Speaker
Description
Our forests are challenged by a suite of stressors associated with climate change, such as extended droughts, heatwaves, ‘false springs’ increasing late-frost risk, storms, heavy rainfall events, and novel pathogens. Our iDiv platform ARBOfun, established in 2012 in Großpösna, was designed to study the responses (e.g., resistance, resilience) to these stressors of individual trees of close to 100 species including angio- and gymnosperms occurring in temperate Central Europe or adjacent biomes. Each species is replicated five times in a randomized block design and planted with wide spacing.
To understand responses mechanistically we adopt the traits-rates-states framework. In collaboration with TU Dresden, we have assembled a uniquely comprehensive dataset of functional traits (> 100 morphological, anatomical and physiological traits for leaves, roots, stems). These are used to understand and predict rates (e.g., growth, transpiration) and states (e.g., size, morphology, vitality). Rates, or proxies of them, are derived from regular inventories, leaf carbon isotopes, drone overflights with thermal cameras, and phenological observations for all trees. 120 trees of 40 species are equipped with sap flux sensors, dendrometers, canopy climate loggers, and cameras recording changes in leaf angle distribution.
Next to presenting the design and set-up, we will highlight selected results of recent studies, e.g., that (i) gymnosperms are markedly less resistant to drought, (i) fine-root traits are more important predictors of growth responses than previously thought, and (iii) sub-Mediterranean species have a high drought resistance, but suffer disproportionally from late frosts.
As a call to the iDiv community, ARBOfun offers unique opportunities for complementary research on biotic interactions (e.g., interaction networks), biodiversity patterns of associated species (e.g., arboreal lichens, soil organisms, insects), soil ecology, and calibration of remote- or proximal-sensing products on tree species functioning.
| Status Group | Senior Scientist |
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