Natural hazards in future forests: how to inform climate change adaptation
Within the framework of the Agreement on Cultural, Educational, Scientific and Technological Cooperation between the Republic of Italy and the Kingdom of Sweden, the Italian Ministry for Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation (MAECI), in collaboration with Ministry of Education, University and Research (MIUR), has recently funded a joint research project between Italy (represented by Roberto Tognetti, University of Molise) and Sweden (represented by John D. Marshall, SLU), which is linked with CLIMO (COST Action – Climate-Smart Forestry in Mountain Regions). Swedish forestry represents an area of excellence in the field of holistic forest management, while Italian forestry has matured long-term experience in coping with climate-related disturbances. The project “Natural hazards in future forests: how to inform climate change adaptation” (n. PGR00979) will use tree growth and stable isotope responses to climate in order to assess potential historic and contemporary drivers of tree productivity in representative forests exposed to disturbances, and investigate a tipping point of stress severity leading to forest decline. In addition to the cited principal investigators, the project has already mobilized PhD students (Anna Bartolazzi, University of Bozen) and postdoctoral fellows (Serena Antonucci, University of Molise), and involved the contribution of additional partners (Giustino Tonon, University of Bozen; Miren del Rio, INIA; Hans Pretzsch, TUM; Maciej Pach, University of Agriculture in Krakow; Paolo Cherubini, WSL).