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08.11.2012

Beeches improve water storage

Greater abundance of Fagus sylvatica in coniferous flood protection forests due to climate change: impact of modified root densities on infiltration (a case study)

 
Bewässerungs_Experiment
Experimental installation with rain simulator and sensors for measuring water content in the soil. (large image)
Photo: WSL
 

This news was published in German, French and Italian on wsl.ch. It is based on an article published in the Swiss magazine "Wald und Holz" and on a paper published in the European Journal of Forest Research, from which the abstract is provided here:

Abstract

Climate change is expected to modify the spatial distributions of zonal forest communities and thus, their species compositions. The aim of this paper was to study the impact of higher abundance of beech on water storage capacity in current coniferous flood protection forests due to varying root densities of the main tree species. Two forest communities in the northern pre-Alps in Switzerland with similar soil properties but varying in species composition were investigated (space-for-time substitution). It was assumed that the Vaccinio myrtillii-Abieti-Piceetum (site A) will be replaced by a Luzulo-Abieti-Fagetum (site B). We irrigated 16 hydromorphic soils (1 m2, 70 mm/h, three consecutive irrigations) at site A and 10 at site B and recorded water-content variations with time domain—and frequency domain reflectometry. Roots were extracted from soil cores taken from the positions where the water-content probes were inserted, and digitally measured. Infiltration capacity ω I was mainly limited to the upper soil at site A but was approximately constant down to 0.7 m depth at site B. Between 0.3 and 1.0 m soil depth, root densities at site B exceeded those at site A. Root density was the main predictor for ω I (R 2 = 0.57) at site A as shown by a multiple linear regression analysis. Assuming that the root density in the current coniferous forest (A) will increase to that of the beech stand (B) due to the greater abundance of beech, the water storage capacity will increase by 9.2 mm in consequence of the expected forest transformation.

Aknowledgements

This study was supported by the COST Action E38 (Woody Root Processes) and the research programme Forests and Climate Change (Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL and the Federal Office for the Environment FOEN).

Publication 

Lange, B.; Germann, P.F.; Lüscher, P. (2012): Greater abundance of Fagus sylvatica in coniferous flood protection forests due to climate change: impact of modified root densities on infiltration. European Journal of Forest Research.

Contact

  • Dr. Peter Lüscher
    Organisational unit: Forest Soils and Biogeochemistry
    Soil Functions and Soil Protection
    Phone: +41 44 7392 299
    Fax: +41 44 7392 215
    Room: Bi HL B 27
    E-Mail:
  • Dr. Benjamin Lange
    Universität Potsdam,
    Institute of Erd- und Umweltwissenschaften
    Karl-Liebknecht-Str. 24-25
    D-14476 Potsdam-Golm
    benjamin.lange (at) uni-potsdam.de
    Tel.: 0049 331 977 2114

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