Campo Cerrado — forest or savanna?
Today it is undisputed that living systems contain information for the interpretation of the developmental history or the recent growth potential of an area. The decoding of this information, important for the research on landscapes, can only be managed by consequent clarification of the chorological, population-genetic and autecological particularities of the organisms in the landscapes (MÜLLER 1976, 1977). The importance of this biogeographical concept for the evaluation of our landscapes can be shown using the example of the Campos Cerrados, which are increasingly being considered for exploitation and which were defined either as “forest formations” or “savanna types” from the turn of the century until recent days.
The role of gallery forests in the zoogeography of the cerrado's non-volant mammalian fauna
The cerrado, one of the largest vegetation formations in Brazil, has been poorly studied. We present the first comprehensive list of the non-volant mammalian fauna and analyze its zoogeographic affinities. There are 11 endemic non-volant mammal species out of a total of 100 species. The cerrado flora is rich in endemics and shows pronounced adaptations to a xeric environment in contrast to the cerrado mammalian fauna. This is probably due to the fact that gallery forests have been present in the cerrado for a long time and have served as mesic enclaves, making xeric adaptations on the part of the mammalian species unnecessary. This contrast between cerrado flora and fauna is similar to the situation in the caatinga, although seemingly for different reasons.
Frequency distributions of the mixing height over an urban area from SODAR data
The height of the mixing-layer (MLH) is an important parameter in the assessment of the dilution of primarily emitted or secondarily formed air pollutants in the atmospheric boundary-layer. A continuous measurement of MLH is possible only by remote sensing. Here, 17 months of SODAR data have been analysed automatically to derive the MLH over the city of Hannover in Northern Germany. In contrast to earlier studies the MLH has been determined from vertical profiles of the acoustic backscatter intensity and from the variance of the vertical velocity component. The results are presented in form of monthly frequency distributions and mean daily courses of MLH. These statistical evaluations of MLH show a clear annual course and interannual variability. The study shows the possibility to derive meaningful climatological information from long-term SODAR measurements for air quality issues.