Whole forest CO2 and H2O exchange in real-time
PI: Prof. Alexander Knohl
Forests play a crucial role in the climate system by absorbing CO₂ and evaporating water. At the same time, they are vulnerable to climate extremes, such as droughts. In the project Digital Forest, we aimed to better understand the behavior of forests under extreme drought conditions. To do this, we continuously collected data on the exchange of CO₂ and water vapor between the forest and the atmosphere.Our results show that droughts not only reduce CO₂ uptake during the actual dry period but also in subsequent years. This finding has far-reaching implications for climate targets, as forests play a key role in carbon storage.