SASCHA at the LAMA status conference 2013

Members of several SASCHA subprojects joined the Status Conference 2013 of the BMBF-Research Programme “Sustainable Land Management“ in Berlin from 17th to 19th of April 2013. The event provided an excellent opportunity for scientific exchange with members of other collaborative projects.
The SASCHA-"market stand" was visited not only by many colleages from other projects within the programme but also by Prof. Dr. Klaus Töpfer, Executive Director of the Institute for Advanced Sustainability Studies (IASS) in Potsdam and former german federal minister, who just returned from a journey to Siberia. He was very interested in the scientific work of SASCHA and emphasised the high relevance of the project for the bilateral relations.

photos of the LAMA Status Conference 2013

Annual SASCHA meeting 2012

On 13th and 14th December 2012, all German SASCHA participants and many Russian project partners gathered at the annual SASCHA meeting in Osnabrück, Germany. Participants of the agricultural subprojects were particularly impressed by a pre-conference visit to AMAZONE in Osnabrück-Gaste, an established producer of agricultural machinery.
The main idea of the workshop was to present and discuss preliminary results and combine the outcome of the different subprojects to a greater picture. Of particular interest was a discussion about future strategies in dealing with the Tyumen parliament and other policy stakeholders. Talks of the Russian partners about precision farming, adaptation of plant varieties to a changing climate, landscape planning and the legal basics of climate change from a Western Siberian perspective were received with great interest.
Finally, technical topics like project management, cooperation issues and the organisation of the fieldwork was evaluated and discussed. This was also of interest for two visitors from project KULUNDA, which is also based in Western Siberia.

Documentation at SASCHA blog [en] / [de]
Group photo in higher resolution
press release of the University of Tyumen [ru]

First SASCHA results presented on conference in Siberia

A recent conference, ‘The environment and natural resource management’, organised at Tyumen State University from 6th to 8th November 2012 provided an important forum to present results from the first year of SASCHA fieldwork. Two talks about changing land use in Southern Siberia and Kazakhstan and its impact on agriculture and biodiversity were given by SASCHA members and attracted great media interest, when an interview with Prof. Norbert Hölzel (head of project ) was broadcasted on national TV. During the conference vivid exchange with Russian researchers revealed many close links to other research projects in the region. Excellent presentations on topics such as the massive impact of oil drilling and gas exploitation in the region, changes in permafrost patterns triggered by climate change and the hydrological regime of Western Siberia’s largest river, the Ob, provided welcome opportunities to think outside the box.

Report Tyumen State University [ru]
Conference programme [ru]
National TV programme [ru]
Tyumen State University newsletter[ru]

TSU Delegation in Germany

A delegation of Tyumen State University (TSU), one of the main Russian SASCHA consortium partners, visited Germany from 12 to 19th October 2012. Led by the Vice-rector for research, Prof. Gulnara Romashkina, the group met representatives and researchers of the universities of Münster, Osnabrück and Kiel. Meetings and lab visits focused on knowledge transfer, research administration and new research technologies. First results of project SASCHA were presented by various subprojects, and new remote sensing applications introduced to the group by Münster-based company EFTAS, which is also a SASCHA consortium partner. Despite a rather dense schedule, enough time was left for personal exchange, guided tours in Münster’s and Osnabrück’s historic city centers and a visit to an open-air museum near Kiel.

Münster University press release[de]
Documentation at SASCHA blog [en] / [de]
Tyumen State University press release [ru]

Meeting KULUNDA

SASCHA at the sustainability week in Osnabrück

From 02.-04.06. 2012 the SASCHA project was present at the sustainability week in Osnabrück. German

Press release [de]

Kick-Off-Meeting in Tyumen

Between 23th to 28th April 2012, all people involved in the project SASCHA met in Tyumen to plan the forthcoming field campaign and coordinate it with the Russian colleagues. Representatives of the regional Government of the Oblast, including the Vice-Governor for agriculture and innovation and the director of the German Consulate General in Yekaterinburg Dr. Schimkoreit also attended the meeting for the official project start. After the official opening the team split up into groups to work on key issues of the project, such as "Biodiversity, soil, water and climate", "Landscape planning and governance structures" and "Agriculture". The groups talked about concepts and work processes and discussed the cooperation within the subprojects and with the Russian partners.
During a visit to the laboratories and test areas of the State Agricultural Academy and State University of Tyumen the participants could get an idea of operational activities, scientific research and technical facilities on site and could select suitable sites for their own investigations. Subsequently the group visited the test areas in Tyumen, Ishim and Omutinsk, where the ecological conditions of the region along a gradient from north to south and the resulting problems of land use have been discussed extensively. As part of the field trips further contacts to local stakeholders were established.

Report on Eurasion-TV [ru]
Press release Tyumen State University [ru]
Newsletter TSU (PDF) [ru]
Press release Tyumen State Agricultural Academyru] slideshow

Workshop for PhD students

Between 23th and 25th March all PhD students of the SASCHA-Project met at the lake Dümmer for a methods- and teambuilding-workshop. After a presentation of the current state of work, the team foccussed on planing the forthcoming field campaign. Furthermore, it was decided to shoot project-shortfilms in cooperation with Russian students and locals, as well as to compile a blog in which all PhD students can comment on their work on side. To gain an insight into the study region in Russia some team members reported on their last journey and showed photos.

Siberian winter

Between 12th and 18th March, a delegation of the University of Muenster visited the Tyumen area. Main aims of the visit were the preparation of logistics for the field campaign in summer 2012, and further agreements on mutually beneficial cooperation with the Russian project partners. Despite winterly conditions, study sites for greenhouse gas flux measurements could be successfully selected, and import and customs of measurement equipment negotiated. Also, workshops to be held in Russia were planned and academic exchange between the project partners concretised.

Press release Tyumen State University [ru]

Kick-Off Meeting in Münster

On December 9th and 10th 2011 all German project partners met for the first joint meeting in Münster. The Russian part was represented by Prof. Andrej Tolstikow and Prof. Andrej Soromotin. At the project meeting new staff was introduced into the overall goals of SASCHA and all subprojects presented the current state of work and future plans. A primary focus was set on internal communication structures or the preparation of the first field campaign. End of April a big kick-off meeting will take place including all Russian partners in Tyumen.

Visit in Tyumen

In August 2011 members of all SASCHA subprojects visited the project area in the Tyumen region, western Siberia. Beside excursions to the three test areas, where most of the field work and basic research will be carried out, the travel was used for meetings with our Russian partners from the Tyumen State University (TSU) and the Tyumen State Agricultural Academy (TSAA).

Press release Tyumen State University [ru]