The fellow completed all training during the period reported. This includes on hands training in plant hydraulics, ecophysiology and forest modelling, completing courses on tree climbing and university teaching, gaining mentoring and teaching experience, and acquiring project management skills.
Main FORECAST results are the development of a model written in R that can be used for predicting mixed forests responses to environmental variables. Key output elements of this model are assimilation and drought-stress indicators. Detailed evaluation with trait data and environmental measurements from Hayedo de Montejo (Madrid, Spain) is still in progress. However, the model’s performance was tested against gas exchange data from an eddy-covariance tower and the results from this comparison have been published in Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems.
The model has the potential to be adapted as a tool that managers from a forest can use to predict the effects of climate change or silvicultural practices such as thinning. It can also be used to determine which species will be more vulnerable under new environmental conditions. This can allow managers to decide if they want to perform silvicultural practices that favour those vulnerable species or prefer to accelerate change in species composition of forests for those that will be more resilient to future environmental conditions. The final version of the model will be archived in a public repository so that it is freely accessible for its use.
FORECAST hypothesis and results have been disseminated targeting different audiences. The project in its results were presented to scientists at European Geophysical Union General Assembly in Vienna (May 2022), in seminars at Universidad Politécnica de Madrid (UPM), and in a scientific paper. FORECAST was presented to stakeholders and managers during a secondment at Dirección General de Biodiversidad y Recursos Naturales de la Comunidad de Madrid. The project has also been presented to students of UPM during lectures, field trips, and the elaboration of final degree project and a master thesis. The fellows also presented the project to primary and secondary school students during the “Science is Wonderful” (November 2021) event organized by the European Commission. Finally, social media accounts and the researcher’s website were also used for disseminating results.
