TY  - JOUR
A1  - Braun, Christina
A1  - Mustafa, Osama
A1  - Nordt, Anja
A1  - Pfeiffer, Simone
A1  - Peter, Hans-Ulrich
T1  - Environmental monitoring and management proposals for the Fildes Region, King George Island, Antarctica
JF  - Polar research : a Norwegian journal of Polar research
N2  - The Antarctic terrestrial environment is under increasing pressure from human activities. The Fildes Region is characterized by high biodiversity, but is also a major logistic centre for the northern Antarctic Peninsula. Different interests, from scientific research, nature conservation, protection of geological and historical values, station operations, transport logistics and tourism, regularly overlap in space and time. This has led to increasing conflict among the multiple uses of the region and breaches of the legal requirements for environmental protection that apply in the area. The aim of this study was to assess the impacts of human activities in the Fildes Region by monitoring the distribution of bird and seal breeding sites and recording human activities and their associated environmental impacts. Data from an initial monitoring period 2003-06 were compared with data from 2008-10. We observed similar or increased levels of air, land and ship traffic, but fewer violations of overflight limits near Antarctic Specially Protected Area No. 150 Ardley Island. Open waste dumping and oil contamination are still major environmental impacts. Scientific and outdoor leisure activities undertaken by station personnel are more frequent than tourist activities and are likely to have a commensurate level of environmental impact. Despite the initial success of some existing management measures, it is essential that scientific and environmental values continue to be safeguarded, otherwise environmental impacts will increase and the habitat will be further degraded. We argue that the Fildes Region should be considered for designation as an Antarctic Specially Managed Area, a measure that has proven effective for environmental management of vulnerable areas of the Antarctic.
KW  - human impact
KW  - Antarctic
KW  - Fildes Region
KW  - environmental management
KW  - Antarctic Specially Managed Area
KW  - protected area
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.3402/polar.v31i0.18206
SN  - 0800-0395
VL  - 31
IS  - 209
PB  - Co-Action Publ.
CY  - Jarfalla
ER  - 
TY  - JOUR
A1  - Näther, Astrid
A1  - Fösel, Bärbel U.
A1  - Nägele, Verena
A1  - Wüst, Pia K.
A1  - Weinert, Jan
A1  - Bonkowski, Michael
A1  - Alt, Fabian
A1  - Oelmann, Yvonne
A1  - Polle, Andrea
A1  - Lohaus, Gertrud
A1  - Gockel, Sonja
A1  - Hemp, Andreas
A1  - Kalko, Elisabeth K. V.
A1  - Linsenmair, Karl Eduard
A1  - Pfeiffer, Simone
A1  - Renner, Swen
A1  - Schöning, Ingo
A1  - Weisser, Wolfgang W.
A1  - Wells, Konstans
A1  - Fischer, Markus
A1  - Overmann, Jörg
A1  - Friedrich, Michael W.
T1  - Environmental factors affect acidobacterial communities below the subgroup level in Grassland and Forest Soils
JF  - Applied and environmental microbiology
N2  - In soil, Acidobacteria constitute on average 20% of all bacteria, are highly diverse, and are physiologically active in situ. However, their individual functions and interactions with higher taxa in soil are still unknown. Here, potential effects of land use, soil properties, plant diversity, and soil nanofauna on acidobacterial community composition were studied by cultivation-independent methods in grassland and forest soils from three different regions in Germany. The analysis of 16S rRNA gene clone libraries representing all studied soils revealed that grassland soils were dominated by subgroup Gp6 and forest soils by subgroup Gp1 Acidobacteria. The analysis of a large number of sites (n = 57) by 16S rRNA gene fingerprinting methods (terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism [T-RFLP] and denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis [DGGE]) showed that Acidobacteria diversities differed between grassland and forest soils but also among the three different regions. Edaphic properties, such as pH, organic carbon, total nitrogen, C/N ratio, phosphorus, nitrate, ammonium, soil moisture, soil temperature, and soil respiration, had an impact on community composition as assessed by fingerprinting. However, interrelations with environmental parameters among subgroup terminal restriction fragments (T-RFs) differed significantly, e.g., different Gp1 T-RFs correlated positively or negatively with nitrogen content. Novel significant correlations of Acidobacteria subpopulations (i.e., individual populations within subgroups) with soil nanofauna and vascular plant diversity were revealed only by analysis of clone sequences. Thus, for detecting novel interrelations of environmental parameters with Acidobacteria, individual populations within subgroups have to be considered.
Y1  - 2012
U6  - https://doi.org/10.1128/AEM.01325-12
SN  - 0099-2240
VL  - 78
IS  - 20
SP  - 7398
EP  - 7406
PB  - American Society for Microbiology
CY  - Washington
ER  -