Research

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.
Seismic surveys using airguns are carried out to reliably determine the topography and geological composition of the seabed. 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.

Results:

The project aimed at assessing the effects of seismic airgun surveys during the PS134 (WAIS-BELL) expedition on Antarctic cetaceans. A multidisciplinary monitoring concept combining visual observations and passive acoustic methods was developed to investigate behavioural responses, avoidance distances, and potential masking of whale vocalisations.

Ship-based observations by marine mammal observers (MMOs) and a validation team proved to be the most reliable mitigation measure. A comparison showed that teams of two MMOs achieved nearly the same detection performance as teams of three. Based on all shipboard sightings, a median avoidance radius of 3.4 km was determined when airguns were active, compared to 1.2 km when they were inactive. Limitations included weather, darkness, observer variability, and blind spots behind the vessel. The infrared (IR) camera provided some additional detections, but was constrained by technical issues, humidity, and a large blind sector. Nevertheless, system upgrades are recommended because of its utility during darkness. Helicopter aerial surveys significantly expanded the observation radius (up to 90 km) and gave insights into species distribution, but are not suitable for real-time mitigation. After initial technical issues, the drone showed potential for future real-time monitoring, though it could not yet be fully evaluated.

 

An Autonomous Long-Term Observatory (ALTO) system with an integrated AMAR was intended to record vocal activity before, during, and after seismic operations, but produced no data due to a technical malfunction, despite the general suitability of this technology. The PAM system QuietSea™ integrated into the streamer generated mostly false alarms. Among many detected events, only one single automatic detection was confirmed as a real baleen whale vocalisation. Possible reasons include masking by vessel noise, the bubble curtain behind the ship, and insufficient calibration or hardware issues.

No single method provided complete and reliable marine mammal monitoring under all conditions. Ship-based visual monitoring currently remains the most effective mitigation tool. IR systems, drones, and acoustic technologies require technical improvements, but could become valuable complementary tools, particularly in darkness, poor weather, or for underwater detection. A robust mitigation and protection strategy will require a combination of optimised monitoring approaches.

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: 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.

Results:

In 2021, continuous acoustic monitoring of porpoises was launched for the first time in the Schleswig-Holstein section of the Baltic Sea, between the Flensburg Fjord and Eckernförde Bay. In 2023, a further monitoring station was added, extending the monitoring network southwards. A total of five monitoring stations (Holnis, Bredgrund, Schleisand, Damp and Waabs) are in operation, equipped with click detectors (C-PODs) to record the echolocation sounds (clicks) of porpoises. The monitoring has provided acoustic data on the occurrence and seasonal presence of porpoises.

In addition to genuine porpoise clicks, an increasing number of artificial porpoise clicks have been recorded from acoustic warning devices. These warning devices are known as Porpoise Alerting Devices (PALs) and are used in gillnet fishing to warn porpoises of the presence of nets by emitting artificial clicks resembling those of porpoises, thereby reducing bycatch.

PAL signals accounted for only a relatively small proportion of the total number of clicks detected. However, their significance lies less in the absolute number of clicks than in their prolonged presence over many days. An exceptionally high duration of PAL activity was observed in the study area of the western Baltic Sea. At the Bredgrund and Waabs stations, over 100 and in some cases nearly 200 days with active PALs were recorded in both 2023 and 2024. Given this high duration of activity, it must be assumed that the habitat is strongly influenced by human activity. It should be noted that C-PODs have a detection range of less than 200 m. Possible large-scale deterrent effects or behavioural changes in porpoises outside this radius cannot be captured by the available data. The actual influence of PALs could therefore be significantly greater in spatial terms than is apparent from the monitoring. The analysis of the C-POD PAL array clearly showed that porpoises emit significantly fewer clicks during active PAL phases. This suggests avoidance responses or a suppression of echolocation activity. The results thus contradict the assumption that PALs have exclusively a neutral warning function, and instead point to potentially deterrent effects.

In addition to the PAL issue, the presence of porpoises was investigated during the Bundeswehr’s blasting campaigns between 2022 and 2024 at the Schleisand and Damp monitoring stations near the Schönhagen study area. The results show that porpoise sightings were reduced during the blasting and only resumed some time after a blast. The period following the explosions may depend on the explosive charge.

The results of porpoise monitoring in the western Baltic Sea show that PALs not only interfere with acoustic monitoring from a technical perspective, but also cause measurable changes in porpoise behaviour. Areas with a long-term presence of PALs must therefore be classified as habitats subject to significant anthropogenic influence.

The combination of continuous monitoring, PAL filtering, model-based analysis and the consideration of acute disturbance events such as blasting provides an important basis for management and conservation measures under the Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD). Continuation and further development of the monitoring programme are necessary to better assess long-term trends and cumulative effects.

Funding: Industry (Veterinary pharmaceuticals/Vaccines), 567.421 EUR

Project Details:
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Funding: QS-Wissenschaftsfonds, 28.229 EUR

Project Details:
The core of the research project is to answer important questions regarding the spatiotemporal impact of restrictions due to the Covid 19 pandemic on the value chain of poultry meat production. Data from primary production, structural analyses as well as data on slaughter findings, reported zoonoses in the German population and restrictions due to the pandemic will be linked to derive significances and correlations. From this, important propositions are generated, which address and evaluate the resilience to massive interventions of the integrated process chains in global world trade.

In particular, the project will demonstrate whether the reduction in reported Campylobacter enteritis in the population during the pandemic was due to changes in the occurrence of the pathogen in primary production, process flows in slaughterhouses, changes in consumer behavior, or other factors. The restrictions of the Covid 19 pandemic are included in the synthesis of the results.

Funding: Fritz-Ahrberg-Stiftung, 40.000 EUR

Project Details:
Recent studies show that after processing pork and turkey meat frozen stored at -80°C for up to 48 weeks to raw sausages, red values of the sausages were higher and aw values lower compared to unfrozen or at -18°C frozen stored meat samples. These results suggest that when producing products from such frozen meat, the concentrations of cooking salt and nitrite salts might be reduced, as red values and aw values would change in the opposite sense when salts are reduced. However, a reduction of common salt and nitrite salts must be proportionate, as the shelf life and texture of the products could be changed. In the study, meat from beef, pork, chicken and turkey is therefore stored for 24 weeks at -18°C and -80°C and, after thawing, processed into raw and cooked sausages with reduced NaCl and nitrite concentrations. The meat products are analysed microbiologically, sensory and physicochemically during maturation and further storage in a protective gas atmosphere.

Funding: Brigitte und Wolfram Gedek - Stiftung, 40.000 EUR

Project Details:
Enteropathogenic Bacillus cereus are responsible for a diarrhoeal type of food poisoning. In earlier studies, we could show that milk inhibits the toxic activity of B. cereus enterotoxins towards human colon epithelial cells. At this, caseins as well as lactoferrin seem to hinder the interaction between the single toxin components. In this project, the influence of lactoferrin on growth and enterotoxin production of different B. cereus isolates is tested at first. Strain-specific differences are made visible, as well as the influence of different lactoferrins and their derivatives. The molecular mechanisms underlying the enhanced enterotoxin production after lactoferrin exposure are investigated via RNA sequencing. It is further tested which genes are up- or downregulated under iron deficiency and especially after lactoferrin contact. This gives an overview on the transcriptional changes in the organism. The second point is the detailed investigation of the inhibiting effect of lactoferrin towards the B. cereus enterotoxins in cell culture systems. For this, different commercially available lactoferrin products and derivatives will be tested, as well as their impact on different B. cereus toxins such as haemolysin BL, the non-haemolytic enterotoxin, cytotoxic K and the emetic toxin cereulide. Finally, the issue of lactoferrin-sensing and motility (chemotaxis) of selected B. cereus strains will be investigated. Next to the general ability of active movement, it will be tested if lactoferrin has a repelling or attracting effect on a certain isolate.

Funding: DFG, 110.700 EUR

Project Details:
Tetraspanins are evolutionary conserved integral membrane proteins of 200-350 amino acid lengths. Through their large extracellular loop they mediate protein - protein and protein - lipid interactions in cellular membranes thereby shaping membrane microdomains called ‘tetraspanin webs’. In humans and mice 33 tetraspanins are described and mosquito species express at least 15 tetraspanin orthologs. In mammalian cells, tetraspanins are host co-factors for several viruses including papillomaviruses, influenza virus, hepatitis C virus, HIV-1 and coronaviruses (Gerold et al., 2015; Bruening et al. 2018; Banse et al., 2018; Alberione et al. 2020; Palor et al., 2020). For hepatitis C virus, colleagues and we showed that the tetraspanin CD81 is a host range determining factor (Vogt et al. 2013; Scull et al., 2015; von Schaewen et al., 2016).
The proposed project aims at characterizing in detail, which of the 33 human tetraspanins in addition to CD81 are host factors for alphaviruses and whether tetraspanins from reservoir species, dead end host species and transmitting mosquito vectors serve as host factors of alphaviruses. Thereby the work will contribute to the understanding of the molecular composition and function of alphavirus replication complexes and determine the role of tetraspanins in species range, transmission and consequently emergence of alphaviruses.

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: TIB, 104.334 EUR

Project Details:
Within the framework of this joint project of the TiHo with the MHH, it is planned to thematically expand and extend the OER collection "Animal Welfare and Ethics" on the Lower Saxony OER platform "Twillo" to include OER contributions on agricultural livestock farming, also from the perspective of public health ethics, taking into account the One Health concept. This is based on the great importance of agriculture for Lower Saxony. Agriculture there has a share of 8.9% of the gross domestic product. The planned OER will address the economic importance of the individual livestock branches as well as the different forms of animal husbandry and the state animal welfare initiative referring to it. Animal ethics, as an established branch of philosophical ethics, is sometimes very critical of farm animal husbandry. However, the ethical discussion of farm animal husbandry from the perspective of medical and public health ethics remains largely unaddressed, especially in the German-speaking world. Therefore, the OER should also support Twillo users in understanding the basics of the human-animal relationship in farm animals.

Results:

The OER named in the application were created and uploaded to twillo.de:

OER "Economic importance of agricultural pig farming"

OER "Economic importance of agricultural cattle farming"

OER "Economic importance of agricultural chicken husbandry"

OER "Forms of husbandry in pig fattening"

OER "Forms of husbandry in chicken fattening"

OER "Housing systems for cattle on conventional dairy and fattening farms"

OER "Farming husbandry systems for chickens"

As there were legal changes to the state animal welfare label by the end of the approval period, the OER "state animal welfare label" could not be created. Instead, the following OER was created:

OER "economic importance of livestock farming"

Cooperation Partners:

MHH

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