Project description
Understanding tree mortality in drought and extreme heat
A key ecological issue is how trees can survive more frequent droughts and extreme heat. Global tree mortality has risen, especially during Europe’s worst drought of 2022 in 500 years. Despite limited understanding of the causes, we can now analyse tree mortality patterns and species across large areas. The ERC-funded DRYTREE project aims to explore the environmental factors driving drought- and heat-related tree mortality at the species level across various forest biomes. It will advance remote sensing and deep learning, as well as analyse data on tree deaths to identify key species-specific thresholds and vulnerabilities. This research aims to enhance the understanding of tree mortality drivers and support forest managers and policymakers in protecting at-risk forests.
Objective
One of the most pressing ecological questions is how trees and forests can survive in increasing intensity and frequency of droughts and extreme heat. Wide-spread drought-related tree mortality has been witnessed globally over the last decade and in 2022, Europe suffered from the worst drought in 500 years. Understanding and predicting the impact of drought and heat on tree mortality is limited due to lack of knowledge on the environmental conditions that lead to tree mortality.
For the first time, it is feasible to quantify spatial and temporal tree mortality patterns and capture tree structure and species over large geographic regions at the individual tree-level. This enables me to aim to uncover environmental thresholds and key environmental drivers of drought- and heat-related tree mortality at the species-level for various forest biomes. Use of state-of-the-art remote sensing and deep learning methods allows me to capture where, when and what kind of trees (species, structure) have died for tens of millions of trees to increase our understanding of spatial and temporal tree mortality patterns. My approach uses laser scanning data to provide detailed tree 3D characterization and calculation of tree position within tree community (competition) and the landscape (water availability, microclimate). Then, combining these variables with information on tree xylem vulnerability, pest insects, soil temperature and climate, we can ultimately reveal species-specific environmental thresholds and key drivers of drought- and heat-related tree mortality. This research will open new horizons, bringing ecophysiology, remote sensing, forest ecology and entomology together, and developing methods to quantify drivers of tree mortality in much greater depth than has been possible to date. From these findings, we will be able to inform forest managers and policy makers which forests are at risk for increasing the resilience of future forests.
Fields of science (EuroSciVoc)
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
CORDIS classifies projects with EuroSciVoc, a multilingual taxonomy of fields of science, through a semi-automatic process based on NLP techniques. See: The European Science Vocabulary.
- social sciences sociology demography mortality
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology
- natural sciences biological sciences zoology entomology
- natural sciences physical sciences optics laser physics
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Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
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Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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(opens in new window) ERC-2023-STG
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00014 Helsinki
Finland
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