BayCEER Workshop 2023

12 October 2023

Reforestation under climate change: A supra-regional field trial in Thuringia/Germany to test different management options for the development of multifunctional forests on disturbed spruce areas

Henrik Oechler¹, Claus Bässler¹, Markus Bernhardt-Römermann², Marie Brock³, Janina Ebert⁴, Simon Grieger⁵, Franka Huth⁶, Philipp Koal³, Dorothea Peter⁷, Birgitta Putzenlechner⁵, Florian Steinebrunner², Simon Thorn⁴, Alexander Tischer⁷, Xinying Zhou⁸, Martin Zwanzig⁸, Ingolf Profft³

¹ University of Bayreuth, Institute of Biology, Chemistry und Geosciences/Fungal Ecology
² Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Institute of Ecology and Evolution
³ Forest Research and Competence Center Gotha, Climate Impacts, Research, Experimentation Dept.
⁴ Hessian State Agency for Nature Conservation, Environment, and Geology, Federal State Bird Observatory
⁵ Georg-August University Göttingen, Institute of Geography, Department Cartography, GIS, and Remote Sensing
⁶ TUD Dresden University of Technology, Institute of Silviculture and Forest Protection
⁷ Friedrich-Schiller University Jena, Department of Geography/Soil Science
⁸ TUD Dresden University of Technology, Institute of Forest Growth and Forest Computer Science

P 2.6 in Zooming out: Evolution, biomes, global trends

The impact of extreme weather events such as droughts, heat waves, storms and the associated intensiﬁcation of bark beetle outbreaks in spruce forests in recent years, has led to a vast loss of spruce trees in Thuringia and other regions in Germany. There are various options for the management of disturbed areas, but their pros and cons are not clearly resolved. The ResEt-Fi consortium implemented a supra-regional field trial to test how specific practices for deadwood management affect the ecological conditions and subsequent reforestation dynamics of natural regeneration and planted trees. It aims at generating climate-stable mixed forests by an ecological valuable transition offering socio-economic benefits. For stakeholders and forest practitioners, it is planned to create guidelines and showcase scenarios for facilitating the selection of management procedures that fit optimally to the regional conditions and goals for mid- and long-term development.

Keywords: fungi; experiment; climate change; forest; reforestation