Outreach

Digital Forest Exhibition at Forum Wissen

The Forum Wissen, the science museum of the city of Göttingen, presents the special exhibition "Digital Forest – A virtual journey into climate research". With the help of virtual reality, visitors can experience firsthand how researchers investigate the impact of drought on forests. At the same time, visitors are invited to reflect on their own actions in the climate crisis. The special exhibition runs from October 26, 2023 to February 4, 2024
Link to exhibition

Digital Forest Exhibition at Hainich National Park

The exhibition 'Digital Forest – A Virtual Journey into Climate Research' has moved to the visitor center of the Hainich National Park. From March 1st to June 20th, 2024, visitors could experience firsthand how climate change is altering the forest
Link to the National Park Visitor Center

News from Digital Forest

Insights into Working with Earth Observation Data at SciCon 2023
The Scientific Conference (SciCon) of the European Geography Association (EGAE) students took place in 2023 under the theme "Forests under Pressure" in Hainich National Park. Digital Forest contributed with a workshop on the collection and analysis of Earth observation data. In a hands-on seminar, David Montero demonstrated how satellite remote sensing data can provide insights into forest vitality. Additionally, Anne Klosterhalfen shared practical knowledge on the Eddy Covariance technique and the maintenance of measurement equipment for long-term CO2 exchange monitoring between forest and atmosphere.
Link to the conference

Forest Lecture at the AStA Climate Festival

On June 30, 2023, Franziska Koebsch delivered a lecture on forests and climate at the AStA Climate Festival at the University of Göttingen. Forests play a crucial role as CO2 sinks, but they also influence cloud formation, precipitation patterns, and soil temperature, thereby impacting not only the global climate but also local climates.
Link to the Climate Festival website

Contribution to a Panel Discussion

On June 12, 2023, Franziska Koebsch participated in the event "No Future?: Climate Crisis in Science and Society," where she discussed scientific findings on climate change and its impacts on people in Germany and worldwide. The event, followed by a panel discussion, explored topics such as the role of climate activism, civil disobedience, and the University of Göttingen's contribution during these critical times.
Link to the event website

Research Findings Presented at the 2023 Beech Conference

How is the forest in Hainich National Park responding to the summer droughts of recent years? On May 10, 2023, Alexander Knohl presented the latest research findings at the 2023 Beech Conference and discussed them with professionals from the field.
Link to the conference website

Lexcube Developed for Hainich National Park in Digital Forest

An interactive journey through the Earth system—the Lexcube visualizes terabytes of satellite data and makes climate and vegetation changes visible on a global scale. At the Living Planet Symposium 2022, developers Maximilian Söchting, Digital Forest PhD student David Montero, and PI Miguel Mahecha introduced a mini-version of the Lexcube specifically designed for Hainich National Park.
Link to Lexcube

Making Climate Change Musically Tangible

In September 2022, Alexander Knohl, Anne Klosterhalfen, Franziska Koebsch, and Christian Markwitz took a novel approach to communicating climate change with the conversation concert "The Four Seasons in (Climate) Change." Inspired by climate change research and its already noticeable impacts, Antonio Vivaldi's "The Four Seasons" was reinterpreted by Prof. Dr. Mark Barden (Professor of Composition, University of Music Detmold) with the assistance of composition students Carlo Tosato, Zara Ali, and Daniel Kalantari. Between the four concert movements, the scientists and composers engaged in dialogue to explain how climate change is currently altering the seasons and how these changes influenced the new composition of Vivaldi's piece.
Link to the concert recording

Digital Forest at the 2022 Night of Knowledge

Digital Forest participated in the Night of Knowledge: On July 9, 2022, Anne Klosterhalfen, Andre Ringeler, and Franziska Koebsch presented instruments used for bioclimatic research in forests and showcased research findings from local beech forests.
Link to the 2022 Night of Knowledge

Digital Forest in "Ragna und Paul fragen nach(haltig)"

Increased frequency and intensity of extreme events such as storms and droughts are challenging our forests. For the video series "Ragna und Paul fragen nach(haltig)," Marius Heidenreich and Franziska Koebsch showcased their research site in Hainich National Park and explained how Digital Forest scientists are investigating climate-induced changes in the forest and developing methods to detect drought stress. The resulting video was published in January 2022.
Link to the video

Exchange with International Forestry Experts

How are forests and their CO2 sink capacity evolving in the face of increasing droughts? This question was discussed by Anne Klosterhalfen and Franziska Koebsch with international forestry experts from the BMEL-funded "Forest Expert Program." In September 2022, they led an excursion to the Digital Forest research site in Hainich.
Link to the Forest Expert Program

Contribution to TV Program on Forest Health

In April 2021, Dominik Seidel, PI (Principal Investigator) at Digital Forest, contributed to the Info-TV format "DAS!" with a segment titled "Can Our Forests Still Be Saved?"
Can our forest still be saved? | NDR.de - television - programs A-Z - DAS! 

Threatened Air Rescuers—Forests under Drought Stress

In March 2021, NDR Info interviewed Prof. Alexander Knohl and Dr. Christian Markwitz on the impacts of the 2018 drought year. As climate change progresses, drought periods are becoming increasingly severe, leading to drought stress in forests, reducing CO2 storage, and potentially causing tree die-offs.
Link to NDR

Digital Forest Featured in DUZ Special Issue on Digitalization

Link to the DUZ special issue

Göttinger Tageblatt Reports on Digital Forest Project Approval

The project "Digital Forest" at the University of Göttingen received funding (goettinger-tageblatt.de) 

Project Start Date

The funding for Digital Forest was approved by the Volkswagen Foundation and the Lower Saxony Ministry of Science and Culture at the end of 2020. The project officially started on March 1, 2021, with a virtual kick-off meeting held on March 22, 2021, due to the ongoing pandemic situation.