Project Details
Projekt
Forest structure and microclimate
Applicants
Professor Dr. Christian Ammer; Professor Dr. Bernhard Schuldt; Professor Dr. Dominik Seidel
Subject Area
Forestry
Ecology of Land Use
Ecology of Land Use
Term
since 2022
Project identifier
Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 459717468
Numerous studies have found negative as well as positive effects of forest management on biodiversity, but the processes that could provide a causal explanation for these contradicting results have rarely been studied. For example, the relationship between forest structure, which is altered differently by given interventions, the resulting microclimate and its effect on biodiversity has been investigated insufficiently. This might be explained by the difficulty of quantitatively describing the three-dimensional (3D) structure of a forest stand. In this context, it seems fundamental to move from a two-dimensional to a three-dimensional perspective in the quantification of structures. Only recently has 3D laser scanning opened up the possibility of deriving quantitative, three-dimensional data on forest structure at high resolution. As a holistic descriptor of stand structure, "structural complexity" is particularly promising because all animals live in a three-dimensional physical habitat and physical determinants of microclimate are also directly tied to the 3D structure of vegetation. In this context, it is important to investigate the effects of different forest management practices, as well as interventions to increase heterogeneity between stands, on local microclimate and its effects on biodiversity. The subproject aims to decipher the effects of such interventions for different structural properties of forest stands and their microclimate, which significantly influences biodiversity. We aim to quantify (i) the structural changes caused by interventions to increase the structural complexity of forests at the landscape level (Enhancement of Structural Beta Complexity, ESBC, interventions), (ii) which microclimatic properties are affected by these changes, (iii) how structural complexity of forest stands changes over time after ESBC interventions and the role of forest regeneration development in this, and (iv) whether recently developed indices of structural complexity can be used as proxies for changes in microclimatic conditions after ESBC interventions. We therefore focus on the relationship between structural complexity and microclimate as a stepping stone for a mechanistic understanding of the relationship between heterogeneity of forest structure and biodiversity at the landscape scale.
DFG Programme
Research Units
