Political and administrative structures play an important role in climate adaptation. Political scientific analysis can identify factors and scopes of action, which could increase the adaptive capacity. The Governance Team therefore investigated key sectors in the Metropolitan Region, including spatial planning, water management, coastal and inland flood protection,
and civil protection.
The vulnerability analysis of the food industry in the Metropolitan Region Bremen-Oldenburg is based on an examination of the supply chains of the poultry, pork, dairy and fish industries.
Two circumstances have shaped the vulnerability assessment presented here: the current strong structural dynamics of the energy sector, albeit with no clear direction; and the fact that the energy providers have long been prepared to deal with a large variety of climatic and economic uncertainties.
Managing the impacts of climate change is an important issue for sustainable urban planning. A large range of economic activities influence urban climate and are influenced by climate change itself. The impacts of climate change on power plants, manufacturing processes and business locations as well as adaptation options should be analysed to understand the vulnerability to climate change. The seriousness of the potential impacts of
climate change on enterprises requires new concepts and innovative products for flexible and robust adaptation options. The analysis of the impacts of climate change on enterprises and potential adaptation measures is the basis of the research framework of a “climate-focused economic development” within the networking and research project dynaklim. A differentiated vulnerability assessment enables us to define and identify strategies of adaptation in the means of organisational, marked-focused and technical developments.
A reestablishment of Fucus vesiculosus where it is locally vanished would be an indicator for improved water quality. Thus the Agency for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Areas of Schleswig - Holstein (LLUR) is thinking about opportunities to resettle F. vesiculosus. On behalf of RADOST project, the tolerance of early fucoid life stages towards thermal stress was analysed and after four days of thermal treatment a high percentage of the treated fucoid offspring survived. It might be that inside species genotypes exist which are less sensitive against future environmental changes.
Over the last decades, Fucus vesiculosus, an ecologically important macroalga in the German Baltic Sea, has shown a massive retreat from the deeper zones of its former distribution presumably due to low light co-acting with other potential stressors such as high temperature, fouling, and grazing. In shallow water F. vesiculosus may be exposed to high water temperatures during summer seasons. Intensity and frequency of heat waves are expected to increase due to climate change which could potentially affect all fucoid life stages. Early life stage processes (fertilization, germination) are often considered particularly sensitive to stress. If the mortality caused by a first heat wave in a genetically diverse population selects for stress resistance, we would expect the survivors to be less sensitive to a second heat wave or possibly even to other stressors like feeding pressure.
In the present study, the mortality of early post-settlement stages of F. vesiculosus under thermal stress and the sensitivity of survived recruits against a proximate stressor (feeding pressure, second heat wave) were analysed by laboratory experiments. The mortality of early fucoid life stages at 25°C, compared to their mortality at 15°C was significantly higher. Regrettably, the ensuing assessment of feeding impact by Idotea baltica and Hydrobia ulvae on the surviving germlings could not be analysed since the two consumer species unexpectedly avoided feeding on the young stages of F. vesiculosus. During the second thermal stress experiment fucoid offspring which was genetically preselected by high temperature (first heat wave: 25°C) differed not significantly in sensitivity from fucoid offspring without prior stress.
The survey of 4.000 companies in the metropolitan area of Bremen-Oldenburg in north-western Germany conducted by the University of Oldenburg as part of the ‚nordwest2050’ project in 2010 and 2012 showed that the economic importance of climate change is growing. The 2012 survey revealed that 38% of the companies polled already saw climate change as an important success factor for their company. In 2010, 31% of the companies surveyed said that they ascribed a “high” to “very high importance” to climate change for corporate success.
Content:
Climate Change at the Baltic Sea Coast – The RADOST Project;
RADOST Annual Conference 2010;
Regional Activities:
Extractive Polyculture in the Kiel Fjord;
Kick-off meeting – RADOST focus network “Conservation and Land Use”;
Baltic Tourism Network for Climate Change Adaption is launched;
Kick-off for RADOST pilot projects for drainage management;
Geographic Information System (GIS) for RADOST online;
Stakeholder and institutional analysis in RADOST;
International Activities:
RADOST Side Event in Copenhagen;
Transatlantic Media Dialogue regarding;
Climate Policy in Europe and the US;
BaltCICA: 1st International Conference;
Dinner Dialogue;
Publications