Description: From 10 to 14 September 2003, the Ministerial Conference of the World Trade Organization (WTO) negotiated over a further liberalization of world trade. A lot was at stake there for the environment. It is true that in the current round of negotiations the Doha Declaration has agreed certain points relating to the environment. But this should not conceal the fact that the WTO is still a long way from taking due account of ecological aspects in its policies. The present paper begins by analyzing the discussion on environmental issues within the WTO, which for more than ten years has been conducted mainly in its Committee on Trade and Environment. It is shown that many environmental effects of trade liberalization have not been discussed at all, that conflicts of interest among WTO member-states prevent any deep discussion, and that an ecological reform of the WTO has up to now stood no chance. This analysis then forms the background for a twofold strategy. First, arguments are presented as to why the WTO, given its environmental policy deficits, should afford sufficient scope to institutions actively concerned with environmental policy. The conflictual relationship between Multilateral Environmental Agreements and the WTO is examined at this point. A distinction is drawn between minor and potentially critical conflicts, and it is shown how a limitation of the competence of the WTO's Dispute Settlement Body, together with cooperative political-legal processes to resolve conflicts between affected institutions, might offer a solution and lead to greater institutional equity in the global political arena. Second, the paper discusses how ecological aspects might be integrated step by step into the WTO. After a detailed examination of the potential and limits of instruments like impact assessments, it makes a number of recommendations for their further development. Finally, it considers how impact assessments might be integrated into the WTO's institutional structures, so that ecological aspects can be systematically input into policy-making processes and better public participation in WTO policy be ensured. In this connection, the paper discusses both the integration of impact assessments into the WTO's Trade Policy Review Mechanism and the creation of a new Strategic Impact Assessment Body within the WTO.

Description: Transnational corporations' (TNCs) economic operations cover numerous countries and can be diverted between several continents. These units have reached a level of significance, having not only economic, but also social and environmental implications. This justifies that they shall be treated separately as a social phenomenon, when considering strategies for the development towards sustainability. This paper presents the concept of Responsible Corporate Governance (RCG), as a strategy to "govern" TNCs. RCG is suggested as a stakeholder based policy instrument, which aims at allocating responsibilities to societal actors aiming at corporate accountability. RCG recognises that the process of societal change is strongly based on what can be called as bottom up-processes. Learning processes take place through the interaction of the different societal members, which eventually leads to macro changes. Therefore, governing TNCs towards sustainability improvements is considered to be a collective process including all stakeholders. Firstly, the paper places the concept of RCG in the ongoing debate of political modernization based on the fact that society develops overtime and the political system must correspondingly modernize. In this context, political overload developed as a consequence of increased resource interdependencies is explained and as a resolution, network approach is discussed. Secondly, demands on the orientation of the TNCs in terms of accountability and innovative action are brought forward. Here, the paper also lists down corporate elements (stakeholder empowered corporate governance, management and performance evaluation systems, transparency enhancement and accountability verification), which need to be in place to attain an accountable orientation in the society. Following, using an analytical framework, the orientation and capabilities of each societal actor (environmental non-governmental organisations, financial institutions, intergovernmental organisations) to affect improvements in the corporate responsibility elements are investigated and recommendations for their effective orientation are listed.

Description: The main aims of this work are to determine the reproductive patterns of benthic invertebrates in the Kara Sea and to analyse possible adaptations of reproduction strategies to polar conditions. The Kara Sea is a shallow shelf sea located in the Russian Arctic. Hydrography and ecosystems are strongly affected by the immense freshwater input of the two adjacent rivers Ob and Yenisei. Their outflows create a pronounced bilayered pelagic habitat with a confined pycnocline.During the investigation period 44 larval and 54 juvenile species were identified in plankton net and multicorer samples. For 23 of the larval species adults were present in benthos samples. For the remaining 21, adults were reported from the adjacent Barents and Petchora Sea, indicating a strong larval input from the neighbouring seas. Most larvae were found in all water levels, although highest abundances were present in the upper low salinity layer, revealing a high acclimatisation potential of most larvae to low salinities. The pycnocline seemed to act as a physical barrier for most larvae. Meroplankton densities of individual species were generally less than 1 ind. m-3, but brittle star larvae reached densities of 200 ind. m-3. The importance of retention in the study area varied strongly between species.Most benthic species show an Arctic zoogeographic distribution, but considerable numbers of boreal species were also found. The river run-off may not only foster the survival of euryhaline species but through its thermal input may also create favourable conditions for boreal species. Most invertebrate species seem to reproduce directly (without pelagic larvae), which can be explained partly by the high share of peracarid crustaceans. Contrary to other taxa, which display a huge spectrum of reproduction modes within species and geographic regions, peracarids show a direct reproduction trait all over the world. Their elimination from the dataset reveals a larger share of indirect reproducing species. It is assumed that due to the Kara Seas high environmental variability unfavourable conditions for benthic species often occur. Species with pelagic larvae or highly mobile peracarid crustaceans may have an advantage in reoccupying devastated habitats.The numerous larval types found indicate that planktonic development is important in the Kara Sea ecosystem.

Description: The use of assimilation tools for satellite validation requires true estimates of the accuracy of the reference data. Since its inception, the Network for Detection of Stratospheric Change (NDSC) has provided systematic lidar measurements of ozone and temperature at several places around the world that are well adapted for satellite validations. Regular exercises have been organised to ensure the data quality at each individual site. These exercises can be separated into three categories: large scale intercomparisons using multiple instruments, including a mobile lidar; using satellite observations as a geographic transfer standards to compare measurements at different sites; and comparative investigations of the analysis software. NDSC is a research network, so each system has its own history, design, and analysis, and has participated differently in validation campaigns. There are still some technological differences that may explain different accuracies. However, the comparison campaigns performed over the last decade have always proved to be very helpful in improving the measurements. To date, more efforts have been devoted to characterising ozone measurements than to temperature observations. The synthesis of the published works shows that the network can potentially be considered as homogeneous within +/-2% between 20-35 km for ozone and +/-1 K between 35-60 km for temperature. Outside this altitude range, larger biases are reported and more efforts are required. In the lower stratosphere, Raman channels seem to improve comparisons but such capabilities were not systematically compared. At the top of the profiles, more investigations on analysis methodologies are still probably needed. SAGE II and GOMOS appear to be excellent tools for future ozone lidar validations but need to be better coordinated and take more advantage of assimilation tools. Also, temperature validations face major difficulties caused by atmospheric tides and therefore require intercomparisons with the mobile systems, at all sites.

Description: This article proposes a policy framework for analysing corporate governance toward sustainable development. The aim is to set up a framework for analysing market evolution toward sustainability. In the first section, the paper briefly refers to recent theories about both market and government failures that express scepticism about the way that framework conditions for market actors are set. For this reason, multi-layered governance structures seem advantageous if new solutions are to be developed in policy areas concerned with long-term change and stepwise internalisation of externalities. The paper introduces the principle of regulated self-regulation. With regard to corporate actors| interests, it presents recent insights from theories about the knowledge-based firm, where the creation of new knowledge is based on the absorption of societal views. The result is greater scope for the endogenous internalisation of externalities, which leads to a variety of new and different corporate strategies. Because governance has to set incentives for quite a diverse set of actors in their daily operations, the paper finally discusses innovation-inducing regulation. In both areas, regulated self-regulation and innovation-inducing regulation, corporate and political governance co-evolve. The paper concludes that these co-evolutionary mechanisms may assume some of the stabilising and orientating functions previously exercised by framing activities of the state. In such a view, the government's main function is to facilitate learning processes, thus departing from the state's function as known from welfare economics.

Description: This thesis provides a comprehensive assessment of the response and vertical distribution of major components of the pelagic ecosystem and highlights the species interactions shaping this open ocean environment and its associated biogeochemical cycles.During the iron fertilization experiment (EisenEx), carried out in the Polar Frontal Zone of the Southern Ocean in austral spring (November), the composition, succession and temporal development of the nano-, microprotozooplankton (protozoa between 2 and 20 µm and 20 and 200 µm respectively), mesozooplankton (protozoa 〉 200 µm) and small metazooplankton (copepod nauplii, copepodites and adults of small species) assemblage was successfully followed for three weeks and compared with non-fertilized, surrounding water. The grazing impact of microprotozooplankton on the natural phytoplankton assemblage was also studied under controlled conditions using the dark incubation method. These experimental results combined with data on microphyto- and microprotozooplankton composition and temporal development were used to estimate microprotozoan grazing impact on primary producers, in particular the diatoms, during the fertilization experiment. The temporal development of particles produced by proto and small metazooplankton (empty diatom frustules, fecal pellets, skeletons and empty loricae) and their contribution to carbon and silica vertical fluxes during EisenEx were also investigated.Key words: Polar Frontal Zone; EisenEx; protozooplankton; small metazooplankton; iron fertilization; temporal development; vertical fluxes; grazing impact; copepod nauplii; small copepods, microphytoplanktonDistinct differences in microprotozoan assemblage inside and outside in relation with the phytoplankton bloom development were not observed. The microprotozooplankton population was dominated by dinoflagellates followed by ciliates. Dinoflagellates showed a ~ three-fold increase in abundance and biomass in the first 10 d of the experiment inside the patch, but decreased thereafter to about two-fold higher values compared to pre-fertilization values. The decline after day 10 indicates increasing grazing pressure by copepods. Dinoflagellate population was dominated by small sized (20-40 µm) athecate dinoflagellates which comprised up to 58 % of population stocks suggesting that also food limitation could be a further explanation for the strong decrease since the phytoplankton bloom was dominated by long chain-forming diatoms in the second half of the experiment which are not available for these dinoflagellates as food source. Ciliate abundances increased only slightly due to heavy grazing pressure by copepods, but biomass doubled with the majority of the increase caused by a three-fold increase in aloricate choreotrichs.Grazing impact by microprotozoa estimated for EisenEx showed that microprotozoa consume only a rather small fraction of primary production, including the diatoms (6 to 18 % of primary production grazed d-1, corresponding to 3 to 9 % of diatom daily carbon stock). Grazing rate on other phytoplankton (without diatoms) was relatively higher accounting for 9 to 28 % of other phytoplankton carbon stock d-1. Thus, microprotozooplankton grazing strongly affected nanoplankton populations, but was low on the diatom assemblage.Tintinnids, thecate dinoflagellates, foraminifera, radiolarian and acantharia comprised the bulk of larger (〉 50 µm) protozoan assemblage. Inside the patch, acantharian numbers increased three-fold, but only negligibly in surrounding waters. This is of major interest, since acantharia are suggested to be responsible for the formation of barite found in sediments and which is possibly a paleoindicator of high productivity regimes. Foraminiferans also increased significantly in abundance, however the marked increase of juvenile individuals after a full moon event suggests a lunar periodicity in the reproduction cycle of some foraminiferan species rather than a reproductive response to enhanced food availability. Larger thecate dinoflagellates almost doubled in numbers and biomass, but also showed an increase outside the patch. In contrast, adult radiolaria showed no clear trend during the experiment, but juveniles increasing three-fold indicating elevated reproduction. Tintinnids decreased two-fold, whereas their carbon stocks remained more or less constant caused by a change in the relative importance of species. Empty tintinnid loricae, however, increased by a factor of two indicating that grazing pressure on this group intensified during EisenEx. In mixed layer (0 to 80 m depth), overall vertical distribution followed mainly vertical distribution of potential prey particles. The stocks of larger protozoa in the surface layers was negligible when compared to the rest of the protozoa and zooplankton. Below 80 m, biomass was dominated by foraminifera indicating important influence on biological processes occurring below the mixed layer during EisenEx.Within the small metazoans, copepod nauplii numbers stayed more or less constant, whereas biomass doubled indicating individual growth during EisenEx. Numbers of small sized copepodites and adults of cyclopoids (predominantly Oithona similis) and small calanoid copepods (predominantly Ctenocalanus citer) increased ~ three-fold suggesting either a enhanced recruitment from naupliar and copepodite stages, respectively, and/or an accumulation of numbers due to migration of individuals from below the mixed layer into the upper water column caused by a diet shift.Particles produced by proto- and metazooplankton during this study showed an increase in the course of the experiment and were correlated to the vertical distribution of their producers. Protozoan fecal pellets were significantly correlated to athecate dinoflagellates indicating that they were mainly responsible for fecal pellet production. The dominance of olive green ellipsoidal to spherical pellets discriminated during EisenEx suggest that particularly larger protozoan were also actively involved in either re-ingestion and repackaging of larger metazoan pellets. Copepods were the main source of large recognisable metazoan fecal pellets as indicated by the dominance of compact cylindrical pellets characteristic for copepod feces. Both protozoan, metazoan fecal pellets, empty diatom frustules and empty tintinnid loricae showed very high abundances as compared to radiolarian skeletons. Comparison with metazoan fecal pellet abundance indicate that contribution of protozoan fecal pellets and empty diatom frustules to total vertical fluxes could be significant, despite low sinking rates.

Description: During the iron fertilization experiment EisenEx conducted in the Antarctic Polar Frontal Zone the response of the plankton community to iron addition was studied in detail. Within the diatom assemblage four major response types could be distinguished inside the fertilized patch. Fast growing and weakly silicified diatoms like Pseudo-nitzschia lineola and Chaetoceros curvisetus exhibited exponential growth rates throughout the experiment. The heavily silicified species Fragilariopsis kerguelensis and Thalassionema nitzschioides showed an initial phase with negligible growth during the first week followed by a linear increase in abundance thereafter. Two large solitary and weakly silicified diatoms, Haslea sp. and Corethron pennatum, exhibited a linear growth with no initial lag phase. The small diatom species Nitzschia sp. and Cylindrotheca closterium were characterised by an initial linear increase and a decline during the second half of the experiment. The response of major components of the non-diatom phytoplankton assemblage, including Phaeocystis antarctica, phototrophic dinoflagellates, coccolithophores and Dictyocha speculum, to iron addition accounted for only a minor iron-induced biomass increase. In addition to life diatom cells intact empty and broken diatom frustules were also accounted for in this study as indicators of diatom mortality. The increase of both broken and intact empty frustules inside the patch indicates an increased grazing pressure by proto- and metazoen grazers. The vertical distribution of non-motile particles and planktonic organisms comprises another important aspect of this study. Whereas motile planktonic organisms are able to regulate their position in the water column by active swimming non-motile particles will eventually sink out of the surface layer. Various processes affect the composition and magnitude of non-motile particles of biological origin of which grazing seemed to have played the major role during this study.