The effects o f a 3-h temperature elevation o f 7°C were studied for 29 days on the brown trout (Salmo trutta) smolt in tap water and in water from the lower Rhine. The effects in the skin were apparent at 3 h and included deple­ tion o f electron-dense vesicles and increased numbers o f heavily stained desmosomes in the filament cells o f the upper epidermis. Increased levels of apoptosis and ...

The increasing fragmentation of forest habitats and the omnipresence of cultivars potentially threaten the genetic integrity of the European wild apple (Malus sylvestris (L.) Mill). However, the conservation status of this species remains unclear in Europe, other than in Belgium and the Czech Republic, where it has been declared an endangered species. The population density of M. sylvestris is ...

Decisions about flood risk management are usually based on the reduction in flood risk compared to the implementation costs of the strategy. It is common practice to express flood risk (the combination of flood probabilities and potential flood damages) into a single number. The downside of this approach is that explicit information about how the system responds to the whole range of possible d...

While most of the world's large rivers are heavily engineered, channel response to engineering measures on decadal century and several 100 km scales is scarcely documented. We investigate Lower Rhine River (Germany-Netherlands) measures, in terms slope bed surface grain size. Field data show domain-wide incision, primarily associated with extensive narrowing. Remarkably, has increased upstream ...

Objectives To determine the relationship between exposure to hard-metal dusts and lung cancer mortality. This international cohort study is coordinated by the Universityof Pittsburghand funded by the International Tungsten Industry Association (Marsh et al 2013, EPICOH abstract). The German component comprises three Kennametal manufacturing sites in North RhineWestphalia and Bavaria. Methods We...

In contrast to the basic assumption of a homogeneous population underlying common approaches flood frequency analysis, events often arise from different runoff-generating processes. many large river basins, diversity these processes within tributary basins and superposition their waves increase complexity statistical modeling. Under circumstances, allocation most effective protection measures r...

Flood disaster mitigation strategies should be based on a comprehensive assessment of the flood risk combined with a thorough investigation of the uncertainties associated with the risk assessment procedure. Within the “German Research Network of Natural Disasters” (DFNK) the working group “Flood Risk Analysis” investigated the flood process chain from precipitation, runoff generation and conce...

Deltas are discrete shoreline protuberances formed where rivers enter oceans, semi-enclosed seas, lakes or lagoons and supply sediment more rapidly than it can be redistributed by basinal processes. Generally, deltas are served by well-defined drainage systems which culminate in a trunk stream and supply sediment to a restricted area of the shoreline, thus resulting in the formation of a depoce...