BayCEER Workshop 2020

Extreme weather impacts on seven European forests tree species

O 2.2 in Session 2: Tracing Changes in Space and Time

29.10.2020, 11:15-11:30, online via Zoom

Extreme weather events, such as late frosts and summer droughts, are increasingly frequent in Central Europe, often with devastating impacts on forests. However, many aspects of the impact remain understudied. Particularly, while ecological impact thresholds are increasingly a focus in climate change research, it is unclear how thresholds associated with one event type are modulated by other extreme events. Likewise, quantifying impacts of successive extreme events at larger spatial scales is limited in ecological research, in part, because experimental data that can be readily incorporated into regional or continental scale models is lacking.

 

In early 2020, we set up a large crossed gradient experiment with 450 seedlings of seven tree species (Abies alba, Fagus sylvatica, Larix decidua, Picea abies, Pinus mugo ssp. rotundifolia, Pseudotzuga menziesii and Sorbus torminalis) that are common in Central European forests, at the Ökologisch-Botanischer Garten, Bayreuth. We manipulated both exposure to late frosts of varying severity (six regimes, -2°C to -11°C) and to droughts of varying lengths (ten regimes, no drought through to 12 weeks’ drought). We measured phenological, physiological and demographic responses. In this talk, I discuss early results of the experiment, as well as describing how this experimental data can inform species distribution models to make impact predictions at a continental scale. Climate models project that the prevalence of extreme weather events will continue to grow in this region. Therefore, understanding the impacts of extreme weather events on tree species is imperative to inform both forest conservation policy and sustainable forestry practices under a changing climate.

Keywords: European forests experiment extreme events frost drought trees thresholds stress interactions

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