Georgios Skiadaresis

• Dr. rer. nat.
• University of Freiburg

Different aspects of diversity, such as species richness and structural diversity, have been shown to enhance forest ecosystem functions, including biomass production. However, whether diversity-productivity relationships change over time or with climatic conditions remains uncertain. We analyzed above-ground woody biomass increment (AWBI) derived...

There is increasing evidence that different aspects of diversity promote forest ecosystem functions, including biomass production. However, whether diversity-productivity relationships change over time or with climatic conditions remains uncertain. We analyzed above-ground woody biomass increment (AWBI) derived from annual inventory data and micro-...

Mixed-species forests are proposed as strategy to increase the resistance and resilience of forests to drought stress. However, evidence suggest that increasing tree species richness does not consistently enhance tree growth responses to drought. Moreover, tree diversity effects under unprecedented multiyear droughts remain uncertain, calling for a...

You can find the full paper here: https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1jmN81L%7EGwcMv4 - Highlights • This study addresses whether the radial growth of Oriental beech responds better to drought than that of the European beech. • We analyzed radial growth between 1920 and 2018 of 138 European and 122 Oriental beeches growing in eight different location...

The loss of tropical forest resilience has been linked to increased climate variability and associated droughts, but the response of tropical trees to climate extremes remains poorly understood. This limits our ability to design effective forest adaptation strategies in the tropics. Here we analyse the potential of using young trees to analyse clim...

Intensifying climate change is successively increasing the frequency and intensity of extreme climate events such as droughts. In 2018–2019, Central European forests were hit by two consecutive hotter drought years that were unprecedented in their severity at least in the last 250 years. Such hotter droughts, where drought coincides with a heat wav...

Human evolution was strongly related to environmental factors. Woodlands and their products played a key role in the production of tools and weapons, and provided unique resources for constructions and fuel. Therefore wooden finds are essential in gaining insights into climatic and land use changes but also societal development during the Holocene....

Droughts increasingly threaten the world's forests and their potential to mitigate climate change. In 2018–2019, Central European forests were hit by two consecutive hotter drought years, an unprecedented phenomenon that is likely to occur more frequently with climate change. Here, we examine tree growth and physiological stress responses (increase...

After being proposed by Lloret et al. in 2011, the resilience components resistance, recovery, resilience and relative resilience became highly popular for studying tree growth responses to disturbances and extreme weather events. As the ‘Lloret indices’, however, have conceptual limitations, various additional indices to characterize tree resilien...

Tree-ring widths (TRW) of historical and archeological wood provide crucial proxies, frequently used for high-resolution multi-millennial paleoclimate reconstructions. Former growing conditions of the utilized trees, however, are largely unknown. Potential influences of historical forest management practices on climatic information, derived from TR...

Anthropogenic climate change pushes forest ecosystems globally beyond their limits. Widespread events of forest die-off have been attributed to direct and indirect impacts of increasingly frequent and intense droughts. Here, we focus on an extensive mortality event in Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) H. Karst.) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica (L...

DRIeR – Zahlen und Fakten stellt Schlüsselergebnisse des Projektes auf Factsheets von je zwei Seiten pro Thema zusammen. Beginnend mit einer Kernaussage werden die Forschungsthemen und Ergebnisse präsentiert. Weitergehende Informationen und eine Übersicht über publizierte Fachartikel sind auf www.drier.uni-freiburg.de zu finden.

Droughts increasingly threaten the world’s forests and their potential to mitigate climate change. In 2018-2019, Central European forests were hit by two consecutive hotter drought years, an unprecedented phenomenon that is likely to occur more frequently with climate change. Here, we examine tree growth and physiological stress responses (increase...

Climate change is expected to pose major direct and indirect threats to groundwater-dependent forest ecosystems. Forests that concurrently experience increased rates of water extraction may face unprecedented exposure to droughts. Here, we examined differences in stem growth and xylem hydraulic architecture of 216 oak trees from sites with contrast...

To satisfy the increasing demand for wood in central Europe during medieval times, a new system of forest management was developed, one far superior to simple coppicing. The adoption of a sophisticated, Coppice-with-Standards (CWS) management practice created a two-storey forest structure that could provide fuelwood as well as construction timber....

Abstract. Droughts are multidimensional hazards that can lead to substantial environmental and societal impacts. To understand causes and impacts, multiple variables need to be considered. Many studies identified past drought events and investigated drought propagation from meteorological droughts via soil moisture to hydrological droughts and some...

Droughts are multidimensional hazards that can lead to substantial environmental and societal impacts. To understand causes and impacts, multiple perspectives need to be considered. Many studies have identified past drought events and investigated drought propagation from meteorological droughts via soil moisture to hydrological droughts, and some...

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS

Abstract Hydroclimate, the interplay of moisture supply and evaporative demand, is essential for ecological and agricultural systems. The understanding of long-term hydroclimate changes is, however, limited because instrumental measurements are inadequate in length to capture the full range of precipitation and temperature variability and by the un...

Purpose of Review Despite the rapidly increasing use of resilience indices to analyze responses of trees and forests to disturbance events, there is so far no common framework to apply and interpret these indices for different purposes. Therefore, this review aims to identify and discuss various shortcomings and pitfalls of commonly used resilience...

Background: Groundwater is one of the most crucial and reliable sources of fresh water for human and natural systems. Groundwater-fed and floodplain forests are typically characterized by high productivity and are extremely valued for their biodiversity and unique ecosystem functions and services they provide. Yet land-use change, groundwater extra...

This preprint has been published in Current Forestry Reports: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40725-020-00119-2 Abstract: Quantifying the resilience of forest ecosystems in response to droughts is fundamentally important to assess their capacity to function under intensifying climate change with more extreme droughts. The concept propose...

In future, groundwater dependent ecosystems are likely to face increasing stress from direct and indirect effects of climate change. European floodplain forests already experience lower groundwater tables caused by river regulations and water extraction. Yet, the effects of more frequent and prolonged dry and hot periods in combination with groundw...

Recent studies have reported superior tree quality and comparable tree growth of oaks planted in group compared with row planting. However, a comparative assessment of the potential future crop trees (PFCTs) between group and row planting is still lacking. Here, we compared the density and tree quality of planted oaks and other naturally regenerate...