On land, in the air – and now also by water: Geographers of Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU) are broadening the scope of their research. Their equipment now includes a research boat with a high-precision depth sounder. It allows researchers to survey the bottom of lakes, rivers, and the sea. This technology has now been used for the first time in a research project in Kaunertal, Austria, where KU scientists have been studying the effects of climate change for several years.
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 long-lived lakes that existed for millions of years freshwater snails developed a particularly high diversity of species. A new study by SNSB paleobiologist Thomas A. Neubauer now shows the importance of these ecosystems for the evolution of freshwater snails on a global and deep-time scale. Neubauer has summarized the evolutionary history of snails in freshwater ecosystems over the past 340 million years. Analysis of literature and available data on distributions and diversity of species through time led to a new understanding of long-lived lakes as islands of evolution.
Woody plants are unusually common on oceanic islands. Scientists at the University of Bayreuth, together with research partners in Italy, Great Britain, Norway and Spain, have now discovered a new explanation for this phenomenon: With the lignification of biomass, many plant species native to oceanic islands have protected themselves from the impact of frequent volcanic eruptions, during which large areas are covered with huge amounts of ash. Woody plants can survive even in ash layers of up to half a metre. Using the example of the Canary Island of La Palma, the European team presents its explanatory approach in the journal "npf biodiversity".
If you uncover a piece of soil in your garden with a spade, you will see a seemingly unspectacular crumbly structure when looking at the piece with your naked eye. "But the soil is subject to constant change – with immediate consequences for issues of food security or climate change", explains Prof. Dr. Nadja Ray. She holds the Chair of Geomatics and Geomathematics at the Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (KU).
An international research team led by Prof. Dr. Tomoo Katsura at the Bavarian Research Institute of Experimental Geochemistry and Geophysics, University of Bayreuth, has discovered why rocks in the Earth's interior suddenly become more viscous at depths of 800 to 1,200 km. The cause of this change is the bridgmanite-enriched rocks that make up most of the Earth's lower mantle below about 1,000 km. These rocks have a much larger grain size than the rocks above them, resulting in high viscosity. The new findings have been published in the journal "Nature".
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.
For several years, ecological research has argued that climate often has no determining influence on the distribution of forests and savannas in tropical regions. However, an international research team led by Prof. Dr. Steven Higgins at the University of Bayreuth has now succeeded in proving that it depends mostly on climatic factors whether regions in Africa are covered by forest or savanna. The study, published in "Science", thus confirms the dominant role of climate in the formation of global vegetation patterns.
Preserving endangered and typical habitats in Europe with their biodiversity is the goal of Natura 2000, a network of nature reserves established by the EU. By 2030, EU member states want to significantly expand this network. A new biogeographical study by the University of Bayreuth published in the "Journal for Nature Conservation" shows: Expanding Natura 2000 sites in financially weaker EU member states to immediately neighbouring regions can be an effective strategy for increasing species and landscape conservation. Natural habitats in these regions are rarely diminished by settlements and economic infrastructure.
A global study published in Ecological Letters shows with hitherto unmatched differentiation the extent to which non-native plants have spread to oceanic and coastal islands over the last 5,000 years. Researchers at the University of Bayreuth and at universities and research institutes in Great Britain, Norway, Austria, Spain, Australia and New Zealand have compiled a dataset covering the vegetation of 29 islands. This was based on analyses of fossil pollen and the current state of research on the classification of plants as native or non-native.
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