Future potential of Douglas fir and silver fir admixtures
Due to rapid anthropogenic climate change, the probability of exceptional drought events is expected to increase further by 2100. The Germany-wide drought in 2018 led to unprecedented levels of tree mortality. Now, the forestry industry is under pressure and must develop new sustainable concepts to preserve forest stands for the future. The aim of this project is to support this process to increase the resistance and resilience of managed forests in the future. Beech/ Douglas fir and beech/silver fir mixtures seem to be regionally suitable as an alternative to spruce monocultures and spruce/beech mixtures. Spruce trees have a poor future prognosis due to their high susceptibility to droughts, bark beetles and windthrow, yet as a coniferous species its wood is still essential for the timber industry. Douglas fir and silver fir have a higher drought resistance than spruce, a deeper root system and a comparable wood quality to spruce. Moreover, they can be mixed well with beech, as they are said to be complementary to it in many respects. Although numerous studies show positive relationships between tree species diversity and productivity, it has not yet been conclusively clarified whether mixed forests are better adapted to more frequent and more intense droughts. Therefore, this project investigates the effect of admixtures of silver fir and Douglas fir in beech dominated commercial forests on forest structure, growth, and drought stress of the three tree species over the last two decades. This will be achieved through a combination of terrestrial laser scans, cores, structural and increment analyses, and isotope analyses. Insights into the experienced drought stress and the growth of individual trees in relation to their environment are very useful for adaptive forest management. The results aim to help in developing strategies for ensuring the sustainability of the economic sector, which should also increase the stability of the forests in the long term.
This project is a joint project of the Chair of Forest and Agroforestry Systems and the Chair of Terrestrial Ecology at the Technical University of Munich, and the Institute of Animal Ecology at the Georg-August University of Göttingen. The PhD students from the Chair of Terrestrial Ecology and the Institute of Animal Ecology will investigate the floristic and faunistic diversity of commercial forests. The three sub-projects of the institutions will each have the same study sites to allow for syntheses beyond the three sub-projects.
Contact:
Duration:
2022 - 2024
Funding:
Bayerisches Staatsministerium für Ernährung, Landwirtschaft und Forsten (StMELF)
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