Seal element of the university of freiburg in the shape of a flower
  • A forest captured with a fisheye camera in 360 degree mode.

Future Forests

Forests cover approximately 30 per cent of the global landmass and render numerous essential ecosystem services (ES): They provide renewable resources, mitigate the impact of climate change, support human health, and preserve biodiversity. In the face of rapid climate change, novel ecosystem disturbances, and the introduction or loss of species, large expanses of forests are evolving towards novel ecosystems that are unprecedented in evolutionary history. It is highly uncertain to what extent these novel ecosystems will be capable of rendering the desired ES and preserving biodiversity. The changes will occur so quickly that natural adaptation processes will not be able to keep pace with them.

Logo der Exzellenzcluster-Initiative Future Forests
A ban forest in the Black Forest

Parallel to this development, major societal changes are to be expected, resulting from processes such as urbanization, globalization and trade, land use, and changing demands regarding nature’s services to humans. The natural and social spheres are closely interlinked, interact in a complex way, and thus present unexpected risks. With a better understanding of these system dynamics, it will be possible to devise strategies to prevent undesirable developments. The researchers of Future Forests thus aim to make novel contributions to conceptualizing and analysing forests as new social-ecological systems (SES).

The approaches of Future Forests to analysing and developing transformation pathways for forest-based SES will provide the basis for more adaptive forest systems and more sustainable transformation pathways than in the past. These approaches will be transferable to other world regions and a broad spectrum of ecosystem services.

Participating faculties

Speakers

A portrait of Jürgen Bauhus.

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bauhus

Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bauhus heads the Chair of Silviculture at the Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources. His research focuses on controlling the structure and dynamics of forests for the provision of ecosystem services, on the impact of silvicultural measures on the ecosystem, and on the adaptation of forests to global change. He received the ‘Scientific Achievement Award’ from the International Union of Forest Research Organizations (IUFRO) for his research. He is chair of the Scientific Advisory Board on Forest Policy at the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

Prof. Dr. Friederike Lang

Prof. Dr. Friederike Lang heads the Chair of Soil Ecology, located at the Institute of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources. Her research foci are the coupling of carbon and nutrient dynamics in forest soils, soil conservation (mechanized forestry), and the ecology of soil structure. Among other projects, she is currently conducting research on the quantification of ecosystem processes across scales by means of smart autonomous sensor networks in the Collaborative Research Centre ECOSENSE (SFB 1537) and serves as spokesperson of the Forest Floor (FOR 5315) research group. She is a member of the Soil Conservation Expert Panel at the German Environmental Agency and theScientific Advisory Board on Forest Policy at the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

Prof. Dr. Marc Hanewinkel

Prof. Dr. Marc Hanewinkel is Professor of Forest Economy and Forest Planning at the Institute of Forest Sciences, Faculty of Environment and Natural Resources. Among other things, he investigates the topics of risk analysis (risk identification, modelling, and assessment), impact of climate change on Europe’s forests, development of adaptive management strategies, economic analysis of climate changes, bioenergy, impact of changes in forest management strategies, and forest restructuring. A project he is currently working on in the ClimXtreme research network is ‘Module C: Impacts – Subproject 11: WIND – Winter Storm Impacts in Central Europe’. He is a member of the European network for forest sciences NFZ.forestnet.

Principal Investigators

News

Latest publications

  • Blondeel, Haben, Joannès Guillemot, Nicolas Martin‐StPaul, Arsène Druel, Simon Bilodeau‐Gauthier, Jürgen Bauhus, Charlotte Grossiord, et al. 2024. “Tree Diversity Reduces Variability in Sapling Survival under Drought.” Journal of Ecology 112 (5): 1164–80. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14294.Decarsin R, Guillemot J, le Maire G, Blondeel H, Meredieu C, Achard E, Bonal D, Cochard H, Corso D, Delzon S, Doucet Z, Druel A, Grossiord C, Torres-Ruiz JM, Bauhus J, Godbold DL, Hajek P, Jactel H, Jensen J, Mereu S, Ponette Q, Rewald B, Ruffault J, Sandén H, Scherer-Lorenzen M, Serrano-León H, Simioni G, Verheyen K, Werner R, Martin-StPaul N (2024) Tree drought-mortality risk depends more on intrinsic species resistance than on stand species diversity. Global Change Biology 30: e17503, https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.17503
  • Dietrich, Viktoria, Mona Lauritz, Marie M. Roggenhofer, Jérôme Redlin-Weiß, Michael Huber, Josefine Schulte, Andrea Wanninger, Jörg Niederberger, and Markus Hauck. 2024. “Drought Effects on Growth and Density of Temperate Tree Regeneration under Different Levels of Nitrogen Deposition.” Forest Ecology and Management 559. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2024.121825.
  • Dietrich, Viktoria, Georgios Skiadaresis, Florian Schnabel, Jean-Michel Leban, Catherine Potvin, Jürgen Bauhus, and Julia Annick Schwarz. 2024. “Identifying the Impact of Climate Extremes on Radial Growth in Young Tropical Trees: A Comparison of Inventory and Tree-Ring Based Estimates.” Dendrochronologia 86: 126237. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dendro.2024.126237.
  • Frühbrodt, Tobias, Martin Schebeck, Martin N. Andersson, Gerrit Holighaus, Jürgen Kreuzwieser, Tim Burzlaff, Horst Delb, and Peter H. W. Biedermann. 2024. “Verbenone—the Universal Bark Beetle Repellent? Its Origin, Effects, and Ecological Roles.” Journal of Pest Science 97 (1): 35–71. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-023-01635-3.
  • Gardiner, Barry, Rike Lorenz, Marc Hanewinkel, Benjamin Schmitz, Frederick Bott, Sonja Szymczak, Annett Frick, and Uwe Ulbrich. 2024. “Predicting the Risk of Tree Fall onto Railway Lines.” Forest Ecology and Management 553. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2023.121614.
  • Hauck, Markus, Dorjburgedaa Lkhagvadorj, and Choimaa Dulamsuren. 2024. “Mongolia’s Pastoral Nomadism in Transition: Putting Case Studies on Socioecological Feedbacks and Socioeconomic Forcing into a Conceptual Framework.” In Lifestyle and Livelihood Changes Among Formerly Nomadic Peoples, edited by A A Degen and L-P Dana, 259–83. Cham, Switzerland: Springer Nature Switzerland AG. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-51142-4_12.
  • Heid, Kelly Baldwin, Rita Sousa-Silva, Ashby Levelle Sachs, and Hartmut Fünfgeld. 2024. “Social and Environmental Outcomes of Urban Street Tree Bed Stewardship.” Environmental Research: Ecology 3 (3): 035005. https://doi.org/10.1088/2752-664X/ad63af.
  • Kinzinger, Laura, Judith Mach, Simon Haberstroh, Zoe Schindler, Julian Frey, Maren Dubbert, Stefan Seeger, Thomas Seifert, et int., Christiane Werner. 2024. “Interaction between Beech and Spruce Trees in Temperate Forests Affects Water Use, Root Water Uptake Pattern and Canopy Structure.” Tree Physiology 44 (1). https://doi.org/10.1093/treephys/tpad144.
  • Klimke, Marina, Tobias Plieninger, and Cathrin Zengerling. 2024. “Allowing for the Multifunctionality of Agroforestry Systems – Lessons from a Legal Perspective with a Focus on Germany.” Earth System Governance 22: 100223. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.esg.2024.100223.
  • Kohler, Martin, Jonas Gorges, David Andermahr, Adrian Kölz, Bertram Leder, Ralf-Volker Nagel, Bernhard Mettendorf, et al. 2024. “A Direct Comparison of the Radial Growth Response to Drought of European and Oriental Beech.” Forest Ecology and Management 572: 122130. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foreco.2024.122130.
  • Kröner, Katja, Elena Larysch, Zoe Schindler, Nora Obladen, Julian Frey, Dominik Florian Stangler, and Thomas Seifert. 2024. “Influence of Crown Morphology and Branch Architecture on Tree Radial Growth of Drought-Affected Fagus Sylvatica L.” Forest Ecosystems 11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fecs.2024.100237.
  • Li, Wantong, Gregory Duveiller, Sebastian Wieneke, Matthias Forkel, Pierre Gentine, Markus Reichstein, Shuli Niu, Mirco Migliavacca, and Rene Orth. 2024. “Regulation of the Global Carbon and Water Cycles through Vegetation Structural and Physiological Dynamics.” Environmental Research Letters 19 (7). https://doi.org/10.1088/1748-9326/ad5858.
  • Li, Yi, Andreas Schuldt, Anne Ebeling, Nico Eisenhauer, Yuanyuan Huang, Georg Albert, Cynthia Albracht, et int., Alexandra-Maria Klein, et al. 2024. “Plant Diversity Enhances Ecosystem Multifunctionality via Multitrophic Diversity.” Nature Ecology & Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-024-02517-2.
  • Morhart, Christopher, Zoe Schindler, Julian Frey, Jonathan P. Sheppard, Kim Calders, Mathias Disney, Felix Morsdorf, Pasi Raumonen, and Thomas Seifert. 2024. “Limitations of Estimating Branch Volume from Terrestrial Laser Scanning.” European Journal of Forest Research 143 (2): 687–702. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10342-023-01651-z.
  • Peña-Ponton, Cristian, Barbara Diez-Rodriguez, Paloma Perez-Bello, Claude Becker, Lauren M McIntyre, Wim H van der Putten, Emanuele de Paoli, Katrin Heer, Lars Opgenoorth, and Koen J F Verhoeven. 2024. “High-Resolution Methylome Analysis Uncovers Stress-Responsive Genomic Hotspots and Drought-Sensitive TE Superfamilies in the Clonal Lombardy Poplar.” Journal of Experimental Botany, June, erae262. https://doi.org/10.1093/jxb/erae262.
  • Rappa, Nolan J., Michael Staab, Laura‐Sophia Ruppert, Julian Frey, Marco A. R. Mello, and AlexandraMaria Klein. 2024. “Forest Structure and Heterogeneity Increase Diversity and Alter Composition of Host–Parasitoid Networks.” Ecological Entomology. https://doi.org/10.1111/een.13301.
  • Sekely, Jill, Paula Marchelli, Verónica Arana, Benjamin Dauphin, María Gabriela Mattera, Mario Pastorino, Ivan Scotti, Carolina Soliani, Katrin Heer, and Lars Opgenoorth. 2024. “Genomic Responses to Climate: Understanding Local Adaptation in the Andean Tree Species Nothofagus Pumilio and Implications for a Changing World.” PLANTS, PEOPLE, PLANET 6 (4): 902–20. https://doi.org/10.1002/ppp3.10504.
  • Shaw, Taylor, Michael Scherer-Lorenzen, and Sandra Müller. 2024. “Forest Structural Heterogeneity Positively Affects Bird Richness and Acoustic Diversity in a Temperate, Central European Forest.” Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fevo.2024.1387879.
  • Sperlich, Dominik, Marc Hanewinkel, and Rasoul Yousefpour. 2024. “Aiming at a Moving Target: Economic Evaluation of Adaptation Strategies under the Uncertainty of Climate Change and CO2 Fertilization of European Beech (Fagus Sylvatica L.) and Silver Fir (Abies Alba Mill.).” Annals of Forest Science 81 (1): 4. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13595-023-01215-6.
  • Zhan, Chunhui, René Orth, Hui Yang, Markus Reichstein, Sönke Zaehle, Martin G. de Kauwe, Anja Rammig, and Alexander J. Winkler. 2024. “Estimating the CO2 Fertilization Effect on Extratropical Forest Productivity From Flux‐Tower Observations.” Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences 129 (6). https://doi.org/10.1029/2023JG007910.
  • Zibold, Max, Claus Bässler, Markus Hauck, and Michael SchererLorenzen. 2024. “Fungi and Deadwood Diversity: A Test of the Area‐heterogeneity Trade‐off Hypothesis.” Journal of Ecology 112 (8): 1701–18. https://doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14352.

Most important publications

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Peer-reviewed publications

  1. Schlüter, M., Brelsford, C., Ferraro, P. J., Orach, K., Qiu, M., & Smith, M. D. (2023). Unraveling complex causal processes that affect sustainability requires more integration between empirical and modeling approaches. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2215676120 (This recent contribution demonstrates the need for a collaborative research approach that leverages both empirical evidence and modeling techniques to tackle sustainability challenges.) 
  2. Fuo O, Zengerling C, Sotto D. (2022). A Comparative Legal Analysis of Urban Climate Mitigation and Adaptation in the Building Sector in Brazil, Germany, and South Africa. Climate Law 12(1):32–97. DOI: 10.1163/18786561-12010002 (Recent comparative legal study in the emerging field of climate law.) 
  3. Kaleta T, Kern L, Hong SL, Holzer M, Kochs G, Beer J, Schnepf D, Schwemmle M, Bollen N, Kolb P, Huber M, Ulferts S, Weigang S, Dudas G, Wittig A, Jaki L, Padane A, Lagare A, Salou M, Ozer EA, Nnaemeka N, Odoom JK, Rutayisire R, Benkahla A, Akoua-Koffi C, Ouedraogo AS, Simon-Loriere E, Enouf V, Kroger S, Calvignac-Spencer S, Baele G, Panning M, Fuchs J. (2022). Antibody escape and global spread of SARS-CoV-2 lineage A.27. Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-022-28766-y (This study uses state-of-the art methodology to describe virus evolution and characterization of SARS-CoV-2 A.27 lineage.) 
  4. Scherer-Lorenzen M, Gessner MO, Beisner BE, Messier C, Paquette A, Petermann JS, Soininen J, Nock CA. (2022) Pathways for cross-boundary effects of biodiversity on ecosystem functioning. Trends in Ecology & Evolution. DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2021.12.009 (This new contribution presents a fundamental concept and outlines pathways of biodiversity effects across ecosystem boundaries on processes. It further proposes an agenda to assess such effects) 
  5. Dulamsuren Ch, Hauck M. (2021). Drought stress mitigation by nitrogen in boreal forests inferred from stable isotopes. Global Change Biology. DOI: 10.1111/gcb.15813 (This was the first study answering the question if co-limitation of forest productivity by nitrogen remains effective if boreal forests switch from temperature limitation to drought limitation.) 
  6. Pauliuk S, Heeren N, Berrill P, Fishman T, Nistad A, Tu Q, Wolfram P, Hertwich EG. (2021). Global scenarios of resource and emission savings from material efficiency in residential buildings and cars. Nature Communications. DOI: 10.1038/s41467-021-25300-4 (First estimation of climate, energy, and materials impact of material efficiency and wood use in residential buildings, with global scope.) 
  7. Werner C, Meredith LS, Ladd SN, Ingrisch J, Kübert A, van Haren J, Bahn M, Bailey K, Bamberger I, Beyer M, Blomdahl D, Byron J, Daber E, Deleeuw J, Dippold M, Fudyma J, Gil-Loaiza J, Honeker LK, Hu J, Huang J, Klüpfel T, Krechmer J, Kreuzwieser J, Kühnhammer K, Lehmann MM, Meeran K, Misztal PK, Ng W-R, Pfannerstill E, Pugliese G, Purser G, Roscioli J, Shi L, Tfaily M, Williams J. (2021). Ecosystem fluxes during drought and recovery in an experimental forest. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.abj6789 (This study describes the mechanisms and plant functional group responses to severe drought and recovery in a tropical forest.) 
  8. Fünfgeld H and Schmid B (2020): Justice in climate change adaptation planning: conceptual perspectives on emergent praxis. Geographica Helvetica, 75 (4): 437-449. DOI: 10.5194/gh-75-437-2020 (This conceptual paper develops the notion of justice-sensitive adaptation planning, based on empirical work on municipal climate change adaptation processes) 
  9. Haug M. (2020). Framing the Future through the Lens of Hope:Environmental Change, Diverse Hopes and the Challenge of Engagement. Journal of Social and Cultural Anthropology. URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/27124116 (Publication that arose from a plenary event of the German Anthropological Assocations’ conference on the future of the discipline.) 
  10. Krayenhoff ES, Jiang T, Christen A, Martilli A, Oke TR, Bailey BN, Nazarian N, Voogt JA, Giometto MG, Stastny A, Crawford BR. (2020): A multi-layer urban canopy meteorological model with trees (BEP-Tree): Street tree impacts on pedestrian-level climate. Urban Climate. DOI: 10.1016/j.uclim.2020.100590 (This highly cited paper describes the development of a model that can simulate interactions between trees and surrounding infrastructure to model the local climate mitigation potential of trees.) 
  11. Biedermann PHW,Müller J, Grégoire JC, Gruppe A, Hagge J, Hammerbacher A, Hofstetter RW, Kandasamy D, Kolarik M, Kostovcik M, Krokene P. (2019). Bark beetle population dynamics in the Anthropocene: challenges and solutions. Trends in Ecology & Evolution. DOI: 10.1016/j.tree.2019.06.002 (Here we described the abiotic and biotic variables that drive bark beetle populations and highlight major gaps in our knowledge that need to be addressed for successful management of these forest insects.) 
  12. May S (2019) Wood. Regarding economies and policies through the eyes of a cultural anthropologist. Journal for European Ethnology and Cultural Analysis (JEECA) 3(2):193–214 (On a broad empirical basis, the author discusses how wood is currently used and given meaning and to what extent access via a material enables cultural anthropological analyses of economic and political fields).
  13. Messier C, Bauhus J, Doyon F, Maure F, Sousa-Silva R, Nolet P, Mina M, Aquilué N, Fortin M-J, Puettmann K. (2019). The functional complex network approach to foster forest resilience to global change. Forest Ecosystems. DOI: 10.1186/s40663-019-0199-6 (In this highly cited paper, we propose a novel approach to integrate the functionality of species-traits into a functional complex network approach as a flexible and multi-scale way to manage forests for the Anthropocene.) 
  14. Bachmair S, Tanguy M, Hannaford J, Stahl K. (2018). How well do meteorological indicators represent agricultural and forest drought across Europe? Environmental Research Letters. DOI: 10.1088/1748-9326/aaafda (This highly cited paper set a benchmark for the estimation of drought indices to assess drought impacts in forests.) 
  15. Heer K, Behringer D, Piermattei A, Bässler C, Brandl R, Fady B., Jehl H, Liepelt S, Lorch S, Piotti A, Vendramin GG, Weller M, Ziegenhagen B, Büntgen U, Opgenoorth L. (2018). Linking dendroecology and association genetics in natural populations: Stress responses archived in tree rings associate with SNP genotypes in silver fir (Abies alba Mill.). Molecular Ecology. DOI: 10.1111/mec.14538 (Paper demonstrates that analyses of phenotypic information from tree ring data and genetic data are a powerful resource to investigate the genetic basis of stress response in trees.) 
  16. Kleinschmit D, Pülzl H, Secco L, Sergent A, Wallin I. (2018). Orchestration in political processes: Involvement of experts, citizens, and participatory professionals in forest policy making. Forest Policy and Economics. DOI: 10.1016/j.forpol.2017.12.011 (This study clearly showed that governance by citizen participation is rather neglected in European forest policy.) 
  17. Orth R, Destouni G (2018) Drought reduces blue-water fluxes more strongly than green-water fluxes in Europe. Nat Commun 9(1):3602. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-018-06013-7 (open access) (This study shows that soil-moisture drought reduces runoff stronger and faster than it reduces evapotranspiration over Europe and argues that understanding these drought-impact pathways across blue and green-water fluxes and geospheres is essential for ensuring water security, and developing early-warning and adaptation systems in support of society and ecosystems)
  18. Lang F, Krüger J, Amelung W, Willbold S, Frossard E, Bünemann EK, Bauhus J, Nitschke R, Kandeler E, Marhan S, Schulz S, Bergkemper F, Schloter M, Luster J, Guggisberg F, Kaiser K, Mikutta R, Guggenberger G, Polle A, Pena R, Prietzel J, Rodionov A, Talkner U, Meesenburg H, von Wilpert K, Hölscher A, Dietrich HP, Chmara I. (2017). Soil phosphorus supply controls P nutrition strategies of beech forest ecosystems in Central Europe. Biogeochemistry. DOI: 10.1007/s10533-017-0375-0 (First publication to explicitly describe forest ecosystem adaptation to low P levels in soils based on an interdisciplinary approach covering soil science, microbiology, and plant physiology.) 
  19. Sprenger M, Leistert H, Gimbel K, Weiler M. (2016). Illuminating hydrological processes at the soil‐vegetation‐atmosphere interface with water stable isotopes. Reviews of Geophysics. DOI: 10.1002/2015RG000515 (Highly cited paper that provides an overview of the hydrological processes that alter the soil water stable isotopic composition.) 
  20. Pregernig M.(2014). Framings of science-policy interactions and their discursive and institutional effects: examples from conservation and environmental policy. Biodiversity and Conservation. DOI: 10.1007/s10531-014-0806-3 (An early and well received paper that applies different theories of science-policy interactions on topics of biodiversity and conservation.) 
  21. Braunisch V, Coppes J, Arlettaz R, Suchant R, Schmid H, Bollmann K. (2013). Selecting from correlated climate variables: a major source of uncertainty for predicting species distributions under climate change. Ecography. DOI: 10.1111/j.1600-0587.2013.00138.x (Highly cited paper that investigated the uncertainty in predicting the future range shifts of species in central Europe under climate change, highlighting the importance of accounting for variable selection when making conservation decisions.) 
  22. Hanewinkel M, Cullmann DA, Schelhaas MJ, Nabuurs G-J, Zimmermann NE. (2013). Climate change may cause severe loss in the economic value of European forest land. Nature Climate Change. DOI: 10.1038/nclimate1687 (Highly cited paper that, for the first time, estimated the economic impacts of projected tree species changes under climate change on a European level.) 
  23. Knoke T, Seifert T. (2008). Integrating selected ecological effects of mixed European beech – Norway spruce stands in bioeconomic modelling. Ecological Modelling. DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2007.08.011 (One of the first papers integrating economic and ecological perspectives of mixed forests into bioeconomic modelling of mixed forests.) 
  24. Dormann CF, McPherson JM, Araújo MB, Bivand R, Bolliger J, Carl G, Davies RG, Hirzel A, Jetz W, Kissling WD, Kühn I, Ohlemüller R, Peres-Neto PR, Reineking B, Schröder B, Schurr FM, Wilson R. (2007). Methods to account for spatial autocorrelation in the analysis of species distributional data: a review. Ecography. DOI: 10.1111/j.2007.0906-7590.05171.x (Highly cited paper that provides a critical examination of the many available spatial statistical methods that take spatial autocorrelation into account in tests of species distribution data.) 
  25. Klein AM, Vaissière BE, Cane J, Steffan-Dewenter I, Cunningham SA, Kremen C, Tscharntke T. (2007). Importance of pollinators in changing landscapes for world crops. Proceedings of the Royal Society B: Biological Sciences. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2006.3721 (Highly cited paper that uses novel primary data from 200 countries to evaluate the extent of our reliance on animal pollination for global crop production and highlights the essential role of pollinators for sustaining crop diversity and production.)