Drought

A study with the participation of researchers from CREAF and the UAB warns that increasing droughts could affect forests’ species composition and structure, making them more vulnerable.

What is the future that the Mediterranean forests expect? Climate change is already strongly felt and its impacts reach everywhere. Francisco Lloret tells the current situation and how we will have to prepare ourselves and forests to the coming changes .

For Craig and Seva.

CREAF researchers signal climate change and changes in land use as the principal causes. The most impacted are specialized species living in very specific habitats and those producing a number of generations in a single year. 

How does water move inside a tree? CREAF researchers are helping to demystify such topics using 3D images wich reconstruct the internal structure of tree branches and trunks, and further, deepening our knowledge on the transport of water and nutrients .

We seek a candidate to apply for a 4 years doctoral fellowship to carry on in the CIBIO (Vila do Conde, Porto) and CREAF (Bellaterra, Barcelona) within the Doctoral Programme in Biodiversity, Genetics and Evolution (BIODIV), funded by the “Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia” (Portugal).

A study by CTFC and CREAF scientists has led to the development of a mathematical model which predicts drought stress in forests. The research shows that forest drought stress depends on climatic conditions as well as vegetation and soil characteristics. 

According to a study co-led by CREAF staff published this week in the journal Nature, droughts caused by climate change could result in the death of the tallest tress in tropical forests. For the first time, the scientists have shown that after prolonged water deficit tall trees suffer embolisms in their circulatory systems and die of dehydration. 

Researchers from the UAB, CREAF and the National Museum of Natural Sciences (MNCN-CSIC) have analysed how the deterioration of woods caused by droughts associated to global warming are affecting the microbial composition of the soil and modifying carbon cycles.

CREAF participated in a study which proposes that in order to understand the full impact of climate change, it is not enough to study just protected natural areas, which are mature and able to handle change; instead, it is important to focus on the study of those ecosystems which have been altered and are still recovering.

Forests cover one-third of the Earth’s land surface, and they provide many essential ecological, economic and social services. During the last decades, the scientific community has been alarmed by reports of widespread tree and forest mortality worldwide.