On Tuesday, 15/11/2011, several experts discussed the "CO2 neutral University" project at a panel discussion. This event was part of the panel discussion series "Sustainable university" which took place during the "Greif mit ein! Greifswalder Aktionstage für Klimaschutz und nachhaltige Entwicklung", 14.-19.11.2011 (translated: Take action! Greifswald's days of action for climate protection and sustainable development"). People on the panel:  André Dreißen (Director of Stadtwerke Greifswald), Florian Geyder (student's delegate, UniSolar AG Greifswald), Kerstin Kräusche (Head of Environmental Managemnt, HNEE), Waldemar Okon (Head of planning department, University Greifswald), Dr. Thorsten Permien (Ministry of the Environment Mecklenburg Vorpommern) and Prof. Martin Wilmking (Head of Landscape Ecology, Universität Greifswald).

The article “Establishing a missing link: warm summers and winter snow cover promote shrub expansion into alpine tundra in Scandinavia” by Martin Hallinger, Michael Manthey and Martin Wilmking was published in the latest issue of New Phytologist Virtual Special Issue (VSI) ‘Sir Arthur Tansley’s ecosystem concept’.

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8137.2011.03931.x/full

http://issuu.com/wblifesci/docs/nph_ecosystems?viewMode=magazine&mode=embed

Rescue for the large-scale arid environments of central Asia – new project of the University’s landscape ecologists with Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan coordinated by Succow Foundation

Under this title the "Ostsee-Zeitung" introduces on its university-page in the Greifswald local news section the CABNET-project (Central Asian Biodiversity Network), with Prof. Michael Manthey being the supervisor. The project, which is funded by the Federal Ministry of Economic Development and Collaboration, is coordinated by the Succow Foundation, known to be an active player for years in Central Asian landscapes. Besides Greifswald University’s landscape ecologists, two Kazakh universities as well as one Turkmen Institute are involved in the project. The aim of the CABNET-project is to establish a network for investigation and protection of biological diversity in Central Asian arid environments (buildup of university partnerships). 

DFG approves funding to Prof. Wilmking in collaboration with Prof. Kutzbach (Clisap, Hamburg University), Dr. Zorita and Prof. von Storch (GKSS). The project is titled "New statistical operations for amplitude optimized palaeo climate reconstructions of temporally high resolution noisy proxy data". The project is coordinated by Hamburg University (Prof. Kutzbach) and is supposed to run three years.

Abstract:

According to several current publications up to now many palaeo climate reconstructions underestimate the amplitudes of long-wave fluctuations of the past temperature development.  One reason for this systematic error is probably the insufficient consideration of the error’s noise, which biases the proxy-climate indicator data as well as the instrumentally measured climate data for calibration. Recently, an iterative operation for amplitude optimized reconstruction of noisy time series was presented by Thees et al. (2009) which is based on errors in the variable-models and a new introduced estimator of the amplitude’s constancy of modeled time series. The here proposed project has the following aims which build up on each other: (1.) The Thees operation will be tested with the help of an ensemble of pseudo climate proxy data for its robustness. (2.) The Thees operation will be tested for practical interest by applying it to a 1500 year old regional palaeo temperature reconstruction for Northern Sweden. (3.) The reviewed and optimized Thees operation will be used to generate amplitude optimized palaeo temperature reconstructions for three further climate regions of the Northern hemisphere.

The "Helmholtz Gemeinschaft" has established 12 new virtual institutes. One of them is ICLEA (Virtual Institute for Climate and Landscape Evolution Analyses). Our working group Landscape Ecology and Ecosystem Dynamics is one out of four partners of the virtual institute. In the following five years we - together with GFZ Potsdam, which holds the central coordination, the Polish Academy of sciences (Torun) and the BTU Cottbus – will try to reconstruct climate history of the Northern German-Polish lowland with high spatial and temporal resolution. In Greifswald we will be responsible for the dencroecological / dendrochronological analyses. Total grant volume is 4.5 million €. We are looking forward to new possibilities and challenges!

Under the headline "Senatssitzung: Uni will bis 2016 CO2-neutral werden" Daniel Voessing explains on webmoritz.de the concept of a CO2 neutral University which was presented by Prof. Martin Wilmking at the senate`s meeting on June 15th.

Link to the article (available in German only):

http://webmoritz.de/2011/06/16/senatsitzung-uni-will-bis-2015-co2-neutral-werden/

Dr. Jasmin Mantilla-Contreras accepted an offer of a professorship (Junior Professorship "Ecology and Environmental Education") at the Stiftung Universität Hildesheim, starting in the winter term 2011/12. Congratulations! She will still be associated with our working group as a guest researcher.

Dr. Jasmin Mantilla Contreras and Dr. Niels Thevs, Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology, Greifswald University, complemented by Prof. Stefan Zerbe, Bozen University, and Peter Annighöfer, Göttingen University, presented their Junior Research Groups from the BEN-Supporting-Program of the German Stiftungszentrum in "Salon Sophie Charlotte", hosted by Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. During the talks sponsors and sponsored people have the possibility to exchange information about their projects.

BEN is short for Biodiversity – Ecology – Nature Conservation. Dr. Jasmin Mantilla Contreras leads since 2008 the Junior Research Group "Biodiversity, ecology and management of coastal habitats of the Baltic Sea". Dr. Niels Thevs is leading since 2009 the Junior Research Group "Adaptation Strategies to Climate Change and Sustainable Land Use in Central Asia (Turkmenistan and Xinjiang, China)". The Junior Research Groups consisting of an interdisciplinary team of one Postdoctoral scientist and two Ph.D. students work together on one research project. The Junior Research Groups of the Institute of Botany and Landscape Ecology of Greifswald University are funded by "Bauer Hollmann" Foundation and "Rudolf und Helene Glaser" Foundation in the German Foundation Center.

The judging panel of "bild der wissenschaft" announces in its current issue the winning candidates. "Mekkas der Moderne" with two articles by Prof. M. Wilmking was awarded 2nd place in the category "Surprise – the book which describes a topic in the most inventive way". First prize was given to Arthur Bremer’s "Die Welt in 100 Jahren". Third place won "Hast du Töne – warum wir alle musikalisch sind" by Christoph Drösser.

Furthermore, „Mekkas der Moderne“ was shortlisted as the "Scientific book of the year" in Austria. In the name of the Austrian ministry of science, the judging panel selected the best books of the year. The readers will now decide who will win the Public’s Choice Award.

The judging panel writes about the internet-game, from which the book was developed: "Who now feels the desire for new places or wants to state doubts and objections can now find the appropriate place for that, which is also the place where the book has its origin www.mekkasdermoderne.de."