Research team analyse biodiversity, ecosystems and economics of enriching beech forests with conifers.
Research team analyse biodiversity, ecosystems and economics of enriching beech forests with conifers.
Forests provide biodiversity, ecosystem functions, income and much more. How can these diverse and seemingly diverging demands be met? An international research team led by the University of Göttingen addressed this question by analysing the effects of enriching beech forests in Germany with commercially valuable native (to mountainous regions of Europe) and non-native conifer species, in this case, the Norway spruce and Douglas fir, respectively. Their study showed that enriching beech forests which naturally have few tree species does not necessarily reduce species richness or ecosystem functioning. In fact, their results showed that there were positive gains at many levels including biodiversity, ecosystems and economic viability, especially for the combination of beech with Douglas fir. The research was published in Science Advances.
The scientists used a unique empirical dataset, taking data from 40 plots of mature European beech forests across the state of Lower Saxony in Germany. The research team combined data from 11 projects, each of which analysed many different research aspects of European beech forests enriched with conifers. These aspects included: seven biodiversity indicators, considering arthropods and birds in the canopy to fungi and creatures in the soil; eight ecosystem functions, including processes involved in nutrient cycling, such as the amount of carbon or nitrogen in the soil or the biomass of the trees aboveground; and six economic functions, such as current and short-term economic return, tree survival and volume of wood in the future. The research gave a unique and comprehensive perspective by integrating these multiple perspectives.
Read more at University of Göttingen
Image: Beech trees in research areas of the DFG Research Training Group 2300 “Enrico”. Beeches usually occur naturally alone without other trees. In this study, the Research Training Group investigated the enrichment with coniferous tree species and the ecological and economic consequences. (Credit: Jan Schick)
