news

Earth Sciences - Environment - 09.03.2022

Stalagmites trace climate history and impact from volcanic eruptions
Research team including Göttingen University studies volcanic impact on ecosystems in Patagonia The soils and vegetation of Patagonia's fjord regions form a unique and highly sensitive ecosystem that is closely linked to marine ecosystems, sediment deposition and carbon storage in the ocean. A research team, including the University of Göttingen, has been working on reconstructing the climate history of this region in this extremely wet, rainy and inaccessible fjord and island zone of the Patagonian Andes in southern Chile.

Environment - 04.03.2022

Amazon rainforest is losing resilience
The Amazon rainforest is likely losing resilience, data analysis from high-resolution satellite images suggests. This is due to stress from a combination of logging and burning - the influence of human-caused climate change is not clearly determinable so far, but will likely matter greatly in the future.

Environment - Social Sciences - 03.03.2022

’The impacts of climate change depend on the vulnerability and adaptability of societies’
Prof. Jörn Birkmann from the University of Stuttgart is a co-author of the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change [Picture: canva.com] Extreme weather events resulting from climate change will become more frequent and more severe, but the impacts will affect societies very differently, depending on their respective vulnerability and adaptability: This is one of the findings of the 6th Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which was presented at the Federal Press Conference on February 28, 2022.

Life Sciences - Environment - 23.02.2022

While some insects are declining, others might be thriving
Observations of abundance changes in one group of insects- for example grasshoppers - say very little about how other types of insects, such as flies, are doing, even in the same place. This is because different groups of insects may show similar trends in one place, but dissimilar trends in other places.

Life Sciences - Environment - 23.02.2022

Basis for next-gen bioprocesses
Succinic acid is an important precursor for pharmaceutical and cosmetic products and also serves as a component in biodegradable plastics. It is currently derived mainly from petroleum-based processes. Researchers at the Straubing campus of the Technical University of Munich (TUM) are using the marine bacterium Vibrio natriegens as a biocatalyst.

Environment - Life Sciences - 21.02.2022

Beetles in Climate Change
02/21/2022 How do canopy insects react to the sudden disappearance of their host tree? A study in the floodplain forests along the river Elbe shows surprising results. As a result of the droughts of recent years, a pronounced tree mortality has been observed in Germany, which has left clearly visible gaps in forests and parks.

Environment - Life Sciences - 16.02.2022

Where Wild Honeybees Survive
02/16/2022 In northern Spain, wild honeybees use hollow electricity poles as nesting cavities. Natural areas in the surroundings promote the colonies' chances to survive the winter. Until recently, experts considered it unlikely that the honeybee had survived as a wild animal in Europe. In a current study, biologists Benjamin Rutschmann and Patrick Kohl from Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg (JMU) in Bavaria, Germany, show that wild honeybees still exist in the region of Galicia in the northwest of Spain.

Environment - Earth Sciences - 15.02.2022

How Climate Change is Destroying Arctic Coasts
Global warming is causing permafrost in the Arctic to thaw and sea ice to melt. As a result, coasts are less protected and are being eroded, while carbon stored in the soil and carbon dioxide are being released into the ocean and atmosphere. In a first, researchers at Universität Hamburg have now calculated the future scale of these processes for the entire Arctic.

Environment - 15.02.2022

Vanilla cultivation in the right place pays off for people and nature
Research team led by Göttingen University shows potential for sustainable land use in Madagascar Madagascar is the most important country for vanilla production - the fragrant ingredient that is a favourite flavour for ice cream, cakes and cookies. The vanilla orchid is cultivated in the tropical northeast of the island.

Environment - Earth Sciences - 14.02.2022

Satellite data to be used for making cities climate-proof
The consortium "CoKlimax" is developing tools for utilizing Copernicus data for urban planning Whether heat waves or heavy rain: Cities with their high population and building densities are particularly hard hit by the impacts of climate change.

Environment - 14.02.2022

Effect of Forest Management on the Mortality of Beech Trees in Years of Drought 2018/19
Research team studied elevenHessian natural forest without logging and neighboring commercial forests The extreme drought years of 2018 and 2019 led to the death of numerous forest stands. The effects were not limited to spruce forests, which are generally known to be sensitive, but also extended to beech forests, which are typically considered to be robust, yet also often showed a noticeably sparse foliage and an increased mortality rate.

Life Sciences - Environment - 08.02.2022

Rare rockcress species in the Rhine meadows seem able to prevent their own extinction
In the floodplains of the Rhine River near the city of Mainz, two different rockcress species are intercrossing. This results in a mixed population with higher genetic diversity, where a kind of 'super genotype' consisting of a patchwork of the two populations could emerge, ensuring the survival of the two species.

Environment - Social Sciences - 08.02.2022

International land use scientists urge policymakers to adopt new approaches to addressing climate change, biodiversity and other global crises
New study IDs "10 Facts" about global land use and details opportunities for a more sustainable and equitable approach A new report released today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America (PNAS) is a call to action for policymakers worldwide seeking to develop sustainable and equitable solutions to our most urgent global challenges.

Environment - Earth Sciences - 07.02.2022

Understanding tomorrow’s Arctic
Hundreds of international researchers are currently analysing observations from the year-long MOSAiC expedition, during which hundreds of environmental parameters were recorded with unprecedented accuracy and frequency over a full annual cycle in the central Arctic Ocean. Three review articles on the MOSAiC programmes for atmosphere, snow and sea ice, and ocean have now been published in the journal Elementa, highlighting the importance of looking at all components of the climate system together.

Environment - History / Archeology - 01.02.2022

Reconstruction of the history of mankind Early human settlement on the Arabian Peninsula less influenced by climate than previously thought
Research team detects early Stone Age settlement during dry periods 210,000 years ago An international team of researchers from the Sharjah Archaeology Authority/United Arab Emirates (UAE) and the Universities of Tübingen and Freiburg as well as Oxford Brookes/England led by Dr. Knut Bretzke from the University of Tübingen and Frank Preusser from the Institute of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of Freiburg has uncovered

Environment - Life Sciences - 28.01.2022

Human disturbance is the most crucial factor for lynx in habitat selection
A new data analysis provides important information on the habitat selection of these predators Habitat selection in wildlife is a process that occurs at different scales: Balancing advantages, such as high abundance of food, with disadvantages, such as human disturbance. Large predators, with their large spatial requirements, are particularly sensitive to these disturbances.

Life Sciences - Environment - 26.01.2022

Genome Atlas to support the rescue of biodiversity in Europe
Göttingen University joins six hundred researchers from 48 countries calling for comprehensive genome analyses for species conservation in Europe To provide important genomic data to inform research about Europe's biodiversity, scientists from 48 different countries initiated the "European Reference Genome Atlas" (ERGA) in 2021.

Earth Sciences - Environment - 20.01.2022

Mount Etna’s exceptional CO2 emissions are triggered by deep carbon dioxide reservoirs
The transport of carbon dioxide stored in the Earth's lithospheric mantle beneath the Hyblean Plateau in southern Italy at a depth of approximately 50 to 150 kilometres is responsible for the exceptionally large CO2 emission of Mount Etna. That is the result of research conducted by an international team of geologists, including researchers from the Universities of Florence (Italy) and Cologne , and from the Istituto di Geologia Ambientale e Geoingegneria of the Italian National Research Council (CNR).

Life Sciences - Environment - 20.01.2022

Branching worm discovered in Japan named after Godzilla’s nemesis
International team led by Göttingen University describe new species Ramisyllis kingghidorahi Branching marine worms are bizarre creatures with one head but a body that branches over and over again into multiple posterior ends. Until now, only two species of these curious beasts, thought to be extremely rare, were known.

Environment - Agronomy / Food Science - 19.01.2022

Balanced diet can mitigate negative impact of pests for bumblebees
Research team at Göttingen University investigates effects on reproductive success in agricultural landscapes Bumblebees are important pollinators because they pollinate many different plant species and are extremely resilient. They can still manage to fly at temperatures that are too cold for other pollinators.