Landscape governance: The “politics of scale” and the “natural” conditions of places

Governance has become an iridescent concept in recent years. The term is widely used in almost all social-science disciplines as well as in the political process. The intention of this paper is not so much to clarify these sometimes vague meanings but to highlight some characteristics of environmental governance connected with the restructuring of the spatial dimensions of politics. It starts from the assumption that the quest for multi-level decision making is particularly pressing for environmental governance. However, multi-level governance raises concern about the constitution of various spatial levels and their relationships with each other, as discussed under the term of “politics of scale”. Moreover, it is argued that for environmental governance the spatial reference is strongly connected with another challenge, which concerns the question of how to deal with the biophysical conditions of particular places. The term landscape governance is introduced to tackle this question without referring to an ontologically given space. Thus, landscape governance deals with the interconnections between socially constructed spaces (the politics of scale) and “natural” conditions of places. For this task, the concept of societal relationships with nature is introduced and applied to the term “landscape” as a bridging concept between social and natural sciences. The paper illustrates the approach of landscape governance with examples of problem-oriented interdisciplinary research at the UFZ-Centre for Environmental research in Leipzig, Germany.     

Evolution of the late Cenozoic Chaco foreland basin, Southern Bolivia

Eastward Andean orogenic growth since the late Oligocene led to variable crustal loading, flexural subsidence and foreland basin sedimentation in the Chaco basin. To understand the interaction between Andean tectonics and contemporaneous foreland development, we analyse stratigraphic, sedimentologic and seismic data from the Subandean Belt and the Chaco Basin. The structural features provide a mechanism for transferring zones of deposition, subsidence and uplift. These can be reconstructed based on regional distribution of clastic sequences. Isopach maps, combined with sedimentary architecture analysis, establish systematic thickness variations, facies changes and depositional styles. The foreland basin consists of five stratigraphic successions controlled by Andean orogenic episodes and climate: (1) the foreland basin sequence commences between ～27 and 14 Ma with the regionally unconformable, thin, easterly sourced fluvial Petaca strata. It represents a significant time interval of low sediment accumulation in a forebulge‐backbulge depocentre. (2) The overlying ～14–7 Ma‐old Yecua Formation, deposited in marine, fluvial and lacustrine settings, represents increased subsidence rates from thrust‐belt loading outpacing sedimentation rates. It marks the onset of active deformation and the underfilled stage of the foreland basin in a distal foredeep. (3) The overlying ～7–6 Ma‐old, westerly sourced Tariquia Formation indicates a relatively high accommodation and sediment supply concomitant with the onset of deposition of Andean‐derived sediment in the medial‐foredeep depocentre on a distal fluvial megafan. Progradation of syntectonic, wedge‐shaped, westerly sourced, thickening‐ and coarsening‐upward clastics of the (4) ～6–2.1 Ma‐old Guandacay and (5) ～2.1 Ma‐to‐Recent Emborozú Formations represent the propagation of the deformation front in the present Subandean Zone, thereby indicating selective trapping of coarse sediments in the proximal foredeep and wedge‐top depocentres, respectively. Overall, the late Cenozoic stratigraphic intervals record the easterly propagation of the deformation front and foreland depocentre in response to loading and flexure by the growing Intra‐ and Subandean fold‐and‐thrust belt.     

Synchronizing seismic networks with ambient noise

The technique of retrieving Green's functions by pairwise correlation of a random wavefield is used to estimate the stability of the timing system of a seismic network. The method is demonstrated with data from a network consisting of stations with four independent clocks and GPS-receivers. For a two years period, daily measurements of the timing error of each of the four systems are obtained. These measurements can be used to correct the timing of the data in periods without GPS reception. The accuracy of this method can exceed the precision of the internal station clocks already after a single day of uncorrected drift.     

Fusion of multi‐resolution surface (terrestrial laser scanning) and subsurface geodata (ERT,SRT) for karst landform investigation and geomorphometric quantification

A multi‐method research design based on terrestrial laser scanning, GIS, geophysical prospecting (electrical resistivity tomography, refraction seismics) and sedimentology is applied for the first time to investigate enclosed karst depressions in an integrated way. Fusing multi‐resolution surface and subsurface geodata provides profound insights into the formation, geometry and geomorphologic processes of dolines. The studied landforms, which are located in the Dikti Mountains of East Crete, are shown to be filled by loose sediments of thicknesses of up to 30 m that mainly consist of fine‐grained material overlying solid bedrock at depths below 35 to 45 m. By combining subsurface observations with geomorphometric calculations, local doline genesis can be traced back to initial collapse of fractured bedrock followed by subsequent infilling with colluvials. In order to define crucial methodological requirements and guidelines for data fusion, both the impact of different elevation models and the influence of data resolution are assessed. Surface volumes of depressions derived by the digital surface model are 7–21% higher than the results obtained from the terrain model due to vegetation. Similarly, estimates of infill volume calculated on the basis of geophysical outcomes and elevation data differ by up to 13%. Calculations of the landforms' current volumes (i.e. total surface and subsurface volume), however, are fairly insensitive to raster resolution. Hence, the distinct geomorphologic properties of landforms (e.g. shape, terrain roughness, slope inclination) substantially determine the geomorphometric analysis of both surface and subsurface data. As shown by the findings, data fusion to integrate digital terrain, geophysical and sedimentological datasets of varied resolutions benefits geomorphologic studies and helps provide a comprehensive image of landforms. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Chronology building using objective identification of annual signals in trace element profiles of stalagmites

Determination of annual lamination provides important additional constraints to radiometric dates on speleothems, both for dating the duration of specific growth intervals and optimizing growth models. In the absence of visible laminae, however, speleothem age models are reliant upon curve fitting through discretely dated points and are therefore inherently more uncertain than annual chronologies from laminae. Given that the impact of seasonality on speleothems is expected to be strong enough to generate an annual pulse in trace element chemistry regardless of whether or not visible or fluorescent growth laminae are visible, we demonstrate the potential for deriving high-resolution stalagmite chronologies from non-laminated samples using annual chemical variations in stalagmites from two Alpine caves (Obir, Austria and Ernesto, NE Italy). Trace element data were obtained by ion microprobe analyses for H, P, Mg, Na, Sr and Ba and the annual signal was sought using spectral and wavelet analysis. An automated chemical peak-counting software tool was developed in MATLAB^©. It counts significant annual peaks using criteria of minimum amplitude in relation to the local standard deviation of signal variation and minimum separation between peaks determined by the thickness of the preceding layers. Verification of the tool using visibly laminated samples suggests the software is a reliable and accurate method of chronology building, with hit ratios greater than 0.93 and less than 0.75% false alarm occurrences. Used in conjunction with other dating methods such as radiocarbon, U–Th and sulphur peak dating, the automated chemical laminae chronology-building approach provides a more meaningful alternative to simple age-depth curve fitting for non-laminated samples.     

Roll Vortices and Boundary-Layer Development during a Cold Air Outbreak

The development of the boundary layer during a cold air outbreak in the FramStrait is documented by aircraft measurements. The convection was organisedinto roll vortices with aspect ratios increasing from 2.9 near the ice edgeto more than 6 at 100 km further downstream. This increase coincides with anincrease of the latent heat release in the cloud layer. The stability parameter-zi/L varies from about zero at the ice edge to 30 at a distance of 200 kmdownstream over open water where the satellite picture still shows cloudstreets. The increase is mainly due to the deepening of the boundary layer.The turbulent vertical sensible and latent heat fluxes near the surface amountto 400 W m^-2 within a 300 km off-ice zone. 25% of the upward heat fluxin the subcloud layer is carried out by organised roll motions. Experimentswith a 2-dimensional non-hydrostatic model show a similar roll aspect ratio inthe first 50 km, but further downstream where condensational heating is moreimportant the modelled roll wavelengths are distinctly smaller than the observedones.     

Biotic drivers of river and floodplain geomorphology – New molecular methods for assessing present‐day and past biota

Geomorphology has increasingly considered the role of biotic factors as controls upon geomorphic processes across a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Where timescales are long (centennial and longer), it has been possible to quantify relationships between geomorphic processes and vegetation using, for example, the pollen record. However, where the biotic agents are fauna, longer term reconstruction of the impacts of biological activity upon geomorphic processes is more challenging. Here, we review the prospect of using environmental DNA as a molecular proxy to decipher the presence and nature of faunal influences on geomorphic processes in both present and ancient deposits. When used appropriately, this method has the potential to improve our understanding of biotic drivers of geomorphic processes, notably fauna, over long timescales and so to reconstruct how such drivers might explain the landscape as we see it today. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

GIOVE-A initial signal analysis

In late December 2005 the GIOVE-A test satellite was launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) to secure the frequencies for the Galileo system and to provide a platform for testing the new navigation signals. We performed an initial assessment of these signals using the 30 m deep space antenna of the DLR ground station in Weilheim (Germany). The antenna gain raised the signals above the noise level, thus allowing a detailed analysis even without knowledge of the ranging codes. The present paper covers the analysis of the L1/E1 signals, which includes a discussion of the spectrum, the time domain signal and a decoding of the spreading codes for the Open Service.