C-turn: Carbon in the forest ecosystem - turnover rates, storage and silvicultural strategies for adapting to climate change

PI: Thorsten Grams, Anja Rammig und Thomas Knoke
PostDoc: Dr. Benjamin Hesse, Dr. Jorge Cueva Ortiz
PhD Students: Gu Qiaolin

Climate change and in particular the increased occurrence of extreme events pose great challenges for the future management of forests in Germany. Germany’s forests are currently acting as a strong carbon sink. Future forecasts are heavily dependent on climate developments and management strategies. 

The project aims to improve the forecasting accuracy of carbon residence time and storage in mixed and deciduous forest ecosystems throughout Germany. For this purpose, critical key parameters such as carbon residence time and conversion rates, especially for deciduous and mixed forests, are derived from experimental data sets. When assessing the carbon balance, the focus is on various scenarios for climate development and silvicultural management. From these scenarios, possible potentials for carbon storage and adaptation strategies that lead to an increased carbon retention time and thus storage can be derived for practice. 

The goals of the project are achieved through experimental determination of the residence times and conversion rates of carbon, through the use of the more precise conversion rates in a dynamic vegetation model, and economic optimization. Basic research is made usable for science-based, practical decisions. This project is being implemented in a team of ecophysiologists, vegetation modelers and forest economists from the Technical University of Munich.