Excursions from April - November 2025

Silene flos-cuculi (Foto: NobbiP,
CC BY-SA 3.0 )

Dear members, dear guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen!

Climate change is bringing us green winters, something we saw coming but still didn't want to believe. At the same time, it seems to be a very dry spring again, at least the amphibian migration is significantly delayed this year due to a lack of rain. However, as the present program shows, the excursion hikes are not yet subject to a significantly changed phenology. However, it would perhaps be worthwhile for the working groups to devote more attention to phenology as part of their field work and excursions and to document the changes over time and publish a review of the last 10 or 20 years in order to provide concrete evidence of how climate change is also affecting this aspect of nature. The summer half-year in our association has always been dedicated to outdoor experiences. There are excursions as natural history tours through striking parts of the landscape, during which plants and animals encountered by the group are explained and ecological relationships are explained. Today this is called “environmental education”, but it has always been the program and task of the association, even before the term was coined. In addition, the working groups also bring together people who are more intensively involved with an animal or plant group and carry out excursions at their meetings, during which distribution data is collected and documented, new discoveries are made or observations on temporal occurrence are collected. The call for documentation of climate change formulated above applies here. And, as already formulated last year, it is also important to get younger people interested in the working groups and excursions. The exchange of professional experience also has important social components. The Meereskundliche Fachgesellschaft shows that it is also possible to hold interesting lecture events in the summer and, at least in the fall, to hold an international conference in Bremerhaven, as has now become the trademark of the marine scientists in our association. And looking ahead to the winter semester, it looks as though our lecture series will have a marine theme as part of and against the backdrop of the new permanent exhibition “Oceania”. Until then, I wish us all a successful outdoor season, which we should not let spoil us. The world situation is unpleasant, but complaining about it doesn't make it any better. Observing nature together can bring experiences and knowledge that make us optimistic. (translation: with deepL)

Hakon Nettmann (29. March 2025)

State: 29. March 2025

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