news 2021

Heidelberg researchers investigate how the spoonweed genus successfully adapted to extreme climatic changes over millions of years As cold relics in an increasingly warming world, plants of the spoonweed group time and again quickly adapted to a changing climate during the Ice Ages of the last two million years.

Research team including Göttingen University participates in far-reaching study with analysis of carbon storage How do tropical rainforests and their plants react to extreme drought? Understanding these processes is crucial to making forests more resilient to the increasing risk of drought due to climate change, and will improve the scientists- ability to refine climate models.

Interactive online platform uses satellite images to display status of European forests. The output is based on the greenness of trees. With the latest functionality, users can also view and download data for individual countries and selected time ranges to learn more about the condition of forests.

11/22/2021 The question of the causes of species extinction confronts science with complex tasks. Dr Sarah Redlich from the Biocentre on the challenge of creating a study design. Research groups all over the world are trying to disentangle the causes of biodiversity loss. One thing is clear: there is no single cause.

Study reveals missing data for scope 3 greenhouse gases Companies in the digital technology industry are significantly underreporting the greenhouse gas emissions arising along the value chain of their products. Across a sample of 56 major tech companies surveyed in a study by the Technical University of Munich (TUM), more than half of these emissions were excluded from self-reporting in 2019.

Weather conditions outside growing season very important The weather conditions in the winter and during the transitional phases from fall to winter and winter to spring have a significant influence on the yield level of key cereal crops, such as winter barley and winter wheat. These were the findings of a research team of scientists at the Chair of Plant Nutrition at the Technical University of Munich (TUM).

New software helps determine the movements of large wild animals thereby minimising conflicts with people. The software is simpler than measurements obtained using radio transmitters and can be used where conventional methods fail. An international team led by the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), the Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Aarhus University and the University of Oxford has published a description of the new software in the journal Methods in Ecology and Evolution.

Researchers including Göttingen University use citizen science to study birdsong over last 25 years Natural sounds, and birdsong in particular, play a key role in building and maintaining our connection with nature. Birds have been declining due to changing land use and climate change. But how has this affected the dawn chorus around us?

Urbanisation appears to be another key factor for insect decline. This is shown by a study in which the impact of climate and land use on insects was disentangled for the first time. Worldwide, the quantity and diversity of insects are declining: scientists have reported more and more evidence for this in recent years.

09/23/2021 The higher the biological diversity in an ecosystem, the better the important processes there function. A heterogeneous environment promotes this effect, while intensive land use weakens it, as a new study shows. Microorganisms, plants, and animals accomplish great feats every day. For example, by decomposing material, producing plant biomass, or pollinating flowers, they keep nature 'up and running,' thereby securing the livelihood of humans.

Göttingen University research team involved in global study on conditions and capacity to adapt Ecosystems provide a wide range of services to people. These services depend on basic ecosystem functions, which are shaped by natural conditions like climate, the mix of species and by human intervention.

International researchers including the University of Göttingen demonstrate for the first time that animals can survive very long periods of time without sex It was thought that the survival of animal species over a geologically long period of time without sexual reproduction would be very unlikely, if not impossible.

University of Göttingen and Archroma develop new method for treating wood Forest scientists at the University of Göttingen, together with the Swiss company Archroma, a global specialty chemicals company, have developed a new method for turning affordable and ecologically friendly wood from European forests into high-quality, fire-resistant construction timber.

Research team at the Universities of Göttingen and Hohenheim analyses use in worldwide commercial cultivation Pollinators - such as bees, butterflies and birds - are essential for agricultural production. However, natural pollination can also fail or be insufficient, which can lead to lower yields and poorer quality.

Study with participation from Heidelberg shows that supervolcanoes remain dangerous long after erupting Besides cosmic impacts, supervolcanic eruptions rank among the worst catastrophes in the Earth's history, like that of the Toba volcano on Sumatra (Indonesia) approximately 75,000 years ago, which affected all of Southeast Asia and beyond.

New study reveals the protective function of the chaperone cpSRP43 against heat shock Plants make use of complex metabolic processes to produce chlorophyll - the pigment that gives them their green colour and enables photosynthesis. The fact that so-called chlorophyll biosynthesis works smoothly even in the presence of heat is due to a certain helper protein: the chaperone cpSRP43.

The importance of insects in the decomposition of wood The speed at which deadwood decomposes in forests depends on the climate as well as on fungi and insects. An international research team has now determined the annual contribution made by deadwood to the global carbon cycle and quantified the importance of insects in the decomposition of wood for the first time.

A new study of two approximately 52-million-year-old fossil finds from the Green River Formation in Wyoming, USA, has fitted them into the evolutionary history of crocodiles. Biogeologists Jules Wal-ter, Dr. Márton Rabi of the University of Tübingen, working with some other colleagues, determined the extinct species Tsoabichi greenriverensis to be an early caiman crocodile.

Research team led by Göttingen University investigates farmland birds in an Indian megacity Urbanization is one of the most drastic forms of land-use change, and its negative consequences on biodiversity have been studied extensively in temperate countries such as Germany. However, less research has been conducted in tropical regions from the Global South, where most of the ongoing and future urbanization hotspots are located, and little is known about its effects on agricultural biodiversity and associated ecosystems.

New Study by Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Freie Universität Berlin, and Exeter University No 152/2021 from Aug 06, 2021 A major Atlantic Ocean current, which includes the Gulf Stream, may have lost stability over the course of the last century. The research appeared in a new study published , authored by Niklas Boers (Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, PIK, Freie Universität Berlin, and Exeter University).