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Advantageous fragmentation? : reimagining metropolitan governance and spatial planning in Rhine-Main
(2006)
This paper traces the latest round of debates about appropriate scales and scopes of government and governance in Rhine-Main - an economically highly integrated but politically, territorially and emotionally divided region. We identify a downscaling of political power from the regional to the municipal level, and an upscaling of informal networking and image building to an extended regional scale. These countertrends are signs of a more complex geographical rearrangement in municipal and institutional relations. The inherent contradictions in the rescaling and reimagining of Rhine-Main are evident in the Strategic Vision for Frankfurt/Rhein-Main 2020. Its new conceptualization of Rhine-Main postulates complementary polycentricity as a competitive asset but remains firmly grounded in an institutional territorial logic that contravenes its own economically-driven agenda.
Meadowbird populations in The Netherlands are under great pressure. Recently, predation is named increasingly
often as one of the key factors in contributing to the declines. A four-year research project (2001-2005) aimed to
collect (as yet mostly nonexisting) data to provide a factual basis for this discussion. A country-wide inventory based
on data for wader nests found by volunteers who mark nests for their protection from grazing/mowing indicated that
above-average predation losses are found predominantly in the half-open landscapes of northern and eastern Netherlands,
but also locally in the low-lying open grasslands which are the key areas for meadowbirds. Nest predation has increased in recent years, but the same is true for agricultural losses, at least in areas where no nest-protection takes
place. At a local scale, predation losses vary greatly from area to area and from year to year. Temperature loggers in nest showed that diurnal and nocturnal predators contribute equally in total predation losses up to 50%, but higher predation losses are mainly caused by nocturnal predators. As many as 10 animal species were identified as nest predators
on nests under surveillance with video cameras. Chick survival, investigated using radiotelemetry, was very low. About 60-80% were lost by predation, 5-15% by agricultural activities and 10-15% to all kind of other losses. At least 15
predator species were implied, with an apparently larger share taken by birds (notably Buzzard (16%) and Grey Heron
(7-18%)) than mammals, with one exception: stoat (16%). Of the most-discussed predator species, Carrion Crows were
W. Teunissen et al. Osnabrücker Naturwiss. Mitt. 32 2006
138 remarkably rarely involved in both nest and chick predation, while Red Foxes take a large toll of clutches in some areas, but not in others. Of all losses during the reproductive cycle about 75% and 60% was due to predation in Lapwing and Black-tailed Godwit respectively. Predation on chicks by birds had the largest effect on total breeding success, but at the same time elimination of this loss factor (if at all possible) alone would not be sufficient to establish a self-sustaining population. Predation seems to have become a factor of importance in some areas, in combination with already existing other losses. Our findings suggest that solutions to predation problems probably have to be found in locally/regionally targeted, specific action on multiple fronts rather than countrywide measures.
Human impacts on the landscape have increased the penalties for Black-tailed Godwits laying their eggs too late, especially in the very intensive agricultural landscapes of The Netherlands. Thus, godwits have experienced a dramatic change of their fitness landscape, because the advance in mowing date made late clutches worthless destroying either eggs or chicks. To determine the driving forces of the recent population decline we study the individual variation in timing of breeding with respect to reproductive success in a population unaffected by mowing. Our results show that even in a low intensity agricultural area it is very important for godwits to breed early in the season.
Black-tailed Godwits (Limosa limosa) have been declining for decades in The Netherlands and so far this has not been slowed by conservation measures. A new form of agri-environment scheme was tried out in 2003-2005 at 6 sites where a ‘grassland mosaic’ (200-300 ha) was created by collectives of farmers through a diverse use of fields including postponed and staggered mowing, (early) grazing, creating ‘refuge strips’ during mowing, and active nest protection. We measured breeding success of godwits in each of the experimental sites and nearby, paired controls. Breeding success was higher (0.28 chicks fledged / pair) in mosaics than in controls, but due to lower agricultural nest losses only. Chick survival was 11 % in both mosaics and controls. The amount of late-mown and other grassland suitable for chicks hardly differed between treatments during the fledging period, mainly due to rainfall delaying postponed mowing in all sites. Chick survival was however positively correlated with site variation in the amount of high grass (>18 cm). Breeding success was high enough to compensate for adult mortality (ca. 0.6) in only one mosaic site. Chick survival was lower than in previous Godwit studies, indicating that additional loss factors have increased. Predation (50-80 % of chicks, mostly by birds) is a candidate, but changes in the suitability of late-mown grassland (insect abundance and sward density in grass monocultures) may also play a role. Consequently a higher management investment is needed to achieve a self-sustaining population.
In this study, we report the results of a long-term investigation on changes in population size and fledging success of Northern Lapwing on Wangerooge, a German Wadden Sea island. This population is increasing over a period of 34 years in contrast to numerous populations in North-western Europe. The reproductive success however declines over time and also with population density. Both effects cannot be considered separately due to autocorrelation. However, it is noted that the population on Wangerooge is not sustained by local recruitment only. This outcome is even more alarming as coastal areas and islands are considered as rare high quality meadow bird habitats. According to the present results Wangerooge cannot be considered as a source habitat for Northern Lapwings in North-western Germany.
This review lists Agama smithii Boulenger 1896 as a synonym of Agama agama (Linnaeus 1758), Agama trachypleura Peters 1982 as a synonym of Acanthocercus phillipsii (Boulenger 1895) and describes for the first time Acanthocercus guentherpetersi n. sp. Without more convincing evidence, Chamaeleon ruspolii Boettger 1893 cannot be accepted as specifically distinct from Chamaeleo dilepis Leach 1819, nor Chamaeleo calcaricarens Böhme 1985 from C. africanus Laurenti 1768. Consequently, 101 species of lizard are currently recognised in Ethiopia, of which some 40% appear to be denizens of the Somali-arid zone. This significant proportion is attributable in part to the importance of the Horn of Africa as a centre for reptilian diversification and endemicity, in part to the fact that this lowland fauna was rather extensively sampled during the 1930s, but also to the conspicuous neglect of lizards in other regions of the country. Mountain and forested habitats are widespread in Ethiopia, so it seems extraordinary to record only five saurian species which are believed to be endemic in such environments. The inference that there are many more still to be discovered has important implications for conservation, because montane forest is known to be among the most threatened of Ethiopian biomes and there is clearly an urgent need for its herpetofauna to be more thoroughly researched and documented.
In this article we examine and "exapt" Wurzel's concept of superstable markers in an innovative manner. We develop an extended view of superstability through a critical discussion of Wurzel's original definition and the status of marker-superstability versus allomorphy in Natural Morphology: As we understand it, superstability is - above and beyond a step towards uniformity - mainly a symptom for the weakening of the category affected (cf. 1.,2. and 4.). This view is exemplified in four short case studies on superstability in different grammatical categories of four Germanic languages: genitive case in Mainland Scandinavian and English (3.1), plural formation in Dutch (3.2), second person singular ending -st in German (3.3), and ablaut generalisation in Luxembourgish (3.4).
In order to understand the specific structures and features of the German surnames the most important facts about their emergence and history should be outlined and, at the same time, be compared with the Swedish surnames because there are considerable differences (for further details cf. Nubling 1997 a, b). First of all, surnames in Germany emerged rather early, with the first instances occurring in the 11th century in southern Germany; by the 16th century surnames were common all over Germany. Differences are related to geography (from south to north), social class (from the upper to the lower classes) und urban versus rural areas.
The medium of (oral) language is mostly disregarded (or overlooked) in contemporary media theories. This "ignoring of language" in media studies is often accompanied by an inadequate transport model of communication, and it converges with an "ignoring of mediality" in mentalistic theories of language. In the present article it will be argued that this misleading opposition of language and media can only be overcome if one already regards oral language, not just written language, as a medium of the human mind. In my argumentation I fall back on Wittgenstein’s conception of language games to try to show how Wittgenstein’s ideas can help us to clear up the problem of the mediality of language and also to show to what extent the mentalistic conception of Chomskyan provenance cannot be adequate to the phenomenon of language.