Forest (non)-management in Europe

European forests are extremely valuable assets in the fight against climate change as they provide different ecosystem services, including carbon sequestration, supply of drinking water, provision of habitat for biodiversity conservation and flood protection. However, the delivery of ecosystem services largely depends on the vitality of the forests. Consequently, forests could be managed in a way where forest health and ecosystem service provisioning are optimized. This research project aims to investigate differences in forest functioning, forest health and forest ecosystem service provisioning between managed and unmanaged forests throughout five key regions of Europe containing the largest representative forest types (atlantic, continental, mediterranean, boreal and alpine). It will primarily do so through the use of remote sensing data and analysis techniques.

This project is part of the Horizon Europe project [INFORMA].

Researcher: Jonas Simons