Open Access

The dissertation consists of three scientific papers and a synopsis. The synopsis addresses the relevance of the dissertation and lists the key factors for the sustainability transition in the electricity system as a common denominator of the three papers. The relevance of the dissertation results, on the one hand, from the urgency of the sustainability transition in the electricity system and an insufficient transition willingness of the eastern European Member States. On the other hand, the Multi-Level-Perspective as one of the most important scientific frameworks to grasp transitions does not provide a sufficient explanation of its mechanisms. Moreover, Demand Response aggregators as new enterprises on the European electricity market and potential reform initiators are still under researched. The following key factors for the sustainability transition of the electricity system have been identified: supply security concerns, Europeanisation, policy making and the dominance of short-term oriented economic evaluation. Paper 1 The underlying factors in the uptake of electricity demand response: The case of Poland Author: Katarzyna Ewa Rollert Published: Utilities Policy, Volume 54, October 2018, 11-21, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jup.2018.07.002 Demand response (DR) is considered crucial for a more reliable, sustainable, and efficient electricity system. Nevertheless, DR’s potential still remains largely untapped in Europe. This study sheds light on the roots of this problem in the context of Poland. It suggests that unfavorable regulation is symptomatic of the real, underlying barriers. In Poland, these barriers are coal dependence and political influence on energy enterprises. As main drivers, supply security concerns, EU regulatory pressure, and a positive cost-benefit profile of DR in comparison to alternatives, are revealed. A conceptual model of DR uptake in electricity systems is proposed. Paper 2 Gaining legitimacy for sustainability transition: A social mechanisms approach Authors: Ursula Weisenfeld and Katarzyna Ewa Rollert Review and re-submit: Environmental Innovation and Societal Transitions / August 2021 Applying a social mechanisms approach to the Multi-Level Perspective, we conceptualize mechanisms of socio-technical transitions and of gaining legitimacy for transitions as co-evolutionary drivers and outcomes. Situational, action-formational, and transformational mechanisms that operate as drivers of change in a socio-technical transition require corresponding framing and framing contests to achieve legitimacy for that transition. We illustrate our conceptual insight with the case of the coal dependent Polish electricity system. Paper 3 Demand response aggregators as institutional entrepreneurs in the European electricity market Author: Katarzyna Ewa Rollert Under review: Journal of Cleaner Production / August 2021 Demand Response (DR) aggregators act as intermediaries between electricity customers and network operators to tap the potential of the demand-based flexibility. This qualitative study reveals DR aggregators as institutional entrepreneurs that struggle to reform the still largely supply-oriented European electricity market. Unfavourable regulation, low value of flexibility, resource constraints, complexity, and customer acquisition are the key challenges DR aggregators face. To overcome them they apply a combination of strategies: lobbying, market education, technological proficiency, and upscaling the business. The study highlights DR aggregation as an architectural innovation that alters the interplay between key actors of the electricity system and provides policy recommendations including the necessity to assess the real value of DR in comparison to other flexibility sources by taking all externalities into account, a technology-neutral approach to market design and the need for simplification of DR programmes, and common standards to reduce complexity and uncertainty for DR providers.

Despite growing research on sustainability transformations, our understanding of how transformative transdisciplinary research can support local actors who foster change towards sustainability is still somewhat limited. To contribute to this research question, I conducted research in a transdisciplinary case study in Southern Transylvania, where non-governmental organizations (NGO) drive sustainability initiatives to foster desired changes (e.g., supporting small-scale farmers or conserving natural and cultural heritage). Interactions with these local actors and reflections on my research question shaped the research of this dissertation, which I present in four papers. In paper 1, I conducted a literature review on amplification processes that describe actions, which local actors can apply to increase the impact of their sustainability initiatives. This is of interest in sustainability transformations research and practice because the impact of initiatives challenges incumbent regimes and consequently prepares transformations. I developed an integrated typology of amplification processes, which introduces new and innovative ways to conceptualize and study how initiatives increase their impact. The typology integrates theoretical insights on amplification processes from different frameworks that draw on diverse theories, such as resilience theory on transformations of social-ecological systems or sustainability transitions theory on transitions of socio-technical systems. This typology combines contemporary conceptualizations of amplification processes, informs transdisciplinary researchers working with local actors on increasing impact from initiatives, and has inspired debate and empirical research which contributes to theory development concerning amplifying impact of initiatives in diverse contexts. In paper 2, I conducted a literature review on the application of indigenous and local knowledge (ILK) in sustainability transformations research to understand whether this research engages with the conceptualization of transformations from local actors. The results show that ILK is generally applied to confirm and complement scientific knowledge in contexts of environmental, climate, social-ecological, and species change. Only four out of 81 papers (5%) applied ILK to conduct research on transformations. In addition, I identified four research clusters that apply ILK in contexts of transformation, transition, or change in Arctic, terrestrial, coastal, and grass and rangelands environments. Consequently, the review shows that only few empirical studies apply ILK to understand transformations. This indicates that sustainability transformations research lacks to include knowledge from local actors to conceptualize transformations, such as in the case of ILK. This has the potential to question scientific conceptualizations of transformations for theory development (e.g., resilience theory on transformations of social-ecological systems) and to enrich transformative transdisciplinary research. In paper 3, I derived principles that provide guidance for how to integrate sustainability initiatives from local actors in transformative transdisciplinary research. Based on my transdisciplinary research with the NGOs in Southern Transylvania and by using systems and futures thinking as an approach for analysis, I derived three principles that provide guidance for the co-design of sustainability intervention strategies that build on, strengthen, and complement existing initiatives from local actors. These principles contribute to transformative transdisciplinary research by highlighting and operationalizing the need to integrate initiatives from local actors to foster bottom-up, place-based transformations. In paper 4, I explored empirically how to identify relevant local actors for collaborations that seek to intervene in specific characteristics of a system (e.g., parameters or design of a system). I applied a leverage points’ perspective to analyse the social networks of the NGOs in Southern Transylvania that amplify the impact of their initiatives. My results suggest that there are two types of local actors for potential collaborations: local actors who have the ability to intervene in both shallow (i.e., parameters and feedbacks of a system) and deep (i.e., design and intent of a system) system characteristics, and local actors who have the ability to intervene only in specific system characteristics. In addition, my results indicate that the application of specific amplification processes is associated with the positions of local actors in their networks. Thus, paper 4 provides a novel methodological approach and first empirical insights for identifying potential relevant partners for specific system interventions. This supports in transformative transdisciplinary research the categorization of relations and networks of local actors according to the system characteristics that they address, and the selection of relevant partners for specific system interventions. This dissertation as a whole contributes insights to three recommendations of how transformative transdisciplinary research can support local actors fostering change towards sustainability: First, by conducting research that studies and supports local actors who increase the impact of their sustainability initiatives via amplification processes (Paper 1 and 4); Second, by engaging specifically with the initiatives, networks, and knowledge from local actors, who foster bottom-up, place-based transformations (Paper 1-4); Third, by identifying and collaborating with local actors that are relevant for strategic systems interventions that build on, strengthen, and complement existing initiatives (Paper 3-4). These three recommendations pave the way for an enhanced transformative transdisciplinary research that can potentially support local actors who with their initiatives, networks, and knowledge foster bottom-up, place-based sustainability transformations.

It is understood among research and policy makers that addressing unsustainable individual consumption patterns is key for the vision of sustainable development. Education for Sustainable Consumption (ESC) is attributed a pivotal role for this purpose, aiming to improve the capacity of individuals to connect to and act upon knowledge, values and skills in order to respond successfully and purposefully to the demands of sustainable consumption. Yet despite growing political, scientific, and educational efforts to foster more sustainable consumption practices through ESC, and increasing awareness about the negative ecological and socio-economic impacts of individual consumer behavior in the general population, little has been achieved to substantially change behavioral patterns so far. As part of the explanation for this shortcoming, it has been argued that current ESC practices have neglected the personal dimension of sustainable consumption, especially the affective-motivational processes underlying unsustainable consumption patterns. Against this background, this cumulative thesis is guided by the question how personal competencies for sustainable consumption can be defined, observed, and developed within educational settings. Special attention is given to mindfulness practices, describing the practice of cultivating a deliberate, unbiased and openhearted awareness of perceptible experience in the present moment. These practices have received growing attention within ESC as a means to stimulate competencies for sustainable consumption. Drawing upon an explorative, qualitative research methodology, the thesis looks at three different mindfulness-based interventions aiming to stimulate competencies for sustainable consumption, reaching out to a total number of 321 participants (employees and university students). In this thesis, I suggests to define personal competencies for sustainable consumption as abilities, proficiencies, or skills related to inner states and processes that can be considered necessary or sufficient to engage with sustainable consumption (SC). These include ethics, self-awareness, emotional resilience, selfcare, access to and cultivation of personal resources, access to and cultivation of ethical qualities, and mindsets for sustainability. It is argued that these competencies directly relate to those challenges individuals face when attempting to consume in a way that corresponds to their sustainability-related intentions or engage in SC-related learning activities. It provides evidence that the cultivation of (some of) these competencies allows individuals to overcome (some of) these challenges. The thesis holds that the observation of personal competencies benefits from a combination of different methodological and methodical angles. When working with self-reports as empirical data, a pluralistic qualitative methods approach can help overcoming shortcomings that are specifically related to individual methods while increasing the self-reflexivity of the research. This is especially important in order to reduce the risk of looking for desired outcomes and misinterpreting statements of the inquired population. This risk can also be diminished by discussing and adjusting interim findings with this population. Moreover, it is suggested to let learners analyze their own personal statements in groups, applying scientific methods. The products of the group analyses represent data based on an inter-subjectively shared perspective of learners that goes beyond self-estimation of personal competencies. In terms of developing personal competencies for SC, it can be concluded that mindfulness practice alone is not sufficient to build personal competencies for SC. While it can stimulate generic personal competencies, individuals do not necessarily apply these competencies within the domain of their consumption. Furthermore, even though the practice increases individuals’ self-awareness for current inner states and processes, practitioners do not seem to become aware of and reflect upon the more latent, personal predispositions out of which the current sensations occur. Nevertheless, mindfulness practice can play an important role in ESC, insofar as it lays the inner foundation to engage with sustainability-related issues. More precisely, it allows learners to experience the relevance of their inner states and processes and the influence they have on actual behaviors, leading to a level of selfawareness that would not be accessible solely through discursive-intellectual means. Furthermore, participants experience mindfulness practice as a way to develop ethical qualities and access psychological resources, entailing stronger emotional resilience and improved well-being. In order to unleash its full potential for stimulating personal competencies for SC, however, the findings of the thesis suggest that mindfulness practice should be (a) complemented with methodically controlled self-inquiry and (b) related to a specific behavioral change. In this vein, self-inquiry-based and self-experience-based learning – two pedagogical approaches developed during the period of research for this thesis – turned out to be promising pedagogies for educational settings striving to stimulate the development of personal competencies for SC. Overall, the thesis makes a novel contribution to the field of competency-based ESC by suggesting personal competencies for sustainable consumption as important and desirable learning outcomes of ESC practices Furthermore, it provides specific pedagogies and learning activities in order to achieve these learning outcomes. As such, the thesis answers to general calls from education for sustainable development scholars to take the inner, affective-motivational dimension of individuals into consideration and makes a first suggestion as to how this can be systematically achieved.

Jedes Jahr landen weltweit rund 1,3 Milliarden Tonnen Lebensmittel auf dem Müll. Deren Produktion verbraucht knapp ein Drittel des globalen Ackerlandes sowie 250 Kubikkilometer Wasser und entlässt dabei mehr als drei Milliarden Tonnen Kohlendioxid in die Atmosphäre. Gleichzeitig leidet mehr als ein Zehntel der Weltbevölkerung an Hunger und Unterernährung. Deshalb ist es erklärtes Ziel der Europäischen Kommission, die Zahl der entsorgten Lebensmittel bis 2020 in der EU zu halbieren. Dieses Vorhaben ist für Bäckereien besonders ehrgeizig, da Brot und Backwaren meist nur einen Tag lang verkauft werden können. Diese Arbeit beschäftigt sich mit innerbetrieblichen Potentialen an der Schnittstelle von Produktion und Verkauf zur Vermeidung von Lebensmittelabfällen. Außerdem liefert sie einen konkreten Konzeptvorschlag zur Optimierung des innerbetrieblichen Bestellprozesses.

Insbesondere in den sogenannten entwickelten Ländern findet Nachhaltigkeit immer mehr Anklang. Die meisten dort lebenden Menschen würden sowohl ihre Ziele befürworten, als auch ihre Hindernisse überwinden wollen. Aber wir stellen fest, dass Nachhaltigkeit im Augenblick der Handlungsentscheidung nicht vorrangig behandelt wird. Im Gegenteil, sie wird hinten angestellt. Dieser Aufsatz erklärt, woran es liegt, dass sich Menschen letztendlich kaum mit Nachhaltigkeit emotional identifizieren können - weder im positiven noch im negativen Sinne. Das Erreichen von Nachhaltigkeit kann somit nur dann gelingen, wenn ein Ziel gefunden wird, das Menschen tatsächlich motiviert - und das gleichzeitig Nachhaltigkeit hervorbringt

Wiederverwendung (WV) von Erzeugnissen ist als Ansatz hinsichtlich der Ressourcenschonung zu verstehen. Durch Verwertungsmaßnahmen mit dieser Zielsetzung - Vorbereitung zur Wiederverwendung (VWV) - kann man bewirken, dass einst als Abfall eingestufte Erzeugnisse ihre ursprüngliche Funktion wieder erfüllen, so dass im Prinzip weniger Ressourcen für die Bereitstellung von neuen Produkten beansprucht werden müs-sen. Zumindest theoretisch wäre es dann möglich, nachhaltige Entwicklung mit Wirtschaftswachstum zu vereinbaren. Aus diesem Potenzial ergibt sich die hohe Stellung sowohl von WV als auch von VWV in der so-genannten Abfallhierarchie. Nichtsdestotrotz zeigt die Realität, dass die Umsetzungsmöglichkeiten von WV bzw. VWV bescheiden sind. Auf die Ursachen und Folgen dieses Phänomens geht dieser Aufsatz ein. Schlüsselwörter: Wiederverwendung, Abfallhierarchie, Effizienz, Suffizienz, Konsum-entenverhalten, Ressourcenschutz, Nachhaltigkeit, Kreislaufwirtschaft

The world currently faces important issues concerning climate change and environmental sustainability, with the wellbeing of billions of people around the world at risk over the next decades. Existing institutions no longer appear to be sufficiently capable to deal with the complexity and uncertainty associated with the wicked problem of sustainability. Achieving the required sustainability transformation will thus require purposeful reform of existing institutional frameworks. However, existing research on the governance of sustainability of sustainability transformations has strongly focused on innovation and the more ‘creative’ aspects of these processes, blinding our view to the fact that they go hand with the failure, decline or dismantling of institutions that are no longer considered functional or desirable. This doctoral dissertation thus seeks to better understand how institutional failure and decline can contribute productively to sustainability transformations and how such dynamics in institutional arrangements can serve to restructure existing institutional systems. A systematic review of the conceptual literature served to provide a concise synthesis of the research on ‘failure’ and ‘decline’ in the institutional literature, providing important first insights into their potentially productive functions. This was followed up by an archetype analysis of the productive functions of failure and decline, drawing on a wide range of literatures. This research identified five archetypical pathways: (1) crises triggering institutional adaptations toward sustainability, (2) systematic learning from failure and breakdown, (3) the purposeful destabilisation of unsustainable institutions, (4) making a virtue of inevitable decline, and (5) active and reflective decision making in the face of decline instead of leaving it to chance. Empirical case studies looking at the German energy transition and efforts to phase out coal in the Powering Past Coal Alliance served to provide more insights on (a) how to effectively harness ‘windows of opportunity’ for change, and (b) the governance mechanisms used by governments to actively remove institutions. Results indicate that the lock-in of existing technologies, regulations and practices can throw up important obstacles for sustainability transformations. The intentional or unintentional destabilisation of the status quo may thus be required to enable healthy renewal within a system. This process required active and reflective management to avoid the irreversible loss of desirable institutional elements. Instruments such as ‘sunset clauses’ and ‘experimental legislation’ may serve as important tools to learn through ‘trial and error’, whilst limiting the possible damage done by failure. Focusing on the subject of scale, this analysis finds that the level at which failure occurs is likely to determine the degree of change that can be achieved. Failures at the policy-level are most likely to merely lead to changes to the tools and instruments used by policy makers. This research thus suggests that failures on the polity- and political level may be required to achieve transformative changes to existing power structures, belief-systems and paradigms. Finally, this research briefly touches on the role of actor and agency in the governance of sustainabilitytransformations through failure and decline. It finds that actors may play an important role in causing a system or one of its elements to fail and in shaping the way events are come to be perceived. Drawing on the findings of this research, this dissertation suggests a number of lessons policy makers and others seeking to revisit existing institutional arrangements may want to take into account. Actors should be prepared to harness the potential associated with failure and decline, preserve those institutional elements considered important, and take care to manage the tension between the need for ‘quick fixes’ to currently pressing problems and solution that maintain and protect the longterm sustainability of a system.

In response to the challenges of the energy transition, the German electricity network is subjected to a process of substantial transformation. Considering the long latency periods and lifetimes of electricity grid infrastructure projects, it is more cost-efficient to combine this need for transformation with the need to adapt the grid to future climate conditions. This study proposes the spatially varying risk of electricity grid outages as a guiding principle to determine optimal levels of security of electricity supply. Therefore, not only projections of future changes in the likelihood of impacts on the grid infrastructure were analyzed, but also the monetary consequences of an interruption. Since the windthrow of trees was identified a major source for atmospherically induced grid outages, a windthrow index was developed, to regionally assess the climatic conditions for windthrow. Further, a concept referred to as Value of Lost Grid was proposed to quantify the impacts related to interruptions of the distribution grid. In combination, the two approaches enabled to identify grid entities, which are of comparably high economic value and subjected to a comparably high likelihood of windthrow under future climate conditions. These are primarily located in the mid-range mountain areas of North-Rhine Westphalia, Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria. In comparison to other areas of less risk, the higher risk in these areas should be reflected in comparably more resilient network structures, such as buried lines instead of overheadlines, or more comprehensive efforts to prevent grid interruptions, such as structural reinforcements of pylons or improved vegetation management along the power lines. In addition, the outcomes provide the basis for a selection of regions which should be subjected to a more regionally focused analysis inquiring spatial differences (with respect to the identified coincidence of high windthrow likelihoods and high economic importance of the grid) among individual power lines or sections of a distribution network.

Global climate change and environmental degradation are largely caused by human activity, thus progress towards a sustainable future will require large-scale changes to human behavior. Human-nature connectedness—a measure of cognitive, emotional, spiritual and biophysical linkages to natural places—has been identified as a positive predictor of sustainability attitudes and behaviors. While calls to ‘reconnect to nature’ in order to foster sustainability outcomes have become common across science, policy and practice, there remains a great deal of uncertainty, speculation, and conceptual vagueness around how this ought to be implemented. The overarching aim of this thesis is to advance conceptual and empirical understandings of human-nature connectedness as a leverage point for proenvironmental outcomes and sustainability transformation. In particular, the thesis attempts to assess the nuances of the HNC-PEB relationship by investigating the scalar relationships between where someone feels connected to nature and where someone acts proenvironmentally. This research was conducted through conceptual exploration (Chapters II, III, IV, and VI), systematic literature reviews (Chapter I and V) using hierarchical cluster analysis, and empirical case studies (Chapters VII and VIII) relying on structural equation modeling and two-step cluster analysis. In this thesis, the relationship between humannature connectedness and pro-environmental attitudes and behaviors was investigated in a small microregion of Transylvania, Romania, where traditional relationships with the land and changing socio-economic characteristics provided an interesting case study in which to explore these connections. The key findings can be organized into three sections: Section A, which addresses human-nature connectedness and its potential for sustainability transformation; Section B, which addresses human-nature connectedness as a determinant of pro-environmental behavioral outcomes, and Section C, which explores the relationships between human-nature connectedness and energy conservation norms, attitudes, and behaviors. Results cumulatively suggest that human-nature connectedness is a multidimensional construct that requires greater integration across heterogeneous disciplinary and methodological boundaries in order to reach its potential for meaningful sustainability transformation. Results also highlight the critical need to adopt systemic approaches to understanding how interactions between human-nature connections, norms, attitudes, and behaviors are hindering or promoting sustainability outcomes. This thesis makes two main contributions to the literature: first, it considers the human-nature connectedness and pro-environmental behavior literature within a systems-thinking and VI sustainability transformation lens; and second, it extends the human-nature connectedness and pro-environmental behavior literature by investigating the multidimensional aspects of these constructs. Overall, these insights point to the deep leverage potential of humannature connectedness when conceptualized and operationalized as a multidimensional construct.

The image of the solitary scientist is receding. Increasingly, researchers are expected to work in collaborative interdisciplinary teams to tackle more complex and interrelated problems. However, the prospect of collaborating with others, from different disciplines, exerts countervailing forces on researchers. There is the lure of transcending the limitations of one’s own knowledge, methods and conventions, belonging to diverse intellectual communities and tackling, together, ambitious research topics. On the other hand, there is the risk that collaborating across disciplinary boundaries will be taxing, confounding at times, with no guarantee of success. In short, interdisciplinary collaboration is both a desirable and difficult way to conduct research. This thesis is about collaborative interdisciplinary research from the perspective of a formative accompanying researcher. I accompanied an interdisciplinary research team in the field of sustainability over three years for the duration of a collaborative project. Formative accompanying research (FAR) is an approach to ‘research into research’ that learns about, with and for a collaborative interdisciplinary team. I found – through immersion in the literature, my own daily experiences of collaborating, and my observations – that interdisciplinary collaboration is very difficult. It requires a basic understanding and appreciation of other disciplines and methods, as well as the skills to integrate research inquiries and findings across diverse epistemologies. It also requires awareness that collaborative interdisciplinary research is more than an intellectual task of knowledge creation. Other factors matter, such as interpersonal relationships, power differentials, different research tempos and a sense of belonging. And these factors have an impact on processes and outcomes of collaborative knowledge creation. Knowing this implies a willingness to keep learning and to tolerate discomfort so as to cultivate deeper levels of collaborative capacity. I discovered that in these deeper levels lie skills for staying with inevitable tensions, for talking and listening to generate new understanding together, and for applying a researcher’s frank curiosity to oneself too. A formative accompanying researcher, who is part of the team she is researching, has to navigate delicate terrain. In this thesis, I develop a FAR methodology that takes seriously the questions of positionality and relationality, and reflect on the experiences of putting these into practice. A FAR practice involves remaining in dynamic movement between observing and participating, between exercising curiosity and care, and between the researchers’ own sense of impartiality and investment in relation to the issues at hand. There is merit in furthering the methodology and practice of FAR on its own terms. This includes attending to the skills required by a formative accompanying researcher to remain oriented within the concentric circles of research, relationship and loyalty that make up a collaborative team. There is also the question of how FAR, and other forms of research into research, can help to advance collaborative interdisciplinary research. I argue for creating the conditions in research teams that would enable treating collaboration as a capacity to develop, and that would facilitate team members’ receptivity to learning with FAR. Furthermore, I explore dilemmas of intervening as a formative accompanying researcher and of sustaining dynamic positionality over the long-term. In the field of sustainability research, and in multiple other research fields, the future is a collaborative one. This thesis is concerned with how to collaborate so that the experience and the outcomes lend themselves to what Rabinow terms a “flourishing existence”.

Nowadays, our (western-world) society is characterized by digitalization. This is realized by information and communication technologies, consuming a huge amount of energy. The fact that digitalization comes along with a lot of negative effects onto the environment is slightly known in the case of energy consumption by hardware, especially regarding mobile devices, having a limited battery life. However, awareness of environmental issues of software, being the driver of hardware, is mainly missing, even if the research field addressing corresponding issues is growing. Thus, the doctoral thesis at hand addresses the question How to draw (a) developers and (b) usersattention to environmental issues of software? By presenting (a) a calculation method of the carbon footprint of software projects and (b) a concept for an eco-label for software products, evaluated by a user survey, the doctoral thesis provides two strategies how to draw the attention to environmental issues of software. Summarizing, this thesis can act as a basis for further research in bridging from science to society in the context of environmental issues of software. Its findings can be seen as starting points for practical implementations of methods and tools supporting a more environmentally friendly way of developing software and informing about environmental issues of software usage. In order to get the implementation of the research results of the thesis going, it highlights practical implications for diverse groups of stakeholders - researchers, certifiers, public administration and professional purchasers, and environmental associations - that have been identified as being important for the practical implementation of the presented concepts and, thus, represent the target group of the doctoral thesis.

Agrobiodiversität besitzt vielfältigen ökologischen, ökonomischen und sozio-kulturellen Wert. Sie ist eine grundlegende Voraussetzung für zukünftige Nutzungen und steht gleichzeitig in einem besonderen Verhältnis zu menschlichem Handeln. Zwar basiert Agrobiodiversität auf Natur, sie ist jedoch wesentlich durch landwirtschaftliche Tätigkeiten gestaltet worden und kann ohne weitere Nutzung durch den Menschen nicht erhalten und erneuert werden. Die vorliegende Dissertation analysiert die Gestaltung gesellschaftlicher Naturverhältnisse in der ländlichen Entwicklung am Beispiel der nachhaltigen Nutzung von Agrobiodiversität. Schutz und Nutzung von Agrobiodiversität wird hierfür in einem ersten Schritt als sozial-ökologisches Phänomen konzipiert. Daran schließen sich Analysen auf agrarpolitischer und landwirtschaftlich praktischer Ebene an. Anhand einer Analyse der der Gemeinsamen Agrarpolitik der EU (GAP) und im speziellen der Politik zur ländlichen Entwicklung wird deutlich, dass eine programmatische Orientierung an Wettbewerbsfähigkeit und einer nachhaltigen Entwicklung besteht und das Paradigma einer multifunktionalen Landwirtschaft integrierende Ansätze bietet. Diese Ansätze werden jedoch weiterhin vor dem Hintergrund einer unhinterfragten Logik realisiert, die davon ausgeht, dass naturerhaltendes Wirtschaften nicht wettbewerbsfähig sein kann. Die GAP löst somit die hierarchische Trennung zwischen Schutz und Nutzung von Agrobiodiversität nicht auf. Trotz der Wirkmächtigkeit der GAP kann mittels der Fallstudie ´Arche-Region Flusslandschaft Elbe´ an einem konkreten Beispiel aus der landwirtschaftlichen Praxis dargestellt werden, wie nachhaltige Agrobiodiversitätsnutzung umgesetzt wird. Aus den Ergebnissen der Fallstudie werden abschließend Schlussfolgerungen für eine Weiterentwicklung der Politik zur ländlichen Entwicklung und EU-Agrarpolitik im Allgemeinen abgeleitet.

In an increasingly urbanized world, consequences for humans, animals, plants are often unknown. Fundamental changes in landscapes due to landscape fragmentation, intensified agriculture or biodiversity loss dramatically impact ecosystems and their functions. Humans increasingly shifted their lifestyle from outdoor activities towards indoors, which are facilitated and depend on mostly digital technologies that are discussed to increase the risk of nature alienation. On the other hand, these readily available digital technologies offer chances to connect with people worldwide. This connectivity offers manifold opportunities to share data and to recruit people looking for new entertaining and interesting experiences as cooperation partners for the scientific community in so-called citizen science approaches. In citizen science, non-scientists are integrated in the data gathering of scientists. Being part of scholarly research, the citizen scientists receive up-to-date information on the research topic, which fosters the learning of the scientific background and thereby ideally supports the general scientific literacy that might be little developed due to a lack of interaction with nature. Especially for children in an urban societal background, there are concerns of alienation from nature due a significant shift away from nature-based activity and recreation, when compared to past generations. However, even though direct contact with nature is nowadays often infrequent, a solid knowledge about nature is essential to understand the consequences of biodiversity loss, the limitation of natural resources and the need for a sustainable development. Theoretically, citizen science cooperation offers a unique opportunity to integrate the public in the scientific gain of knowledge, further explaining the nature of science and fostering an increased awareness for biodiversity conservation and sustainable development. Inspired by these challenges, I investigated in my dissertation seed predation, an important ecosystem function that has hardly been part of citizen science project. As seed predation has only rarely been investigated along urban-rural gradients and to integrate the question if the background (urban vs. rural) of primary school children affects their environmental knowledge, I selected study sites in and around Lüneburg and Hamburg, in Northern Germany. In my ecological experiments, I found that slugs are important seed predators that independently of urbanization predated about 30% of all seeds in the anthropogenically used landscapes investigated. Also, I could for the first time integrate primary school children in a citizen science approach into this research and show that even seven year old children can record data as reliable as a scientist. Finally, I investigated the native species knowledge from the children taking part as citizen scientists in my research, considering possible differences due to their urban or rural background. Contrary to my expectation, the urban or rural background had no significant effect on the species knowledge. However, my work provides a good foundation to transfer the approach of introducing a basic foundation of a taxonomical species concept in primary school to foster further understanding on biodiversity and ecosystem functions. In summary, my dissertation combined different disciplinary approaches showing synergies between the single disciplines to support strategies for a successful sustainable development in the spirit of an education for sustainability. I could highlight the great potential of inter- and transdisciplinary approaches combining natural research with scientific literacy in a citizen science project on a local scale, which may serve as a model for implementing citizen science projects in schools elsewhere. I highly recommend this successful approach for similar cooperation on larger scales to counter challenges of pressing societal problems. Even though each cooperation will has its own unique challenges, the synergetic advantages will likely outweigh the disadvantages. In this context, there should be more emphasis on the education for sustainable development, not only in schools but other educational institutions like universities, to face the global urbanization with its manifold challenges and opportunities.

Neben dem Klimawandel und der Verstädterung zählt der Verlust biologischer und kultureller Vielfalt mit unberechenbaren Konsequenzen für die Bereitstellung von Ökosystemdienstleistungen zu den größten Herausforderungen der Zukunft, auch in UNESCO-Biosphärenreservaten, die Modellregionen für nachhaltige Entwicklung sind. Deshalb wurden durch die vorliegende Studie erstmalig Ökosystemdienstleistungen im UNESCO-Biosphärenreservat Schaalsee erfasst und bewertet. Dort sind insgesamt 39 Ökosystemdienstleistungen nachzuweisen, wobei räumliche Unterschiede hinsichtlich der Zonierung zu beobachten sind: Je strenger der Schutzstatus, desto geringer ist die Anzahl an nutzbaren Ökosystemdienstleistungen. Mittels Q-Methode wurden fünf unterschiedliche Werteperspektiven auf die bereitgestellten Ökosystemdienstleistungen identifiziert: 1) Übereinstimmung mit der Biosphärenreservats-Idee, 2) Regionalität mit dem Streitpunkt Kultur, die als a) entbehrlicher Luxus oder b) elementarer Lebensinhalt wahrgenommen wird, 3) Landwirtschaft und Nostalgie sowie 4) Vorsorge durch natürliche Regulierungsleistungen. Alle Perspektiven stimmen darin überein, dass die Vielfalt der Natur und sauberes Trinkwasser sowie die meisten regulierenden Ökosystemdienstleistungen von großer Wichtigkeit sind. Die Ergebnisse der Erfassung können als Grundlage zur weiteren Untersuchung der Ökosystemdienstleistungen im UNESCOBiosphärenreservat Schaalsee verwendet werden und die bei der Bewertung identifizierten Perspektiven sollten in zukünftige Entscheidungen, die das UNESCO-Biosphärenreservat Schaalsee und seine Stakeholder betreffen, einfließen.

Loss of natural and semi-natural habitat due to increasing human land use for agriculture and housing has led to widespread declines in bee pollinator diversity and abundance, which raised global concerns about the stability of pollination services. Bee population dynamics depend on floral resource diversity and availability in the surrounding landscape, and loss of plant biodiversity may thus directly impair the fitness of individual bee species. However, whether and how plant and resource diversity and availability affect foraging patterns, resource intake, resource quantity and nutrient quality and ultimately fitness of generalist social bees remains unclear. In this thesis, we placed hives of the Australian eusocial stingless bee Tetragonula carbonaria (Apidae, Meliponini) in natural habitat (subtropical forests) and two landscapes differently altered by humans (suburban gardens and macadamia plantations), varying in plant species richness, resource abundance and respective habitat patch size. Foraging patterns and resource intake were compared between landscapes in different seasons and colony growth and fitness were monitored over two and a half years. Bee foraging activity, pollen and sugar intake, diversity of collected pollen and resin resources, resource quantity (colony food stores), colony fitness (brood volume, queenand worker reproduction) and colony growth overwhelmingly increased with plant species richness in the surrounding habitat. However, plant species richness and thus bee fitness was highest in gardens, not in natural forests, as bees in gardens benefited from the continuous floral resource availability of both natural and exotic plants across seasons. In contrast, foraging rates and success, forager orientation and consequently colony fitness was largely reduced in plantations. While bees maximized diversity of collected resources, collecting more diverse resources did however not increase resource functionality and nutritional quality, which appeared to be primarily driven by the surrounding plant community in our study. Conversely, individual worker fitness (body fat and size) was not affected by available resource diversity and abundance, showing that colonies seem not to increase the nutritional investment in single workers, but in overall worker population size. This thesis consequently revealed the outstanding role of plant biodiversity as a key driver of (social) bee fitness by providing more foraging resources, even when only small but florally diverse patches are available.

Economic globalization has not only reinforced the power of global firms, but also the sustainability challenges we are facing today on global and regional levels. Against this background, an increasingly broad range of governance efforts has aimed at fostering more sustainable business practices. At the national level, in addition to regulatory policy instruments, market-based and network instruments as well as self-regulatory Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives have emerged. These instruments differ not only in their degree of bindingness between compulsory and voluntary, but also involve a greater diversity of actor groups like government, business, and civil society organizations. In addition, international instruments like the UN Global Compact principles, the GRI Reporting Guidelines or the

Smartphones make intensive use of precious metals and so called conflict minerals in order to reach their high performance in a compact size. In recent times, sustainability challenges related to production, use and disposal of smartphones are increasingly a topic of public debate. Thus, established industry actors and newly emerging firms are driven to engage in more sustainable practices, such as sustainable sourcing of materials, maintenance services or take-back schemes for discarded mobile phones. Many of these latter efforts can be related to the concept of a circular economy (CE). This thesis explores how CE-related value creation architectures (VCAs) in the smartphone industry contribute to slowing and closing resource loops in a CE. In order to analyze these new industry arrangements, transaction cost theory (TCT) is used as a guiding theory for a make-or-buy analysis. Combining TCT with the concept of a CE is a novel research approach that enables the empirical analysis of relationships between focal actors (e.g. manufacturers) and newly emerging loop operators (e.g. recycling firms) in the smartphone industry. Case studies of such VCAs are conducted with case companies drawn from the Innovation Network on Sustainable Smartphones (INaS) at Leuphana Universtity of Lüneburg and analyzed regarding their involved actors, partnerships, circular activities, motivation and perceived barriers. Evidence from the conducted case studies suggests that asset specificity for circular practices increases for higher order CE-loops such as maintenance or reuse, therefore long-term partnerships between focal actors and loop operators or vertical integration of CE practices are beneficial strategies to reach a sophisticated CE. Similarly, circular practices that go beyond recycling require a strong motivation, either through integration in the focal firm´s quality commitment or through business model recognition. It is further suggested that the circular design of products and services could reduce necessary transaction costs and thus overall costs of a circular economy. Four different integration strategies for circular economy practices have been derived from the conducted case studies. These are: 1) vertically integrated loops, 2) cooperative loop-networks, 3) outsourcing to loop operators and 4) independent loop operators. This work thus provides evidence that circular economy activities do not necessarily have to be managed by focal actors in the value chain. Rather, circular practices can also be put forward by specialized loop operators or even independent actors such as repair shops.

Habitat fragmentation and changes in land use are currently two major drivers of biodiversity loss around the world by causing habitat loss and reducing connectivity across landscapes. These processes affect not only species diversity, but genetic structure as well. The loss of habitat and the increased isolation prevent gene flow and accelerate genetic drift, causing loss of genetic diversity and facilitating development of genetic differentiation. The effects of habitat fragmentation and land use changes are usually studied by relating patterns of genetic diversity and differentiation to environmental factors, habitat history, landscape structure, or to a combination thereof. However, these three drivers are rarely addressed simultaneously. In addition, these studies are usually carried out in conservation-driven contexts, and therefore tend to concentrate on hyper-fragmented landscapes and on rare or endangered species. However, how habitat fragmentation and land use affect widespread species in more typical landscapes has not been fully investigated. In this thesis I address these two gaps, and do so in three study regions, allowing for generalization of the results. I used Abax parallelepipedus, a flightless ground beetle with low dispersal power as a model species to test how environmental factors, habitat history, and landscape structure affect genetic diversity and genetic differentiation in three study regions located across Germany. This species seldom leaves wooded habitats, and rarely crosses linear barriers such as roads and railways. It is also known to be susceptible to rapid changes in genetic structure after habitat fragmentation. Nevertheless, A. parallelepipedus is widely distributed as it can inhabit a variety of woodland types in which it maintains high population densities. Although all of my study regions represent fairly typical rural landscapes for central Europe, each consisting of a complex matrix of land uses, they differ from one another in terms of environmental factors, habitat history, and landscape structure, and thus can serve as three test cases. In the first stage of my work, I identified polymorphic microsatellite loci which could potentially be used to study genetic diversity and differentiation in A. parallelepipedus. I then developed PCR and genotyping protocols for two suites of loci, in the end selecting to use the set of 14 fully multiplexed loci for my study. After I had developed the needed study system, I genotyped over 3300 beetles from 142 study sites. In my investigation of how environmental factors and habitat history affect genetic diversity and genetic differentiation, I found that genetic diversity was being driven by variables that could be related to population sizes rather than by habitat history. I also did not find evidence of an influence of habitat history on the genetic differentiation patterns. Although populations of A. parallelepipedus in the past were probably smaller due to deforestation, they apparently remained large enough to prevent rapid genetic drift. Thus, recolonization processes of woodlands planted after the peak of deforestation either occurred without incurring founder effects or bottlenecks, or the effects of thereof have since been erased by gene flow. As the genetic structure found in my landscapes is driven current processes, rather than historical ones, I carried out a landscape genetics analysis of the genetic differentiation patterns found in each of my study regions, in which I examined the relationship between genetic differentiation and landscape structure. I tested whether I could find patterns of isolation by distance, isolation by resistance, or isolation by barriers in my study regions. Surprisingly, I found no effects of land use or of fragmentation. Based on the importance of population sizes found in my previous study, combined with the beetle´s known avoidance of non-wooded areas and its inability to cross roads, I conclude that although there is probably little gene flow across my study regions, large population sizes are preventing the rapid development of genetic differentiation. Models simulating the development of genetic differentiation over time in populations of different starting sizes support this conclusion. My work highlights the importance of population sizes in determining how patterns of genetic diversity and differentiation will develop across landscapes. While emphasis has been placed in conservation contexts on the deleterious effects of fragmentation on genetic structure, this may be overstated for widespread species in typical landscapes. In such cases, large population sizes may mitigate the development of genetic differentiation and prevent loss of alleles, despite existing barriers and lack of gene flow.

Die Senkung der Abgasemissionen von Dieselmotoren ist ein zentraler Bestandteil der Motoren-Entwicklung. Die positive Beeinflussung kann auf verschiedene Arten erfolgen. Zum einen werden durch die Optimierung der innermotorischen Verbrennung die Abgasbestandteile gesenkt. Zum anderen kann mit Hilfe von Abgasnachbehandlungs-systemen der Ausstoß von umweltschädlichen und toxikologischen Abgasbestandteilen minimiert werden. Die Rückführung von Abgas in den Frischluft-Massenstrom (Abgasrückführung, AGR) ist eine konstruktive Maßnahme zur Reduktion von Stickstoffoxid-Emissionen bei Dieselmotoren. Bei diesen Abgasrückführungs-Systemen ist das AGR-Ventil ein zentraler Bestandteil und wird häufig mit einem Kühler kombiniert. Je nach Abgaskonzept des Motors werden Hoch- oder Niederdruck-Abgasrückführung - d.h. das Abgas wird vor oder nach dem Abgasturbolader entnommen - oder eine Kombination aus beiden System eingesetzt. In der vorliegenden Arbeit werden die Wechselwirkungen und Einflüsse von Ablagerungen in Turbo-aufgeladenen Dieselmotoren betrachtet. Der Schwerpunkt der Untersuchungen wird auf das Teilgebiet dieser Ablagerungen im Hochdruck-AGR-System gelegt, da der zu untersuchende Volkswagen Motor in Fahrzeugen zur Einhaltung der Abgasemissionsstufe Euro 5 mit einer wassergekühlten Hochdruck-AGR und einem Abgasnachbehandlungssystem ausgerüstet ist. Das Abgas der Hochdruck-AGR wird direkt vor dem Abgasturbolader entnommen und wieder der Frischluft-Ansaugstrecke zugeführt. Das entnommene Abgas wird dabei nicht durch Abgasnachbehandlungs-Systeme gereinigt, sondern alle Abgasbestandteile werden über den Kühler und über das Ventil geführt. Dabei kann es zu Verschmutzungen kommen, die potentiell die Kühlleistung, sowie die zurück geführte Abgasmasse und das Brennverfahren beinträchtigen könnten. Im Laufe der Arbeit wird die Arbeitsweise der genannten Abgasrückführung und der verschiedenen Brennverfahren im Dieselmotor eingehend beschrieben. In der vorliegenden Dissertation werden drei Aspekte der genannten Verschmutzungen bzw. Ablagerungen im AGR-System näher untersucht. Erster Aspekt: Zunächst werden die physikalischen und chemischen Ablagerungs-mechanismen aufgezeigt, die zu Verschmutzungen bzw. zu Ablagerungen in AGR-Systemen führen können. Zweiter Aspekt: Die Ablagerungen wurden hinsichtlich ihrer chemischen Zusammensetzung untersucht. Es konnte dabei festgestellt werden, dass die gefundenen Ablagerungen vollständig organisch-chemischer Natur sind und zum größten Teil aus Dieselruß, polyzyklischen aromatischen Kohlenwasserstoffen, unverbranntem Kraftstoff, sowie diversen polymeren Strukturen bestehen. Letztere werden in situ durch die vorherrschenden Temperaturen und vorliegenden Molekül-Kombinationen dargestellt. Dritter Aspekt: Die Einfluss-Faktoren und der Mechanismus der Ablagerungsbildung werden beschrieben und in Motor-Funktionsprüfstand- und in Labor-Versuchen nachgestellt. Insbesondere der Einfluss von polyzyklischen aromatischen Kohlenwasserstoffen und der Aufbau von organischen Polymeren auf Basis von Phenol-Aldehyd-Harzen, als auch Netzwerk Bildungsmechanismen mit Biodiesel-Molekülen und Veresterungs-Reaktionen haben sich als signifikante Mechanismen herausgestellt. Darüber hinaus kann ein starker Einfluss der Abgas- und Kühler-Temperaturen nachgewiesen werden. Je größer die Temperaturdifferenz zwischen Kühlwasser-Temperatur und Abgas-Temperatur ist, desto besser werden die chemischen Komponenten auf der Kühler-Oberfläche abgeschieden. Zusätzlich verstärken Abgas-Temperaturen bis zu 800 Grad C die Pyrolyse-Reaktionen und damit die Bildung von Netzwerken aus polyzyklischen aromatischen Kohlenwasserstoffen. In Verbindung mit anschließenden Abkühlphasen werden die kondensierten Abgas-Bestandteile abgekühlt und der Status einer Netzwerk-Bildungs-Reaktion ´eingefroren´. In Zusammenspiel mit Dieselruß-Partikeln wird eine Oberfläche geschaffen, die weitere Abgas-Komponenten aufzunehmen vermag. Die sich daran anschließenden Hoch-Temperatur-Phasen pyrolysieren das organische Material und erzeugen damit eine feste und festhaftende Oberfläche bzw. Isolationsschicht. Die im Abgas enthaltene Wärme kann nicht mehr über den Wärmetauscher abgeführt werden und die Pyrolyse-Reaktionen werden durch steigende Temperaturen an der Oberfläche verstärkt. Die Ablagerungsbildung katalysiert sich selbst.

Biodiversity loss could jeopardize ecosystem functioning. Yet, the evidences that support this demonstration have been mostly obtained in aquatic and grassland ecosystems. Howbiodiversity affects ecosystem functioning still remain largely unanswered in forests, particularly in subtropical broad-leaved evergreen forests (EBLF). Tree productivity, among a wealth of forest ecosystem functioning, is of particular interest because it reflects the carbon sink capacity and wood productivity. Biodiversity-productivity relationships have been usually investigated at community level. However, tree-tree interactions occur at small scale. Thus, local neighborhood approach may allow a better understanding of tree-tree interactions and their contributions to the effects of biodiversity on tree productivity / growth rates. This thesis aims to analyze the effects of biodiversity and the abiotic environmental factors on the tree growth rates using both local neighborhood and community-based approaches. Furthermore, tree growth rates vary among different tree species. Functional traits have been related to the species-specific growth rates to understand the effects of species identity. Therefore, I also evaluated the crown- and leaf traits to predict the interspecific difference in growth rates. For a better understanding of the mechanisms that underline the relationships of biodiversity and tree growth rates, data of high solution and along time series is required to scrutinize the tree-tree interactions. Thereupon, I evaluated the applicability of terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) in assessing the tree dendrometrics. This thesis was conducted in the Biodiversity Ecosystem Functioning (BEF)–China experiment, which is located in a mountainous subtropical region in southeast China. A total of 40 native broad-leaved tree species were planted. In the first study, I used the local neighborhood approach to analyze how local abiotic conditions (i.e. topographic and edaphic conditions) and local neighborhood (i.e. species diversity and competition by neighborhood) affect the annual growth rates of 6723 individual trees. The second study used the community approach to partition the effects of environmental factors (i.e. topographic and edaphic), functional diversity according to Rao’s quadratic entropy (FDQ) and community weight mean (CWM) of 41 functional traits on community tree growth rates. The main question of the third study was how the species-specific growth rates are related to five crown- and 12 leaf traits. In the fourth study, I investigated 438 tree individuals for the congruence between the conventional direct field measurements and TLS measurements. It was found that tree growth rates were strongly influenced by the local topographic and edaphic conditions but not affected by the diversity of local neighborhood. In contrast, results obtained by using the community-based approach showed that FDQ and CWMs of various leaf traits rather than abiotic environmental factors had significant impact on the community means of growth rates. Tree-tree interactions already occur in early life stages of trees, which were evidenced by the significant effect of competition by local neighborhood. These findings imply that the effects of abiotic environmental factors may be more evident at local scale and biodiversity effects may vary at different spatial scales. The species-specific growth rates were found to be related to specific leaf traits but not to crown traits and were best explained by both types of traits in combination. This finding supports the niche theory and provides the evidence for using functional diversity to examine the BEF relationships. The TLS-retrieved total tree height, stem diameter at 5 cm above ground, and length and height of the longest branch were highly congruent with those obtained from direct measurements. It indicates that TLS is a promising tool for high resolution, non-destructive analyses of tree structures in young tree plantations. Being one of very few studies to incorporate the individual tree scale in examining the biodiversity-productivity relationships within the BEF researches, this thesis stresses the importance of using individual-tree based approach, functional diversity and TLS to find the evidences of explanatory mechanisms of the observed biodiversity and ecosystem functioning (e.g. tree growth rates) relationships. Biodiversity effects may evolve along the successional stages. Therefore, incorporating the interaction between biodiversity and time in analyzing BEF relationship is also encouraged.

Verbräuche von Arzneistoffen, die auf das menschliche Nervensystem wirken (Neurologika), unterliegen aufgrund der auf dem Markt befindlichen Arzneistoffvielfalt einem ständigen Wandel. Zudem waren die Haupteintragspfade für Neurologika in die aquatische Umwelt bisher nicht eindeutig geklärt. Haushalte (diffuser Eintrag) und Einrichtungen des Gesundheitswesens (punktueller Eintrag), wie psychiatrische Fachkliniken oder Pflegeheime, wurden als maßgebliche Eintragspfade diskutiert. Ziel dieser Arbeit war es deshalb, Arzneimittelverbräuche und damit verbundene Arzneistoffemissionen durch Haushalte und Einrichtungen des Gesundheitswesens mit Hilfe einer neu entwickelten Methode abzuschätzen. Bei dieser Methode wurde das jeweilige Ausmaß der Emissionen durch die Kalkulation von Abwasserkonzentrationen und den Vergleich von Verbrauchsmengen an Arzneistoffen bestimmt. Im Ergebnis konnte gezeigt werden, dass sich Arzneimittelverbrauchsmuster in psychiatrischen Fachkliniken und Pflegeheimen von denen in allgemeinen Krankenhäusern und Haushalten unterscheiden. Außerdem konnte mit dieser Methode deren jeweiliger Beitrag am gesamten Arzneistoffeintrag in das kommunale Abwasser eingeschätzt und in hohen Mengen in das Abwasser eingetragene Arzneistoffe identifiziert werden. Durch Haushalte wurde das hinsichtlich des Umweltverbleibs und -verhaltens wenig untersuchte Antiepileptikum Gabapentin in hohen Mengen in das Abwasser eingetragen. Die Bedeutung von Einrichtungen des Gesundheitswesens am Arzneimitteleintrag in das kommunale Abwasser konnte für alle untersuchten Einrichtungstypen im Vergleich zu Haushalten als gering eingestuft werden. Bestimmte einrichtungstypische Arzneistoffe, insbesondere Neurologika, können bei regionaler Betrachtung jedoch eine größere Rolle spielen. Insbesondere Quetiapin wurde in psychiatrischen Fachkliniken und Pflegeheimen als Substanz mit hohen Verbrauchsmengen und hohem Emissionspotential identifiziert. Ausgehend von diesen Erkenntnissen wurden Gabapentin und Quetiapin tiefergehend hinsichtlich ihres Verbleibs und ihres Verhaltens in der aquatischen Umwelt charakterisiert. Beide Arzneistoffe wurden bei verschiedenen Startkonzentrationen zur Simulation eines technischen Behandlungsverfahrens mit UV-Licht bestrahlt. Im weiteren Verlauf wurden Gabapentin und Quetiapin und die jeweilige Muttersubstanz im Gemisch mit gebildeten Phototransformationsprodukten hinsichtlich biologischer Abbaubarkeit im Closed Bottle Test und im Manometrischen Respirationstest nach OECD-Richtlinien und hinsichtlich toxischer Eigenschaften im Leuchtbakterientest und im Umu-Test beurteilt. Die Strukturaufklärung von Photo- und Biotransformationsprodukten erfolgte mittels hochauflösender Massenspektrometrie. Im Ergebnis konnten weder Gabapentin noch Quetiapin bei hohen Startkonzentrationen durch Photolyse über 128 min mineralisiert oder vollständig eliminiert werden. Identische Phototransformationsprodukte wurden bei unterschiedlichen Startkonzentrationen für die UVBehandlung gebildet. Die Arzneistoffe Gabapentin und Quetiapin waren nach OECD-Richtlinien im Closed Bottle Test nicht leicht biologisch abbaubar. Die photolytischen Gemische von Gabapentin sind nicht besser als Gabapentin selbst abbaubar und die Phototransformationsprodukte wurden im Closed Bottle Test ebenfalls nicht eliminiert. Auch das photolytische Gemisch von Quetiapin im Closed Bottle Test war nicht besser biologisch abbaubar als Quetiapin selbst. Die Phototransformationsprodukte von Quetiapin und Quetiapin selbst unterlagen beim Closed Bottle Test und im Manometrischen Respirationstest verschiedenen biologischen Transformationsprozessen und führten zur Bildung von verschiedenen Biotransformationprodukten. Das in biologischen Abbautests von Quetiapin maßgeblich gebildete Biotransformationprodukt BTP 398 konnte in diversen Flusswasserproben nachgewiesen werden. Dies lässt sich höchstwahrscheinlich damit erklären, dass BTP 398 unter anderem auch beim humanen Metabolismus gebildet wird. Die Langzeit-Leuchthemmung und die Zellvermehrungshemmung im Leuchtbakterientest stiegen im Verlauf der Photolyse von Gabapentin durch Bildung von Phototransformationsprodukten. Dies deutet auf eine erhöhte Toxizität der Phototransformationsprodukte im Vergleich zu Gabapentin hin. Bei Quetiapin war unter Photolyse keine Abnahme der schon vorhandenen Toxizität beim Leuchtbakterientest zu erkennen. Gabapentin, Quetiapin und deren Phototransformationsprodukte wiesen im Umu-Test keine Genotoxizität auf. …

Der hochwassergebundene Sedimenteintrag ist Motor der Bodenbildung in Auen. Der mit dem Sedimenteintrag einhergehende Schadstofftransport in die flussbegleitenden Auen ist Ursache für die Akkumulation von Schadstoffen in den aquatischen und semiterretrischen Systemen. Er wirkt in weiten Teilen der Elbauen nicht nur einschränkend auf die landwirtschaftliche Nutzung des Grünlandes sondern beeinträchtigt daneben auch weitere Schutzgüter, wie z. B. Habitate und Lebensgemeinschaften. Diese Arbeit hatte das Ziel, die Steuergrößen des Sediment- und Schadstoffeintrags anhand von langjährig erhobenen Messdaten zu untersuchen und gleichzeitig die zeitliche und räumliche Verbreitung ausgewählter Schadstoffe als Baustein eines belastungsangepassten Auenmanagements aufzuklären. Dafür wurden eigene Daten über Hochflutsedimente und Böden ebenso ausgewertet wie Daten anderer Autoren. Außerdem lag ein Schwerpunkt der Arbeit in der kombinierten Auswertung von Zeitreihen der Sedimentbelastung von Gewässern und von Auenböden, die eine Grundlage für das Verständnis des elbespezifischen Belastungsmosaiks von Böden mit Schwermetallen und Dioxinen/Furanen darstellt. Zunächst erfolgte eine detaillierte Recherche und Analyse der retentionsfördernden Eigenschaften der Elbauen. Es wurden abschnittsspezifische Flächengrößen, Landnutzungsunterschiede und Flächenbetroffenheiten bei unterschiedlichen Hochwasserzuständen herausgearbeitet. Mit Hilfe der darauf aufbauenden, datenbasierten Analysen über ereignisbezogene Sedimenteinträge in die Elbauen konnten wesentliche Steuergrößen des Sedimenteintrags identifiziert werden. Die Distanz der Standorte zur Elbe ist die wesentliche Kenngröße, sodass die größten Sedimenteinträge in Flussnähe stattfinden. Darüber hinaus ist die Höhe des Sedimenteintrags abflussabhängig. Auf dieser Grundlage wurde ein Ansatz zur Berechnung des großräumigen Sedimenteintrags entwickelt, mit dessen Hilfe die Retentionsfunktion der Auen im Abfluss- und Stofftransportgeschehen der Elbe abgeschätzt werden konnte. Die Sedimentretention der Elbauen hatte im Betrachtungszeitraum zwischen 2003 und 2008 einen Anteil von 7 bis 30 % an den Jahresschwebstofffrachten in Hitzacker. Die Analysen von verschiedenen Zeitreihen der Sediment- und Bodenbelastungen mit Schwermetallen, Arsen sowie Dioxinen/Furanen verdeutlichte, dass die Stoffgruppen ganz unterschiedliche Belastungsentwicklungen durchlaufen haben. Der Schwerpunkt der Dioxinkontamination in Sedimenten und Böden trat in den 1950er bis 1960er Jahren auf, während Metalle im Allgemeinen erst später Belastungsmaxima zeigten. Allerdings konnte mit dem Pb/Zn-Verhältnis ein Metallmuster identifiziert werden, mit dessen Hilfe auch in Oberböden auf der Basis von Metalldaten auf Dioxinbelastungen geschlossen werden konnte. Darüber hinaus wurde unter Kenntnis der spezifischen Belastungshistorien mittels Kategorisierung der Standorteigenschaften Höhenlage, Distanz, Bioturbation und Sedimenteintrag ein Erklärungsschema zur Vorhersage von räumlichen Schadstoffmustern für ausgewählte Metalle und Dioxine/Furane entwickelt. Sowohl die Untersuchungen zum Sedimentationsgeschehen als auch zur Aufklärung des Belastungsmosaiks in den Elbauen ließen Ableitungen von Maßnahmenvorschlägen zur Förderung der Sedimentationsdynamik, des Hochwasserschutzes, zur schadstoffspezifischen Verbesserung der Bodenbelastung als auch zur belastungsangepassten Landnutzung zu.