more carbon per hectare in their above-ground biomass than all other tropical forests on earth. With this great storage capacity, which was previously estimated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) to be considerably lower, they have made a major contribution to climate protection. This is the conclusion of a study published in Nature by an international network of researchers who are urging for the preservation of these carbon-rich ecosystems. Dr. Andreas Hemp from the University of Bayreuth and his team investigated carbon stocks in the mountain forests of Kilimanjaro.
Plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air and fix it in biomass. Climate extremes such as droughts and heat waves lead to lower plant growth (primary production). This means that less CO2 is sequestered from the atmosphere. An international study led by researchers from the University of Augsburg shows that, especially in the northern latitudes, negative extremes in plant growth increased by 10.6 percent between 1982-1998 and 2000-2016. International research team publishes study in the journal ‘Nature Climate Change’, which also shows consequences for the carbon cycle as well as for agriculture
Landshut University of Applied Sciences is researching innovative power electronics for vehicles with fuel cells – with the objective of improving weight, costs and efficiency.
Adding finely ground rock to ecosystems can stimulate CO2 uptake by increasing both the rate of weathering and plant productivity. In a new international study led by geographers from the Augsburg University, the proportion of increased CO2 uptake due to plant productivity was estimated for the first time and the results show that this biological effect is significantly higher than previously assumed.
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