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Solutions for Sustaining Natural Capital and Ecosys tem Services

Salzau and Kiel, June 11th, 2010

Excursion Materials

Schedule of the excursion

08:45 Participants meet in front of the information desk of Kiel Main Station

09:00 Kiel – Honigsee

Energy from biomass – how to value ecosystem services?

R. Hingst

10:00 Honigsee – Altekoppel

Ecosystem research and ecosystem services F. Müller, W. Windhorst

Quantifying regulating services – forest monitoring C. Schimming J. Hagemann

Ecosystem service mapping in the Bornhöved Lakes District B. Burkhard F. Kroll

Lunch break (lunch packs and drinks are provided)

12:30 Altekoppel – Ascheberg – Plön – Selent – Schönberg

Coastal protection - Schönberger Strand – how to value regulating services

W. Windhorst

14:30 Schönberg – Wendtorf

Nature protection and tourism - Wendtof / Bottsand – how to value cultural services and biodiversity?

B. Burkhard

16:30 Wendtorf – Kiel

17:15 Arrival Kiel Main Station

The excursion has been arranged to show the basic characteristics of the landscape around Salzau Castl e and to discuss approaches to derive the potentials of ecosystem service provision . Besides the observation of ecological and cultural features of the visited landscapes, some items for a continuation of the Salzau discussions will be studied. At all stops the question will be asked how to value certain land use attributes and how to assess the environmental consequences of those land use strategies.

The excursion will start with the visit of a new biogas energy plant in the south of Kiel. This item hopefully will lead to discussions about conflicts between different provisioning ecosystem services (energy vs. food) and the environmental consequences following the respective land use practice (different maize cropping intensities).

At Altekoppel, in the Bornhöved Lakes Region, regulating services will be in the focus of the discussions. Using the example of forest ecosystem state indicators and long-term data of the EU Level II Programme, valuation potentials for regulating services can be discussed. The remaining measuring fields from the ecosystem research initiative at the Bornhöved Lakes will be demonstrated and results will be presented.

At Altekoppel there will also be a short introduction and demonstration of a qualitative evaluation scheme for ecosystem service potentials. The participants are asked to find critical points in this scheme and to apply it during the excursion.

In the afternoon, the bus will move towards the coast of the Baltic Sea to discuss coastal protection services and cultural services , referring to recreation on the one hand and nature protection on the other. The outcomes of conflicts between these services will be demonstrated at the nature reserve Bottsand.

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Excursion route maps

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Some information about Kiel

Area: 118,6 km² Inhabitants: 237.579 (31. Dez. 2008) Population density: 2003 inhabitants per km²

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Introducing the landscape we will pass

Glacial processes forming the landscape

Geomorphological zonation of Schleswig-Holstein

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Soil types in Schleswig-Holstein

Land cover types in Schleswig-Holstein

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Honigsee Biogas Plant

Honigsee: Area: 11,27 km² Inhabitants: 449 (31. Dez. 2008) Population density: 40 Inhabitants per km²

Biogas plant built in 2007

500 kWh electricity + heat provisions for farms and households

Consequences for the village’s energy balance? Consequences for the land use around the plant? Problem: Rising monocultures of maize due to optimal technical suitability with impacts referring to erosion, eutrophication, biodiversity

Potentials of biomass usage for energy provision in Schleswig-Holstein

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Some numbers about visited settlements, lakes and landscapes Wankendorf Area: 13,34 km² Inhabitants: 2.970 (31. Dez. 2008) Population density: 223 inhabitants per km² Belauer See Length N-S: 2350 m; Length E-W: 800 m, Shoreline: 5650 m; Volume: 10,18 Mio. m³; Area: 1,13 km²; Average depth: 9,0 m; Maximum depth: 25,6 m; Catchment area: 26,43 km² Bornhöved Area: 14,35 km² Inhabitants: 3.464 (31. Dez. 2008) Population density: 241 Inhabitants per km² Plöner See Area: 29,97 km²; Length: 8,3 km; Width: 7,1 km; Volume: 373.000.000 m³; Shoreline: 49,6 km Maximum depth: 58 m; Average depth: 13,54 m; Catchment area: 393 km² Plön Area: 35,94 km² Inhabitants: 12.788 (31. Dez. 2008) Population density: 356 inhabitants per km² Selent Area: 4,33 km² Inhabitants: 1.325 (31. Dez. 2008) Population density: 306 inhabitants per km² Selenter See Area: 22,4 km²; Length: 8,8 km; Width: 4,5 km; Maximum depth: 35,8 m; Average depth: 13,2 m; Catchment area: 61 km² Schönberg Area: 11,64 km² Inhabitants: 6.729 (31. Dez. 2008) Population density: 578 inhabitants per km²

Kreis Plön: Area: 1.082,71 km² Inhabitants: 134.912 (31. Dez. 2008) Population density: 125 inhabitants per km²

Map of the Bornhövd Lakes District

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Bornhöved Lakes District Information compiled by Claus Schimming and Jeske H agemann

The Bornhöved study-area is located in the claim of the western most outskirts of the Weichsalian glaciations lasting until approximately 12.000 years before today. Due to Weichselian meltwater and late-glacial dead ice dynamics, the Bornhöved Lake District comprises six lakes, in two broadly parallel alignments, namely the Bornhoeveder See, Schmalensee and the Belauer See in the southeast and the Fuhlensee, Schierensee and Stolper See in the northwest. The lakes are coupled to be part of the River Schwentine system.

Following a particularly complex variety in geopeodogenesis a mosaic of different landscape types has been evolved during the retreat of glaciers, subsequent deposition of sediments and melting of dead-ice that especially left the hollow forms of the later lakes. Two glacier advances are depicted in Fig. 1.2. The third one you just passed at the entry of the Autobahn shortly before we arrived in the area. The second one is located south-westerly in a distance of approximately 4km. The first one has been run over by the second one. By the way, the fourth one is called the Hornberger Riegel that you have seen just by leaving the township of Kiel. A landmark is the Television tower.

The glacial influence revealed at this site is representative for the formation of the North German Plain. In the early Neolithic a period of land use differentiation started. Fishery, forestry and cultivation of land changed irreversibly the landscape area since the beginning of the Middle Ages. This is also relevant for the main research area: A former field was transformed into the forest here, plough marks are still detectable in the soil profile as well in some physical and chemical soil properties.

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Geomorphological structure of the greater research area

Geological structure of the Lake Belau watershed

As a result of the complex geological history a complicated pattern of glacigenic, fluvioglacial, limnetic, organic, and anthropogenic deposits characterizes the study area.

Till facies are dominating in the northern part of the study area (see fig. 1.2). Typical formations in the area are kames which indicate intense overforming during the oscillation of the glacier and made up the great variation of parent material of soil formation. Melting water streams formed sandures more southwesterly of the lakes. The special performance of geogenesis continued with the

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formation of the hollow forms of the lakes , whereas the limnetic sediments comprise sand and silt. During the Holocene the mineral sediments have been covered by different minero-organogenic facies with planktonic and non-planktonic diatoms. Peat formation is widespread due to Holocene formation of low fens in the numerous depressions of the area. In some places soil colluvia have been accumulated like to be seen at the slope down the visited site to the lake. Anthropogenic material is forming the basis of the hedgerows whereas only during approximately distanced Antrohsols were formed.

The soil associations of the study area comprise terrestrial, semiterrestrial, and anthropogeomorphic soil units in compliance with the geopeogenisis of the area. The soils were mainly formed from glacial till and glacial or fluvioglacial sands. A deep decalcification of the terrestrial soils occurred during soil formation: the loamy soils from glacial till. The intensly investigated soil under forestry and arable land are mostly sandy and belong the group of Arenosols and are associated with Histosol, Anthrosols (Eroded soils and Colluvia) in respective sites. The visited forest soil is an Arenic Umbrisol but under the criteria of ICP-forest expertise classified as Cambic Arenosol. The arable land directly compared covers an Eutric Arenosol.

The distinct heterogeneity of the soils on the one hand proved for a challenge for the researchers but made drags regarding representative sampling. A great program has been conducted especially in this regard in order to describe gradients and related importance in the self-organization of ecosystem structures.

The Cambic Arenosol under forest has developed from melting water sands sedimented during a certain warmer period and later slightly covered with tills deposited by a short transgression of the glacier in the end of the Weichsalian. The sandy soil is strongly acidified and slightly poor of available mineral-nutrients. The available-water potentials is also poor. The ecologic potentials will be discussed during the excursion.

Soil properties of the Bornhöved research area

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Soil map of the research area

Vegetation map of the research area

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To a great extent, the vegetation pattern reflects the distinct mosaic of soil conditions especially in regard of available water and water relations in the area mostly following the topographical gradients. Alder and birch carrs dominate the banks of the lakes while typical low-drained (Calthion) wetland species like Lotus uliginosus, Cirsium palustre and Angelica sylvestris are rare. The beech forest is assigned to the association Galio-Fagetum and the understorey is dominated by typical Querco-Fagetea species, eg.: Polygonatum multiflorum, Stellaria holostea, Galium odoratum and Milium effusum. Notable is the high degree of landscape fragmentation, wheras the hedgerows are the dominant structure.

Ecosystem classification of the research area The ecosystem map of the Bornhöved area is result of the orientor theory based concept that system variables are opitimized throughout the undisturbed development of ecosystems. With regard to the retrogressive succession analyses, this means that the respective indicators will predominantly decrease with increasing human impact. The map provides a significant test for this hypothesis. As foci of antropogenic activities in the field of agriculture are aimed to increase productivity, intense analyses indicate positive effects but all other indicators demonstrate that just as well that this type of optimization has far reaching consequences as species richness decreases and life-strategy types change significantly. This kind of performance manifests itself by the observation of increased mineralization in drained wetlands following the adaption of microorganism populations. With regard to the gradient concept, the retrogression with a degradaition of both structural and functional gradients all related interactions proceed not only to a reduction of systems but is also associated with substantial impaitment of other environmental qualities (e.q. service potentials. These surmises challenge critical questions about the paradigms of sustainable land use. The research on the matter-flux relations in the area proceeded to the assumption that the current and popular assumptions are mostly valid and carbon and energy relations been forest ecosystems and the environment are balanced or they are sinks, whilst agricultural systems are working as sinks. In order to prove these issues in detail the budgets of several agricultural systems were tested, whilst the results from the forest ecosystems were less informative. Additionally, the budgets of agricultural systems proved to be a better tool to test the sustainable development of rural areas. Compared with the patch scale and a representative regional-scale farm yard, good information of the imports and exports at the farm-yard gate is mostly available although the difficulties with the calculation of contributions by manure and other organic-matter fertilizers, fodder or similar matters. Results are presented for several systems, only-cropping over diary combining livestock and fodder production within the system boundaries i.e. behind the farm-yard gate until diary on the bases of concentrated fodder that is mostly imported to the farms. Not to go to the details, it is demonstrated that only-crop production induces the highest degree of energy efficiency whilst the most intense fodder use not surprisingly performs the worst one. In combination with available carbon budgets from which the energy equivalents were calculated, the approach proceeds to asses and compare the services of different agricultural praxes in regard of the diffuse carbon-dioxide emissions of soil. Other results including the use of fossil energy or electricity advertise to invest in increased efficiency of energy use and the use of regenerative energy forms has the highest potential for CO2 reduction. The investigation of the beech forest ecosystem shows only minor compensation potentials of the regional carbon emission. If the forest is planted the potential is assumed to be 150t C ha−1 during the 100 years since then. Finally in the context of the results from the arable land system investigated was concluded that closed crop rotations including intercropping are useful to reduce the risk of soil organic-carbon losses by intense production.

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Agricultural energy budgets

Energy balances

The Bornhöved Project provided the comfort framework of a12-year ecological study from 1987 until 1999 and has been conceived as an example of a comprehensive ecological surveillance system for Germany. The requisite budges were financed by the Federal Minster of Research and Technology. The project was initiated together with other centers in Germany in order to sustain a platform of concerted ecosystem research. After completion of the project, the Ecology Centre of Kiel University has been installed as the successor institution in 2001, for that time in order to sustain the pristine concepts of ecosystem research in a framework of an integrative ecosystem research. With respect to keep the continuity and integrity of long-term data sets, in 1995 there was the opportunity to join the ICP-forests monitoring framework. In task of the local Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Areas the Ecolgy Centre in the present organization conducts the Level II plot in the federal state Schlewig-Holstein but also contribute expertise to national and international activities of the program. The explicit conformity between the philosophies of Ecology Centre and the program aims proceeds also to participate in activities of Long. Actually the area visited here is part of LTER-D. The traditional research concept comprises three interrelated components, namely an ecological monitoring network, comparative ecosystem research, and an environmenta l specimen bank . It was also intended to promote ecological science, planning and policy. In this connection the geo- and bioscientifically based ecosystem research aims at understanding the structure and functions of systems, the states and stress tolerance of singular components and the entire system against changes and disturbances and the relationships between diversity, productivity, and stability. In accordance with the general concept, core areas of research and in realization to study landscapes as ecosystems, which had remained unfulfilled at that time, the general research aims of the Project have been to study ecosystem organization in a structurally highly diversified landscape which is representative of the whole set of ecotope complexes along the margins of the Weichselian Glaciation. The emphasis was on production and trophic structure, energy flow pathways, biogeochemical cycling, limiting factors, and species diversity.

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In order to grant for the perspectives of such an innovative concept, transdisciplinarity and organizational structure , the Bornhöved Project needed a specially shaped organizational structure of the project as summarized in Fig. 1.3.. It reflects an expedient combination of two principles, namely a vertical structure grouping closely related sub-projects into six divisions of research, and a horizontal one comprising a series of interdisciplinary working groups with integral functions transcending the realm of individual ecosystems as well as the complexity of the research object. It is for example made up by the expedient combination of two principles, namely a vertical structure grouping closely related sub-projects into six divisions of research, and a horizontal one comprising a series of interdisciplinary working groups with integral functions transcending the realm of individual ecosystems, for example the analysis and modelling of energy and material fluxes (e.g., N and C cyles) through ecosystem complexes or ecotones (e.g. the riparian zone covered by the Alder creek and the hedge-rows called "Knicks").

Structure of the Bornhöved project

In view of the fundamental importance of heterogeneity and the related problems of representative observation, measurement and sampling at different spatial scales, basically the same methodology was applied to define representative ecotope complexes for comparative systems analyses within the catchment. Adequate sub-units discriminated typically were on the bases of geostatistics under the aspect to derive ecologically meaningful spatial averages from primarily punctiform measurement data.

Measuring areas during the Bornhöved project

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Holsteinische Schweiz

Google map of Bornhöved Lakes District and the lakes around Plön

Google map of the Selenter See (Salzau can be found at the north-west edge)

Schönberger Strand

The excursion topic at Schönberger Strand is related to coastal protection. To minimize erosion and floods, dikes and t-groins have been built. At one side in the east of Schönberger Strand there has been a dike opening for nature protection purposes. Besides flood regulation, questions of tourism and information management will be discussed at this site.

Flood regulation at Schönberger Strand

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Dike opening structures near Schönberg

Bottsand and Wendtorf

The nature reserve "Bottsand" is certainly a valuable biotope. As it is unique in its character within the outer Kiel fjord, it is worth to protect. Including the brackish water lagoon "Bodden", the reserve is 91 hectare large. Rare and endangered animal and plant species can be found here within the dry and wet grasslands, in the wind mudflats, the brackish water reeds and the vegetated and non-vegetated dune and coastal areas. The area has special importance for breeding and migratory birds, in particular shorebirds, sea gulls and terns. Since the 1960s, Bottsand has been supervised by the NABU (Naturschutzbund) Deutschland.

Bottsand

Probstei

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Ecosystem service qualitative assessment matrix

The following table was created with help of a simple methodology to asses a landscape’s potential to provide ecosystem services. The aim of the matrix is to provide research hypotheses as basis for discussion which can be tested in case studies by including data from measurements or modelling. On the y-axis of this matrix, the 44 CORINE land cover types are placed. On the x-axis, the ecosystem services are placed. At the intersections, capacities of the different land cover types to provide the individual service were assessed qualitatively on a scale consisting of:

0 = no relevant capacity, 1 = low relevant capacity, 2 = relevant capacity, 3 = medium relevant capacity, 4 = high relevant capacity and 5 = very high relevant capacity.

scale for assessing capacities:

0 = no relevant capacity1 = low relevant capacity 2 = relevant capacity3 = medium relevant capacity4 = high relevant capacity5 = very high relevant capacity

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Pg. 17: Exemplary matrix for the assessment of different land cover types' capacities to provide different ecosystem services. In the rows between the individual services' assessments (yellow colour), sums for the four different ecosystem services groups were calculated.

Example of ecosystem service assessment in the Born höved Lake District (by Hyejin Lee, Hui Zhang and Ario)

The following maps and tables are extracted from a students’ homework. The students did an assessment of the capacity of different land use types in the Bornhöved Lake district for the provision of regulating services. To support their assumptions, they used data from literature on nitrate leaching, water balance, carbon cycling and soil erosion in the region (e.g. Kluge and Fränzle, 2008; Schrautzer et al., 2008; Dilly et al., 2008). They concluded that forests provide the highest level of regulating services, while built up areas, arable land, and grassland provide rather low levels of regulating services.

You can use their results as example for your own assessment of ecosystem services provision at our four excursion sites that you can insert in the blank matrix below.

Land use pattern in the Bornhöved Lake District

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Assessment matrix for regulation services in the Bornhöved Lake District

Map of regulating services provision in the Bornhöved Lake district created by students. It bases on the assessment matrix above and uses the same legend.

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scale for assessing capacities:

0 = no relevant capacity1 = low relevant capacity 2 = relevant capacity3 = medium relevant capacity4 = high relevant capacity5 = very high relevant capacity

Exercise matrix for the assessment of the four study sites' capacities to provide different ecosystem services.

In the rows between the individual services' assessments (yellow colour), sums for the four different ecosystem services groups can be calculated.

Please make your assessments using the 0 - 5 scale presented on the right.

Eco

log

ical

Inte

gri

ty

∑

Abiotic heterogeneity

Biodiversity

Biotic waterflows

Metabolic efficiency

Exergy Capture (Radiation)

Reduction of Nutrient loss

Storage capacity (SOM)

Pro

visi

on

ing

ser

vice

s ∑

Crops

Livestock

Fodder

Capture Fisheries

Acquaculture

Wild Foods

Timber

Wood Fuel

Energy

Biochem

icals / M

edicine

Freshwater

Reg

ula

tin

g s

ervi

ces

∑

Local climate regulation

Global climate regulation

Flood protection

Groundwater recharge

Air Quality Regulation

Erosion Regulation

Nutrient regulation

Water purification

Pollination

Cu

ltu

ral s

ervi

ces

∑

Recreation& Aesthetic Values

Intrinsic Value of Biodiversity

Site 1: Honigsee

intensive energy

maize field

Site 2: Bornhöved I

beech forest

Site 3: Bornhöved II

extensive grassland

Site 4: Schönberg

beach and dike

Site 5: Bottsand

nature protection area

Sum

s: