Wilhelm Windhorst

Landscapes' Capacities to Provide Ecosystem Services - a Concept for Land-Cover Based Assessments

Landscapes differ in their capacities to provide ecosystem goods and services, which are the benefits humans obtain from nature. Structures and functions of ecosystems needed to sustain the provision of ecosystem services are altered by various human activities. In this paper, a concept for the assessment of multiple ecosystem services is proposed as a basis for discussion and further development of a respective evaluation instrument. Using quantitative and qualitative assessment data in combination with land cover and land use information originated from remote sensing and GIS, impacts of human activities can be evaluated. The results reveal typical patterns of different ecosystems‘ capacities to provide ecosystem services. The proposed approach thus delivers useful integrative information for environmental management and landscape planning, aiming at a sustainable use of services provided by nature. The research concept and methodological framework presented here for discussion have initially been applied in different case studies and shall be developed further to provide a useful tool for the quantification and spatial modelling of multiple ecosystem services in different landscapes. An exemplary application of the approach dealing with food provision in the Halle-Leipzig region in Germany is presented. It shows typical patterns of ecosystem service distribution around urban areas. As the approach is new and still rather general, there is great potential for improvement, especially with regard to a data-based quantification of the numerous hypotheses, which were formulated as base for the assessment. Moreover, the integration of more detailed landscape information on different scales will be needed in future in order to take the heterogeneous distribution of landscape properties and values into account. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to foster critical discussions on the methodological development presented here.

Defining a good ecological status of coastal waters — a case study for the Elbe plume

The definition of a good ecological status of coastal waters requires a close cooperation between sciences (natural and socio-economic) and decision makers. An argument is presented for the use of ecosystem integrity assessment based on indicators of function and state. Ecosystem integrity is understood to be reflected in exergy capture (here expressed as net primary production), storage capacity (as nutrient input/outut balances for coastal sediments), cycling (turn-over of winter nutrient stocks), matter losses (into adjacent water), and heterogeneity (here the diatom/non-diatom ratio of planktonic algae is used). Its feasibility is assessed using ERSEM, an ecosystem model of the North Sea, for the Elbe plume, after prior satisfactory calibration. Three scenarios were applied corresponding to 80, 70 and 60% reduction of the riverine nutrient load into the German Bight, compared to a reference situation of 1995. The modelling effort suggested that drastic nutrient load reduction from the Elbe alone would have a limited effect on the larger German Bight: even a 60% reduction scenario would only lead to moderate changes in all five indicators. In conclusion, application of functional integrity indicators appears feasible for coastal seas at larger spatial scales (i.e. the German Bight), and, for the coast, would form a useful addition to the indicators presently proposed in the Water Framework Directive (WFD).

Umweltziele und Indikatoren für den Ökosystemschutz

Im vorliegenden Text werden einige Grundlagen fur die Konzeption einer Okosystemschutz-Strategie vorgestellt, und es werden Moglichkeiten fur eine ganzheitliche Indikation des Okozustandes diskutiert. Dabei werden zunachst die gesellschaftlichen Erfordernisse fur die Eignung des Okosystemansatzes abgeleitet.

Group report: Methodologies to support implementation of the water framework directive

This chapter outlines the basic features and innovative aspects of the Water Framework Directive (WFD). Particular emphasis is given to problems and issues arising from the technical implementation of the environmental objectives set by the Directive. The difficulties of interpretation of key concepts such as ecological status, indicators and reference conditions are discussed in detail, and recommendations are given in order to avoid erroneous evaluation of these terms, leading to serious misclassification of the aquatic ecosystems. The consequences of the implementation of the WFD are also examined within the more specific context of water quality (bathing water quality, pollution by priority substances) and marine protected areas (MPAs). Tools and analyses to achieve environmental objectives and support the integrated management of water resources promoted by the Directive are discussed. It is suggested that models can be a powerful tool for prediction of reference conditions, the ecological classification of ecosystems and operational monitoring. The paper concludes with the importance of using an integrated approach for the implementation of the WFD, which can be achieved only by promoting communications and closer collaborations between scientists, economists and other stakeholders, particularly during the decision making process.

The use of ecological risk for assessing effects of human activities an example including eutrophication and offshore wind farm construction in the North Sea

This paper takes the move from the uncertainty surrounding ecosystem thresholds and addresses the issue of ecosystem-state assessment by means of ecological integrity indicators and ‘ecological risk‘. The concept of ‘ecological risk‘ gives a measure of the likelihood of ecosystem failure to provide the level of natural ecological goods and services expected/desired by human societies. As a consequence of human pressures (use of resources and discharge into the environment), ecosystem thresholds can be breached thus resulting in major threats to human health, safety and well-being. In this study we apply the concept of ‘ecological risk‘ to two case-studies in the German exclusive economic zone: eutrophication and construction of offshore wind farms. The effects of different future scenarios for single-uses upon ecosystem integrity are analysed as well as the effects of one combined scenario. We conclude that in the short term construction of offshore wind farms can influence some processes to a much larger degree than eutrophication, however, combined impacts deriving from eutrophication and offshore wind farm construction need a more detailed analysis. Due to non-linear ecosystem processes, effects of combined or multiple uses of marine resources in terms of ‘ecological risk‘, cannot be extrapolated from single-use scenarios.

Anwendung des Modells MaMo zur Abschätzung des regionalen Genflusses bei Mais

Das Modell MaMo kann je nach Datenverfugbarkeit fur Raume mit mehr als 70.000 Feldern angewendet werden. Das Potenzial der Modellanwendungen umfasst damit Skalen von mehreren Quadratkilometern bis zu mehreren 10.000 Quadratkilometern. Modelllaufe konnen sowohl ausgewahlte Regionen und Landkreise, aber auch grosere Bundeslander abbilden. Im Rahmen des GeneRisk-Projekts wurden von den Verbund-Partnern Datensatze fur die raumliche Verteilung der Maisfelder in Brandenburg, Schleswig Holstein und Niedersachsen sowie fur Teilgebiete von Hessen und Bayern entwickelt.

Potential, constrains and solutions for marine aquaculture in Kiel Bay & Fjord

Marine aquaculture is facing a variety of competing uses in densely populated coastal areas such as the coast of Kiel Bay. Thus, a major barrier for extending the marine aquaculture business could be the lack of suitable space for “offshore farming”. Moreover, in public opinion the aquaculture sector is often associated with a negative image derived from environmental concerns. It might therefore be expected that planning aquaculture installations in Kiel Bay & Fjord would face resistance both from other offshore stakeholders and the public. This study therefore addressed the question whether arguments and criteria can be found that may contribute to a greater support and positive image of local aquaculture enterprise, thus fostering political support for this sector as well. Indeed, a widespread regional survey showed less public reservation towards aqua-cultural business in Kiel Fjord than initially expected. However, expanding the entrepreneurship in the regional aqua-cultural sector will only be successful if the installations can avoid a significant deterioration of the water quality in Kiel Fjord, e.g. through excessive emissions of nutrients from net cages. An important step forward toward this goal is the concept of IMTA = Integrated Multi-Trophic Aquaculture. The IMTA concept spatially integrates nutrient emitting installations such as fish net cages with installations of nutrient extracting organisms, e.g. mussels and algae. Based on spatial analyses of marine environmental parameters and through modelling of nutrient mass balances (emitted versus extracted nutrient quantities) possible locations, types and sizes of aquaculture installations can be determined.

Datengrundlagen und Entwicklung der Regionalstudien zur Modellierung des Anbaus von GV-Mais

Nach der EU-Richtlinie 2001/18/EC (European Community 2001) soll eine Koexistenz zwischen konventionell, okologisch und mit Mitteln der Gentechnik erzeugtem Mais (GV-Mais) gewahrleistet werden. Fur den Anbau und fur die Weiterverarbeitung soll die Entscheidungsfreiheit der Landwirte und Verbraucher offen gehalten werden. Somit muss in der Agrarlandschaft zum einen das Nebeneinander der Produktionsverfahren ermoglicht und zum anderen die Einkreuzung von GV-Mais- in Nicht-GV-Mais-Bestande weitgehend vermieden werden. Daruber hinaus soll der Eintrag von GV-Material in Schutzgebiete weitgehend vermieden werden.

Koexistenz-Studie Schleswig-Holstein

In Verbundvorhaben GeneRisk war es Aufgabe des Arbeitsbereichs „Wirkungsanalyse, Raumbezug Schleswig-Holstein, GIS-Modellkopplung und -anwendung Mais“, Betroffenheitskulissen, die sich durch den Anbau von GVP (gentechnisch veranderte Pflanzen) ergeben wurden, uber raumliche Analysen darzustellen und zu quantifizieren. Vor dem Hintergrund einer raumlich hoch aufgelosten Datenbasis wurden durch Simulationsrechnungen und GIS-Anwendungen Zielkonflikte fur verschiedene Gruppen von Betroffenen (Stakeholder) bei bestimmten Anbausituationen (GVP-Anbauszenarien) in Schleswig-Holstein dargestellt. Mit diesen Studien wurden Einschrankungen der Handlungsoptionen fur einzelne Betroffene deutlich und quantifizierbar und es wurde Transparenz fur die Reichweite von Entscheidungen hergestellt.

Group report: Reflections on the application of integrated assessment

This group report gives an overview of applications of and issues in integrated assessment (IA) applied in the coastal zone area in Europe. We conclude that there are various reasons why IA is sometimes not successful. For instance, integrated assessment tends to be highly specific, dialogues are seldom an integral part and environmental thresholds are uncertain. A way forward would be to have an alternative framework that could fulfil some of these needs, which is proposed at the end of the chapter.