The effect of forest management and neighborhood diversity on seasonal tree growth responses

• Antragsteller: Professor Dr. Christian Ammer
• Fachliche Zuordnung: Ökologie und Biodiversität der Pflanzen und Ökosysteme
• Förderung: Förderung von 2011 bis 2017
• Projektkennung: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Projektnummer 193258401

By analyzing the growth response of trees as a function of local neighborhood diversity this application addresses the key element of the DFG-exploratories: which impact do diversity and management intensity have on ecosystem functions? The purpose of this research is therefore (1) to explain the growth response of selected trees on different time scales (day to year) as a function of their neighborhood (which is strongly related to management intensity); (2) to reveal the impact of neighborhood density and species composition on individual tree growth (measured by self-acting dendrometers) and (3) to explain the revealed growth pattern by using growth related plant traits, especially stabile isotope ratios, nitrogen concentrations and SLA and morphological characteristics such as branch remification. The idea of this proposal therefore is not only to detect different patterns of growth-neighborhood-responses by analyzing tree growth measurements originating from daily to yearly growth data, but also to relate these different growth patterns to different ecophysiological characteristics and strategies.

• DFG-Verfahren: Infrastruktur-Schwerpunktprogramme
• Teilprojekt zu: SPP 1374: Biodiversitäts-Exploratorien
• Beteiligte Person: Professor Dr. Ernst-Detlef Schulze