Tag Archives: wald

Göttingen study shows: Larger beech seedlings have better long-term survival chances.

By | October 14th 2026
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Natural regeneration of European beech trees in the forest. Credits: Karel Drozda, pexels

Light, water, nutrients: The competition for resources in the forest is fierce. Especially after so-called mast years, in which plants produce a large number of seedlings, a "race to grow" begins. However, it was previously unclear whether height differences between the young trees in their first year of life are relevant for their future development, even if they are only one or two centimeters. Researchers at the University… Read more »

European forests are losing their ability to sequester carbon

By | August 11, 2025
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Credits: Merrit Thomas, unsplash

A study by the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) shows that European forests have significantly lost their capacity to absorb carbon in recent years. The research identifies several factors causing this decline and calls for a fundamental change in forest management. Forests play a crucial role in the fight against climate change, as they remove CO2 from the atmosphere… Read more »

NRW starts tree planting project – other federal states clear for industry and solar + Comment

By | July 15, 2025
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Credits: Mark Stebnicki, pexels

The "NRW Plants" initiative of the Robin Gut Foundation began in the Wesel district about a week ago. The goal is to plant one million trees in North Rhine-Westphalia. All 396 cities and municipalities are invited to participate to promote climate protection, biodiversity, and social cohesion. The initiative kicked off with a press event in Alpen, where Agriculture Minister Silke Gorißen planted an oak tree in front of… Read more »

Against fungi and bark beetles: A mixture of monoterpenes is promising

By | June 24, 2025
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Credits: Anna Schroll, Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology

The Norway spruce (Picea abies), which for many decades was the "bread and butter" tree of the timber industry, has been weakened by years of drought and high temperatures. Monoculture cultivation exacerbated the problem: the large eight-toothed spruce bark beetle (Ips typographus), also known as the European spruce bark beetle, had an easy time of it. However, the beetle, which is about four to five millimeters long, does not carry out its destructive work alone, but together with… Read more »

Joint project SURVEY: Forest research uses real-world laboratories

By | June 24, 2025
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Credits: Beate Büttner, Thünen Institute

New forest real-world laboratories in the Harz Mountains and Lower Bavaria: German forest and wood research is repositioning itself for the forests of the future. The SURVEY collaborative project, coordinated by the Thünen Institute and the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ), combines expertise from research and practice. Future forest management strategies are being developed in the Harz Mountains and Lower Bavaria. Three so-called forest real-world laboratories are currently being established there –… Read more »

Hostile forest: Bats increasingly seek shelter in settlements

By | May 28
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Credits: Carolin Scholz, Leibniz-IZW 

Conventional forestry and wind power in forests threaten bat populations. This is also shown by the current study from the Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research (Leibniz-IZW). Many native bat species are forest dwellers, including the common noctule (Nyctalus leisleri). Because they can use cavities in old trees as roosts less and less frequently in managed forests, they have to resort to roosts in settlements. Read more »

Ready for industrial use: Tubular wooden components are stable and store CO2

By | May 15
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Credits: FWstudio, pexels

A number of promising research results are now available on the topic of 'hollow profiles based on wood'. Wooden hollow profiles have been and continue to be further developed in various ways for lightweight construction and industrial processing – for the production of consumer goods or for the construction sector, all the way to components in machines and systems. For all approaches, one thing is true: wood can be sourced from domestic forestry… Read more »

KOSMOS reading about Okinawa: Feng shui and sacred forests contribute to environmental protection

By | May 8
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Credits: Vivika Stamolis, pexels

As part of the KOSMOS lecture series at Humboldt University of Berlin (HU), Dr. Bixia Chen from the University of the Ryukyus, Japan, will offer insights into the traditional village landscape of the Okinawa island chain in the East China Sea on May 22, 2025, from 18:00 to 19:30 p.m. The event will be moderated by Prof. Marcel Robischon, Head of the Department of Agricultural Ecology at the Thaer Institute for Agricultural and… Read more »

Project PEELIKAN develops firefighting drone swarm

By | March 27, 2025
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Credits: pixabay

To prevent forest fires more quickly in the future and support firefighters in their firefighting efforts, the collaborative project PEELIKAN is researching a swarm of firefighting drones for the "Fire Department of the Future" initiative. According to the forest fire statistics of the Federal Information Centre for Agriculture (BZL), approximately 1.240 hectares of forest burned in Germany in 2023. This corresponds to an area of ​​roughly 1.771 football fields. In addition to the destruction of… Read more »

Climate change in the forest: Unequal water distribution sets off a chain reaction

By | March 24, 2025
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Credits: Simon Drollinger, University of Göttingen

How does climate change alter the amount and distribution of rain beneath the forest canopy? And what role do trees play in dry and wet years? A research team from the University of Göttingen investigated these questions, studying a beech forest in the Göttingen district for seven years using numerous measuring devices. Among other things, the researchers were able to demonstrate… Read more »