Dr. Robert Weigel
Ecological-Botanical Garden of the University of Bayreuth, BayCEER (Homepage)
Donnerstag, 25.06.2026 ,

Effects of climate change across seasons on forest growth dynamics

Climate change increasingly affects tree health and shapes the functioning of forest ecosystems, with consequences for tree mortality and forest productivity. While much of the current research focuses on summer drought as a dominant climate driver of tree growth, trees respond to climate variability across all seasons.

In this talk, I will synthesize insights from long-term tree-ring analyses and global change experiments across multiple sites to explore how climate variability influences forest growth dynamics beyond the growing season. Evidence is presented from important temperate forest tree species in Europe, including the naturally dominant European beech as well as widely planted silvicultural conifers. Here, winter and early spring conditions can modify growth phenology, amplify frost risk, and affect belowground processes.

The talk highlights how climate effects across seasons lead to divergent responses among tree species, and it discusses what this may imply for future shifts in forest composition and functioning.

Weitere Informationen:

• AushangUBT-Weigel_20260625.pdf

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