Project description
Forest resilience to environmental changes
The 21st century has seen more frequent heatwaves in Europe, linked to increased vapour pressure deficit (VPD), and resulting in atmospheric droughts. These conditions harm plant water relations, reduce carbon capacity, and cause tree mortality. We aim to study how European forests respond to these environmental changes. The ERC-funded COOL project aims to explore tree tolerance to temperature and VPD using advanced experiments and a European monitoring network. It aims to understand the impacts of temperature, VPD, and soil moisture on forest growth and mortality. By collecting high-resolution data, the project will provide insights into forest resilience, inform climate-smart management, and address the effects of droughts on ecosystems.
Objective
The 21st century has witnessed a steady rise in the frequency and intensity of heatwaves, creating unprecedented challenges for ecosystems. Europe, in particular, has experienced its hottest heatwaves in the past two decades, increasingly coupled with elevated vapor pressure deficit (VPD)—the atmospheric demand for water—resulting in a new form of “atmospheric droughts.” These droughts disrupt plant water relations, diminish carbon sink capacity, and trigger large-scale tree mortality. Our overarching goal is to unravel how European forests respond to rising VPD and temperature, their extremes, and compounding soil drought effects. COOL integrates innovative methodologies, including state-of-the-art laboratory experiments, the first-ever VPD manipulation in a natural forest, a pan-European monitoring network, and advancements in mechanistic modeling. We will (1) systematically assess what drives trees’ thermal and VPD tolerance, an area previously unexplored but crucial for predicting forest resilience; (2) disentangle, for the first time, the impacts of temperature, VPD, and soil moisture in natural settings—an achievement made possible by novel methodological developments; (3) investigate the role of long-term acclimation to temperature and VPD under varying soil moisture scenarios, leveraging unprecedented experimental infrastructure; and (4) quantify the consequences for forest growth, water use, and tree mortality. By combining cutting-edge approaches to collect high-resolution hydraulic and thermal data, COOL overcomes a critical bottleneck in forest research. The project will deliver groundbreaking insights into forest resilience under future climates. These results will advance climate-smart forest management, inform policy frameworks, equip stakeholders with actionable tools, and foster education in global change ecology. COOL will establish new paradigms for predicting and mitigating the long-term consequences of atmospheric droughts on forest ecosystems.
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.
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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.
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HORIZON.1.1 - European Research Council (ERC)
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Topic(s)
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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
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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.
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Call for proposal
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Procedure for inviting applicants to submit project proposals, with the aim of receiving EU funding.
(opens in new window) ERC-2025-COG
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1015 LAUSANNE
Switzerland
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