Climate researchers around the world are sounding the alarm about exceeding critical temperature values on the Earth. If temperatures pass what are called tipping points, the results could be catastrophic. An international team of researchers, including members from the Technical University of Munich (TUM), has now demonstrated in simulations that the temperature tipping point for the Greenland ice sheet can be exceeded in certain cases for a short time, as long as extreme countermeasures are taken afterwards. If the ice mass should melt entirely, the result would be a massive rise in the sea level.
In order to give pupils impulses for a sustainable life, teachers need new competences and innovative teaching methods. Within the framework of the Green Call, material on the topic of "sustainability" is particularly in demand. This is now being developed by the international EU project SYNAPSES under the leadership of Prof. Dr. Franz X. Bogner from the University of Bayreuth. New concepts for sustainable citizenship are to be developed by 2026.
The decline of insects threatens many ecosystems worldwide. While the effects of pesticides are well researched, there has been a lack of knowledge about the effects of other anthropogenic pollutants. Animal ecologists at the University of Bayreuth have now studied the effects of diesel exhaust particles on bumblebees for the first time. In two new studies, they show that these fine dust particles can significantly damage the organism of bumblebees if they are permanently ingested through food. The Bavarian State Ministry for the Environment and Consumer Protection funded the research work as part of the BayÖkotox project network.
By 2035, the electricity generated in Germany is to come entirely from renewable sources. However, an electricity supply generated predominantly from sun and wind will fluctuate over the course of the day. Therefore, the Kopernikus project SynErgie, which has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) since 2016, is investigating how energy-intensive companies can flexibly adapt their demand to the electricity supply. On the part of the University of Bayreuth, Prof. Dr. Knut Werner Lange is researching the legal framework conditions. Recently, the third phase of the nationwide large-scale project started.
A study conducted by early career researchers from the Universities of Passau and Bern based on data from Switzerland has revealed: On days when temperatures exceed thirty degrees Celsius, the number of occupational accidents increases by 7.4 percent. With office workers, the night is the main cause.
The Chair of European Ethnology at the University of Würzburg invites you to an international conference on Environmental Humanities research at the beginning of August.
Prof. Dr. Christoph Helbig, Chair of Ecological Resource Technology at the University of Bayreuth, is investigating framework conditions and measures for the circular economy on an international level in his latest project, using the example of electronics and electric vehicle batteries. The goal is to come up with concrete proposals for a more efficient and environmentally friendly circular economy.
For nearly twenty years, the Floodplain Institute of Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt has been researching the effects of restoration measures on water bodies and floodplain landscapes. Meanwhile, KU geographers are among the leading researchers in this field. Their expertise, which they have gathered in a model project in the Danube floodplains between Neuburg and Ingolstadt, is now being incorporated into an environmental program of the European Union.
In the northwest of the Republic of Chad, in a remote desert region of the Tibesti Mountains, there are irrigated gardens divided into floors for the cultivation of fruits, vegetables, herbs and dates. Dr. habil. Tilman Musch, a social anthropologist at the University of Bayreuth, established these Sahara gardens in close cooperation with local residents. He reports on the goals, challenges and successes of the project, which has been funded by the Gerda Henkel Foundation since 2021 and follows on from earlier traditions of oasis horticulture in the Sahara, in the journal "Berichte über Landwirtschaft" published by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL).
Most plants worldwide live in symbiosis with fungi. Often there is an exchange of nutrients from which both partners benefit. In numerous other cases, however, the plants feed unilaterally at the expense of the fungi. International research groups led by Prof. Dr. Gerhard Gebauer at the University of Bayreuth have now presented a groundbreaking method in the journal "New Phytologist" that makes it possible for the first time to apply isotope analyses to all forms of symbiosis between plants and fungi without restrictions. In principle, it will be possible in the future to determine for each plant which and how many nutrients it obtains from fungal partners.
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