Suchergebnisse

Im Rahmen der Berichtspflicht über das Elektro(nik)geräte- und -altgeräteaufkommen in Deutschland erfolgte im vorliegenden Bericht die Analyse und Aggregation der Daten der stiftung ear und des Statistischen Bundesamtes (Destatis) für das Jahr 2017. Insgesamt brachten Hersteller 2,09 Millionen Tonnen Elektro(nik)geräte (b2b+b2c) auf den Markt - wiederholt der höchste Wert seit Beginn der Dokumentation im Jahr 2006. Die Erfassungsquote liegt bei 45,08 %, womit die seit 2016 geltende Mindesterfassungsquote von 45 % eingehalten wurde. Bezüglich Recycling- und Verwertungsquoten wurden im Jahr 2017 alle Ziele in allen Kategorien erreicht.

This paper explores the different components of the adaptive capacity of households in the Central Rift Valley (CRV) of Ethiopia and quantifies their relative contributions. The data were derived from a survey of 413 households randomly selected from four Kebeles (the smallest government administrative units) in the CRV. The adaptive capacity of the households was assessed using the Local Adaptive Capacity (LAC) framework and measured in terms of both aggregate and composite indices, with sixty indicators distributed across five major components and subcomponents. The index score for major components shows that intangible variables such as institutions and entitlements, knowledge and information, and innovation contributed to adaptive capacity better than decision–making and governance and asset–base. The composite indices for sub–components showed that the contribution of woodlands to adaptive capacity was positive and superior to other natural assets. Grazing land was the next best contributor, while farmland and water resources made a much lower contribution. The findings of this study are useful to better understand the nature of adaptive capacity and its components at the household level. This study suggests the need for an integrated assessment and enhancement of adaptive capacity with all its components rather than focusing only on asset possession as an indicator of adaptive capacity. ; Peer Review

Mit Inkrafttreten des ElektroG2 am 24. Oktober 2015 wurden unter anderem neue Rücknahme-, Anzeige- und Mitteilungspflichten für Vertreiber festgelegt. Die Rücknahme über den Handel ist in diesem Zusammenhang seit dem 24. Juli 2016 gemäß § 17 Abs. 1 ElektroG erstmals für Vertreiber mit einer Verkaufsfläche für Elektro- und Elektronikgeräte von mindestens 400 m² verpflichtend. Für den Fernabsatzhandel gilt die Verpflichtung ebenfalls, sofern die Lager- und Versandflächen für Elektro- und Elektronikgeräte mindestens 400 m² erreichen (vgl. § 17 Abs. 2 ElektroG). Die Bundesregierung ist nach der Begründung zum ElektroG zur Evaluierung u. a. der Vertreiberpflichten nach § 17 ElektroG verpflichtet. Auf Grund der neu eingeführten Rücknahmepflichten liegt bislang keine systematische Bewertung zur Umsetzung dieser Pflichten durch die Vertreiber vor. Diese ist im Rahmen des vorliegenden Berichtes erfolgt. Neben der Darstellung der praktischen Umsetzung der Rücknahme gemäß § 17 ElektroG sowohl im stationären als auch im Fernabsatzhandel werden vor allem die Identifizierung von Schwierigkeiten / Umsetzungsdefiziten, eine qualitative Beurteilung der aktuellen Begebenheiten (Rücknahmestellen, Sammelbehältnisse, etc.) und die Umsetzung der Vertreiberpflichten nach ElektroG näher betrachtet und abgebildet. Basierend auf den gewonnenen Erkenntnissen aus der allgemeinen Datenauswertung der Vertreiberrücknahme, den vor Ort Besuchen sowie aus Stakeholderbefragungen werden im vorliegenden Bericht konkrete Handlungsempfehlungen abgeleitet, um die Vertreiberrücknahme zukünftig zu verbessern.

Akteure und Anlagenbetreiber aus der Kreislaufwirtschaft berichten vermehrt von vorkommenden Bränden in Abfallsortier- und –behandlungsanlagen. Von den Meldungen betroffen sind verschiedene Abfallströme wie beispielsweise Elektroaltgeräte, Verpackungen, Restabfall/Sperrmüll, Mischschrott, Papier und Alttextilien. Berichten zu folge, kommt es in Deutschland annähernd jede Woche in Abfallsammelbehältnissen bzw. beim Abfalltransport – z.B. in Erstbehandlungsanlagen für Elektroaltgeräte – zu einem Brandereignis. Diese Brandereignisse können unter anderem auf eine fehlerhafte Erfassung und anschließende Entsorgung von LIB (Lithium-Ionen-Batterien) bzw. in Elektroaltgeräte enthaltende LIB zurückgeführt werden. In Verbindung mit der zunehmenden Menge an in Verkehr gebrachten lithiumhaltigen (Hochenergie-)Batterien rückt die Thematik der korrekten Zuführung zur Entsorgung bzw. ordnungsgemäßen Erfassung immer stärker in den Fokus und stellt den Auslöser einer kontrovers diskutierten Debatte um beispielsweise die Einführung einer Pfandpflicht für LIB dar. Das Sachverständigengutachten bewertet die Einführung einer Pfandpflicht auf LIB. Es wird untersucht, ob eine in vielen Diskussionen genannte Pfandpflicht auf LIB ein geeignetes Instrument darstellt, um die (frühzeitige) getrennte Erfassung von LIB in erhöhtem Maße sicherzustellen, Brandereignisse entlang der Erfassungs- und Abfallbehandlungskette zu reduzieren bzw. verhindern sowie zur Steigerung der Sammelmenge von Altbatterien und Altakkumulatoren beitragen kann. Abschließend werden im Rahmen der Ergebnisanalyse Handlungsempfehlungen, Maßnahmen und Alternativen zur Fortentwicklung der Sammlung von LIB benannt und erläutert.

Biological soil crusts (biocrusts) form a regular and relevant feature in drylands, as they stabilize the soil, fix nutrients, and influence water cycling. However, biocrust forming organisms have been shown to be dramatically vulnerable to climate and land use change occurring in these regions. In this study, we used Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) data of biocrust-dominated pixels (NDVIbiocrust) obtained from hyperspectral and LANDSAT-7 data to analyse biocrust development over time and to forecast future NDVIbiocrust development under different climate change and livestock density scenarios in southern Africa. We validated these results by analysing the occurrence and composition of biocrusts along a mesoclimatic gradient within the study region. Our results show that NDVIbiocrust, which reached maximum values of 0.2 and 0.4 in drier and wetter years, respectively, mainly depended on water availability. A predicted decrease in rainfall events according to all future climate scenarios combined with increased temperatures suggested a pronounced decrease in NDVIbiocrust by the end of the 21st century caused by reduced biocrust coverage. Livestock trampling had similar effects and exacerbated the negative impacts of climate change on biocrust coverage and composition. Data assessed in the field concurred with these results, as reduced biocrust cover and a shift from well-developed to early stages of biocrust development were observed along a gradient of decreasing precipitation and increasing temperatures and livestock density. Our study demonstrates the suitability of multi-temporal series of historical satellite images combined with high-resolution mapping data and Earth system models to identify climate change patterns and their effects on biocrust and vegetation patterns at regional scales. ; ERC was supported by a Nobel Laureate Paul Crutzen fellowship; the REBIOARID (2018-101921-B-I00) project, funded by the FEDER/Science and Innovation Ministry-National Research Agency through the Spanish National Plan for Research and the European Union Funds for Regional Development; Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidad from the Junta de Andalucía (GlobCRUST project EMERGIA20_0033), the Biodiversity Foundation of the Ministry for the Ecological Transition (BIOCOST project) and the RH2OARID (P18-RT-5130) funded by Consejería de Economía, Conocimiento, Empresas y Universidad from the Junta de Andalucía and the European Union Funds for Regional Development. BW was supported by the Max Planck Society (Nobel Laureate Fellowship) and the German Research Foundation (projects WE2393/2-1 and WE2393/2-2). EG is supported by the European Research Council grant agreement n° 647038 (BIODESERT). The research of US was supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, promotion number 01LG1201N).

Questions. Compensatory dynamics are described as one of the main mechanisms that increase community stability, e.g., where decreases of some species on a year‐to‐year basis are offset by an increase in others. Deviations from perfect synchrony between species (asynchrony) have therefore been advocated as an important mechanism underlying biodiversity effects on stability. However, it is unclear to what extent existing measures of synchrony actually capture the signal of year‐to‐year species fluctuations in the presence of long‐term directional trends in both species abundance and composition (species directional trends hereafter). Such directional trends may lead to a misinterpretation of indices commonly used to reflect year‐to‐year synchrony. Methods. An approach based on three‐term local quadrat variance (T3) which assesses population variability in a three‐year moving window, was used to overcome species directional trend effects. This "detrending" approach was applied to common indices of synchrony across a worldwide collection of 77 temporal plant community datasets comprising almost 7,800 individual plots sampled for at least six years. Plots included were either maintained under constant "control" conditions over time or were subjected to different management or disturbance treatments. Results. Accounting for directional trends increased the detection of year‐to‐year synchronous patterns in all synchrony indices considered. Specifically, synchrony values increased significantly in ~40% of the datasets with the T3 detrending approach while in ~10% synchrony decreased. For the 38 studies with both control and manipulated conditions, the increase in synchrony values was stronger for longer time series, particularly following experimental manipulation. Conclusions. Species' long‐term directional trends can affect synchrony and stability measures potentially masking the ecological mechanism causing year‐to‐year fluctuations. As such, previous studies on community stability might have overemphasised the role of compensatory dynamics in real‐world ecosystems, and particularly in manipulative conditions, when not considering the possible overriding effects of long‐term directional trends. ; We thank multiple entities for the financial support necessary to obtain the different databases: the U.S. National Science Foundation under grant numbers DEB‐8114302, DEB‐8811884, DEB‐9411972, DEB‐0080382, DEB‐0620652, DEB‐1234162, DEB‐9707477, DEB‐0316402, DEB‐08‐16453, and DEB‐12‐56034, DEB‐0618210, the Nutrient Network (http://www.nutnet.org) experiment from the National Science Foundation Research Coordination Network (NSF‐DEB‐1042132), the New Zealand National Vegetation Survey Databank, the Spanish MINECO (Project CGL2014‐53789‐R), the Madrid Regional Government (Projects REMEDINAL‐3 and REMEDINAL‐TE), the European Research Council Synergy grant 610028 (IMBALANCE‐P), the Institute on the Environment (DG‐0001‐13), the SOERE‐ACBB financed through French National Agency for Research (ANAEE‐F, ANR‐11‐INBS‐0001), the Estonian Research Council (IUT 20‐28, IUT 20‐29), Czech Science Foundation (GAČR 17‐05506S and 19‐28491X), the European Regional Development Fund (Centre of Excellence EcolChange), the German Federal Environmental Foundation (DBU) for a grant to the NABU Hamburg (management experiment Calamagrostis epigejos), and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research within the framework of the project BIOTA Southern Africa (promotion numbers 01LC0024, 01LC0024A and 01LC0624A2), Task 159 of SASSCAL (promotion number 01LG1201) and the Scottish Government's Rural and Environmental Science and Analytical Services division. Acknowledgement Data owned by NERC© Database Right/Copyright NERC. Further support was provided by the Jornada Basin Long‐Term Ecological Research (LTER) project, Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve and the University of Minnesota. We also thank the Lawes Agricultural Trust and Rothamsted Research for data from the e‐RA database. The Rothamsted Long‐term Experiments National Capability (LTE‐NCG) is supported by the UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (Grant BBS/E/C/000J0300) and the Lawes Agricultural Trust. ; Peer reviewed

Analysing temporal patterns in plant communities is extremely important to quantify the extent and the consequences of ecological changes, especially considering the current biodiversity crisis. Long-term data collected through the regular sampling of permanent plots represent the most accurate resource to study ecological succession, analyse the stability of a community over time and understand the mechanisms driving vegetation change. We hereby present the LOng-Term Vegetation Sampling (LOTVS) initiative, a global collection of vegetation time-series derived from the regular monitoring of plant species in permanent plots. With 79 data sets from five continents and 7,789 vegetation time-series monitored for at least 6 years and mostly on an annual basis, LOTVS possibly represents the largest collection of temporally fine-grained vegetation time-series derived from permanent plots and made accessible to the research community. As such, it has an outstanding potential to support innovative research in the fields of vegetation science, plant ecology and temporal ecology. ; The authors acknowledge institutional support as follows. Nicola J. Day: Te Apārangi Royal Society of New Zealand (Rutherford Postdoctoral Fellowship). Jiří Danihelka: Czech Science Foundation (project no. 19-28491X) and Czech Academy of Sciences (project no. RVO 67985939). Francesco de Bello: Spanish Plan Nacional de I+D+i (project PGC2018-099027-B-I00). Eric Garnier: La Fage INRA experimental station. Tomáš Herben: GAČR grant 20-02901S. Anke Jentsch: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grant 031B0516C - SUSALPS) and Oberfrankenstiftung (grant OFS FP00237). Norbert Juergens: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (grant 01LG1201N - SASSCAL ABC). Frédérique Louault and Katja Klumpp: AnaEE-France (ANR-11-INBS-0001). Robin J. Pakeman: Strategic Research Programme of the Scottish Government's Rural and Environment Science and Analytical Services Division. Meelis Pärtel: Estonian Research Council (PRG609) and European Regional Development Fund (Centre of Excellence EcolChange). Josep Peñuelas: Spanish Government (grant PID2019-110521GB-I00), Fundación Ramon Areces (grant ELEMENTAL-CLIMATE), Catalan Government (grant SGR 2017-1005), and European Research Council (Synergy grant ERC-SyG-2013-610028, IMBALANCE-P). Ute Schmiedel: German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Promotion numbers 01LC0024, 01LC0024A, 01LC0624A2, 01LG1201A, 01LG1201N). Hana Skálová: GAČR grant 20-02901S. Karsten Wesche: International Institute Zittau, Technische Universität Dresden. Susan K. Wiser: New Zealand Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment's Strategic Science Investment Fund. Ben A. Woodcock: NERC and BBSRC (NE/N018125/1 LTS-M ASSIST - Achieving Sustainable Agricultural Systems). Enrique Valencia: Program for attracting and retaining talent of Comunidad de Madrid (no. 2017-T2/AMB-5406) and Community of Madrid and Rey Juan Carlos University (Young Researchers R&D Project. Ref. M2165 – INTRANESTI). Truman P. Young: National Science Foundation (LTREB DEB 19-31224). ; Peer reviewed