@article{NeillJankowskiBrandoetal.2017, author = {Neill, Christopher and Jankowski, KathiJo and Brando, Paulo M. and Coe, Michael T. and Deegan, Linda A. and Macedo, Marcia N. and Riskin, Shelby H. and Porder, Stephen and Elsenbeer, Helmut and Krusche, Alex V.}, title = {Surprisingly Modest Water Quality Impacts From Expansion and Intensification of Large-Sscale Commercial Agriculture in the Brazilian Amazon-Cerrado Region}, series = {Tropical conservation science}, volume = {10}, journal = {Tropical conservation science}, publisher = {Sage Publ.}, address = {Thousand Oaks}, issn = {1940-0829}, doi = {10.1177/1940082917720669}, pages = {5}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Large-scale commercial cropping of soybeans expanded in the tropical Amazon and Cerrado biomes of Brazil after 1990. More recently, cropping intensified from single-cropping of soybeans to double-cropping of soybeans with corn or cotton. Cropland expansion and intensification, and the accompanying use of mineral fertilizers, raise concerns about whether nutrient runoff and impacts to surface waters will be similar to those experienced in commercial cropland regions at temperate latitudes. We quantified water infiltration through soils, water yield, and streamwater chemistry in watersheds draining native tropical forest and single-and double-cropped areas on the level, deep, highly weathered soils where cropland expansion and intensification typically occurs. Although water yield increased four-fold from croplands, streamwater chemistry remained largely unchanged. Soil characteristics exerted important control over the movement of nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) into streams. High soil infiltration rates prevented surface erosion and movement of particulate P, while P fixation in surface soils restricted P movement to deeper soil layers. Nitrogen retention in deep soils, likely by anion exchange, also appeared to limit N leaching and export in streamwater from both single-and double-cropped watersheds that received nitrogen fertilizer. These mechanisms led to lower streamwater P and N concentrations and lower watershed N and P export than would be expected, based on studies from temperate croplands with similar cropping and fertilizer application practices.}, language = {en} } @phdthesis{Holsten2013, author = {Holsten, Anne}, title = {Climate change vulnerability assessments in the regional context}, url = {http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:kobv:517-opus-66836}, school = {Universit{\"a}t Potsdam}, year = {2013}, abstract = {Adapting sectors to new conditions under climate change requires an understanding of regional vulnerabilities. Conceptually, vulnerability is defined as a function of sensitivity and exposure, which determine climate impacts, and adaptive capacity of a system. Vulnerability assessments for quantifying these components have become a key tool within the climate change field. However, there is a disagreement on how to make the concept operational in studies from a scientific perspective. This conflict leads to many still unsolved challenges, especially regarding the quantification and aggregation of the components and their suitable level of complexity. This thesis therefore aims at advancing the scientific foundation of such studies by translating the concept of vulnerability into a systematic assessment structure. This includes all components and implies that for each considered impact (e.g. flash floods) a clear sensitive entity is defined (e.g. settlements) and related to a direction of change for a specific climatic stimulus (e.g. increasing impact due to increasing days with heavy precipitation). Regarding the challenging aggregation procedure, two alternative methods allowing a cross-sectoral overview are introduced and their advantages and disadvantages discussed. This assessment structure is subsequently exemplified for municipalities of the German state North Rhine-Westphalia via an indicator-based deductive approach using information from literature. It can be transferred also to other regions. As for many relevant sectors, suitable indicators to express the vulnerability components are lacking, new quantification methods are developed and applied in this thesis, for example for the forestry and health sector. A lack of empirical data on relevant thresholds is evident, for example which climatic changes would cause significant impacts. Consequently, the multi-sectoral study could only provide relative measures for each municipality, in relation to the region. To fill this gap, an exemplary sectoral study was carried out on windthrow impacts in forests to provide an absolute quantification of the present and future impact. This is achieved by formulating an empirical relation between the forest characteristics and damage based on data from a past storm event. The resulting measure indicating the sensitivity is then combined with wind conditions. Multi-sectoral vulnerability assessments require considerable resources, which often hinders the implementation. Thus, in a next step, the potential for reducing the complexity is explored. To predict forest fire occurrence, numerous meteorological indices are available, spanning over a range of complexity. Comparing their performance, the single variable relative humidity outperforms complex indicators for most German states in explaining the monthly fire pattern. This is the case albeit it is itself an input factor in most indices. Thus, this meteorological factor alone is well suited to evaluate forest fire danger in many Germany regions and allows a resource-efficient assessment. Similarly, the complexity of methods is assessed regarding the application of the ecohydrological model SWIM to the German region of Brandenburg. The inter-annual soil moisture levels simulated by this model can only poorly be represented by simpler statistical approach using the same input data. However, on a decadal time horizon, the statistical approach shows a good performance and a strong dominance of the soil characteristic field capacity. This points to a possibility to reduce the input factors for predicting long-term averages, but the results are restricted by a lack of empirical data on soil water for validation. The presented assessments of vulnerability and its components have shown that they are still a challenging scientific undertaking. Following the applied terminology, many problems arise when implementing it for regional studies. Advances in addressing shortcomings of previous studies have been made by constructing a new systematic structure for characterizing and aggregating vulnerability components. For this, multiple approaches were presented, but they have specific advantages and disadvantages, which should also be carefully considered in future studies. There is a potential to simplify some methods, but more systematic assessments on this are needed. Overall, this thesis strengthened the use of vulnerability assessments as a tool to support adaptation by enhancing their scientific basis.}, language = {en} } @article{DaskalopoulouD'AlessandroLongoetal.2022, author = {Daskalopoulou, Kyriaki and D'Alessandro, Walter and Longo, Manfredi and Pecoraino, Giovannella and Calabrese, Sergio}, title = {Shallow sea gas manifestations in the Aegean Sea (Greece) as natural analogs to study ocean acidification}, series = {Frontiers in Marine Science}, volume = {8}, journal = {Frontiers in Marine Science}, publisher = {Frontiers Media}, address = {Lausanne}, issn = {2296-7745}, doi = {10.3389/fmars.2021.775247}, pages = {19}, year = {2022}, abstract = {The concepts of CO2 emission, global warming, climate change, and their environmental impacts are of utmost importance for the understanding and protection of the ecosystems. Among the natural sources of gases into the atmosphere, the contribution of geogenic sources plays a crucial role. However, while subaerial emissions are widely studied, submarine outgassing is not yet well understood. In this study, we review and catalog 122 literature and unpublished data of submarine emissions distributed in ten coastal areas of the Aegean Sea. This catalog includes descriptions of the degassing vents through in situ observations, their chemical and isotopic compositions, and flux estimations. Temperatures and pH data of surface seawaters in four areas affected by submarine degassing are also presented. This overview provides useful information to researchers studying the impact of enhanced seawater CO2 concentrations related either to increasing CO2 levels in the atmosphere or leaking carbon capture and storage systems.}, language = {en} } @article{BubeckKreibichPenningRowselletal.2017, author = {Bubeck, Philip and Kreibich, Heidi and Penning-Rowsell, E. C. and Botzen, W. J. Wouter and de Moel, H. and Klijn, F.}, title = {Explaining differences in flood management approaches in Europe and in the USA - a comparative analysis}, series = {Journal of flood risk management}, volume = {10}, journal = {Journal of flood risk management}, publisher = {Wiley}, address = {Hoboken}, issn = {1753-318X}, doi = {10.1111/jfr3.12151}, pages = {436 -- 445}, year = {2017}, abstract = {Flood risk management in Europe and worldwide is not static but constantly in a state of flux. There has been a trend towards more integrated flood risk management in many countries. However, the initial situation and the pace and direction of change is very different in the various countries. In this paper, we will present a conceptual framework that seeks to explain why countries opt for different flood risk management portfolios. The developed framework utilises insights from a range of policy science concepts in an integrated way and considers, among others, factors such as geographical characteristics, the experience with flood disasters, as well as human behavioural aspects.}, language = {en} }