In life, experience is key : As you make use of your environment and live through time, you will learn how to use your resources efficiently and do the best with what’s available. But what happens if incoming conditions are presumably worse than what you already know ? And if you are currently living in a harsh environment, does it make you stronger and ready to take what’s coming, or to the contrary, more fragile and at risk of imminent death ?
As trees and forests are more and more exposed to intense heatwaves and droughts, we’re wondering if acclimation will play a prominent role in forest survival. We will look into the physiological mechanisms of acclimation and heat/drought survival to understand how resilient temperate European forests really are.
For our first experience, we’ll use the MODOEK facility on the WSL campus of Birmensdorf, Switzerland. In the summer of 2026, we will cut the irrigation of drought- and heat-acclimated Quercus and Fagus trees and closely monitor their physiological parameters until their inevitable death. We’ll also use the data to test the SUREau model, which we’ll use in the future to model entire forest response to heatwaves across Europe.
