Russia harbours significant populations of most Palaearctic birds, but only few information is available. During the Amur Bird Project annual meeting we will report on the progress of the ornithological work in the Far East and beyond. All presentations on the 15th of December 2018 at the Institute of Landscape Ecology in Münster are open for the public.
Programme

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With contributions from the UFZ and WWU, the project MikroPlaTaS was represented at two scientific conferences last week: The "Umwelt2018" from 09. - 12.09.2018 in Münster and the annual meeting of the German Society for Limnology e.V. (DGL) in Kamp-Lintfort from 10.-14.09.2018.
There, the poster "Biofilme auf Plastikpartikeln und deren Nährwert für das Makrozoobenthos" (Biofilms on plastic particles and their nutritional value for the macrozoobenthos) of Diana Michler-Kozma and Rense Jongsma was honored by the vote of the conference participants as one of the five best posters with the poster price of the DGL.

Biodiversity - value, preserve, connect

The project "Lifelines on sand" implements measures to preserve nutrient-poor sand habitats in Northwestern Germany and in increase their landscape-scale connectivity. Thereby, it aims at improving the conservation status of characteristic species of these habitats, such as Grey Partridge, Bog Heather, Small Copper and Common Spadefood. It is a "hotspot" project within the funding programme "Biologische Vielfalt" (Biological Diversity) of the German Federal Agency for Nature Conservation.
An upcoming project meeting on 12 September 2018 will be organized at the Insitute of Landscape Ecology. Key aims of the meeting will be networking and information exchange among project participants and external attendées.

Program  Project homepage

Effective on August 1st 2018, Klaus-Holger Knorr was appointed to the professorship in Hydrology by the Rector of the University of Münster, Professor Dr. Johannes Wessels. The professor in Hydrology is head of the Ecohydrology & Biogeochemistry Research Group at the Institute of Landscape Ecology, as well as of the central laboratory of the institute. Klaus-Holger Knorr has been responsible for these tasks as temporary acting head of the research group since August 2016.
The institute welcomes Klaus-Holger Knorr in his new position and we wish him all the best for this new start. We are looking forward to future collaboration.

Migration routes used by birds travelling from Eurasia to Africa and vice versa are well studied, but little do we know on the whereabouts of birds moving to Asia. Since 2016 we use light-level geolocators to track individual songbirds from Russia. This year´s field work started in the Far East, and followed the Trans-Siberian Railway across Siberia to Northwest-Russia. One of the target species was the critically endangered Yellow-breasted Bunting Emberiza aureola. To study the survival rate of this declining songbird, we colour-ringed several individuals in the Selenga river delta at Lake Baikal and near Syktyvkar. Furthermore, a total of 113 individuals out of 8 species were equipped with new tracking devices during our expedition at four more study sites. Further information......

Mid of July, a team of 13 students and researchers from all over Russia and Münster University continued the work in northern West-Siberia about fire impacts on the forest tundra, which started last year. Until some decades ago, wildfires have been a rather uncommon phenomena in Tundra ecosystems. Recent studies predict an increase in fire frequency and extent in the course of climate change but the ecological impact of tundra fires are so far poorly understood. Further information...

The Volkswagen Foundation funds a larger number of inter- and transdisciplinary projects both from the natural and social science in Central Asia and on the Caucasus within the funding measure Between Europe and the Orient.
The AG Biodiversity and Ecosystem Research was asked by the foundation to organize a status symposium of the funding measure jointly with our partner in Kazakhstan, ACBK. Further information....

Plastic in the environment is a global problem - also in freshwaters. Researchers of the WWU will investigate microplastics in the Rieselfelder of Münster, the River Ems, the River Lippe and reservoirs. The landscape ecologists and microbiologists are interested in which microorganisms colonise on the plastic particles and in the effects on invertebrates such as snails and shrimps ingesting plastic. The joint project lasts for three years and is funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research with 470.00€. For further information please visit the project’s homepage MikroPlaTaS: Microplastics in Dams and Reservoirs: Sedimentation, Spread, Effects.

The invasion by Acacia in Portugal is a striking example of how exotic plant species can threaten native ecosystems. In the 20th century, the Long-leaved Wattle (Acacia longifolia), which is native to Australia, was planted along the Portuguese coast to stabilize dunes. Since then, the yellow flowering shrub has become invasive, and it is altering water and nutrient cycling with negative effects for the native species. Scientists from the Universities of Münster, Hamburg, Freiburg and Bielefeld show for the first time how to produce high-accurate maps of the wattle including its impact on nutrient cycling in a Mediterranean dune ecosystem. To this end, the team used high-resolution airborne sensor data. The study is published in the journal “Remote Sensing of Environment” 

For further information please check the publication here.

Non-lecture period means field-trip time at the Geographical Institutes of the University of Münster. Thus, a group of 16 geographers and landscape ecologists under the guidance of Dr. Andreas Malkus and Christoph Nothelfer went on a scientific excursion to Nepal end of February. Inter alia a trekking tour through the Himalaya mountains and a multi-day stay in the bustling capital Kathmandu are planned.

To share their experiences, the group arranged a blog. Find out more...