Students investigate
Nature under the microscope
Researchers on the alpine pasture: the biologists' lecture hall was moved to the Lungau Rieding Valley for three days. This is how threatened flora and fauna are in the alpine world: monitoring project launched.
Eagles. Ptarmigans. Newts. Frogs. Adders. The biodiversity monitoring in the Lungau Rieding Valley is (still) impressive. "It's great to experience plants, animals and geology outdoors here," says student Christiane Dum. And Verena Hochreiter adds: "We have identified a lot of species."
A kind of field station has been set up on the Seppalm. A research project is also part of the excursion. What looks like a white tent is a Malaise trap that attracts flying insects: "They fall into a container of alcohol here. Around 80 percent are small flies," explains Andreas Tribsch, a biologist specializing in biodiversity in the Alps.
Research goal: recognizing the decline in species early on
While his colleague Mathias Hopfinger walks across the alpine meadows with a casher and captures more insects. Conventional methods are now to be further refined in order to detect species extinction early enough. DNA samples from washed plants or from the soil are very promising.
Are the alarm bells already ringing? "Yes, unfortunately. Species decline is also happening in protected areas," says Professor Tribsch. Austria is no longer an island of the blessed. North of the Alps, 50 percent of species are endangered. In the mountains, the level of threat is decreasing slightly.
The monitoring project GeMonA+ (Genetic Monitoring Austria) is financed by the Biodiversity Fund of the Ministry of the Environment. Several Austrian universities are involved.
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