General Concept of the Research Pogramme and Methodology of Investigations

The integrative biological and geoscientific examination of both the nature of physical and biotic environments which make up ecosystems, and the interactions between these sub-systems, has substantiated the conception that a thorough knowledge of the ecosystem and its unifying position between ecology and environmental science is essential for a coherent understanding of environmental issues and large-scale problems in the biosphere. Recent developments in ecosystem theory have created a challenge to the development of recipes for a sustainable management of ecosystems and regions. It is increasingly considered in the disciplines of conservation biology, in the assessment of ecosystem health, integrity and sustainability, in ecological engineering, and in ecological economics in order to solve practical environmental management problems.

In all of these fields modelling plays an essential role, since models provide for opportunities to develop strong transdisciplinary ties between the ecological community and the agency management personnel. A wide variety of illustrative examples of such approaches is provided by the International Biological Programme (IBP) and, in particular, by UNESCO’s Man and the Biosphere Programme (MAB) which, together with the German concept of a comprehensive ecological surveillance system (Ellenberg et al. 1978), contributed to define the concept and structure of the Bornhöved Project. They are summarized in the first part of the present Chapter while, in a concise form, the second part provides information about the practices, procedures and instrumentation used when implementing the ecosystem research scheme in the Bornhöved Lake District.