Biologische Vielfalt in ehemaligen und aktiven Kiestagebauen: eine Fallstudie aus der Umgebung der Stadt Neubrandenburg (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern)

Aus der naturschutzbiologischen Literatur ist seit längerer Zeit bekannt, dass ehemalige und aktive Kiestagebaue wertvolle Ersatzlebensräume für gefährdete Tier- und Pflanzenarten sein können, die aufgrund mangelnder Strukturvielfalt und intensiver Landnutzung in der offenen Landschaft zunehmend seltener werden. In einer Studie an einem aktiven und zwei ehemaligen Kiestagebauen in der Umgebung der Stadt Neubrandenburg (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) zeigte sich, dass diese Gebiete durch ein auffallend heterogenes und kleinräumiges Mosaikmuster aus unterschiedlichen Biotopen und ökologisch abgrenzbaren Teilflächen gekennzeichnet sind. Die Artenmuster der Vögel und Schmetterlinge zeigen Gemeinsamkeiten, aber auch Unterschiede zwischen den Kiestagebauen mit unterschiedlichen Nutzungsstadien. Eine bemerkenswert hohe Vielfalt an Biotopen, Vogel- und Tagfalterarten wurde dabei in einem ehemaligen Kiestagebau beobachtet, der bis vor einigen Jahrzehnten unter dem Einfluss von Weidetieren stand. Die Ergebnisse verdeutlichen das enorme Potenzial dieser Lebensräume für die Förderung von Biodiversität. Zusätzlich stützen sie den bereits bestehenden Vorschlag von Wissenschaftlerinnen und Wissenschaftlern, dass es im zoologischen Artenschutz strategisch äußerst sinnvoll wäre, mit den Tagebaubetreibern Vereinbarungen, wie die temporäre Anlage von Kleingewässern für Amphibien, zu treffen sowie diese als Ausgleichsmaßnahme für Flächennutzungen anzuerkennen und wertzuschätzen. Biodiversity in former and active opencast gravel pits: a case study from the vicinity of the city of Neubrandenburg (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) Abstract: It has been known for some time in conservation biology literature that former and active opencast gravel quarries can be valuable substitute habitats for endangered animal and plant species, which are becoming increasingly rare in the open landscape due to a lack of structural diversity and intensive land use. A scientific study of two former and one active opencast gravel quarry in the surrounding area of the city Neubrandenburg (Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, north-eastern Germany) revealed that those areas are characterised by a strikingly heterogeneous and small-scale mosaic pattern of different biotopes or ecologically definable subareas. The species patterns of birds and butterflies show similarities and differences between the opencast gravel pits with different stages of use. A remarkably high diversity of biotopes, bird species and butterflies were observed in a former gravel pit, which was influenced by grazing until a few decades ago. The results illustrate the enormous potential of these habitats for the promotion and protection of biodiversity. Additionally, the case study supports a recent claim of scientists, suggesting that strategically, it would be very sensible in terms of zoological species conservation, to come to agreements with the open-cast mine operators, e. g. on the temporary creation of small water bodies for amphibians and to recognise and value this as a compensatory measure for land use.

Early and Middle Holocene Antler Tools With Holes From the Gravel Pits of the Smarhon Area, North-Western Belarus

The present article focuses on artefacts made of antlers with holes drilled for the haft, both those available in physical collections and those known only from archaeological literature. This category of items is held by a number of central and regional museums in Belarus, as well as in private collections. Such ‘dispersion’ of the items makes their study problematic. Until now, no comprehensive study of antler artefacts with drilled holes from gravel pits located in Smarhon has been conducted. Publications have so far considered only the specimens that are most representative from the point of view of comparative typology. Michal Chernyavskiy and Piotr Kalinovskiy invariably associated tools with drilled holes with the Mesolithic period. However, this group of tools is more diverse and chronologically complicated than previously thought. The authors of the present article propose a new typological scheme for this item category which is part of a pan-European cultural and chronological context based on a complex analysis of antler artefacts with drilled holes.

Discovery

The narrative starts at breakfast in the northern French town of Abbeville on the River Somme. Prestwich and Evans are joined by the pioneering, but eccentric antiquary Jacques Boucher de Perthes. They are here to inspect his claims for stone tools found alongside the bones of extinct ice age animals. If they can verify his claim, then the time revolution has begun. The reasons why Boucher de Perthes has been ignored are touched on as the three visit the gravel pits of the town, looking at the evidence. Lunch allows them to study Boucher de Perthes’s huge collection of flints and antiquities, including his strange stone sculptures. They are interrupted by a telegram and leave for Amiens. The train journey from Abbeville to Amiens is used to reflect on how they built their scientific case from facts, not theories. Once in Amiens they are taken by Charles Pinsard to the gravel pits at St Acheul, where they find, and photograph, the evidence they came for. The circumstances of the discovery are described in their own words.

Are we neglecting local knowledge while choosing rehabilitation strategy for mining sites?

<p>Given that mining sites, active or closed, represent almost 1 percent of Earths’ surface, the choice of adequate rehabilitation strategy is of crucial importance. In our previous work, we were examining the types of rehabilitation and biodiversity developed in consequence, and suggested that natural succession should be favoured whenever possible.</p><p>As advocated by IPBES, in its report of the second session of the plenary meeting (2012), indigenous and local knowledge should be valued and taken into account in decision-making processes, in order to stop the biodiversity loss. Yet, the decisions on rehabilitations are being taken by environmental professionals, without consulting with site managers. In this study, we were examining whether there is a local knowledge, which could be used when choosing the adequate rehabilitation technique. We were interested in how quarries and sand and gravel pits managers apprehend biodiversity, since they are the ones conducting actions impacting biodiversity. We were interested in their apprehension of their own actions and its consequences on biodiversity.</p><p>Managers of 46 quarries and sand and gravel pits were interviewed, on site, using Critical Incident Technique (Flanagan, 1954), in order to obtain examples of concrete situations showing their relationship with biodiversity as well as their degree of conscience on biodiversity issues. Every interview lasted about one hour and a half and consisted of two parts: the first where general questions were asked in the office for about 15 minutes and the second where the questions about the situations related to biodiversity were asked, during the walk around the site for better contextualization.</p><p>We analyzed the collected data using Grounded Theory (Glaser et al. 1967) which is a method used to analyze the field data (e.g. interviews), in order to obtain a theory that explains the underlying phenomenon. Often used in social sciences in order to understand the phenomena and identify the paradigms, this method was well adapted to reveal the causes and motivations of actions conducted by site managers.</p><p>Results of this study allowed us to comprehend the site managers as not just actors at the source of impact on biodiversity, but also as actors that are informed and that invest themselves in a relationship with nature. They perceive the value of biodiversity in quarries and gravel pits, conduct a lot of non-mandatory actions for biodiversity, during the life cycle of the site and are motivated to conduct additional measures in order to favor biodiversity. We discovered that there is a hidden expertise among site managers. For instance, they are capable of recognizing a lot of animal species present on site and even to predict the failure of certain rehabilitation techniques.</p><p>Following this conclusion, it seems unfortunate that the experience of site managers is not used when choosing the type of rehabilitation. A more participatory, interactive and more educational two-way process would seem much more appropriate for this type of actors who are very important for the implementation of biodiversity protection policies and who see themselves more proactive than reactive.</p>

Characterization of SWOT Water Level Errors on Seine Reservoirs and La Bassée Gravel Pits: Impacts on Water Surface Energy Budget Modeling

The Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) space mission will map surface area and water level changes in lakes at the global scale. Such new data are of great interest to better understand and model lake dynamics as well as to improve water management. In this study, we used the large-scale SWOT simulator developed at the French Space National Center (CNES) to estimate the expected measurement errors of the water level of different water bodies in France. These water bodies include five large reservoirs of the Seine River and numerous small gravel pits located in the Seine alluvial plain of La Bassée upstream of the city of Paris. The results show that the SWOT mission will allow to observe water levels with a precision of a few tens of centimeters (10 cm for the largest water reservoir (Orient), 23 km2), even for the small gravel pits of size of a few hectares (standard deviation error lower than 0.25 m for water bodies larger than 6 ha). The benefit of the temporal sampling for water level monitoring is also highlighted on time series of pseudo-observations based on real measurements perturbed with the simulated noise errors. Then, the added value of these future data for the simulation of lake energy budgets is shown using the FLake lake model through sensitivity experiments. Results show that the SWOT data will help to model the surface temperature of the studied water bodies with a precision better than 0.5 K and the evaporation with an accuracy better than 0.2 mm/day. These large improvements compared to the errors obtained when a constant water level is prescribed (1.2 K and 0.6 mm/day) demonstrate the potential of SWOT for monitoring the lake energy budgets at global scale in addition to the other foreseen applications in operational reservoir management.

The current distribution of the freshwater crayfish (Decapoda: Astacidae, Cambaridae) in the Neman river basin in Belarus

The trends in the distribution and occurrence of the freshwater crayfish in the water bodies of the Neman River basin are presents. It has been shown that both native species: the noble and the narrow-clawed crayfish are declined and/or are displaced with rapidly expanding its range the invasive spiny-cheek crayfish. In recent years the alien species was found in isolated gravel pits and lakes, where it could be transferred only by the human activity. These findings confirm the need of the education about the threats posed by the invasive species on the native biodiversity especially with the local community, which is an obligatory practice for protection the native species in the area expanded with non-native crayfish species. Further, to increase the likelihood of the local biodiversity conservation it is highly needed to undertake targeted actions aimed at resettling endangered populations into waterbodies unavailable for the invasive spiny-cheek crayfish expansion.