ITCER EN Wikipedia Sandbox
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https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Beck_(Botaniker)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_Kenya
content: ITCER
exact: 0.03282071° N, 34.36266809° E
Page title: International Training Centre for Environmental Research
Environmental science is about researching ecological processes on a larger temporal and spatial scale. The International Training Center for Environmental Research (ITCER) with its staff in Western Kenya provides a local logistical infrastructure for regional, national and international professionals and projects in academia and the surrounding area working in this field. The facility supports training events, has rooms for seminars, a biological laboratory and an area of 1 ha for sustainable long-term field experiments. Informatics expertise, data infrastructure https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_infrastructure and software services are available.
Geography, climate and environment
The ITCER facility is located in the Uradi village, Ng’iya, Siaya County https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siaya_County, 60 km from Kisumu at Lake Victoria https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lake_Victoria. The area is part of western Kenya western Kenya https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nyanza_Province (East Africa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/East_Africa) and categorised as belonging to Sub-Saharan Africa https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sub-Saharan_Africa. The equatorial region has a typical tropical climate https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tropical_climate and vegetation. Kenya is a mega biodiverse country with over 35,000 species of flora and fauna. *** https://ke.chm-cbd.net/biodiversity**, but faces a lot of environmental issues https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_issues.
The infrastructure of the facility is established as an answer to the sozio-economical needs of the region for sustainable environmental projects. Subjects are biodiversity and ecosystem monitoring, soil and water conservation, plant pathology, IT developments and data management in relation to the requirements of the local human population. Long-term monitoring initiatives and projects related to biodiversity, nature conservation and citizen science will be encouraged and supported by ITCER expertise. ITCER supported studies are carried out in collaboration with universities inside and outside of Kenya as well as directly with research and nature conservation institutions Ref *** website ***. Ongoing projects deal with topics such as microplastic in western Kenya, grasslands ecology and restoration, fungal pathogens in terrestrial ecosystems and ethnobiology in Africa. *** Ref 1-3. A collaboration with the international network "Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF, https://www.gbif.org/)" for free and open access of data and with the "German National Infrastructure for Research Data" (NFDI4Biodiversity, https://www.nfdi4biodiversity.org/en)" for concepts on data management is on the way. Ref. ***Weibulat & Triebel***, ***Kinge et al.***. ITCER works as an training and education unit with invited experts and stakeholders. Between 2022 and 2024 more than 20 events (mainly seminars, workshops, and field trips) were organised. https://itcer.org/events/list#. A number of software for education purposes was realised.
History and outcome
ITCER was established in 2016 as a result of the activities of some academic members of the University of Bayreuth https://www.uni-bayreuth.de/en, including botanist Erwin Beck https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erwin_Beck_(Botaniker) and mycologist Gerhard Rambold https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Rambold together with local stakeholders in Siaya and members of Maseno University https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maseno_University and JOOUST University Bondo https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jaramogi_Oginga_Odinga_University_of_Science_and_Technology. Two NGOs were founded in 2016 and 2017 one in Germany and one under Kenyan law. Both are non-profit organisations in the tertiary education sector and have their own constitution and board of directors.***website ***https://itcer.org/ . In the meanwhile there are more than 30 academic and non-academic members who support the goals of the NGO by personal and financial commitment. The ITCER facility is managed in cooperation with and accepted by the local communities and interest groups in Siaya County and surrounding areas.
References
Gkoutselis, G., Rohrbach, S., Harjes, J. et al. Plastiphily is linked to generic virulence traits of important human pathogenic fungi. Commun Earth Environ 5, 51 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43247-023-01127-3
Gkoutselis G, Rohrbach S, Harjes J, Obst M, Brachmann A, Horn MA, Rambold G. Microplastics accumulate fungal pathogens in terrestrial ecosystems. Sci Rep. 2021 Jul 15;11(1):13214. doi: 10.1038/s41598-021-92405-7. PMID: 34267241; PMCID: PMC8282651.
Kinge, T., Jefwa, J., Houdanon, R., Kamalebo, H., Abdel-Azeem, A., Gryzenhout, M., Triebel, D., Weibulat, T., Rambold, G. 2023. Management and publication of scientific data on traditional mycological and lichenological knowledge in Africa. – The Lichenologist, 55(5): 169–179. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0024282923000294
Weibulat, T. M., & Triebel, D. 2024. Continuation of partnership Germany-Kenya with two workshops in 2023. GBIF Europe and Central Asia Nodes meeting 2024 (GBIF ECA 2024), Zagreb, Croatia. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.12082639
Template:Environmental science
Stoffsammlung
Dippold Research TERRA Pre-Study: https://uni-tuebingen.de/fakultaeten/mathematisch-naturwissenschaftliche-fakultaet/fachbereiche/geowissenschaften/arbeitsgruppen/geo-und-umweltnaturwissenschaften/geo-und-umweltnaturwissenschaften/geosphaeren-biosphaeren-wechselwirkungen/arbeitsgruppe/research/
Locality: Uradi Village, Mur Ng’iya, East Alego, Siaya County, Kenya (0.03282071° N, 34.36266809° E)