Team: Susanne Rolinski, Kirsten Thonicke, Ariane Walz, Anja Rammig, Werner von Bloh
Externally funded projects: CARBO-EXTREME (EU FP7), FUME (EU FP7)
Regional focus: Europe, North Africa
Background: Recent regional climate model applications predict more intense and frequent extreme weather events such as droughts, heatwaves and heavy precipitation events over Europe during the 21st century. As a result from increasing drought, also the fire frequency is expected to rise strongly within Europe. A better understanding of the impacts of such disturbances on the stability of ecosystems and potential ecological tipping points required to reduce the ecosystems´ vulnerability through adapted land management.
Copyright: Digital Vision Ltd.
Research goals and questions: Projection and experiment-based investigations allow us to assess the ecological, biophysical and biogeochemical effects of extreme events and fire disturbance on the stability of European and Mediterranean Ecosystems.
- What are critical magnitudes and frequencies of extreme events and fires disturbance for particular ecosystems?
- How can ecosystem adapt to increasing magnitudes and frequencies of extreme events and fire disturbance?
- How vulnerable are degraded or unadopted ecosystems?
- Are ecosystems with high functional diversity less vulnerable against extreme events and fire disturbances?
