Research

Funding: Ministerium für Landwirtschaft, Ländliche Räume, Europa und Verbraucherschutz (MLLEV), 37.245 EUR

Project Details:
Seals are the most common marine mammal species in Schleswig-Holstein and therefore cause the majority of calls for seal hunters. In addition, in the past the seal population has been frequently affected by infectious diseases such as phocine distemper, influenza, brucellosis, and erysipelas, some of which have led to mass mortalities among the seal population or are of zoonotic relevance. To support the work of seal hunters with current research results, the Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW) of University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover (TiHo) Foundation plans to continue the long-established investigation and monitoring of zoonotic and infectious diseases in the seal population of Schleswig-Holstein, their influence on the health status and the possible causes of death of the animals. Furthermore, other diseases and changes, especially those caused by anthropogenic influence, are recorded.
The research project investigates pathologic changes associated with infectious agents, with a special focus on zoonotic diseases. Given the ongoing avian influenza epidemic on the coasts of Schleswig-Holstein, the detection of serotype H5N8 in acutely deceased seals in 2021, as well as the interactions with other animals, the virologicinvestigations will be continued and also the importance of bacterial and parasitic pathogens will be evaluated. In addition, a possible increase in infectious diseases in harbor seals will also be evaluated in regard to increasing human activities.
The scientific knowledge gained is directly incorporated into the work of the seal hunters, who are trained in detection of infectious diseases and handling of marine mammals. The development and review of hygienic measures, theoretic knowledge about infectious diseases and documentation materials play an important role. A regionally representative number of seals will be selected from those recovered by the seal hunters and forwarded to the ITAW. Furthermore, any abnormalities reported by the seal hunters will be acted upon immediately. Scientific exchange with the seal hunters will take place throughout duration of the research project. The investigations include complete postmortem examinations of seals shot by seal hunters and further microbiologic examinations to reveal infectious agents.

Funding: University Aarhus, 81.682 EUR

Project Details:
The Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research supports the University of Aarhus in the implementation and planning of an aerial surveys to estimate abundance of harbour porpoises in the Danish North Sea in the summer of 2023. In June-July 2023, ITAW supports with the selection of survey blocks and the transect design of the surveys to achieve the most complete coverage of the Danish North Sea. ITAW will collect data in five of the seven survey strata in the Danish North Sea in August 2023, and ITAW will analyzing the data to obtain abundance estimates of harbour porpoises. A Partenavia 68 twin-engine aircraft is used as the observation platform. Flight speed during data collection will be 90-100 kn (167-186 km/h) at an altitude of 600 feet (183 m). The study areas are to be covered on one flight day each under predominantly good sighting conditions.

Results:

Jens Würgler Hansen, Christian Lønborg & Signe Høgslund (red.) Videnskabelig rapport fra DCE - Nationalt Center for Miljø og Energi. MARINE OMRÅDER 2023, NOVANA

https://dce.au.dk/fileadmin/dce.au.dk/Udgivelser/Videnskabelige_rapporter_600-699/SR632.pdf

Funding: HZI, 17.149 EUR

Project Details:
SARS-CoV-2 infection in 20-month-old mice

Funding: Helmholtz-Zentrum für Infektionsforschung, 50.127 EUR

Project Details:
Co-infection study of viral or bacterial infectious agents
infectious agents with SARS-CoV-2 infection in a mouse model

Funding: ALZCHEM, 19.529 EUR

Project Details:
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Funding: Deutsche Bundesstiftung Umwelt (DBU), 115.800 EUR

Project Details:
The Institute for Terrestrial and Aquatic Wildlife Research (ITAW) of the University of Veterinary Medicine Hannover (TiHo) Foundation deals with a variety of veterinary and biological research topics in different wildlife species. These include, for example, habitat use, reproduction, feeding ecology, infectious diseases in wild animals, effects of anthropogenic activities and their protection and management of their habitat. ITAW has extensive experience in working on national and international research projects. In addition to project days at the institute, lectures as part of the "Children's University", participation in vocational training fairs or interactive information stands at various events, ITAW carries out a wide range of activities in those areas. Environmental education has always played a major role and is reflected, for example, in long-standing cooperation with local schools. An important aspect of the international marine research projects, some of which are funded by the EU, is the development of communication material that is also aimed at schoolchildren. In the project "Marine Mammals Science Education", expedition boxes on the topic of marine mammals were created for the first time in 2018 and were successfully used by ITAW and all project partners in Germany and abroad (www.marine-mammals.com). Funded by the Volks-Wagen-Stiftung in cooperation with schools in Schleswig-Holstein and Lower Saxony, further boxes have been developed and tested. They deal with topics such as parasites, viruses as well as bones and skulls and are based on various topics in biology tuition. These first research boxes can be borrowed from the TiHo website as part of school projects at the ITAW and enable independent and active learning in face-to-face lessons, see:

https://www.tiho-hannover.de/forschungskisten

Within the scope of the intended project, new research boxes on various wildlife and environmental topics will be developed and made available to schools for classroom and online teaching. These boxes contain experiments, teaching material, digital materials (e.g. films, PPTs) as well as information for "home-exploring". Furthermore, the individual processing of individual topics within the framework of homeschooling for two different age groups, among other things through diverse creative forms of work, is a component of the boxes. Interviews with scientific experts are also planned, as is the digital dissemination of lectures within the framework of the Children's University. Within the framework of science transfer, a selection of current research results and methods on the following six main topics is planned:

-Bioacoustics - Communication of wild animals
-Barriers to wildlife on land and water
-Effects of agriculture on small game species
-Threats and protection options for the otter
-Microplastics in wildlife
-Invasive species - e.g. raccoon, raccoon dog, woolly hand crab

Using these research topics from veterinary medicine and biology, students learn about research activities and scientific research methods through their own work.

Results:

Research boxes on veterinary and biological issues in various wild animal species were created. Science Transfer Mission (STM) lends out the research boxes for the TiHo via the website www.forschungskiste.com. There are "real" research boxes with experiments and teaching material available, as well as digital research boxes only with teaching material.

http://www.forschungskiste.com/unterrichtsmaterial

Cooperation Partners:

Dr. Kirstin Poremba, Schule am Meer (SaM), 25761 Büsum

Katrin Wollny-Goerke, Meeresmedien, 22397 Hamburg

Funding: Deutsche Wild Tier Stiftung, Hamburg, 8.415 EUR

Project Details:
The harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) is the only species found in German waters. This species is protected as an Annex II and IV species under the Habitats Directives, among others. Harbour porpoises inhabit coastal waters, which means that their distribution largely overlaps anthropogenic activities. The resulting pressures on the harbour porpoise range from noise pollution and competition for prey fish to accidental bycatch in set net fisheries. The area of the Eckernförde Bay in the western German Baltic Sea is characterised by a high degree of anthropogenic use and thus has a high potential for disturbance of harbour porpoises. Set net fishing is widespread in this area and is the fishing method with the highest incidental bycatch. The area around Eckernförde also has a high incidence of shipping, as it is a rather narrow bay from which many fishing vessels leave, a harbour and training area for military activities, and a high area of tourist activities is situated here.
In order to develop effective measures for the protection of harbour porpoises, it is first necessary to investigate the habitat use of harbour porpoises in this area. In the western part of the German Baltic Sea, acoustic monitoring has been carried out by ITAW since spring 2021, but there is a gap in the area of the Eckernförde Bay. Within the framework of this research project, a monitoring station is to be deployed in the Eckernförde Bay that can meaningfully close this gap. The monitoring station will be equipped with a CPOD in spring, which will be replaced after about 3 months in order to collect data on harbour porpoise occurrence for a total of about 6 months. Underwater sound will be recorded simultaneously allowing for correlating harbour porpoise presence with the occurrence of anthropogenic noise.

Funding: Umweltbundesamt, 264.210 EUR

Project Details:
Under the Act on the Implementation of the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty (AUG), the Federal Environment Agency (UBA) is the national licensing authority for all activities in Antarctica that are organised from or emanate from Germany. As part of the licensing procedure under the AUG, an environmental assessment must be carried out by UBA as the implementing authority for all notified activities in the area covered by the Antarctic Treaty.
The occurrence of fossil fuels is usually explored by seismic airguns. These devices emit acoustic signals with high sound pressure levels. So far, the data basis is insufficient to assess possible impacts on marine fauna.
The aim of this project is to assess the effects of a geoscientific, seismic survey with airguns during the expedition "WAIS-BELL" (PS 134) in 2022/23 on cetaceans in the Antarctic. Here a behavioural response study will be carried out, which will include a multidisciplinary approach combining visual recording methods and passive acoustic monitoring (PAM).
The project aims to generate data on the distribution, habitat use and possible behavioural responses of cetaceans in their Antarctic feeding area in an undisturbed and acoustically disturbed situation. The work will be carried out during seismic surveys in the Amundsen and Bellingshausen Seas and will be carried out in close cooperation between TiHo, JASCO and the AWI geophysics group in their survey programme.
The noise exposure and vocalisations of cetaceans are recorded using an autonomous acoustic recording system (AMAR), which allows the identification, localisation and tracking of vocalizing individuals. Visual recording methods (helicopter, autonomous drone, possibly bridge or crow's nest of FS Polarstern) will be used to collect data on the distribution and behavioural responses during the seismic survey as well as habitat use of the cetaceans during transits to and from the study area.
The results will contribute significantly to assessing the potential effects of seismic surveys with airguns on whales and provide important information for the management of anthropogenic activities in the Antarctic Treaty Area.

Cooperation Partners:

JASCO Applied Sciences

Prof. Rochelle Constantine und Tane van der Boon (MAUI63 project New Zealand)

Dr. Brandon Southall (Southall Environmental Associates, Inc., SEA)

Funding: University of St Andrews, 212.000 EUR

Project Details:
The European Atlantic is changing rapidly, and it is essential that neighbouring countries have access to up-to-date robust information on the status of key species and populations so that future monitoring and management can be directed effectively and efficiently to achieve and maintain favourable conservation status of species and good environmental status of European Atlantic waters. The "Small Cetaceans in European Atlantic waters and the North Sea (SCANS)" survey is being planned for summer 2022. The objective of SCANS-IV is to estimate the abundance of cetacean species in shelf and oceanic waters of the European Atlantic through a large-scale multinational aerial and shipboard survey in July 2022. This is the most appropriate survey month because of the higher probability of good sighting conditions, and also to ensure that results are comparable with those from SCANS surveys conducted in 1994, 2005/2007 and 2016 (Hammond et al. 2002, 2013, 2021). Thus, this project will represent the fourth survey in the SCANS series. SCANS-IV will deliver regionally coordinated synoptic surveys in shelf and offshore waters of the European Atlantic. It will generate robust abundance estimates for regularly occurring whale and dolphin species and improve power to detect trends in shelf and offshore species. The outputs of the project are timely for EU Member States obligations for reporting under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD Article 8: due 2024) and the next reporting round under the Habitats Directive (Article 17: 2019 - 2024) (where applicable) and allow OSPAR/HELCOM assessments. The estimates are also needed for impact assessments of offshore industries and fisheries.
The project will be achieved through the successful completion of six work packages. The first two WPs (WP1 & WP2) focus on collecting data on cetacean abundance and distribution through implementation of aerial surveys on the continental shelf and shipboard surveys in offshore waters. The data will be analysed in WP3 to generate abundance estimates, trends and perform spatio-temporal habitat modelling. WP4 will consider the long-term security of the large-scale cetacean monitoring SCANS programme in the Northeast Atlantic and propose a governance structure to ensure the continuation into the future. WPs 5 & 6 will focus on dissemination of results, project management and reporting.

Results:

Estimates of cetacean abundance in European Atlantic waters in summer 2022 from the SCANS-IV aerial and shipboard surveys. Final report published 29 September 2023. 64 pp.

https://tinyurl.com/3ynt6swa

Cooperation Partners:

Projektkoordination Dr. Anita Gilles, ITAW-Stiftung Tierärztliche Hochschule Hannover

University of St Andrews, United Kingdom  

Joint Nature Conservation Committee, United Kingdom  

Wageningen Marine Research, Netherlands  

Aarhus University, Denmark  

Swedish Museum of Natural History, Sweden  

La Rochelle University, France 

Instituto Español de Oceanografia, Spain  

University of Aveiro, CESAM - Centre of Environmental and Marine Studies and Instituto da Conservação da Natureza e das Florestas, Portugal

Funding: Universität Danzig , 31.328 EUR

Project Details:
For these project dead found seals, stranded at the polish coast, will be collected.
Within the scope of this project the ITAW will conduct health investigations of the stranded seals.
In the course of these investigations ITAW researchers will perform pathological examinations of internal organs and analysis of reproductive organs. The species of parasites the marine mammals potentially are infected by will be identified. Their age will be estimated and histological, virological and microbiological analysis conducted. So health reports based on postmortem analysis for each investigated animal will be prepared.