Abstract:

Traditional forest management of European beech forests consists of large-scale felling with a few remaining trees to produce the next generation. This may have significantly disturbed the genetic and ecophysiological diversity. In general, high diversity is assumed to be very important for the adjustement to environmental changes. DynaBeech aims to assess the impacts of silvicultural regimes on genetic and ecological diversity. It will result in guidelines for both the optimisation of the adaptive potential and in situ conservation of beech forests through appropriate silvicultural regimes. These will be obtained through the integration of genetic and ecophysiological results by modelling and the development of alternative management scenarios. End-users involved in the project will evaluate the guidelines for economic and practical implications in their field of forest management.

Objectives:

DynaBeech aims to assess the impacts of previous silvicultural regimes on genetic and ecophysiological diversity within beech forests in Europe, and to provide guidelines for both the optimisation of the adaptive potential and the in situ conservation of diversity of beech forests through appropriate silvicultural regimes. DynaBeech aims to contribute to key action 5.3.1. By,

1. providing tools for evaluating biodiversity,
2. understanding the functioning and diversity of forest ecosystems, and
3. assessing the interactions with forestry activities.

Contacts

Coordinator

• Alterra Green World Research / NETHERLANDS

Participant

• Guiseppe VENDRAMIN / IMGPF - Istituto Miglioramento Genetico Piante Forestali Consiglio Nazionale dell Richerche / ITALY
• Eric TESSIER DU CROS / INRA Mediterranean Forest Research Unit / FRANCE
• Thomas GEBUREK / Institute of Forest Genetics AUSTRIA
• M FORSTREUTER / Technical University of Berlin Institute of Ecology and Biology / GERMANY
• P MENOZZI / Universita di Parma Dipartimento di Scienze Ambientali / ITALY