When the excursion started at 8am on Friday morning, we drove off into the fog. By the time we reached our first stop – a volcano named “Rauher Kulm” in Neustadt am Kulm – the fog still hadn’t cleared. Nevertheless, we walked up the volcano and climbed the look-out tower. Apparently, the view from up there is usually great, but we had to use our imagination to see the surrounding Fichtelgebirge behind the wall of white fog. In spite of that, it was an interesting stop, as we learned about the geology of the basalt mountain, which has never erupted, and the surrounding vegetation.

The next stop was an information center at a former extra-deep drilling borehole. Here the continental deep drilling program of Germany (KTB) was conducted. The aim of this research program was to analyze the continental earth crust at this location. The researchers wanted to drill down to a depth of 10 km, but in the end they were only able to reach a depth of 9.1 km. The main drilling was conducted from 1990 to 1994. Nowadays the location serves as an information center about the drilling, general geology, and earth system processes. We watched a short movie and visited the exhibition on the earth system at the information center.

Following in the footsteps of Goethe and Alexander von Humboldt, we visited the “Felsenlabyrinth Luisenburg” in the Fichtelgebirge. The boulder field of granite stones has developed over long time spans through weathering and erosion processes. In German the particular form of weathering, through which the well-rounded giant boulders developed, is called Wollsackverwitterung (English: spherical weathering/onion skin weathering).

We climbed up steep steps and hiked through narrow gaps in the rocks. By now the fog had cleared and the sun was shining, so we had a great view from the top. On our hike through the rock labyrinth, we found a fascinating species: the luminescent moss (Schistostega pennata), which grows in cracks and between rocks.

Before heading back to Bayreuth, we had the opportunity to visit an old farmhouse (currently a museum), where we could see how people used to life in this region. Although it was unfortunate that the museum was already closed by the time we arrived, we could still have a look at the traditional herbs and the vegetable garden present there.

The excursion gave a nice teaser of what Bayreuth’s surroundings have to offer and provided a good chance to catch up with friends and meet new students. All in all, it was a great start to the new semester!

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The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an independent intergovernmental organization that was established in 2012. Its purpose is to “strengthen the science-policy interface for biodiversity and ecosystem services for the conservation and sustainable use of biodiversity, long-term human well-being and sustainable development” [1]. The work of IPBES comprises giving policy support, building capacity and knowledge, developing and writing assessments and outreach. Governments as well as expert scientists are involved in this work.

The IPBES-8 Plenary, which was held online from the 14^th to the 24^th of June 2021, began with opening remarks from the IPBES chair, secretary, and regional groups, followed by an inspiring video on the achievements of IPBES since the last plenary in 2019. The opening video, which is embedded below, emphasized the great impact of the Global Assessment report, which launched at IPBES-7 in 2019. Organizers also highlighted the IPBES Workshop Report on Biodiversity and Pandemics, as well as the newly released IPBES – IPCC Workshop Report on Biodiversity and Climate Change. These two workshop reports show the importance of the work of IPBES in the most relevant context: Now, while we face the ongoing pandemic, but also as we grapple with continuing anthropogenic climate change.  

The main aim of IPBES-8 was to finalize and adopt two scoping reports. One on a “thematic assessment of the interlinkages among biodiversity, water, food and health” [2] and the other on a “thematic assessment of the underlaying causes of biodiversity loss and the determinants of transformative change and options for achieving the 2050 Vision for Biodiversity” [2].  Over the course of the conference, the collaboration of IPBES with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for work on the interlinkages between biodiversity and climate change was also discussed. GCE students had the opportunity to observe not only the plenary, but also working group sessions, where the scoping report drafts were discussed in detail. It was particularly interesting for students to see such a process happening, after learning about how these negotiations work theoretically in previous seminars offered by the GCE study program.

An important point on the agenda included the determination of venues for future plenary sessions. As worthwhile as it was to listen in to these negotiations online, hopefully GCE students can travel to the next IPBES plenary in person again! 

References:

[1] About IPBES, available under https://ipbes.net/about  

[2] IPBES/8/1* Provisional agenda, available under https://www.ipbes.net/event/ipbes-8-plenary

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On October 14^th, 2019, the next “GCE Year” was opened by the traditional “Welcome Meeting”.
The new GCE students as well as “older” GCE students from previous years and the master´s programme coordination team came together at 16.00 o´clock. After the long summer break, some of the latest stories and adventures needed to be shared with familiar and new faces. However, the conversations had to pause as the programme started. Stephanie from the GCE coordination welcomed everyone and asked different groups to stand up: GCE students 2019, GCE students 2018, students from Africa, Asia … To see the altering standing groups demonstrated the high diversity of the GCE family. In addition to the year 2019, there were also master students and alumni from the years 2018, 2017 and even 2016. Having a closer look on the new GCE students 2019 alone, students are coming from America, Nigeria, Indonesia, Taiwan, Brasilia, Albania, Egypt, Columbia and Germany, which comprises the biggest group. So far, 25 new GCE students with an average age of 25.8 years are enrolled in the master´s programme, 4 are still expected to come to Bayreuth. In total, 260 applications were received for the winter term 2019/20.

After the GCE coordination, the GCE student board rose to speak and shared some organisational information with the audience. After that, two videos were shown from GCE alumni who could not be in Bayreuth but, nevertheless, wanted to greet the new students.
Subsequently, Thomas, board member of “Friends of Global Change Ecology e.V.” presented the association for current students, alumni and associates of the study program GCE and Steven, GCE student from 2017, assigned the new students who wanted to have a “buddy”, a student from the previous years to support them with their start.

Then everyone went outside and the “GCE family photo 2019” was taken in an autumnal setting. During the subsequent come-together the conversations could be continued and deepened with a piece of cake in the left and a cup of coffee in the right hand. Finally, the Welcome Meeting 2019 was completed by a campus tour for the new students.
We wish everyone a happy new GCE Year and welcome our new fellow students again!

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“In those three days, 245 people have helped us to plant 4719 saplings”, Kun says. The 28-year old GCE student from South Korea had the idea for Klimawald already last year. “I wanted to something on the ground together with my fellow students. To have a good time and plant trees somewhere in Bavaria.” As trees (and plants in general) work as carbon sinks, because they absorb CO2 through their leaves, this would contribute to reducing our carbon footprints. As GCE students travel quite a lot due to conferences, internships and science schools, Klimawald was intended as a compensation measure for this study programme.

He proposed his idea in a project management seminar. First, Nikunj Pathak from India and study colleague of him, wanted to help in the project. “He suggested Bayreuth as a suitable location for this project. Seminar leader Birgit Thies suggested us to have at least one German speaking student in the group as this would make communication with local authorities easier.” At this point, GCE student Theresa Landwehr joined the team for the Klimawald project. Gregor Aas, head of the Ecological-Botanical Garden in Bayreuth (ÖBG) also supported the students with his knowledge.

After various attempts to contact different city departments of Bayreuth, finally the Office for Food, Agriculture and Forestry Bayreuth (AELF Bayreuth) and the City Forestry Bayreuth (Stadtförsterei Bayreuth) showed interest in participating. “Before our first meeting with them, we were not sure how much land we would get. Normally, the landowners use it for timber production and other forestry activities”, Kun, who is originally coming from South Korea, says. The experts from AELF and Stadtförsterei proposed a forested area of one hectare and thousands of saplings. “This was very unexpected, and we were really happy about it. From this point on, there was no way back, we had to do it”, Kun says and laughs. The landowner of the forest area, Hospitalstiftung, agreed with the plans to plant species adapted to climate change.

As a next step, the team had to agree on a date when the Klimawald project should take place. “We had to make sure that students would be back from the semester break. Also, we had to take into account a suitable time for planting. Late April was not ideal, but students were back then”, Kun says. On the site, some older trees got cut down in order to lower competition for the new saplings. “Normally, the most common tree species to be found in this region are pine and spruce. Both species have suffered during the last years due to heat stress, bark beetle outbreaks, storms and droughts”, Kun says. Also, a fence was set up around the site to prevent wildlife from eating the saplings.

When it came to decide which species to plant, the opinions of experts from the city and the county were different from the students’ ones: “They wanted to stay at a scenario with 2°C warming and plant beeches and oaks, which are local native species. But we from the university thought a bit differently, as the average temperature in Bayreuth has already risen by 2°C. Gregor Aas therefore suggested some non-native species which we could merge with the ones proposed by AELF and Stadtförsterei. For example, Turkish hazel and Douglas fir, Turkish and Sicilian firs, and Lebanon cedar as they are more drought tolerant as well as adapted to extreme winters.”

A little smile hushes over Kun’s face as he remembers the workload of the project. “There was so much work involved I hadn’t even thought of. We had to design a website, a logo, organize drinks and food to give to the volunteers. Thankfully, my girlfriend Ahram Chae (Bauhaus-Universität Weimar) joined our team at some point as the designer for the website.” Such projects often bring unexpected turns: During Klimawald, various media teams arrived, interviewing the students – most of all focussing on Theresa as she is the only German speaking team member. “This was really hard for her and we hadn’t thought of this problem before”, Kun says.

In the end, it was worth the effort. People with very different backgrounds and from all age groups participated: high school students, students from various departments of the University of Bayreuth, parents with kids, some professors, parents without their kids. “Even high school students from Bamberg came to plant trees, I heard that the Fridays for Future movement is quite strong there.” Another interesting side fact: around two thirds of the volunteers were women. “This is something, I see often in this field. More women are involved in environmental issues”, Kun says.

What is preoccupying Kun now, one month after the event, is the impact of the planting. “One hectare is nothing.” The forest area in Germany is around 11.4 million hectares and stores 52 million tonnes of CO2 per year. Therefore, the one hectare used for Klimawald accounts for around 4.5 tonnes of stored CO2 annually. Just to compare: Germany emitted 905 million tonnes of CO2 in the year 2017.

“I would like to extend the project, maybe introducing it in other cities, other universities as well”, Kun says. For the next five years, the Klimawald project is going to be continued in Bayreuth. “There will be a planting phase next spring. If it is needed due to droughts, the new trees will be watered once in summer. This is something new in forestry, normally, the plants are let alone.” Probably a “gap filling” is needed in October this year, as the beech saplings were of bad quality and some are likely going to die. This means, that new trees will be planted to replace the dead ones.

Is the result of Klimawald satisfying? Kun thinks for some moments and answers: “My character does not allow me to feel too much self-esteem, but with Klimawald, I was really happy and satisfied. It was a big dream of mine to plant trees for a long time.” His decision to study ecology was inspired when he read a book with the title “The Man Who Planted Trees” by Jean Giono some years ago. “This was something so simple: To plant trees and see change”, he says. And yet, Kun was not satisfied with just leaning over science books, reading through scientific papers and similar aspects of academia. “I started to lose the simplicity of action. Obviously, studying and gaining knowledge is important but I didn’t actually do anything with it yet.” Therefore, Kun decided to plant trees.

The post Klimawald Bayreuth: About planting trees and seeing change appeared first on Global Change Ecology.

Since May 2017 the Natural History Museum of Berlin, Germany, showcases a special exhibition focusing on Macaws (Aras). Right after passing by gigantic dinosaur skeletons in the entrance of the museum, the visitor enters a room with a South American atmosphere and dozens of colorful specimens of Macaws.

From fact sheets pinned to the walls we learn that macaws face several threats. Habitat loss due to the clearing of woodland for the means of tropical wood harvesting, grazing grounds, arable land, and mining, is the most severe threat. Especially in the Amazonian and Cerrado region, where the natural habitat of the birds is lost at an immense speed. Being highly adapted to certain trees for feeding and nesting, macaws cannot easily find new homes.

Another reason for the decline in macaw populations is illegal trade and poaching. The pretty birds are very popular as pets, especially because of their intelligence and social personality. Sadly, the typical human friendly behavior of macaws is based on the lack of alternatives after the birds are taken away from their families.

As a result, many of the macaw species are listed in the IUCN red list of threatened species. The Blue-throated Macaw and the Spix’s Macaw for example are categorized as critically endangered.

Threatened macaws: How does this relate to us – to you?

The destruction of the Ara’s habitat is largely triggered by the global need for soy. Germany, for example, imports more than 6 million tonnes of soy each year and the vast majority is grown in South America where the macaws live. An estimated 2.2 million hectares of land is dedicated to the production of soybean for Germany.

Now, people assuming only vegans with their tofu and other soy based items are responsible for this high demand, are wrong. In fact, soy for tofu comes mainly from organic productions from within the European Union.

The quoted number is used to feed pigs, cows and poultry. One meal of traditional roast pork alone destroys two square metres of potential macaw habitat. According to the fact sheets at the exhibition, the entire German Federal State of Thuringia would need to be converted to arable land with soybeans to satisfy the meat industry’s demand for this fodder.

As a logical conclusion, less meat in your daily life helps to protect the lives of the beautiful macaw species in South America!

More information on the exhibition can be found here. The Natural History Museum in Berlin is definitely worth a visit. It showcases earth history, evolution, dinosaur skeletons, minerals and much more in a very informative way – and with special student price of only 5 €.

The post Macaws in Berlin: how our food choices threaten the popular exotic birds appeared first on Global Change Ecology.

By: Katharina Funk

We all don’t really know what to expect as we sit on our chairs, placed in a circle, watching Rosemarie Katrin Neumann from Impact Dialog preparing her things: Setting up her notebook, hanging up posters, laying out colourful slips of paper. What will we learn today? What will we do? It is a very different class, as we do not sit behind our tables, as we are supposed to talk to each other, as we are to learn things that are usually not covered in a lecture: We are here to attend Rosmaries’s Impact Training, to learn how to increase the impact of our research, of ourselves.

This means – Rosi, as she introduced herself, explains – not only to improve our communication skills but also to think of new ways of communication.  And, this is for Rosi the most important point, our representation in the social media, our digital footprint.

But first we talk about ways to exchange knowledge. We learn, how important it is to know, what contents we want to communicate and what we want to achieve. For a start this sounds quite trivial to me. But then I begin thinking about my way of communication. I have been trying to give my best, but could it be that this is not the best for others? Maybe I would have been more successful if I thought more about what the others wanted, and how I could show them that my knowledge will benefit them too.

I can use this realization immediately during the next exercise, where we are to write a policy brief. Instead of asking myself what I think is important, I try to assess what kind of knowledge a policymaker would be interested in.

I ask myself what I would want to achieve with this policy report, and what kind of information the policymaker needs to help me to achieve my goals.

Knowing the theory behind communication helps me a lot to figure out what I want and to adapt my communication accordingly.

During lunch I have the possibility to talk with Rosi. She is currently doing her PhD in Newcastle, but she is also writing Articles and running her Impact Dialog business. She is interested in effective communication and her aim is to bring scientists and policy maker together to change the world. “You don’t have to do everything by yourself.” she says, “There are a lot of people out there with awesome skills.”

She wants to empower us to improve our skills, but at the same time she encourages us to work together. As a single person you can only have a certain impact, but if you work together, you can achieve so much more. That is why one plus one is for me eleven, because together you are much more than the sum of individuals.

In the afternoon the workshop is all about our presence in social media. She has done her research and found information about almost all of us on social networks. We talk about our current presence and what we want to achieve. What we could do better and how to do it better. Rosi herself is quite active on Twitter (@RosmarieKatrin), promoting her research and sharing important information. She tells us how various researchers have already contacted her, because they have seen her tweets and were interested in her work. We talk about how we, too, can increase our impact by tweeting about our research and projects we do. In the end we learn about different strategies how to increase our followers and how to get in contact with other scientists.

Sadly, we have only one day with Rosi, so even though I feel I could have learned a lot more from her, she has to leave Bayreuth in the evening. Nevertheless, we have had a very successful training, leaving us thinking about the other side we try to reach. Having learned about the communication with stakeholders, policy makers and other scientists, why social media are important for our research impact and how to improve our digital footprint, Rosi pointed out many new perspectives and gave us incentives on how to improve out impact. But the biggest impact for me was the realization how much we can achieve together and that only together we have to power to change the world.

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