Professor Dr Michael Scherer-Lorenzen discusses efforts to improve understanding of the functional significance of Europe’s forest biodiversity – work which will help forestry owners, policy makers and conservationists to manage forests in more a sustainable manner in the near future Seeing the wood for the trees Can you detail the background and objectives of the FunDivEUROPE project? Europe harbours a large variety of different forest types which cover long gradients of species, structural and functional diversity. However, human-induced disturbances, such as logging, grazing, burning and forest clearance to produce space for agriculture, has left an important anthropogenic footprint in forests. As a result, European forests are dominated by relatively young even-aged stands of a few fast growing species. Recent policies aim to convert this trend by supporting conversion of production- orientated monocultures to multifunctional and diverse forests. Ongoing climate change will also affect forests and the organisms living there. So it is clear that forest biodiversity is changing and will continue to change in the near future. At the same time, the forests of Europe provide a broad range of goods and services that human society depend on, such as production of timber, provisioning for clear drinking water, or space for recreation and tourism. More recently, pressures to use forests have again increased, not only for extraction of timber and pulp wood, but also as a source for renewable bioenergy. Biodiversity is certainly a key factor for the way ecosystems function, hence loss or changes of diversity will also affect the provision of these goods and services. In the face of these pressures and changes we have to find answers to a number of questions, including whether forest biodiversity matters for ecosystem functioning, whether diverse forests provide multiple functions and services more reliably than less diverse ones, and if diverse forests are more stable in the face of global climate changes. The hypothesis that biodiversity may have an effect on ecosystem functioning and services is predominantly based on grassland systems research. Is this applicable to other ecosystems? It is true that the relatively new field of functional biodiversity research has largely been conducted with fast growing model systems, such as grasslands. In contrast, we have much less information about the role of biodiversity in forests. This is astonishing, since the science of forestry in Europe, with its long tradition, has produced an encyclopedic knowledge of the ecology of single tree species and of the dynamics of managed forests, mainly focusing on even- aged pure stands of economically important species. Nevertheless, some of the general ideas and mechanisms about the effect of biodiversity on ecosystem performance, such as niche partitioning of co-existing species, can well be applied to other ecosystems including forests. However, the longevity and complex structure of forests do also pose new challenges for the scientific approaches. Scientists involved in FunDivEUROPE will therefore work on different scientific ‘platforms’ – including tree diversity experiments similar to those in grasslands, networks of comparative study plots, databases from forest inventories – to cope with this complexity. Could you describe how some of the tools and technologies that you have employed have been used to quantify the influence of biodiversity on ecosystem functions and services? The basic philosophy of FunDivEUROPE, with its focus on forest multi-functionality, is the ‘all measurements on all plots’ approach. The high number of plots required for statistical detection of diversity effects necessarily puts constraints on the type and the number of measurements that can be carried out per plot. We therefore focus on measurements that integrate processes spatially and over longer time scales. Thus, we have adopted a novel screening method to assess ecosystem functioning, by doing various fast proxy measurements characterising a wide array of ecosystem properties, processes and functions. These functions are, in turn, related to ecosystem services and will therefore allow quantification of the effects of tree diversity for the delivery of those services. Are you working closely with other tree research projects? The European dimension of the project, together with the scientific challenges, has guided the composition of our consortium. We have partners from 15 countries that cover the broad geographical scale, and from 24 top research institutions and universities to combine expertise from a huge range of disciplines. In short, a project on forest multi- functionality requires a multifunctional team. Tight cooperation with other forest projects exists, which will help to develop further our scientific discourse, and to put our results in a wider context. These projects include, among others, the global network of tree diversity experiment TreeDivNet and the EU-projects BACCARA and MOTIVE. FUNDIVEUROPE 28 INTERNATIONAL INNOVATION
Transcript
Professor Dr Michael Scherer-Lorenzen discusses efforts to improve understanding of the
functional signifi cance of Europe’s forest biodiversity – work which will help forestry owners, policy
makers and conservationists to manage forests in more a sustainable manner in the near future
Seeing the wood for the trees
Can you detail the background and objectives of the FunDivEUROPE project?
Europe harbours a large variety of different forest types which cover long gradients of species, structural and functional diversity. However, human-induced disturbances, such as logging, grazing, burning and forest clearance to produce space for agriculture, has left an important anthropogenic footprint in forests. As a result, European forests are dominated by relatively young even-aged stands of a few fast growing species. Recent policies aim to convert this trend by supporting conversion of production-orientated monocultures to multifunctional and diverse forests. Ongoing climate change will also affect forests and the organisms living there. So it is clear that forest biodiversity is changing and will continue to change in the near future. At the same time, the forests of Europe provide a broad range of goods and services that human society depend on, such as production of timber, provisioning for clear drinking water, or space for recreation and tourism.
More recently, pressures to use forests have again increased, not only for extraction of
timber and pulp wood, but also as a source for renewable bioenergy. Biodiversity is certainly a key factor for the way ecosystems function, hence loss or changes of diversity will also affect the provision of these goods and services. In the face of these pressures and changes we have to fi nd answers to a number of questions, including whether forest biodiversity matters for ecosystem functioning, whether diverse forests provide multiple functions and services more reliably than less diverse ones, and if diverse forests are more stable in the face of global climate changes.
The hypothesis that biodiversity may have an effect on ecosystem functioning and services is predominantly based on grassland systems research. Is this applicable to other ecosystems?
It is true that the relatively new fi eld of functional biodiversity research has largely been conducted with fast growing model systems, such as grasslands. In contrast, we have much less information about the role of biodiversity in forests. This is astonishing, since the science of forestry in Europe, with its long tradition, has produced an encyclopedic knowledge of the ecology of single tree species and of the dynamics of managed forests, mainly focusing on even-aged pure stands of economically important species. Nevertheless, some of the general ideas and mechanisms about the effect of biodiversity on ecosystem performance, such as niche partitioning of co-existing species, can well be applied to other ecosystems including forests.
However, the longevity and complex structure of forests do also pose new challenges for the scientifi c approaches. Scientists involved in FunDivEUROPE will therefore work on different scientifi c ‘platforms’ – including tree diversity experiments similar to those in grasslands, networks of comparative study plots, databases
from forest inventories – to cope with this complexity.
Could you describe how some of the tools and technologies that you have employed have been used to quantify the infl uence of biodiversity on ecosystem functions and services?
The basic philosophy of FunDivEUROPE, with its focus on forest multi-functionality, is the ‘all measurements on all plots’ approach. The high number of plots required for statistical detection of diversity effects necessarily puts constraints on the type and the number of measurements that can be carried out per plot. We therefore focus on measurements that integrate processes spatially and over longer time scales. Thus, we have adopted a novel screening method to assess ecosystem functioning, by doing various fast proxy measurements characterising a wide array of ecosystem properties, processes and functions. These functions are, in turn, related to ecosystem services and will therefore allow quantifi cation of the effects of tree diversity for the delivery of those services.
Are you working closely with other tree research projects?
The European dimension of the project, together with the scientifi c challenges, has guided the composition of our consortium. We have partners from 15 countries that cover the broad geographical scale, and from 24 top research institutions and universities to combine expertise from a huge range of disciplines. In short, a project on forest multi-functionality requires a multifunctional team. Tight cooperation with other forest projects exists, which will help to develop further our scientifi c discourse, and to put our results in a wider context. These projects include, among others, the global network of tree diversity experiment TreeDivNet and the EU-projects BACCARA and MOTIVE.
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Redefi ning our understandingof forest biodiversityA pan-European collaboration known as FunDivEUROPE, is investigating
how forest biodiversity impacts ecosystem services, with the goal of
learning if diverse forests are more stable in the face of climate change
Diversifi cation is
assumed to improve
the overall stability of
forests
AS THE WORLD’S changing climate presents new and unique challenges for the environment, ascertaining the adaptive capacity of different ecosystem services is critical to understanding how biodiversity losses and ecosystem degradation will impact on society as a whole. Forests are absolutely crucial for Europe’s climate change response, as they constitute a signifi cant component of the continent’s greenhouse gas balance. Trees store large amounts of carbon, and any changes in growth and stand structure directly impact carbon sequestration. Diversity also affects biogeochemical cycles, water and energy exchange in forests. An adaptive forest management system that accounts for future climate and pressures could potentially capitalise on such biodiversity effects, which may help to sustain the simultaneous delivery of various ecosystem services.
The EU-funded project FunDivEUROPE is tackling this very topic by studying the functional signifi cance of biodiversity in forests. The collaboration of partners from 24 institutions spread across 15 European countries is being coordinated by Professor Dr Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, who explains that the basic concept behind this project is to identify gradients of forest biodiversity and to study the implications of the differences in diversity for ecosystem functioning and services. The researchers are studying forests along a large geographical and climatic gradient; from the northern boreal forests of Finland to the southern Mediterranean forests in Spain and Italy, and from central European forests in Germany to eastern European forests in Poland and Romania. Each of these forest types is facing specifi c and context-dependent threats, from management intensifi cation, fragmentation and degradation, increased levels of nitrogen deposition, prolonged drought and extreme storms, and insect or pathogens calamities. By studying such an extensive range of forests, all of the major forests types and many important tree species of Europe are covered by this work.
A STUDY OF SIX FOCALFORESTRY REGIONS
Researchers have established a network of study sites across six focal regions, which covers a
diverse array of tree species richness, ranging from different monocultures to highly varied mixtures at each site. In addition, they are working with tree diversity experiments that have created new forest stands (a contiguous area that contains a number of trees) by planting. In all cases, a wide range of ecosystem processes that are related to growth and productivity, carbon cycling, water cycling, nutrient cycling and resistance to pests and pathogens are quantifi ed out in the fi eld. Scherer-Lorenzen says that whilst trees with their longevity are presumably rather adaptive to climate change – they usually experience warmer and colder as well as dryer and wetter years during their lifetime – some species will certainly be better adapted to the new climatic situations than others: “Thus, we will have winners and losers, and the composition of the forest will change over time”. He notes that foresters already plan to cope with climate change by using different species and are attempting to design the ‘climatically plastic’ forest; for example, increased planting of the exotic North-
American Douglas Fir is being recommended in some countries such as Germany. It is also widely accepted that risk management for forests facing climate change involve the diversifi cation of tree species mixtures, both within stands, but also between stands at the landscape level. Scherer-Lorenzen adds: “Such diversifi cation is assumed to improve the overall stability of
forests and to enhance the adaptive capacity”.
BUILDING ON TRIEDAND TESTED EXPERIMENTS
Assessing the functional signifi cance of biodiversity in European forests has presented some very unique challenges for the FunDivEUROPE collaboration to overcome. The longevity and complexity of forests are certainly the most important of these obstacles, and the team also have to work on a wide range of spatial and temporal scales. Tree diversity experiments usually take several years to yield fi rst results beyond the initial establishment phase, taking leaf samples in mature forests needs specifi cally skilled tree climbers and, from a practical point of view, comparing ecosystem performance at several European locations simultaneously needs a detailed planning among all researchers involved and a sophisticated infrastructure to be in place. However, Scherer-Lorenzen notes that
FUNDIVEUROPE
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INTELLIGENCE
FunDivEuropeOBJECTIVES
To quantify the role of forest biodiversity for
ecosystem functioning and the delivery of
goods and services in major European forest
types.
PARTNERS
ALU-FR, DE • ALT, NL • BOKU, AT • CNRS,
FR • CSIC, ES • FVA, DE • INRA, FR • KUL,
BE • METLA, FI • MLU, DE • NAGREF, GR • RHUL, UK • SLU, SE • UAH, ES • UBE, CH • UCA, UK • UCPH, DK • UFI, IT • UFZ, DE • UGE, BE • ULEI, DE • USV, RO • UWAR, PL • UZH, CH
they have certainly benefi ted from the previous studies into grassland biodiversity research and the advances made in this fi eld, including the development of experimental designs, analytical and statistical methodologies and, most importantly, the tremendous advance in theories and concepts on the effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning.
This project has now been running for just over a year and in this time has enjoyed some signifi cant developments. After the offi cial start in autumn 2010, Scherer-Lorenzen explains that the collaboration started relatively quickly with their fi rst fi eld measurements in the tree diversity experiments that had been previously established some years ago. As a result, the project has already collected exhaustive dataset after only one year. In parallel, they explored six focal regions for suitable study locations and completed the selection and marking of roughly 250 plots across Europe. He says that this involved a tremendous effort by the local management teams who did a fantastic job. Additionally, the fi rst datasets of National Forest Inventories were screened and harmonised so the team is now well on track to start with the analysis as soon as possible.
EXPLOITING SOCIAL MEDIATOOLS TO ACCESS NEW AUDIENCES
Dissemination of the fi nal results of the FunDivEUROPE research is an important part of sharing this new knowledge and understanding with the forestry sector. As is the case with other large-scale projects, this collaboration aims to communicate their results via a diverse variety of channels, targeted for different end-users. A few examples of the dissemination materials and methods proposed include: scientifi c papers to inform the research community; fl yers, a
dedicated webpage and videos will be used to reach the broader public; workshops with stakeholders and policy makers; and written policy briefs will highlight the policy-relevant aspects. At the centre of these communication activities is a novel web-based Knowledge Transfer Tool. Scherer-Lorenzen says that one of their more innovative methods is to directly involve their students in these dissemination activities and these students will be trained by a mass media and communications professional to use new mass media tools, such as blogs, to approach other societal groups that do not usually have access to scientifi c information.
The results will certainly be of high relevance for international forest policy, such as the UN Conventions on Biodiversity (UNCBD) or UN Conventions on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and policy-advising processes such as the Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services (IPBES) or the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Similarly, they will also actively inform European initiatives in the forest and biodiversity sectors. Scherer-Lorenzen observes that at a higher political level, there seems to be a general agreement that forests should be protected and managed in a sustainable way, but local forest companies still often favour monoculture plantations of fast growing exotic species planted over thousands of hectares: “We therefore hope that our results will lead to further development of management strategies that actively use forest biodiversity to achieve multiple purposes and reduce risks of failure in face of environmental changes”. It is the hope of the FunDivEUROPE collaboration that the new knowledge will inform European policy and lead to a greater protection for European forest ecosystems in the future.
