Landesamt für Landwirtschaft, Umwelt und ländliche Räume

Environmental and water resources agencies run comprehensive monitoring programs of pesticides and their transformation products in surface and groundwater systems to determine water pollution and to comply with the reporting obligations of the EU. Besides, institutions carry out additional monitoring programs serving different purposes, including a review of the registration process, finding evidence for risks that have been underrated so far, determining application errors or improper handling, and deriving recommendations for agricultural and water resources management. However, these programs are often considered to be of marginal value for research. Among others, usually pesticide application and management data are scarce, the input of other sources like, e.g., deposition of trifluoroacetate (TFA), is unknown, soil properties exhibit enormous but purely known spatial heterogeneity, and knowledge about transformation pathways of the active ingredients is limited.Thus, there is urgent need for developing a blueprint for the analysis of such monitoring data that makes maximum use of the information but avoiding pitfalls of unjustified basis assumptions. We present an approach based on the analysis of a 4.5 years monitoring program with monthly sampling in twenty shallow groundwater wells in the Federal State of Schleswig-Holstein in North Germany. Agricultural management data were available for part of the capture zones of some wells but were not complete. Thus, a forward modelling was not possible. Instead, in a first step we aimed at assessing the effects of vadose zone and aquifer properties, filter screen depth, and weather conditions on the observed spatial and temporal patterns of the concentration of pesticide and transformation products (TP). Canonical correlation analysis of time courses of solute concentration and of groundwater head at the twenty groundwater wells revealed very close resemblance between both. In fact, groundwater head dynamics proved to be a very powerful predictor of pesticide and TP dynamics. This provides clear evidence that most of the observed dynamics reflects transient immobilisation and later remobilisation in the vadose zone rather than direct effects of pesticide application.In a next step, support vector machine models were set up separately for various substances. They explained more than 90% of the total variance for most substances. There were some cases of characteristic deviation between the observed and simulated concentration that could be ascribed to recent applications of the respective active ingredients. In most cases, however, there was clear evidence for a long-term stock of substances being occasionally flushed to the groundwater during short episodes. In regard to TFA our analysis revealed strong indications for a major and increasing contribution of deposition from non-agricultural sources in peri-urban regions. We conclude that analysis of the residuals of the support vector machine models is a powerful tool for making efficient use of monitoring data, even in face of incomplete data about the boundary conditions.

Identifying the winners and losers of biodiversity change within different habitat types requires systematic monitoring data. However, such data are particularly scarce at the regional scale, with species trends rarely reported. While systematic data are still lacking, species trends could be instead derived from previously untapped sources. To do so, we make use of plant species occurrences records that were recorded in repeated habitat mapping programs in Germany. We derive temporal trends in plant species from data of three German federal states from 1977 to 2021, both across all habitat types per state and within habitat types. Consistently negative trends were found across all states for species preferring heaths and semi-natural grasslands, moist to wet grasslands, and coastal and marine habitats, including many endangered species. Consistently positive trends were found for species preferring scrub, copses and field hedges, and for non-native species. Moreover, trends within habitat types showed negative trends for species characteristic of most open habitat types, with many of those habitats showing a woody encroachment. While trends varied among states, the overall patterns were very similar. These consistent trends mirror findings in other countries and point to ongoing habitat degradation and common drivers of biodiversity change in Germany. Our findings contribute to the main goals set by the EU Biodiversity Strategy with our species trends serving as monitoring of biodiversity, that can help to improve the management of protected habitat types and nature restoration. • Species trends at the regional scale can be derived from habitat mapping data • Open habitats suffer from losses of plant species characteristic of these habitats • Woody species are spreading in open habitats • The overall trend patterns are very similar among different German states

Article Karl-Peter Krauss, Dem Vergessen entrissen. Der „Ostjude“ Simon Leinmann und die Neuapostolische Kirche. Köln, Böhlau 2024 was published on August 1, 2025 in the journal Historische Zeitschrift (volume 321, issue 1).

Ayoung man presented with exertional dyspnea and thoracic pain following pharyngitis. The findings included pulmonary melting, left-sided pleural empyema and spondylitis. Cultures for detection of the pathogen were negative and sequencing for bacterial DNA was additionally carried out resulting in detection of Fusobacterium necrophorum that is typical for oropharyngeal infections. Furthermore, environmental diagnostics revealed two infected molars as apossible source of the infection and ajugular vein thrombosis. The results were compatible with Lemierre syndrome. This case highlights the potential of molecular diagnostics of pathogens.

Das Recht verwendet die Begriffe «Integration» und «Zusammenhalt». Das Ziel der Integration bezieht sich auf verschiedene gesellschaftliche Gruppen wie Ausländerinnen und Ausländer oder Menschen mit Behinderungen. Der Begriff weist darüber hinaus auch eine Bedeutungsdimension auf, in der er alle Personen einschliesst. In dieser Dimension deckt sich der Begriff mit dem des gesellschaftlichen Zusammenhalts.
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 En droit, les notions d'«intégration» et de «cohésion» revêtent une importance particulière. L'objectif d'intégration se réfère à différents groupes sociaux, tels que les étrangers ou les personnes handicapées. Cependant, ce terme comporte également une dimension sémantique qui comprend toutes les personnes. En ce sens, il présente des similitudes avec le concept de cohésion sociale.

Einleitung Massensterben von Wild- und Nutzgeflügel infolge von Infektionen mit aviären Influenza-A-Viren (AIV) unterstreichen die Relevanz weiterer Untersuchungen bezüglich Verbreitung und Wirtsspezifität potenziell zoonotischer Erreger. In der vorliegenden Studie wurde eine bisher selten beschriebene Infektion des zentralen Nervensystems (ZNS) mit hochpathogenem AIV (HPAIV) des Subtyps H5N8 in Seehunden nachgewiesen.

Abstract Aim Recent studies suggest insect declines in parts of Europe; however, the generality of these trends across different taxa and regions remains unclear. Standardized data are not available to assess large‐scale, long‐term changes for most insect groups but opportunistic citizen science data are widespread for some. Here, we took advantage of citizen science data to investigate distributional changes of Odonata. Location Germany. Methods We compiled over 1 million occurrence records from different regional databases. We used occupancy‐detection models to account for imperfect detection and estimate annual distributions for each species during 1980–2016 within 5 × 5 km quadrants. We also compiled data on species attributes that were hypothesized to affect species’ sensitivity to different drivers and related them to the changes in species’ distributions. We further developed a novel approach to cluster groups of species with similar patterns of distributional change to represent multispecies indicators. Results More species increased (45%) than decreased (29%) or remained stable (26%) in their distribution (i.e. number of occupied quadrants). Species showing increases were generally warm‐adapted species and/or running water species, while species showing decreases were cold‐adapted species using standing water habitats such as bogs. Time series clustering defined five main patterns of change—each associated with a specific combination of species attributes, and confirming the key roles of species’ temperature and habitat preferences. Overall, our analysis predicted that mean quadrant‐level species richness has increased over most of the time period. Main conclusions Trends in Odonata provide mixed news—improved water quality, coupled with positive impacts of climate change, could explain the positive trends of many species. At the same time, declining species point to conservation challenges associated with habitat loss and degradation. Our study demonstrates the great value of citizen science and the work of natural history societies for assessing large‐scale distributional change.

Temporal and spatial water quality data are essential to evaluate human health risks. Understanding the interlinking variations between water quality and socio-economic development is the key for integrated pollution management. In this study, we applied several multivariate approaches, including trend analysis, cluster analysis, and principal component analysis, to a 15-year dataset of water quality monitoring (1999 to 2013) in the Thi Vai estuary, Southern Vietnam. We discovered a rapid improvement for most of the considered water quality parameters (e.g., DO, NH4, and BOD) by step trend analysis, after the pollution abatement in 2008. Nevertheless, the nitrate concentration increased significantly at the upper and middle parts and decreased at the lower part of the estuary. Principal component (PC) analysis indicates that nowadays the water quality of the Thi Vai is influenced by point and diffuse pollution. The first PC represents soil erosion and stormwater loads in the catchment (TSS, PO4, and Fetotal); the second PC (DO, NO2, and NO3) determines the influence of DO on nitrification and denitrification; and the third PC (pH and NH4) determines point source pollution and dilution by seawater. Therefore, this study demonstrated the need for stricter pollution abatement strategies to restore and to manage the water quality of the Thi Vai Estuary.