Скачать или смотреть Webinar: Drought adaptation of forests in Europe

Extreme droughts are expected to increase in frequency and severity and together with rising temperatures weaken trees, threatening forest ecosystems and the services provided. Extensive tree dieback and mortality related to drought have already been detected across the globe and require more effective strategies to adapt forests to such droughts and increasing forest resistance and resilience.

During the webinar, we looked at the extreme drought event in 2018 in Central-Europe and its devastating impact on beech forests. We discussed the vulnerability of European beech, but also provided insights into recovery mechanisms. Recovery is a central part of resilience, however, often overlooked: to what extent is recovery after drought events possible and is recovery related to acclimation? In a next step, we introduced the development of a decision support tool in use in the state of Hesse, Germany, providing every single forest owners in Hesse with site specific recommendations of forest development types (“Waldentwicklungsziele”), consisting of mixed species to disperse the risks of damage. Furthermore, the webinar provided latest insights gained from studying practical strategies for minimizing vulnerability to drought, eg. by thinning as a means of increasing the drought tolerance of existing forests in the short term, before long-term adaptation through species changes may be possible.

Finally, we also looked at the relationship of the hemiparasitic pine mistletoe and its host (during dry periods) and learned about the measures taken by forest management, experiences from Poland and Switzerland. This webinar is part of the FOREST EUROPE’s “From the roots to the canopy” series and organized in Collaboration with the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL).