Functional drought resistance

The goal is to improve our understanding on how different deciduous tree species respond to heat and drought to enable sustainable forest management in the face of climate change.#

Understanding how trees respond to increasing severity and frequency of extreme weather events such as drought is central for predicting future changes in forest structure and functions. Here, hydraulic traits are assumed to play a key role in a tree’s adaptability to a changing climate. Change impacts may further be modulated by forest management and elevated levels of airborne nitrogen deposition. However, we still have a limited understanding of how the interplay of forest management and nitrogen deposition affects the climate sensitivity of trees. The aim of subproject 3 (SP3) is to better understand heat- and drought-induced responses of multiple deciduous tree species to support forest management under climate change.

For this, SP3 measures hydraulic, morphological and structural tree traits in-situ using various methods such as leaf spectroscopy, embolism vulnerability curves and mobile laser scanning.The impact of heat and drought on tree growth is assessed using tree-ring analysis. An additional greenhouse experiment investigates trait expression in a controlled drought- and nitrogen-enhanced environment.