Was bedeutet "Spiritualität" im Jugendalter? Erkenntnisse zu Aspekten subjektiver Anthropologie und Theologie von Jugendlichen aus religionspsychologischer Perspektive

Streib H. Was bedeutet "Spiritualität" im Jugendalter? Erkenntnisse zu Aspekten subjektiver Anthropologie und Theologie von Jugendlichen aus religionspsychologischer Perspektive. In: Dieterich V-J, Rothgangel M, Schlag T, eds. "Dann müsste ja in uns allen ein Stück Paradies stecken" : Anthropologie und Jugendtheologie. Jahrbuch für Jugendtheologie. Vol 3. Calw: Calwer Verlag; 2014: 82-91

Small-scale plant species distribution in snowbeds and its sensitivity to climate change

Alpine snowbeds are characterized by a long-lasting snow cover and low soil temperature during the growing season. Both these key abiotic factors controlling plant life in snowbeds are sensitive to anthropogenic climate change and will alter the environmental conditions in snowbeds to a considerable extent until the end of this century. In order to name winners and losers of climate change among the plant species inhabiting snowbeds, we analyzed the small-scale species distribution along the snowmelt and soil temperature gradients within alpine snowbeds in the Swiss Alps. The results show that the date of snowmelt and soil temperature were relevant abiotic factors for small-scale vegetation patterns within alpine snowbed communities. Species richness in snowbeds was reduced to about 50% along the environmental gradients towards later snowmelt date or lower daily maximum temperature. Furthermore, the occurrence pattern of the species along the snowmelt gradient allowed the establishment of five species categories with different predictions of their distribution in a warmer world. The dominants increased their relative cover with later snowmelt date and will, therefore, lose abundance due to climate change, but resist complete disappearance from the snowbeds. The indifferents and the transients increased in species number and relative cover with higher temperature and will profit from climate warming. The snowbed specialists will be the most suffering species due to the loss of their habitats as a consequence of earlier snowmelt dates in the future and will be replaced by the avoiders of late-snowmelt sites. These forthcoming profiteers will take advantage from an increasing number of suitable habitats due to an earlier start of the growing season and increased temperature. Therefore, the characteristic snowbed vegetation will change to a vegetation unit dominated by alpine grassland species. The study highlights the vulnerability of the established snowbed vegetation to climate change and requires further studies particularly about the role of biotic interactions in the predicted invasion and replacement proces

Thermal Energy Simulation of Buildings based on the CityGML Energy Application Domain Extension

The present paper describes a semi-automatic process, in which a typical CityGML 3D building model is enriched with explicit thermal energy related information and stored in a CityGML Application Domain Extension (ADE). Special emphasis is given to the discussion of suitability of existing CityGML models for city-wide energy simulations. Possible conflicts between the requirements of urban energy simulation systems, the capabilities of the CityGML Energy ADE and the available data are presented, which can be partly resolved by specific geometric / semantic corrections of the model data. For testing and evaluating the approach, interfaces for two building energy simulation systems have been developed

Early and Middle Holocene Hunter-Gatherer Occupations in Western Amazonia: The Hidden Shell Middens

We report on previously unknown early archaeological sites in the Bolivian lowlands, demonstrating for the first time early and middle Holocene human presence in western Amazonia. Multidisciplinary research in forest islands situated in seasonally-inundated savannahs has revealed stratified shell middens produced by human foragers as early as 10,000 years ago, making them the oldest archaeological sites in the region. The absence of stone resources and partial burial by recent alluvial sediments has meant that these kinds of deposits have, until now, remained unidentified. We conducted core sampling, archaeological excavations and an interdisciplinary study of the stratigraphy and recovered materials from three shell midden mounds. Based on multiple lines of evidence, including radiocarbon dating, sedimentary proxies (elements, steroids and black carbon), micromorphology and faunal analysis, we demonstrate the anthropogenic origin and antiquity of these sites. In a tropical and geomorphologically active landscape often considered challenging both for early human occupation and for the preservation of hunter-gatherer sites, the newly discovered shell middens provide evidence for early to middle Holocene occupation and illustrate the potential for identifying and interpreting early open-air archaeological sites in western Amazonia. The existence of early hunter-gatherer sites in the Bolivian lowlands sheds new light on the region's past and offers a new context within which the late Holocene "Earthmovers" of the Llanos de Moxos could have emerged. © 2013 Lombardo et al

Automated Building Layout Generation: Implementation and Comparison of Streamer Early Design Configurator and SDaC Layout Designer

When designing new buildings, various constraints must be taken into account. These constraints encompass factors such as the overall building size, the number, function, and size of required spaces, and the surrounding neighborhood’s existing buildings, infrastructure, and natural environment. Presently, these constraints are predominantly considered in a formal manner during state-of-the-art design processes. This paper proposes a novel approach that aims to formalize space requirements and utilizes geospatial information surrounding the building site. This approach facilitates the generation of different design alternatives during the early design phase. The advantages of this approach are numerous. By representing space requirements in a machine-readable format, it becomes possible to semi-automatically generate various design alternatives for a simplified building envelope and a basic space layout. Particularly in large areas such as hospital districts or industrial sites, multiple options for the location of a new building can be explored. Leveraging geospatial information allows designers to assess whether a specific design variant can be practically implemented at a given location. This supports the decision-making process in selecting the most promising early design model, which in turn informs subsequent design steps. This paper introduces two methods, namely Streamer Early Design Configurator and SDaC Layout Designer, to generate multiple initial building floor plans. These drafts are enriched with additional data, including placement information, volume details, and space utilization. Ultimately, the floor plans are exported into three-dimensional objects and exported in the IFC format. This comprehensive step paves the way for more efficient and informed building design, promoting greater flexibility and adaptability in the early stages of the architectural process

Nonuniform Late Pleistocene glacier fluctuations in tropical Eastern Africa

Today’s ice caps and glaciers in Africa are restricted to the highest peaks, but during the Pleistocene, several mountains on the continent were extensively glaciated. However, little is known about regional differences in the timing and extent of past glaciations and the impact of paleoclimatic changes on the afro-alpine environment and settlement history. Here, we present a glacial chronology for the Ethiopian Highlands in comparison with other East African Mountains. In the Ethiopian Highlands, glaciers reached their maximum 42 to 28 ka thousand years ago before the global Last Glacial Maximum. The local maximum was accompanied by a temperature depression of 4.4° to 6.0°C and a ~700-m downward shift of the afro-alpine vegetation belt, reshaping the human and natural habitats. The chronological comparison reveals that glaciers in Eastern Africa responded in a nonuniform way to past climatic changes, indicating a regionally varying influence of precipitation, temperature, and orography on paleoglacier dynamics

Reconstructing Holocene landscape and environmental changes at Lago Rogaguado, Bolivian Amazon

Funder: University of CambridgeAbstractWe performed geochemical analyses of two lake sediment cores (1.25 and 1.5 m long) from Lago Rogaguado, which is a large (315 km2) and shallow lake in the Llanos de Moxos, Bolivian Amazon, to investigate Holocene environmental changes based on a multi-proxy dataset (XRF, density, grain size, C:N, and macrocharcoal). One of the two cores provides a history of environmental changes in the Llanos de Moxos from 8100 cal BP until present, which supplements previously published pollen and microscopic charcoal records. Our analyses indicate lake expansion at 5800 cal BP, which may relate to tectonic activity. This was followed by further increasing lake levels, peaking at approximately 1050–400 cal BP, which supports increasingly wetter conditions in the Llanos de Moxos after the mid-Holocene. A fourfold increase in macroscopic charcoal accumulation rate and a more than fivefold increase in sedimentation rates supports anthropogenic fire activity at around 1450 cal BP (500 CE), suggesting that pre-Columbian populations used fire to actively manage the landscape during a period of maximum lake levels around Lago Rogaguado. From 400–100 cal BP, higher C:N, larger grain sizes and peaks in macroscopic charcoal accumulation rates suggest increased watershed erosion associated with increased biomass burning, possibly related to intensified land use.</jats:p

Holocene land cover change in south-western Amazonia inferred from paleoflood archives

This study provides new data on the evolution of the landscape in south-western Amazonia during the Holocene and the impact of climate change and fluvial dynamics on the region's ecosystems. South-western Amazonia is covered by an extensive seasonally flooded savannah, known as the Llanos de Moxos. Severe drought during the southern hemisphere winter, followed by months of permanent waterlogging, means that forests only grow on the most elevated parts of the landscape, mostly river and paleoriver levees and crevasse splays. Paleoclimate reconstructions from surrounding areas show that a shift to wetter conditions at around 4 kyr BP caused an increase in forest cover. However, the impact that this change in climate had on the landscape of the Llanos de Moxos is unknown. Published lacustrine archives from the area only cover the last 2 kyr. Here we present new data from the analysis of paleosols located along a 300 km transect across the central Llanos. The analyses of stable carbon isotopes, from 36 paleosols, and biogenic silica, from 29 paleosols, show that the patchwork of forests and savannahs that we see today was established after the 4 kyr BP climate change. During the dry period between 8 and 4 kyr BP, most of the central Llanos de Moxos, nowadays covered with seasonally flooded savannah, were covered by Cerrado-like savannah in the west and by forest in the east. However, results also suggest that, at both regional and local scales, vegetation cover has been influenced by changes in topography resulting from the region's river dynamics

An hourly ground temperature dataset for 16 high-elevation sites (3493–4377 m a.s.l.) in the Bale Mountains, Ethiopia (2017–2020)

Tropical mountains and highlands in Africa are under pressure because of anthropogenic climate and land-use change. To determine the impacts on the afro-alpine environment and to assess the potential socio-economic consequences, the monitoring of essential climate and environmental variables at high elevation is fundamental. However, long-term temperature observations on the African continent above 3000 m are very rare. Here we present a consistent multiannual dataset of hourly ground temperatures for the Bale Mountains in the southern Ethiopian Highlands, which comprise Africa's largest tropical alpine area. The dataset covers the period from January 2017 to January 2020. To characterise and continuously monitor the mountain climate and ecosystem of the Bale Mountains along an elevation gradient from 3493 to 4377 m, ground temperature data loggers have been installed at seven sites at 2 cm depth; at four sites at 10 cm depth; and at five sites at 2, 10, and 50 cm depth. The statistical analysis of the generated time series reveals that ground temperatures in the Bale Mountains are subject to large daily fluctuations of up to 40 ∘C and minor seasonal variations on the order of 5 to 10 ∘C. Besides incoming short-wave radiation, ground moisture, and clouds at night, slope orientation and the type of vegetation coverage seem to be the main factors controlling daily and seasonal ground temperature variations. On the central Sanetti Plateau above 3800–4000 m, the mean annual ground temperature ranges from 9 to 11 ∘C. However, nocturnal ground frost down to a depth of 5 cm occurs frequently during the dry season from November to February. At the five sites where ground temperature is measured at three depths, the monitoring will be continued to trace long-term changes. To promote the further use of the ground temperature dataset by the wider research community dealing with the climate and geo-ecology of tropical mountains in eastern Africa, it is made freely available via the open-access repository Zenodo: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.6047457 (Groos et al., 2022)