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Understanding ecosystem water fluxes has gained increasing attention, as climate scenarios predict a drier environment for many parts of the world. Evaporative enrichment of 18O (Δ18O) of leaf water and subsequent enrichment of plant organic matter can be used to characterize environmental and physiological factors that control evaporation, based on a recently established mechanistic model. In a P
Due to its drought sensitivity, the performance and competitiveness of beech as a favoured species of forest management in Central Europe is likely to be negatively affected by the prognosticated climate change, leading to major impacts on the vulnerability of managed forest ecosystems. We studied the genetic differentiation between two populations from a relatively cold and wet northeast (represe
The carbon ( 13C) and oxygen ( 18O) stable isotope composition is widely used to obtain information on the linkages between environmental drivers and tree physiology over various time scales. The tree-ring archive can especially be exploited to reconstruct inter- and intra-annual variation of both climate and physiology. There is, however, a lack of information on the processes potentially affecti
The 13C isotopic signature (C stable isotope ratio; δ13C) of CO2 respired from forest ecosystems and their particular compartments are known to be influenced by temporal changes in environmental conditions affecting C isotope fractionation during photosynthesis. Whereas most studies have assessed temporal variation in δ13C of ecosystem-respired CO2 on a day-to-day scale, not much information is av
Regional climate models predict an intensification of extreme heat waves in Central Europe. Against this background, the significance of human-biometeorologically orientated urban planning strategies is increasing by which the impairment of thermal comfort for people in cities in the future can be minimised. Such strategies require quantitative information on factors determining human thermal comf
Nitrogen (N) cycling in terrestrial ecosystems is complex since it involves the closely interwoven processes of both N uptake by plants and microbial turnover of a variety of N metabolites. Major interactions between plants and microorganisms involve competition for the same N species, provision of plant nutrients by microorganisms and labile carbon (C) supply to microorganisms by plants via root
Preclinical gene therapy studies of mitochondrial diseases remain limited due to the typically multi-organ manifestations and the scarcity of physiologically relevant animal models. Mutations in BCS1L , a nuclear gene encoding an assembly factor for mitochondrial complex III (CIII), are the most common cause of CIII deficiency. The most severe phenotype, GRACILE syndrome, is caused by a homozygous
Plant growth, reproduction, and biomass allocation may be affected differently by nitrogen availability depending on tree size and age. In this context, competition for limited N may be avoided by different strategies of N acquisition between different vegetation components (i.e., seedlings, mature trees, other woody and herbaceous understorey). This study investigated in a field experiment whethe
Economic activities and everyday life may create weekly variations in concentrations of air pollutants in urban settings. The present study contributes to this experience on the example of two typical medium-sized towns in Central Europe, Szeged and Freiburg considering the following air pollutants: NO, NO2, O3, Ox and PM10. Five-year data sets of hourly observations (1997-2001) collected in downt
