The Freese Organic Farm is testing a number of adaptation options for agriculture, especially in the area of the cultivation of cereals and of high-quality vegetables. Open-field crop farming is becoming ever more difficult due to climate change. In order to better protect vegetable cultures from such extreme weather events as heat waves or heavy rain, the Freese Organic Farm is testing the following innovations: (1) A new greenhouse covering which, due to its particular permittivity, makes open-field-like light conditions possible in a protected structure. At the same time the farm is seeking resilient, climate adapted vegetable strains which are to be examined for their particular properties, both in open-field cultivation and under the protection of this innovative foil. (2) In the area of cereal raising, the organic farm is trying to cultivate an old strain of rye. (3) And by baking and marketing bread from this rye, the farm wants to raise consciousness about the issue of climate change and adaptation.
The farm Moorgut Kartzfehn in Bösel/Kartzfehn is the largest independent turkey-raising operation in Europe, and at the same time has Germany’s largest research site for turkeys. Since turkeys, like all birds, cannot sweat, the predicted long and hot summer days are a risk, especially for the final stage of turkey-farming. In order to avoid heat stress for the animals, various ventilation and feeding concepts have been developed in the context of nordwest2050.
Due to growing animal stocks and increasing numbers of biogas facilities (fermentation residues), as well as the limited possibilities for use as fertilizer, handling liquid manure involves ever greater distances. In the future therefore, important steps will involve both an increase in transport-worthiness and a reduction of transport routes and quantities of organic nutrient-containing materials produced; this is especially true for liquid manure and fermentation residues. New, climate-adapted business models need to be developed. During the course of the nordwest2050 project, The Naturdünger-Verwertungs GmbH (Natural Fertilizer Recycling Company/NDV), functioning as an expert and a multiplier, provided data on background knowledge especially for the presentation series Land-Use in the Context of Climate Change in the Northwest.
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.
ONNO e.V., the East Frisian Network for Ecology – Region – Future, functions as a mediator between its members affected by climate change, the scientists in the project nordwest2050, and the public. The Association is especially active in the area of food communications and education, in order to strengthen the perspective of sustainable food culture in East Friesland among all relevant actors. In the context of this project, this is especially being developed and deepened with respect to the issue of climate change.
In order to initiate the design, communication and implementation of the transformation to a lowconflict and climate-adapted land-use system, the Centers of Competence e.V. organized three events in the context of nordwest2050 between 2010 and 2013. In cooperation with the Carl von Ossietzky University of Oldenburg, a dialogue was initiated in which heterogeneity of the issues and the various interests of the actors on the issue of land-use was discussed and a solution-oriented manner. At the second and largest event, in February 2013, the »Aurich Declaration,« a regional statement on the most important land-use problems, and concrete approaches to solutions, was adopted. It is represented and supported by a wide range of authors from the region.
Content:
Regional Activities:
Looking Back on Five Years of RADOST;
RADOST Final Conference Takes Stock, Looks Ahead;
Looking Back: Comments on RADOST;
Bay of Kiel Climate Alliance Seeks to Make the Region a Climate Conscious Vacation Destination;
What’s Next after RADOST?
New Web Tool: “Northern German Climate Monitor”;
International Activities:
RADOST at the European Maritime Day;
Contributions wanted for ECCA Conference 2015;
Publications:
Communicating Adaptation to Regional Climate Change Impacts;
New RADOST reports;
Third Special Edition of “Coastal & Marine“
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. Global warming may increase abiotic as well as biotic pressures and exacerbate environmental conditions in coastal ecosystems. The present study focussed on the effects of single or subsequently combined stressors on survival and palatability of juvenile F. vesiculosus. Fucoid offspring were exposed to high temperature and/ or feeding pressure. Feeding preference of Idotea baltica was quantified in a pellet assay calculated as an odds ratio. High temperature significantly impaired the survival of juvenile fucoids. Neither single nor combined stress considerably influenced the feeding preference of I. baltica. Surprisingly I. baltica strictly avoided pellets with juvenile F. vesiculosus compared to adult F. vesiculosus. Avoidance tended to be less pronounced in juvenile fucoids previously stressed by high temperature. Obviously grazing does not induce anti-herbivore defence, but rather the young plants appeared constitutively well-protected against isopod feeding. These results contradict the prevailing opinion that juvenile F. vesiculosus is more susceptible to herbivore grazing than adult F. vesiculosus.
Regional climate change projections show a changing climate in the metropolitan region of Hamburg for the end of the century: The temperature could increase and the precipitation in summer could decrease. To cope with the probably longer lasting and hotter summer conditions in Europe there are different possible adaptation measures in land management practice, e.g. forest conversion. That means the conversion of mostly coniferous forest monocultures to deciduous and mixed forests. Mixed forests are generally more adaptable in comparison to conifer forests. They ensure an increased groundwater recharge because of less canopy interception and reduced transpiration outside the growing season. An interesting question is how forest conversion would feedback to the regional climate under different climate conditions. To explore climate feedbacks, REMO (regional climate model at the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg) is applied. To get a more realistic representation of the land surface, a current dataset from a digital basis landscape model of the Federal Agency for Cartography and Geodesy is used instead of the standard representation of the land surface in REMO. In some areas of the metropolitan region of Hamburg the updated land surface increases the forest fraction. Additionally, all coniferous forest types are converted into broadleaf forest types to study the maximum impact on the simulated near surface climate. This set-up is used for a climate simulation with REMO, forced by ERA-INTERIM reanalysis data for the period of 1990-2008. Selected climate variables are analyzed and the associated processes are investigated: The different forest distributions affect particularly the evapotranspiration and thus the water- and energy cycle of the soil and the lower atmosphere. Especially, the effects in the very hot and dry year 2003 and in the wet year 2002 are analyzed. To study the impacts of the forest distributions under different climate conditions, a second climate simulation is set up with REMO, forced by ECHAM5-MPIOM for the historical period 1970-2000 and for the future time periods 2035-2065 and 2070-2100 under A1B emissions. This allows analyzing the impact of a changed forest cover under different climate conditions. It gives a first estimation of climate sensitivity.
This work deal with a comparison between the common
"bathtub method" and a state-of-the-art hydrodynamic model, called MIKE21 HD Flow Model, for modelling storm surges. The aim of this study is to work out the differences between both approaches and to find out how probable differences look like. There is the question if the "bathtub method" represents flooding adequate or, if the consideration of physics by hydrodynamic models makes a major difference and displays maybe the "real" risk of
inundations. This work tries to underline the differences between those two approaches, where the strengths and weaknesses are and what influence those differences have for an inundation analysis. The investigation was made on a digital elevation model for the study area of Kiel, the capital city of the state Schleswig-Holstein in Germany. The two approaches were made on data for a small storm surge on the basis of water-level-change and wind-regime data from 2010.