WWT: Transpiration of forest trees as a future ecophysiological, vital sign for forest environmental monitoring. Subproject 3: New models for the soil water balance
Funded by
Forest Climate Fund / Fachagentur für nachwachsende Rohstoffe (FNR)
Duration
2022 - 2025
Project description
Climate change presents numerous challenges to the water and forestry sectors, one of which is the availability of water. Forests consume water, store it, and release it in high quality. However, the amount of water that evaporates from our forests and the portion of rainfall that contributes to groundwater recharge are only estimated based on models at forest monitoring stations.
A research team from the Technical University of Dresden, the University of Göttingen, and the Bavarian State Institute of Forestry aims to develop effective and efficient routines for monitoring the evaporation rates of forest trees. The federal ministries for Food and Agriculture and for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety, and Consumer Protection are funding the project for three years with a total of approximately 925,000 euros from the Forest Climate Fund.
In recent years, the group led by Professor Andreas Hartmann (TU Dresden) developed innovative methods to estimate groundwater recharge through soil moisture networks. In the joint project, the researchers now aim to combine these methods with a novel procedure for recording the water balance of trees to develop a practical concept that integrates the new measurement network into the existing network of intensive forest monitoring sites in Germany. A variety of measurements at different forest locations will be used to develop the new network and identify and potentially reduce uncertainties in the model-based estimation of the forest water balance.
"We hope to gain a better understanding of the competition between trees with different root systems, in addition to improving the measurement of evaporation and groundwater recharge rates," says Professor Martin Maier, Chair of Soil Physics at the University of Göttingen. "With this project, we aim to significantly improve the long-term data basis for environmental policy decisions urgently needed due to recurring drought situations," adds Professor Andreas Hartmann from TU Dresden, who, along with Dr. Stephan Raspe from the Bavarian State Institute of Forestry, supervises another part of the project. The results are expected to help policymakers and the economy develop strategies for drought-resilient forestry.
Contact person
© TU Dresden
Head of Institute
NameProf. Dr. Andreas Hartmann
Professorship Groundwater Systems
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Visiting address:
Neubau Chemie, Room E62 Bergstraße 66
01069 Dresden
Office hours:
by appointment
© C. Stefan
Dr.-Ing. Thomas Fichtner
Scientific staff
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Visiting address:
Neubau Chemie 2.BA, Room E57 Bergstraße 66
01069 Dresden
Visiting address:
Institut für Abfall- und Kreislaufwirtschaft, Room 202 Pratzschwitzer Str. 15
01796 Pirna
Supervision of test stands + test field
Office hours:
by appointment