Project description
Enhancing forest resilience to drought
Climate change is increasingly threatening trees, which are essential for regulating Earth’s water and carbon cycles. As summers grow hotter and drier, drought-induced mortality becomes a growing concern across European forests and other global biomes. Due to their size and longevity, trees struggle to adapt quickly enough to the fast pace of global climate change. Forests, however, remain critical ecosystems that we cannot afford to lose. The ERC-funded RESILFOREST project aims to address knowledge gaps in tree responses to drought, specifically regarding xylem embolism, carbon starvation, and recovery processes. Through field measurements, controlled experiments, and advanced modelling, the project will uncover the eco-physiological mechanisms behind drought resilience. This research will help develop strategies to improve forest management.
Objective
Trees play a major role in Earths water and carbon cycles. Climate change puts trees under a growing threat of drought-induced mortality. This already happens in Europe, where summers are becoming hotter and drier, and across global forest biomes. Due to their large size and long lifespan, trees need time to adapt and migrate, time they lack under the fast rate of global change. On the other hand, foersts are amog the most important ecosystems we simply cannot afford to lose.
Loss of xylem hydraulic conductivity due to eruption of air bubbles is termed xylem embolism. Despite many years of studying tree responses to drought, it is still debated whether xylem embolism actually kills trees. Simultaneous processes like carbon starvation, leaf desiccation and heat damage make it harder to pinpoint the direct effects of drought on xylem enbolism. Further, while the extent of embolism avoidance has been characterized in many tree species, embolism tolerance has been rarely studied, and recovery processes are mostly unknown. Finally, a wide research gap exists between eco-physiological mechanisms at the tree scale and implications at the forest scale. This research proposal portrays a clear roadmap to resolving the open questions in tree hydraulic mechanisms under drought, and to integrating them at the forest scale.
Increasing drought resilience in forests through eco-physiological mechanisms requires (1) in-situ field measurements, (2) controlled experiments to decipher tree mechanisms, and (3) advanced modeling to upscale tree-level measurements into the forest scale and support future forest management.
We will combine novel techniques (custom-made micro-CT, field detection of xylem embolism and water potential, spatial mass spectrometry imaging, and more); field measurements and manipulations on mature trees; greenhouse experiments on diverse tree species; and computational modeling, to test new hypotheses aimed at increasing drought resilience of 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
- medical and health sciences clinical medicine angiology vascular diseases
- natural sciences biological sciences ecology ecosystems
You need to log in or register to use this function
We are sorry... an unexpected error occurred during execution.
You need to be authenticated. Your session might have expired.
Thank you for your feedback. You will soon receive an email to confirm the submission. If you have selected to be notified about the reporting status, you will also be contacted when the reporting status will change.
Keywords
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Project’s keywords as indicated by the project coordinator. Not to be confused with the EuroSciVoc taxonomy (Fields of science)
Programme(s)
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
Multi-annual funding programmes that define the EU’s priorities for research and innovation.
-
HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
MAIN PROGRAMME
See all projects funded under this programme
Topic(s)
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Calls for proposals are divided into topics. A topic defines a specific subject or area for which applicants can submit proposals. The description of a topic comprises its specific scope and the expected impact of the funded project.
Funding Scheme
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
Funding scheme (or “Type of Action”) inside a programme with common features. It specifies: the scope of what is funded; the reimbursement rate; specific evaluation criteria to qualify for funding; and the use of simplified forms of costs like lump sums.
HORIZON-ERC - HORIZON ERC Grants
See all projects funded under this funding scheme
Call for proposal
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2024-COG
See all projects funded under this callHost institution
Net EU financial contribution. The sum of money that the participant receives, deducted by the EU contribution to its linked third party. It considers the distribution of the EU financial contribution between direct beneficiaries of the project and other types of participants, like third-party participants.
7610001 Rehovot
Israel
The total costs incurred by this organisation to participate in the project, including direct and indirect costs. This amount is a subset of the overall project budget.