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ePaper created 2014-12-22, 09:34:33 | version 1.34.00
Energy I Earth and Environment I Health I Aeronautics, Space and Transport I Key Technologies I Structure of Matter 21 changes and the global climate and polar ecosystems; vulnerable coasts and shelf seas; the polar perspective of Earth system analysis; and the interplay between science and society. It provides insights into climate variability and regional climate change, sea-level change as an element of risk analysis within the Earth system, and the transforma- tion of coastal and polar ecosystems. The programme is also providing the scientific foundation to assess the social and economic consequences of climate change in the places where we live. Work in the field “Interaction between Science and Society” is examining how research findings can be effectively integrated into information and decision- making processes in society as a whole. Oceans Oceans cover 70 per cent of the Earth’s surface. Deep oceans, in particular, are difficult to access and remain largely unexplored. This interdisciplinary programme will SIMULATING THE FUTURE What will climate change bring? Scientists at the Global Change Experimental Facility (GCEF) are attempting to answer this question. The research station is home to one of the largest long-term experiments of its kind in the world, set to run for at least 15 years. The findings will help environmentalists, conservationists and farmers to better adapt to climate change. Scientists expect that temperatures will be hotter in central Germany by the end of the century and that there will also be less rainfall, especially in the summer months. But what do these changes mean for ecological processes? In order to accu- rately simulate such scenarios, researchers covered normal agricultural fields in Bad Lauchstädt (Halle/Saale) with steel frames fitted with closable roofs and side walls. As in a greenhouse, temperatures inside these enclosures can be increased by up to three degrees at night and the first ground frost can be delayed by several weeks. Researchers can also keep rain off the fields or add additional water via a sprinkler system. Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research – UFZ “The GCEF is certainly not the first experiment to simulate climate change, but it is unique in the sense that it operates on a larger temporal and spatial scale,” says Stefan Klotz, head of the Biocoenology Department at UFZ. Each of the 50 plots measures 16 by 24 metres. For each group of five plots in which climate change is simulated for conventional agriculture, organic farming, intensive grassland farming, extensive grassland farming based on mowing, and extensive grassland farming based on grazing, identical groups have been set up without changed temperatures or precipitation levels for purposes of comparison. Much of the information that the GCEF will supply over the next few years will be measured and processed by a self-organising wireless sensor network developed at UFZ. A kind of WLAN network, this system contains many small stations that will measure the humidity and temperature of both the air and soil, as well as radiation intensity. The components that visitors can see form only part of this state-of-the-art technology, most of which is buried underground or is transmitted as data through the air. Further examples from this research field g The facility, covering an area of almost seven hectares (ten football fields), contains ten experimental fields with five plots each. The plots can be plant- ed with various species and subjected to the different climatic conditions predicted for central Germany. Image: André Künzelmann/UFZ