FORGENIUS Public Webinars kick off with focus on drought resistance and forest diversity
Forest diversity is key in mitigating the impacts of climate change. Guest speaker, Dr. Xavier Morin, highlighted this in the first edition of the FORGENIUS Public Webinars, on 27 October.
Monospecific and mixed forests do not react to changes in the same way in areas such as productivity, biodiversity, resistance and resilience to climate change, resistance to windthrows, pathogens and herbivores, fires or microclimate buffering. Factors like space, age and structure also affect forests’ reaction to changes. Dr. Morin concludes that mature forests are species-richer, more resilient and multifunctional and can be more resistant to changing climate than young ones, hence the importance of preserving them.
Project member, Dr. Nicolas Martin highlighted that this research is a novel approach to intraspecific variability of tree drought risk quantification that needs to be validated using independent data such as climate gradient, in situ observations of drought damage, genomic, or tree ring width. Moreover, this approach could be integrated into dynamic vegetation models used to estimate future forest dynamics.
The FORGENIUS public webinar series provides a valuable opportunity for the public to learn about the diversity of European forests and their resilience to climate change. This edition was a successful start to the series, and future webinars will continue to inform and engage the public on these and other important topics.
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