- 1Bioclimatology, University of Goettingen, Göttingen, Germany (aknohl@uni-goettingen.de)
- 2Silviculture and Forest Ecology of the Temperate Zones, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
- 3Environmental Geochemistry, TU Braunschweig, Braunschweig, Germany
- 4Institute for Forest Protection, Julius Kühn‐Institute, Quedlinburg, Germany
- 5Forest Protection, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
- 6Environmental Behavior and Planning, Leibniz Universität Hannover, Hannover, Germany
- 7Faculty of Resource Management, HAWK University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Göttingen, Germany
- 8Department of Environmental Research and Innovation, Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology (LIST), Belvaux, Luxembourg
- 9Forest Economics and Sustainable Land-use Planning, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
- 10Central Custody and Forum Wissen, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
- 11Spatial Structure and Digitalization of Forests, University of Göttingen, Göttingen, Germany
- 12Department of Environmental Control, Northwest German Forest Research Institute, Göttingen, Germany
Climate change directly affects forests in Central Europe challenging the way how they are managed under current and future conditions. As forests provide essential ecosystem functions and services to society, such as carbon uptake and storage, urgent solutions are needed to enhance their resilience to climate change. To meet this challenge and address the question of how we can make forests resilient to climate change now and in the future, we have established a new platform in Lower Saxony/Germany through the FoResLab project. A highly interdisciplinary and transdisciplinary approach was chosen to bring together experts from multiple institutions and practise partners ensuring close collaboration between science, the private sector, and civil society.
Organised into three platforms and 13 subprojects, FoResLab will pursue innovative ways of inter- and transdisciplinary research, science communication, and knowledge transfer. In the Experimental Platform, we will investigate relevant ecosystem functions and services using a harmonised experimental design and near-real-time sensor technology at six highly instrumented forest sites using eddy covariance, dendrometer, sapflux, and laser scan measurements. This will enable us to derive multi-functional indicators of forest resilience to climate change. The Experimental Platform will also serve to test and validate the Digital Platform, where airborne and spaceborne remote sensing, along with modelling approaches, will provide two online products available to stakeholders and the public: (1) Digital Twins of our experimental sites will enable the exploration of management options for real-world forests in a digital environment, and (2) an Online Forest Water Stress Monitor will provide high spatio-temporal resolution for near real-time forest monitoring in Lower Saxony and beyond. The Societal Platform will foster transdisciplinary research, stimulate synthesis publications, and ensure comprehensive stakeholder involvement. Through Göttingen’s new knowledge museum, Forum Wissen, we will explore novel ways in digital education, public events, and science communication, thus connecting science, politics, and society. Through its research, stakeholder and society involvement, as well as academic and non-academic knowledge transfer, FoResLab aims to provide a fundamental step towards forests resilient to climate change.
How to cite: Knohl, A., Drollinger, S., Ammer, C., Beyer, M., Biester, H., Hartmann, H., Koessler, A.-K., Magdon, P., Mallick, K., Paul, C., Potsch, S., Seidel, D., Talkner, U., and Teuscher, M.: FoResLab - Future Lab towards Forests Resilient to Climate Change, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-11709, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-11709, 2025.
