Climate Change and the Biosphere – Understanding Impacts on Plant Phenology and Animals with the help of EO and Citizen Scientists
Prof. Dr. Annette Menzel & M.Sc. Johanna Kauffert, TUM School of Life Sciences
Understanding the interactions between the atmosphere and the biosphere at the ecosystem level is the motivation that drives scientists at the Chair of Ecoclimatology of TUM. In particular, fingerprints of climate change in nature, i.e. impacts on flora, fauna and humans at different scales, are the focus of our interest.
The first part of the talk will therefore briefly review research on altered plant phenological responses due to global warming, allergenic pollen in the air, human morbidity and mortality due to heat stress and other weather-related factors, drought detection in agriculture, insect diversity and biomass, as well as abundance and breeding phenology of herbivorous animals. To address these interdisciplinary topics, we exploit a wide range of methods, such as Earth observation data from UAVs to satellites, and combine them with data from time-lapse cameras, visual ground observation, or data from citizen scientists. Citizen science is invaluable in expanding ground truth data while engaging with citizens to raise awareness of the impacts of global warming in their backyards.
The second part of the talk by Johanna Kauffert will present an interdisciplinary project together with wildlife biologists to save roe deer fawns in spring that ties all these data sources together. In April/May, roe deer fawns often fall victim to mowing machinery on grasslands and other crops, which are suitable habitats for their bedsides offering cover and protein-rich food. Together with citizen scientists and based on GPS collard roe deer females and fawns as well as different remote sensing data products, we seek to understand and model the timing of fawn birth and occurrences of fawns in open grassland habitats in order to help farmers circumvent killing of roe deer fawns.
Prof. Annette Menzel (b. 1966) has been associate professor of ecoclimatology at TUM since 2007. The focus of her research lies on the interactions between the atmosphere and the biosphere. Her work covers several areas, including the collection and complex description of relevant parameters in various land use systems – for example, BVOCs, radiation and surface temperature. She also aims to detect and pinpoint the impact of climate change on terrestrial (alpine) ecosystems and human health and analyze the risks associated with extreme events.
After studying forestry sciences, she went on to do practical training at the Bavarian State Forestry Commission. In 1992, she became Forestry Officer at the Chair of Bioclimatology and Air Pollution Research at Munich Ludwig Maximilian University. She completed her doctorate there in 1997 and her lecturer qualification in 2002. Her research work has taken her to Chile and Canada. Prof. Menzel was one of the authors of the fourth assessment report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. She is listed as #304 on the Reuters list of the 1000 most influential climate scientists.
Johanna Kauffert is a PhD student at the Chair of Ecoclimatology at TUM. In 2020 she finished her Master of Science Earth Observation and Geoinformation Management at the University of Edinburgh. For her Master thesis: “Deep Learning: Population Estimation with Satellite Data” using Sentinel 1&2 data she won the “Best Dissertation in MSc Earth Observation” award at GeoscienceEd.
You can visit our talk at Campus Ottobrunn, Lise-Meitner-Str. 9, 85521 Ottobrunn in Seminar Room 012
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