The challenge. Forests are play key roles in global carbon and water cycling, hotspots of biodiversity, and deliver crucial ecosystem services for local people and the global community. Despite their important role, they are under great threat by climate change.
D(r)ying forests. The summer drought of 2018 alone resulted in 100 million m3 of dead trees in Europe, equivalent to a loss of approximately 3.5 billion euros wood. However, there remains a lack of crucial insights into mitigation options through management.
Project aim. We aim to quantify the potential of density management under hot and dry conditions. In our assessment we consider both trees and soils from the following perspectives:
- Forest productivity
- Forest resilience
- Forest carbon storage
- Biodiversity (future)
Hypothesis. Forest density reductions are increasingly more reported to benefit trees under dry and hot conditions. At moderate density reductions, that is ~20-40%, water competition is reduced, and microclimatic benefits provided by the canopy are retained. At lighter reduction levels, competition is not reduced enough, whereas at heavier reduction levels, the microclimatic benefits that were previously provided by the canopy, vanish. Under normal (i.e., non-dry) conditions, the optimum is light-driven rather than water-driven and will be at heavier reductions.
Measurements.
- Leaf nutrients
- Soil nutrients
- Mycorrhizal communities
- Point-dendrometers
- Soil water potentials and temperatures
- Air temperature and humidity
- Solar irradiation
- UAV Thermal imagery
- Terrestrial LiDar scans
- Satellite data
Implementation. We use these data to calibrate and validate a forest growth model with which we test the effects of density management at larger spatial and temporal scales. This model is pivotal to develop a Climate-smart forestry App and decision support tool, which is used in the field.
Climate Smart Forestry 