Forest drought
Drought events have substantial implications for ecosystem services. Ongoing global warming is accompanied by an intensified frequency of extreme weather. In 2018 a combined drought and heat wave hit Central Europe and caused substantial physiological effects on Swiss forests. Many trees showed stress symptoms including reduced leaf water content, leaf discoloration and defoliation, a surprisingly large number of these trees dying. Particularly this high mortality rate is of concern since underlying causal relationships are not fully understood yet. We aim to contribute to understanding with a remote sensing based assessment of location and quantity of drought effects in Swiss forest ecosystems. This analysis allows estimations of evapotranspiration changes and thus conclusions for the water cycle and future climate can be drawn.
Contact:
Timeframe:
- 2019-2023
Publications:
- Odermatt, D., Runnalls, J., Sturm, J., Damm. A., SenCast: Copernicus Satellitendaten auf Knopfdruck. Geomatika Schweiz, 9/2020, 2020.
- Schuldt, B., Buras, A., Ahrend, M., Vitasse, Y., Beierkuhnlein, C., Damm, A., Gharun, M., Grams, T., Hauck, M., Hajek, P., Hartmann, H., Hilbrunner, E., Hoch, G., Holloway-Phillips, M., Körner, C., Larysch, E., Lübbe, T., Nelson, D. B., Rammig, A., Rigling, A., Rose, L., Ruehr, N. K., Schumann, K., Weiser, K., Werner, C., Wohlgemuth, T., Zang, C., and Kahmen, A.: A first assessment of the impact of the extreme 2018 summer drought on Central European forests, Basic and Applied Ecology, 45, 86-103, 2020.