KlimaSens

Site-dependent forest rejuvenation in climate change: Elucidating local site factors with soil-ecological and ecophysiological interactions to support modern regeneration concepts in climate change.

KlimaSens aims to improve the survivability of young trees by using naturally existing, small-scale site characteristics (stumps, distances to old trees, soil life, mixing effects). For this purpose, we use measurement data and infrastructure of an existing recently thinned large-scale trial with regeneration under canopy (> 500,000 saplings, > 140 ha) on four sites of a precipitation gradient. The mixtures of spruce, fir, Douglas fir and oak with beech there are being studied by us using innovative methods of forest growth science, ecophysiology and soil ecology. 
Among other things, we use drone-assisted thermal photography, root space imaging with ground penetrating radar, stable isotope analysis, xylem flow measurements, determination of mycorrhization and investigations of root-soil communities ("mycobiomes", "microbiomes" and protists by means of sequencing), as well as spatio-statistical models. The spatio-temporal analysis of the above- and belowground levels of the forest and the different scales, as well as a division into a monitoring project part and a mechanistic project part, result in an integrative overall view from the stand via ecophysiology and soil biology to small-scale site factors. We thus provide an important building block for sustainable forest conversion in climate change, which can be directly translated into recommendation measures.