Deadwood Decay in central European FORests

Deadwood (that is, dead woody matter) is an important and large carbon pool in unmanaged forests and will become more important in managed forests, as changes in forest management and/or more frequent disturbances will likely lead to higher deadwood amount in Central European forests. Future deadwood dynamics can be currently not accurately assessed due to lack of a conceptual understanding and data on deadwood carbon stocks, carbon fluxes, importance of fungi for deadwood decay and the habitat value of deadwood. DD FOR will introduce a conceptual understanding of deadwood dynamics during its observable lifetime from deadwood creation to fragmentation and incorporation into the soil. In DD FOR we expect that temperature is the main driver of deadwood decay and that warming is stronger at higher elevation. Thus the results of DD FOR will help quantify the impacts of global warming on the carbon cycle. We will also test, whether deadwood decay is faster under moderate moisture conditions and how management can modify decay rates, through debarking, deadwood position and/or environmental conditions. We will use field experiments, develop temporal models on deadwood change over time, that can be combined with other field data and/or forest growth models. Spanning temperature and precipitation gradients of Central Europe (~3-8 C average annual temperature, ~700-1700 mm annual precipitation sum) our field sites will complement European research initiatives on deadwood research. For important tree species in Central Europe (e.g. Picea abies, Pinus sylvestris, Fagus sylvatica, Quercus sp.) we will establish sequences of field sites with varying deadwood age (so called chronosequences) of deadwood samples, building on pilot studies by the applicant and existing research infrastructure. For selected deadwood pieces we will conduct monitoring of wood-dwelling insects using suitable traps and quantify the fungal communities using wood samples, fruiting body inventories and state-of-the-art analytical methods, including meta bar-coding. This will establish decay rate benchmarks for fungal species, depending on climate and their host species. DD FOR will be supported by a scientific advisory panel consisting of national and international colleagues, purposefully selected to create synergies with other deadwood projects and ensure uptake of project results for deadwood-focused carbon reporting.