Project: Forest ecosystems

Aim of the project

Forests are a relevant ecosystem of the biosphere. They cover 30 percent of the land, store a huge amount of carbon (in Germany ~ 1.000 mio. tons carbon) and they are an important part of the carbon and water cycle. Forests deliver various resources (e.g. timber, biomass) and services (e.g. host of biodiversity, water retention, soil erosion protection). However, climate changes - especially the droughts of 2003 and 2018 / 19 – strongly affect the productivity of forest systems, turning some of them from a carbon sink to a carbon source. As trees are long living (100 years and more), forest systems adapts quite slowly to a changing climate. Therefore, forestry is looking for management strategies, which can meet the required forest services in the next century.