Our forests supply numerous ecosystem services and are the planet’s primary land-based carbon sinks. This important resource is coming under increasing pressure from climate change, as repeated heat waves and droughts stunt the trees’ growth and may lead to early death. While there is currently much interest in increasing species diversity to improve forest resilience, we still know very little about the effects of mixed planting on the likelihood of damage caused to trees by droughts and extreme heat events.
A consortium of international scientists, in which INRAE and Cirad are key players, has been working on a variety of studies across Europe that aim to improve our understanding of the ways that forest species diversification can help trees to increase their resilience to climate change.
To assess the benefits of species diversification, the scientists have made use of an international network of field tree experimental projects, covering over twenty species of tree (maple, birch, beech, etc.) across 5 experimental sites in France, Germany, Belgium, Italy and Austria. In-field measures and sampling were largely carried out during the extreme drought events of 2022.
By combining physiological measurements of […]