Research

The proposed project aims to analyse the new patterns of climatic extreme events (drought, floods, heat waves, e.g.) and design/develop the necessary tools for agriculture in the Danube region in order to be able to properly adapt and respond to such challenges. This will be done by developing and implementing a Danube transnational e-platform that will integrate climatic/water resources / agriculture database, maps, knowledge, tools, modelling, good practices for water management, for reducing drought in order to be prepared and adapt to climate change in the vulnerable areas for crops (winter wheat and maize) in the Danube Region. Through cooperation between country partners a standardised monitoring system for the phenological status of selected agricultural crops throughout the Danube Region will be established, serving as a basis to evaluate the crop specific water balances and yields. The TRANSFER Danube project aims to raise the awareness of policy makers and the private agricultural sector to the possible consequences of climate change on agricultural production. The beneficiaries of the project and the groups targeted by it are local and regional decision-makers in the field of environmental protection and agriculture, also people in the field of agricultural policies and farmers. The activities of the project will generate support for trans-disciplinary bilateral cooperation on partner institutions in the Danube area to tackle the challenges set by climate change in agriculture. The proposed activities and outputs will enhance the impact of agricultural and climate research in a wider community by promoting different types of tools, response strategies, knowledge transfer, circulation and access to the Danube transnational e-platform. The results of the project can be adapted to the Danube Region.

Deadwood is an important and large carbon pool in unmanaged forests and will become more important in managed forests, as changes in forest management and/or more frequent disturbances will likely lead to higher deadwood amount in Central European forests. The trajectories of deadwood dynamics can be currently not accurately assessed due to lack of a conceptual understanding and data on deadwood carbon stocks, carbon fluxes, importance of fungi for deadwood decay and the habitat value of deadwood. DD FOR will introduce a conceptual understanding of deadwood dynamics during its observable lifetime from deadwood creation to fragmentation and incorporation into the soil. Hypothesizing that temperature is the main driver of deadwood decay and that warming is stronger at higher elevation, the results of DD FOR will help quantify the impacts of global warming on the carbon cycle. We will also test, whether deadwood decay is faster under moderate moisture conditions and how management can modulate decay rates, through debarking, deadwood alignment and/or microsites. Based on field experiments, we will develop temporal models on deadwood change over time, that can be combined with forest inventory data and/or forest growth models, to ensure uptake of project results. Our field sites will span temperature and precipitation gradients of Central Europe (~3-8 °C average annual temperature, ~700-1700 mm annual precipitation sum) and complement European research initiatives on deadwood research (e.g. BELongDead, BIOCOMP), by expanding the current observation network into cool and wet mountain forests. For important tree species in Central Europe (e.g. Picea abies, Pinus sylvestris, Fagus sylvatica, Quercus sp.) we will establish chronosequences of deadwood samples, building on pilot studies by the applicant and existing research infrastructure. For selected deadwood pieces we will conduct monitoring of saproxylic insects using emergence and flight interception traps and quantify the fungal communities using wood samples, fruiting body inventories and state-of-the-art analytical methods, including meta bar-coding. This will establish decay rate benchmarks for fungal species, depending on climate and their host species.

Interest in establishing wind turbines in the forest is increasing. Therefore, the Austrian Federal Forest company, as Austria's largest forest owner, initiated a research project to develop criteria and indicators for silvicultural risk assessment related to the construction of wind turbines in the forest areas. Thus, the purpose of this research is develop (i) to criteria and indicators for assessing the silvicultural risk of the forest stands adjacent to the open spaces necessary for the installation of wind turbines, and (ii) criteria and indicators for an ecological reforestation of open areas after the establishing wind turbines. Legal, ornithological or other framework conditions that are relevant for the installation of a wind turbine in the forest are beyond the purpose of this research.