Content:
Regional Activities:
Schoolchildren Explore Biodiversity in a Changing Climate;
Rügen in the Year 2030;
RADOST Findings in the “Climate Change in Northern Germany” Dossier;
International Activities:
RADOST at the ECCA Conference;
Adaptation in Mountain & Coastal Areas;
Publications:
Book Release: “Climate Change Adaptation in Practice”;
Contested Values and Practices in the US;
“Coastal & Marine” Magazine;
International Examples of Climate Change Adaptation
Content:
Regional Activities:
RADOST Event at the Darßer Arche;
Save the Date: RADOST Final Conference;
Local Adaptation Strategies for Schleswig-Holstein;
Bay of Kiel Climate Alliance Supports Adaptation Strategy
of the City of Kiel;
“Nothing Stays the Same” – RADOST at the BWK Federal Congress;
Concordance Maps in the North German Climate Atlas;
International Activities:
Adaptation to Climate Change in Mountain & Coastal Areas;
Publications:
„Die Zeit“ Reports on RADOST;
4th RADOST Annual Report;
Adaptation Strategy for the Ports of Lübeck
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“
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.
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.
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.
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.