Research
How resilient are trees to drought? How do phenotypic plasticity and genetic adaptation shape their responses to climate change? And what can wood and charcoal tell us about forests of the past? These are just some of the questions addressed by the Chair of Forest Growth and Dendrosciences.
© Marieke van der Maaten
Research activities
Research at the Chair of Forest Growth and Dendrosciences focuses on four main areas:
- Tree growth under environmental change: We investigate how climate, site conditions, biotic interactions and forest management shape tree growth and vitality.
- Species and provenance comparisons: We compare tree species and provenances to assess differences in growth, resilience and adaptive capacity.
- Forest growth analysis and monitoring: We combine forest measurements, monitoring and tree-ring analyses to identify growth patterns and their drivers.
- Forest and vegetation history: We reconstruct past tree-species composition and forest development using archaeological wood and historical charcoal.