Fakultät für Geowissenschaften - Digitale Hochschulschriften der LMU Archiv

In der vorliegenden Dissertationsarbeit werden aus der Umgebung des Marktes Kirchheim in Schwaben (Bayern) mehrere, bisher größtenteils unpublizierte Fossilfundorte aus den Sedimenten der Oberen Süßwassermolasse (OSM) vorgestellt. Besonderes Augenmerk wurde dabei auf die fossilen Säugerreste dieser Fundstellen gerichtet, welche bestimmt, beschrieben und biostratigraphisch ausgewertet worden sind. Überdies sind auch die fossilen Floren des Arbeitsgebietes nach biostratigraphischen Gesichtspunkten untersucht worden. Um möglichst viele stratigraphisch relevante Daten zusammen zu tragen, sind zusätzlich lithostratigraphische Methoden angewendet worden. So wurden an allen Fossilfundorten Sedimentproben entnommen und auf ihren Schwermineralgehalt untersucht, um eventuell eine Zuordnung zu einem bestimmten Schüttungssystem nachzuweisen. An drei Aufschlüssen konnte auch eine Geröllanalyse vorgenommen werden. Darüber hinaus ist bei der Lokalität Hohenraunau der Brockhorizont vorhanden, der innerhalb der Oberen Süßwassermolasse als Leithorizont verwendet werden kann und somit für eine stratigraphische Einstufung von großer Bedeutung ist. Unter Berücksichtigung aller bio- und lithostratigraphischen Befunde sind für die einzelnen Fossilfundorte Alterseinstufungen durchgeführt worden. So besitzt die Fundstelle Burg-Balzhausen als einzige präriesisches Alter (Säugerzone MN 5). Die nächst jüngere Lokalität stellt Hohenraunau dar. Da bisher alle oberhalb des Brockhorizontes aufgefundenen Faunen der MN 6 zuzurechnen sind, ist dies wohl auch bei Hohenraunau der Fall. Die Faunen der Fundstellen Kirrberg-Sandgrube, Kirrberg-Tongrube und Derndorf können eindeutig der Säugerzone MN 6 zugeordnet werden. Die Lokalität Kirrberg-Tongrube lieferte eine Kleinsäugerfauna, die der mittleren bis höchsten MN 6 zugerechnet werden kann. Damit konnte in der bayerischen OSM erstmals eine Fauna dieses Zeitabschnittes nachgewiesen werden. Auch die Fauna der Fundstelle Eppishausen repräsentiert offensichtlich einen Zeitabschnitt innerhalb der OSM-Sedimentation (Übergangsbereich MN 6 / MN 7), der bisher in Bayern noch nicht belegt werden konnte. Eindeutig in die Säugerzone MN 8 kann die Fauna von Mörgen gestellt werden, die zahlreiche sehr interessante Säugernachweise geliefert hat. Abschließend sind einige Anmerkungen zur „Hiatus“-Diskussion sowie zur Beckenanalyse angeführt.

Die vorliegende Arbeit untersucht im Rahmen einer geographischen Unterrichtseinheit in Klasse 8 eines Baden – Württembergischen Gymnasiums die Frage, inwiefern Unterrichtskonzepte, die in der allgemeinen und fachspezifischen Didaktik bisher verstärkt angewandt wurden, in ihrer ganzen Vielfältigkeit einsetzbar sind, welche Lerneffizienz mit ihrer Hilfe zu erreichen ist und welche dieser offenen Unterrichtsformen eine besondere Nachhaltigkeit zeigt. Um fundierte Aussagen treffen zu können wurde das Thema: „China – Der Drei-Schluchten-Damm“ jeweils in Parallelklassen einerseits methodengeleitet, andererseits lehrerzentriert, d. h. im traditionellen Stil unterrichtet. Diese Parallelität bot die Möglichkeit einer direkten Vergleichbarkeit bei der Evaluation. Aus der praktischen Arbeit eines Unterrichtes heraus konnten bestehende Rahmenbedingungen sowohl für die Lernenden wie auch für die Lehrenden beurteilt bzw. die Notwendigkeit belegt werden, neue modifizierte Rahmenbedingungen zu schaffen, die als Folge der Ergebnisse der PISA-Studie von 2000 eine langfristige Verbesserung der „Bildungsmisere“ zum Ziel haben . Basierend auf der Darstellung der gehaltenen Unterrichtsstunden, auf die sich diese Studie bezieht, befasst sich die Arbeit schwerpunktmäßig mit der Untersuchung bereits bekannter, aber auch eigens für die gehaltene Unterrichtseinheit modifizierter Unterrichtsformen, ihrer Praktikabilität im Unterrichtsalltag und ihrem direkten Einfluss auf die Lernleistung der Schüler. Darüber hinaus wird aber auch eine Einordnung der Rolle der Lehrenden im gesamten Unterrichtskonzept vorgenommen. Die sich daraus ergebenden Erkenntnisse können wichtige Hilfen für zukünftige Planungsschritte in der Bildungspolitik (Lehrpläne), für Schulbücher oder für realen Unterricht bieten. Es konnte festgestellt werden, dass bei Nutzung mehrerer und im günstigsten Fall aller zur Verfügung stehenden Wahrnehmungskanäle (z.B. bei der Unterrichtsmethode Kartenspiel) in den Kontrollen zur Überprüfung der Lerneffizienz und Nachhaltigkeit das beste Ergebnis erzielt werden konnte. D.h. der Lehrende sollte versuchen, seine Unterrichtsplanung so zu gestalten, dass mit einer Mischung typgerechter Unterrichtsmethoden möglichst alle Lerntypen gleichzeitig erreicht werden. Die Untersuchungsergebnisse verdeutlichen auch, dass bestimmte Unterrichtsmethoden, die in der Didaktik vielfach als optimale Unterrichtsmethoden angepriesen werden, wie beispielsweise das „Stationenlernen“ bzw. „Lernzirkel“, weitaus weniger lernwirksam sind als erwartet. Die Ergebnisse der Untersuchung zeigen, dass die Klassen, die methodengeleitet unterrichtet wurden, im Unterricht erarbeitete Lerninhalte nicht nur kurzfristig besser und nachhaltiger speichern konnten, sondern diese auch im zeitlichen Abstand umfassender und nachhaltiger memorieren konnten.

Das Auftriebsgebiet vor Namibia ist eines der produktivsten Gebiete der Weltmeere. Die hohe organische Flußrate zur Sedimentoberfläche kann nicht vollständig abgebaut werden. Im inneren bis mittleren Schelfbereich akkumulieren dadurch hoch organische, bis zu 14 m mächtige, Diatomeenschlicke (EMEIS et al. 2004). Hier kommt es durch bakterielle Aktivität zur Sauerstoffzehrung bis zur Anoxis, zusammen mit der Bildung von Schwefelwasserstoff und Methan (EMEIS et al. 2004, WEEKS 2004). In solchen Sedimenten spielt die Denitrifizierung eine bedeutende Rolle im Stickstoffkreislauf (TYRRELL & LUCAS 2002). Die Denitrifizierung war lange Zeit nur von Bakterien bekannt, allerdings konnte sie mittlerweile auch für Foraminiferen nachgewiesen werden (RISGAARD-PETERSON et al. 2006, HØGSLUND et al. 2008). Nur in den am stärksten an Sauerstoff verarmten Sedimenten (O2 ≤ 0,3 ml l-1) des Diatomeengürtels vor Namibia wurde die Benthosforaminiere Virgulinella fragilis lebend (gefärbt) aufgefunden (vgl. auch ALTENBACH et al. 2002). Diese ist als Art bekannt, welche an ein sauerstoffarmes und sulfidisches Milieu angepasst ist (BERNHARD 2003) und damit als Proxy für solche Extremenhabitate gelten kann. Die bearbeiteten Proben wurden während der Ausfahrt M57 des Forschungsschiffes Meteor im Jahr 2003 im Zuge des DFG-Projekts Al 331/14-1 in 29-2074 m Wassertiefe vor Namibia gewonnen. Anhand der Proben konnten die Verteilungsmuster der Benthosforaminiferen des Diatomeengürtels und der anliegenden Bereiche verglichen werden. Hierfür wurden taxonomische und faunistische Auswertungen mit physikalischen und chemischen Analysen verglichen. Anhand der vorliegenden Ergebnisse kann der namibianische Schelf in vier Siedlungszonen (Gruppen A bis D) eingeteilt werden. Die A-Gruppe umfasst die flachsten Stationen, die von terrigenen Eintrag und Hydrodynamik stark geprägt sind. Die Stationen der D-Gruppe liegen im äußeren Schelf und am Kontinentalhang. Die Foraminiferen-Assoziationen und die geochemischen Parameter dieser Gruppe tendieren zu normal marinem Milieu. Die Stationen des Diatomeengürtels werden in die B-Gruppe mit lebenden Virgulinella fragilis und die C-Gruppe mit toten V. fragilis geteilt. Die Sauerstoffgehalte der B-Gruppe liegen nicht über 0,3 ml l1-, ansonsten können die beiden Gruppen B und C anhand der physikalischen und che-mischen Parameter nicht unterschieden werden. Das Auftreten von V. fragilis wird von einem Konsortium von drei weiteren Foraminiferen-Arten umrahmt. Ihr sporadisches, aber gemeinsames Auftreten auch in größerer Sedimenttiefe (bis 19 cm) lässt vermuten, dass sie aufgrund von erhöhten Sauerstoffgehalten an der Sedimentoberfläche in Richtung der Redoxkline in größere Sedimenttiefen migrieren. Auf ein pulsierendes Redoxpotential deuten Schwefelbakterien (SCHULZ & SCHULZ 2005) und sedimentchemische Untersuchungen (BORCHERS et al. 2005) hin. Auch die variierende Anzahl von teratologischen Gehäusen und die extrem niedrigen δ13C-Werten von V. fragilis dürften auf das zeitlich und lokal schwankende Redoxverhältnis zurückzuführen sein. Für zwei Arten des Konsortiums kann fakultative Denitrifizierung angenommen werden (RISGAARD-PETERSON et al. 2006, HØGSLUND et al. 2008). Daher dürfte sich das Konsortium durch temporäre oder persistierende Denitrifizierung ernähren, und somit in den Extremhabitaten Namibias erfolgreich siedeln. Für das Auftriebsgebiet vor Chile konnte dies in situ nachgewiesen werden (HØGSLUND et al. 2008). Die ältesten Vertreter der Gattung Virgulinella sind seit dem Oligozän (HAGN 1952, STOLYAROV 2001) bis in das Pliozän (REVETS 1991) bekannt. Sie zeigen eine extreme morphologische Ähnlichkeit zur rezenten Virgulinella fragilis. Sedimentologische Untersuchungen der namibianischen Schelfsedimente deuten auf reduzierende Verhältnisse seit dem Miozän hin (BATURIN 2002). Somit könnten in der Zukunft tiefer reichende Sedimentprofile eine lückenlose Aufnahme der Morphotypen, und somit der evolutiven Anpassung der Gattung vor Namibia, aufzeigen.

It is widely known that the snow cover has a major influence on the hydrology of Alpine watersheds. Snow acts as temporal storage for precipitation during the winter season. The stored water is later released as snowmelt and represents an important component of water supply for the downstream population of large mountain-foreland river systems worldwide. Modelling the amount and position of the snow water stored in the headwater catchments helps to quantify the available water resources and to estimate the timing of their release. The presented work investigates wind induced snow transport processes which are considered to be crucial for the snow distribution in Alpine catchments. In contradiction to the importance that is attributed to this process, there are only a few studies available which have quantified the transport intensities on the catchment scale. This can be attributed to the fact that the even today not much is known about the spatial characteristics of wind fields which are the driving force for snow transport processes. The presented thesis tries to overcome this lack of information by using physically based wind fields predicted by an atmospheric model (PSU_NCAR MM5 model) for the modelling of the snow cover (simulated by SnowModel). All of the used models are described in great detail in the literature, validated in many different regions, and can be seen as applicable with regard to the goal of this work. As snow transport processes are particularly important on a comparatively small scale a numerical inclusion of the responsible processes into regional models is inadequate. Hence, while this study itself mainly uses smaller scale physically based models, a parameterisation scheme is presented at the end of this thesis that is able to incorporate its main findings into larger scale models. All of the presented work was carried out at the Berchtesgaden National Park. The site is highly appropriate because of the extremely rough terrain and the good accessibility. Furthermore, the instrumentation of the area is comparatively good and the data sources (GIS, field campaign data) are excellent. The thesis deals with the winter seasons (August - July) 2003/2004 and 2004/2005. For this period, data of 5 meteorological stations, 1 field campaign and two Landsat ETM+ images were available. As mentioned before, physically based wind fields were used as input for the snow transport modelling. An operational coupling between atmospheric model and snow transport model was not pursued because of the high computational costs of the atmospheric model. Thus, a library of representative wind fields was produced in advance and linked to the snow transport model via operational German weather service Lokalmodell results. This becomes possible because of the comparability of a MM5 model layer with one of the Lokalmodell model layers. To link the wind field library to the snow model all of the predicted MM5 wind fields were characterised by information available from the Lokalmodell. This enable an easy detection of the MM5 wind field which is closest to the real climatic wind conditions at any Lokalmodell time step (1 hour). The produced MM5 wind fields have a spatial resolution of 200 meters. As an initial check if the snow cover simulation of SnowModel in association with the wind field library delivers adequate results with respect to the snow distribution, model runs were first carried out at the 200m scale. An analysis of the results showed that the coupled routine delivers acceptable results. It could be seen that with the use of the MM5 wind fields, the snow cover becomes more anisotropic and that transport processes over crests as well as sublimation processes are predicted to become more intensive. Nevertheless, a higher resolution was needed to quatify the effects and to validate the results. In a subsequent step the MM5 wind fields were downscaled to a 30m resolution. The downscaling procedure lead to a better agreement between modelled and measured wind speeds. The resulting 30m wind fields were used for high resolution model runs which were validated on the basis of the field campaign and remotely sensed data. A comparison with model runs using wind fields interpolated from station data showed that the runs performed with the MM5 wind fields deliver more consistent and comprehensible results. Subsequently, the validity of the model is discussed on the basis of selected results. High resolution model results indicated that snow transport processes are effective at high elevations but virtually negligible for regions below of 1800m a.s.l.. Furthermore, it could be seen that the correct estimation of snow transport from the surrounding areas to glaciers becomes possible by using the MM5 wind fields. Very high modelled sublimation rates at the mountains crests are discusses with respect to their importance on the water balance. Furthermore, the influence of preferential snow deposition and snow slides which were not numerically predicted in this work were discusses. Additionally, the applicability of atmospheric model results as input for land-surface models could be confirmed. In a final step a model scheme is presented that would make the generated information available for regional scale models. This model parameterization scheme which is based on the modelled 30m snow water equivalent distribution within the test area was used for this area. The scheme allows for a quick and simple description of the subscale snow heterogeneity in regional scale models. This can lead to considerable model improvements with respect to the description of the energy and moisture fluxes to and from the surface. An accurate description of these fluxes is essential for an accurate simulation of the melt period and, therefore, for an acceptable calculation of the runoff generation in larger scale models.

In the last decades regional climate models (RCMs) have proven their ability to provide valuable information about potential future changes in the earth’s climate system. Research projects like GLOWA-Danube (Global Change of the Water Cycle) are given the possibility to utilize RCM simulations as meteorological drivers for land surface model components. To adequately describe all sorts of water fluxes in the research area of the Upper Danube watershed the different components of the interdisciplinary DANUBIA model require data in high spatial and temporal resolution. While the latter can be satisfactorily provided by most RCMs, the spatial resolution at which atmospheric processes can be resolved is computationally limited to at best 10 x 10 km at present. A clear need has been identified to develop appropriate methods to bridge the gap between RCMs and high resolution land surface models. The application of such downscaling techniques is in particularly necessary in highly complex terrain, where the limited spatial resolution of RCM simulations does not fully capture the natural climatic variability. In the present work a model interface has been developed that provides adequate scaling techniques to overcome the mismatch between the model scales permitting the investigation of climate change impacts at regional to local scales. Besides the downscaling of meteorological simulations, the coupler scales up fluxes calculated at the land surface and provides the aggregated fluxes as inputs for the RCMs. As the latter allows to consider the nonlinearity and complexity of the interactions between the atmosphere and the land surface as well as the mutual dependency of the respective processes at the investigated scale the approach can be expected to contribute to a better understanding of the complex land-atmosphere-system. A comprehensive description of the implemented algorithms is given. Further first results of one-way coupled model runs using the regional climate model REMO to simulate the atmosphere and the hydrological model PROMET to describe all hydrological relevant processes at the land surface are presented. By comparing the results achieved for a potential future climate to those achieved for past climate conditions the climate change impact on the water resources is analyzed. The model interface SCALMET has been developed in the framework of the GLOWA-Danube Project at the Ludwig-Maximilians-University in Munich. The financial funding of GLOWA-Danube by the German Ministry of Education and Research (BMB+F) is gratefully acknowledged.

The investigation of the impact of Global Change on the basic resources on which life, and man, depends, is the main objective of the environmental science community at the beginning of the 21st century. Advances in information technology, new methods of spatially distributed data retrieval and increased understanding of the physical, chemical and biological processes in the Earth system facilitate integrative models of the dynamic processes under change. Together with the integration of deep actors models from social and economical sciences into a common model framework, scenario runs based on inputs from Regional Climate Models (RCMs) and constrained by prognoses of the future developments in demography, economy and human behaviour are now possible. The objective of the integrative project GLOWA-Danube is the development of such a modelling system and its application on the mesoscale catchment of the Upper Danube river with an area of about 77,000 km2. The decision support system DANUBIA is designed for plausible predictions of the impact of changes in climate, human behaviour and land use on the future of the water and related matter cycles. DANUBIA is able to assist knowledge-based management decisions, by predicting the effects of adaptation and mitigation strategies on the natural resources of the Upper Danube basin. The closure of the water, energy, nitrogen and carbon cycles in the soil-vegetation-atmosphere system relies on the adequate representation of all processes involved and their interaction. To close the energy cycle in the soil-vegetation-atmosphere system and provide valuable input data for biochemical models of soil nitrogen and carbon transformation, this thesis presents the Soil Heat Transfer Module (SHTM) together with an energy balance algorithm of the soil surface for regional scale simulations. SHTM combines simplified physical algorithms for the computation of the actual temperature in the upper soil layers and a dynamic lower boundary condition to represent Climate Change conditions. Changes in soil moisture and soil freezing are explicitly taken into account. The surface ground heat flux as the driving force of the model is provided by an explicit solution of the soil surface energy balance and a snow-soil coupling algorithm, respectively. This thesis shows, that the soil temperature and energy balance modules developed as extensions of PROMET (PROcesses of Matter and Energy Transfer) are ready to bridge the gap between regional scale (up to 100,000 km2) application and the requirement of physical process models in predictive, coupled modelling systems like DANUBIA.

The aim of this work is to develop an experimental method to measure in-plane surface properties on the nanometer scale by torsional resonance mode atomic force microscopy and to understand the underlying system dynamics. The invention of the atomic force microscope (AFM) and the advances in development of new AFM based techniques have significantly enhanced the capability to probe surface properties with nanometer resolution. However, most of these techniques are based on a flexural oscillation of the force sensing cantilever which are sensitive to forces perpendicular to the surface. Therefore, there is a need for highly sensitive measurement methods for the characterization of in-plane properties. To this end, scanning shear force measurements with an AFM provide access to surface properties such as friction, shear stiffness, and other tribological surface properties with nanometer resolution. Dynamic atomic force microscopy utilizes the frequency response of the cantilever-probe assembly to reveal nanomechanical properties of the surface. The frequency response function of a cantilever in torsional motion was investigated by using a numerical model based on the finite element method (FEM). We demonstrated that the vibration of the cantilever in a torsional oscillation mode is highly sensitive to lateral elastic (conservative) and visco-elastic (non-conservative) in-plane material properties, thus, mapping of these properties is possible in the so-called torsional resonance mode AFM (TR-mode). The theoretical results were then validated by implementing a frequency modulation (FM) detection technique to torsion mode AFM. This method allows for measuring both conservative and non-conservative interactions. By monitoring changes of the resonant frequency and the oscillation amplitude, we were able to map elastic properties and dissipation caused by the tip-sample interaction. During approach and retract cycles, we observed a slight negative detuning of the torsional resonance frequency, depending on the tilt angle between the oscillation plane and the surface before contact to the HOPG surface. This angle leads to a mixing of in-plane (horizontal) and out-of-plane (vertical) sample properties. These findings have a significant implication for the imaging process and the adjustment of the microscope and may not be ignored when interpreting frequency shift or energy dissipation measurements. To elucidate the sensitivity of the frequency modulated torsional resonance mode AFM (FM-TR-AFM) for the energy dissipation measurement, different types of samples such as a compliant material (block copolymer), a mineral (chlorite) and a macromolecule (DNA) were investigated. The measurement of energy dissipation on these specimens indicated that the TR-AFM images reveal a clear difference for the domains which have different mechanical properties. Simultaneously a topographic and a chemical contrast are obtained by recording the detuning and the dissipation signal caused by the tip-surface interaction. Using FM-TR-AFM spectroscopically, we investigated frequency shift versus distance curves on the homopolymer polystyrene (PS). Depending on the molecular weight, the frequency detuning curve displayed two distinct regions. Firstly, a rather compliant surface layer was probed; secondly, the less mobile bulk of the polymer was sensed by the oscillatory motion of the tip. The high sensitivity of this technique to mechanical in-plane properties suggests that it can be used to discriminate different chemical properties (e.g. wetting) of the material by simultaneously measuring energy dissipation and surface topography.

The central questions of this thesis are concerned with the investigation of vegetation related landsurface parameters under the impact of changing climate conditions. The spatial extent of the study is limited to the borders of the Upper Danube drainage basin, according to the requirements of the cooperative Project GLOWA-Danube (Global change of the Hydrological Cycle), funded by the German Ministry of Education and research (BMB+F). Current publications are indicating that the dynamic behaviour of the vegetation cover often is inadequately accounted for in studies that are investigating the impacts of climate change with respect to the landsurface water cycle. In order to enable a dynamic feedback between the animate land cover and the atmosphere, which might be sensitive enough to trace active reactions of the vegetation cover on changing climatic conditions, the physically based land surface process model PROMET (Process of Radiation Mass and Energy Transfer Model) was enhanced by an explicit description of the growth activity of different plant types. The introduced model approach was tested against measured data for a variety of parameters. The different validation efforts all returned good to very good results. It therefore can be stated that the model soundly demonstrated its capability concerning the precise reproduction of a variety of structural landsurface variables on different scales under observed climatic conditions. An application of the model to the calculation of climate scenarios therefore seems appropriate. In order to enable comparability with international research approaches, the internationally acknowledged global change scenarios developed by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), are basically applied. The moderate A1B emissions scenario, which is based on the assumption of a balanced future development of different energy technologies, was selected and modified by a regional impact factor that is assumed to apply to the local situation of the Upper Danube catchment. Being applied to the regionally adapted IPCC A1B climate scenario, the model returned clear statements, projecting a possible future development of selected landsurface parameters within the Upper Danube area. Concerning the phenological behaviour of forest trees, the model simulated a strong trend towards earlier incidence of the leaf emergence of deciduous as well as of the mayshoot of coniferous trees, contributing to a significant elongation of the vegetation period. These longer phases of active growth in combination with the rising temperatures and the elevated supply of atmospheric carbon dioxide led to an increase of biological activity in the model results that manifested in increasing rates of biomass accumulation for the Upper Danube area. The increased biological activity in combination with the strong decrease of summer precipitation, which was assumed in the climate scenario, again led to an escalating frequency of drought stress events in the Upper Danube Basin. Not only the average count of water stress events per year was modelled to increase, but also a spatial extension of the regions that are affected by drought stress was mapped by the model. This general increase of water stress and the significant decrease of summer precipitation entailed a slight decline of the transpiration and evapotranspiration of the Upper Danube area in the scenario results. The modelled decline of the summer precipitation also resulted in a noticeable decrease of the modelled average discharge rates at the main gauge of the basin. The base flow rates during the summer months thereby are likely to be primarily affected. Since the model results for the scenario period featured temporal and spatial variations and standard deviations that were closely matching the statistics of the reference period, while at the same time they showed clear trends though they were avoiding extreme realizations, the scenario assumptions can be considered to be reliable. The baseline scenario, which was spot-checked for a set of reference proxels, did not return any trends as expected, indicating that the observed future trends are not of systematic origin. The further development of the introduced model approach is an appealing challenge, which might considerably contribute to the improvement of computer aided decision support systems. It can be assumed that the progress of the development of physically based models due to a more profound understanding of the processes on one hand and the sophistication and refinement of the model algorithms that result from the increase of knowledge on the other, may contribute to the development of reliable systems, that will be able to sustainably assist humanity with the handling of future environmental challenges. The author gratefully acknowledges the finacial support of the German Research Foundation (DFG) in the frame of the project "Coupled Analysis of Vegetation Chlorophyll and Water Content Using Hyperspectral, Bidirectional Remote Sensing".

Monitoring of large conservation areas has to be accomplished to fulfil the reporting commitment of the European FFH Directive. Aim of this project was to develop a new monitoring approach for area-wide mapping on a stand level. This approach was based on the combination of numerical methods in vegetation ecology with imaging spectroscopy. The study took place in the FFH conservation area Murnauer Moos, Upper Bavaria. The imagery had been gathered using the imaging spectrometer HyMap. In order to develop maps that include spatial information on vegetation types as well as on transitions, crisp field and image classifications were combined with fuzzy methods in field and image data analysis. With Non-metric Multidimensional Scaling (NMS) ordination technique for the pre-processing of vegetation data and Partial Least Squares (PLS) regression for extrapolation, we took account of occurring mixed stands and gradual vegetation transitions. In contrast, crisp supervised image classifications are suited to assign clear categories, which are also needed in management practice. Certain emphasis was given to the different possibilities of ground data classification and endmember selection. Different applications of endmember determination to Spectral Angle Mapper (SAM) classification and Multiple Endmember Spectral Mixture Analysis (MESMA) were compared. Synthesis maps for monitoring were produced that deliver two-fold information on pixel basis: vegetation type membership on the one side, stand position in the context of the continuous field of the vegetation on the other. Hence, ecotones can be monitored within habitats. This study shows that with the use of high spatial and spectral resolution of the imagery, this information is given in the same spatial detail for a large area, and the quality of the given details is measurable.

The possibility of using accurate numerical methods to simulate seismic wavefields on unstructured meshes for complex rheologies is explored. In particular, the Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) finite element method for seismic wave propagation is extended to the rheological types of viscoelasticity, anisotropy and poroelasticity. First is presented the DG method for the elastic isotropic case on tetrahedral unstructured meshes. Then an extension to viscoelastic wave propagation based upon a Generalized Maxwell Body formulation is introduced which allows for quasi-constant attenuation through the whole frequency range. In the following anisotropy is incorporated in the scheme for the most general triclinic case, including an approach to couple its effects with those of viscoelasticity. Finally, poroelasticity is incorporated for both the propagatory high-frequency range and for the diffusive low-frequency range. For all rheology types, high-order convergence is achieved simultaneously in space and time for three-dimensional setups. Applications and convergence tests verify the proper accuracy of the approach. Due to the local character of the DG method and the use of tetrahedral meshes, the presented schemes are ready to be applied for large scale problems of forward wave propagation modeling of seismic waves in setups highly complex both geometrically and physically.