Impacts of enriching European beech forests with conifers on ecosystem functioning: holistic syntheses of overall project results

Postdoctoral Researcher

Research Outline

Enriching native forests in Central Europe and in other parts of the world with non-native tree species such as Douglas-fir carries a high potential for the adaptation of forests to climate change. Introducing exotic tree species outside of their native range creates novel ecosystems whose dynamics, processes and compositions may be different than in native ecosystems. This can have an impact on many goods and services that are provided by forests, such as timber production, climate change mitigation or ground water refilling. Decision makers need a sound understanding of the chances and risks of the promotion of non-native tree species on all parts of the ecosystem. Formation of mixed stands of native and non-native tree species, such as mixtures of European beech and Douglas fir, are of particular interest as they provide an optimal trade-off between different ecosystems goods. The primary goal of this research is to synthesize results from all subprojects of EnriCo regarding ecosystem functioning of pure and mixed stands of European beech, Douglas-fir and Norway spruce. To achieve this, a framework for the interdisciplinary study of forest ecosystem functioning was developed (Glatthorn et al. 2021) that will be used to study impacts of the enrichment of European beech forests with conifers holistically.

Publications

Peer-reviewed publications:

Glatthorn J, Annighöfer P, Balkenhol N, Leuschner C, Polle A, Scheu S, Schuldt A, Schuldt B, Ammer C (2021) An interdisciplinary framework to describe and evaluate the functioning of forest ecosystems. Basic and Applied Ecology 52: 1-14.

Other publications:

Ammer C, Annighöfer P, Balkenhol N, Hertel D, Leuschner C, Polle A, Lamersdorf N, Scheu S, Glatthorn J (2020) Rtg 2300 - study design, location, topography and climatic conditions of research plots in 2020. Pangaea: Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science.

Ammer C, Annighöfer P, Balkenhol N, Hertel D, Leuschner C, Polle A, Lamersdorf N, Scheu S, Glatthorn J (2020) Rtg 2300: Enrichment of European beech forests with conifers. Pangaea: Data Publisher for Earth & Environmental Science.