Interactive monitor for forest condition
Mario Petrov
Based on satellite photos, an interactive platform shows the health of the European forests. It is based on the tree’s greenness. From a while, the users can choose a country and a period to learn more about the forest condition there. The tool for collecting and visualisation of the data is made from explorers from Technical university of Munich (TUM).
The increasing frequency of the extreme weather conditions in the context of the climate changes poses a threat to forests worldwide. Drought, late frosts, soils after floods, heavy rainfalls and winter storms are causing the tree´s dying. The extreme environment conditions often impair tree defines mechanisms, secondary pathogens such as fungi and beetles frequently amplify tree decline and die-back rates.
Some of the mortality factors can be detected while the tree is alive
“The trees health depends on the soil condition, the climate and the stand structure. Eco-physiological factors, such as the sap flow and the regulation of leaf water potential, are also determining the tree´s fate.”, says Anja Rammig, a professor of Land Surface-Atmosphere Interactions at TUM.
Some key eco-physiological processes cannot be studied after the three´s dead. At the same time is hard to be said where, when, how and which trees are going to die to install monitoring equipment ahead of time.
Remote sensing of the dying forests
The Forest Condition Monitor (FCM), based on remote sensing, is an open-access web-based information tool. It is showing the color-coded condition of the European´s forests during the vegetation period based on deviations from long-term norms. The tool can be used by every user to select data for individual countries and time ranges and download the underlying data. In addition, the visualization form makes it easier to identify hotspots for forest die-back and decline throughout Europe.
When the forests, that are going to die, are timely recognized as high stress-areas, the scientists can study them and warn the owners for potential risks.
A system warns early for stressed forests
In 2021 the forest was in good condition, according to FCM. “It is really interesting to see, that the forests in Germany recovered from the hot summers in 2018-2020 during the rainy summer of 2021. However, it´s applies only to the alive trees. The incurred damage in the last 3 years is still there.”, says scientist Allan Buras, who coordinates the FCM.
FCM shows that forests can recover even after extreme droughts. “These are also important indicators of the medium-term effects of droughts on forests. But it can also be clearly seen that the pine forests of Brandenburg and especially the spruce forests of the Harz, but also of the Thuringian Forest, have not benefited from the rainy summer. These forests are still red in the Forest Condition Monitor, which means that the damage done there from 2018 to 2020 is so extreme that it can be seen today. Therefore, it can be assumed that the damage in the long run is great”, says Buras.
“Information from the Forest Condition Monitor, supplemented by additional ground-based surveys and monitoring campaigns, can help clarify the causes of changes in tree greenery and thus possibly improve our understanding of the ecophysiology of trees under stress in natural environment”, says Prof. Ramig.
What shows us the FCM for the Bulgarian forests?
Based on the data from the FCM, we tracked the change in the condition of the Bulgarian forests for the same period as this, that the scientists from Germany observed. The Bulgaria´s forests are in bad condition in 2018. However, the meteorological conditions in our country are different and the condition of our forests has improved in 2019 and 2020. Unfortunately, the drought of the past year has again led to deterioration.
The most favourable year for the Bulgarian forests was 2015, when the average temperature for the months of March to October was 15.9°C. For comparison, the average temperature for the same period from 2018 to 2020 dropped from 16.5 to 16.2°C, and in 2021 reached 15.1°C.
Sources:
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tum.de
- interaktiv.waldzustandsmonitor.de
- stringmeteo.com
