Key ecological research questions for Central European forests

Abstract

Forests are under pressure from accelerating global change. To cope with the multiple challenges related to global change but also to further improve forest management we need a better understanding of (1) the linkages between drivers of ecosystem change and the state and management of forest ecosystems as well as their capacity to adapt to ongoing global environmental changes, and(2) the interrelationships within and between the components of forest ecosystems. To address the resulting challenges for the state of forest ecosystems in Central Europe, we suggest 45 questions for future ecological research. We define forest ecology as studies on the abiotic and biotic components of forest ecosystems and their interactions on varying spatial and temporal scales. Our questions cover five thematic fields and correspond to the criteria selected for describing the state of Europe's forests by policy makers, i.e. biogeochemical cycling, mortality and disturbances, productivity, biodiversity and biotic interactions, and regulation and protection. We conclude that an improved mechanistic understanding of forest ecosystems is essential for the further development of ecosystem-oriented multifunctional forest management in the face of accelerating global change.

Editorial: Woody Plants and Forest Ecosystems in a Complex World—Ecological Interactions and Physiological Functioning Above and Below Ground

“…We support our call by the large number of open questions related to forest ecology [see e.g. (Ammer et al, 2018) for Central Europe] and recent research on woody species and forest ecosystems. The 18 articles in this Research Topic (RT) not only uncover ecological interactions and physiological functioning above-and belowground, but also illustrate specific open questions and research gaps that need to be covered-allowing for better predictions of forest responses to global change and other human activity-based ecosystem modifications.…”

Capturing ecological processes in dynamic forest models: why there is no silver bullet to cope with complexity

“…In contrast, long‐term unmanaged applications were very sensitive to the formulations of mortality and establishment. A better understanding of mortality has been repeatedly claimed to be pivotal for improving the robustness of projections of future forest dynamics (Bircher et al 2015, Ammer et al 2018, Vanoni et al 2019).…”

Landscape-Scale Mixtures of Tree Species are More Effective than Stand-Scale Mixtures for Biodiversity of Vascular Plants, Bryophytes and Lichens

“…Thus, where pure stands are for example susceptible to extreme events [35,94], trade-offs between high landscape biodiversity and high productivity or stability may occur. Future studies may also explore which key structural attributes (including tree crowns as habitats for epiphytes) are related to biodiversity at different spatial scales and how dispersal abilities of certain species are influenced by different configurations [95]. This should also include the evaluation of the effect of maintaining old trees and unmanaged stands for epiphytic species, many of them being protected.…”