By Niina Valbuena

Around 40 FORWARDS partners and team members from third-party projects joined the online kick-off meeting for the newly funded FORWARDS projects under Theme 1: ‘Pilots of long-term climate impact forest monitoring sites‘, ‘Linking stand-level information and remote sensing‘, and ‘Providing temporally resolved, ecosystem-level information on the effects of climatic drivers on forest structure and function in near real-time‘. These projects cover North, Central, and South Europe.

Firstly, project coordinator Ruben Valbuena presented FORWARDS and its various components, explaining how the third-party projects within this theme would fit into the broader scheme of things. Then, each new project presented their aims and methods, after which there was a lively discussion between participants. We were pleased to see that some of the third-party projects had already identified synergies and collaboration opportunities, and it was agreed that the teams would maintain close contact with each other and the FORWARDS team to facilitate this.

The third-party projects that were launched at the meeting are:

• Forest-SIF-Europe project, which is a collaboration between Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH in Germany and the Global Change Research Institute CAS in the Czech Republic. The project aims to acquire a comprehensive dataset from three selected forest sites exposed to seasonal drought and other environmental stressors. Two of these sites are in Switzerland (Pfynwald and Hölstein) and one is in the Czech Republic (Lanžhot). Together, they will enable the team to gain a detailed, mechanistic understanding of the changes induced by drought in forest traits and remote sensing products, and extrapolate these findings to broader seasonal dynamics. The objective is to gain an understanding of how plant water availability influences physiological, biochemical, and structural adaptations and how these changes can be detected by remote sensing sensors.

• ADAPT-FOREST, with TORUS ACTIONS, France University of Helsinki, Faculty of Science, Institute for Atmospheric and Earth System Research (INAR), Finland The project aims to leverage existing ecosystem data sites at Hyytiälä, Lapinkangas and Siikaneva in Finland by installing new sensors and upgrading the Hyytiälä site to a FORWARDS supersite, thereby strengthening European coverage. The team will develop a robust adaptive filter layer to handle data noise, anomalies, and imputation. A key outcome will be forest stress nowcasting, providing real-time insights into forest stress.

• ForStress is a partnership between the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Technical University of Munich, both in Germany. Nadine Rühr presented a project focusing on capturing and simulating tree water deficits in montane environments. The project aims to acquire near real-time, ecosystem-level information on the effects of climate drivers on forest structure and function. The field sites are mixed montane forests at the Reschberg, Eibsee and Oberau sites. These sites are at similar altitudes, have comparable compositions and ages, and have different capacities for storing soil water. A key outcome will be a prototype for forest drought risk forecasting.

• The FORBEECH project is being carried out in collaboration with the Slovenian Forestry Institute in Slovenia, the Croatian Forest Research Institute in Croatia, and the Institute of Lowland Forestry and Environment in Serbia. Tom Levanič presented the project, highlighting the urgent need for improved forest monitoring and the integration of terrestrial and airborne techniques due to the increasing impact of climate change on forest ecosystems across Europe. The project focuses on European beech (Fagus sylvatica), a species that was once considered stable and resilient, but which is now showing signs of declining vitality and increased mortality. The project aims to: strengthen the intensive monitoring of ICP Forests beech plots in Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia by linking water availability to tree growth; conduct parallel terrestrial and airborne measurements in tree crowns to correlate physiological data with vegetation indices from hyperspectral imagery; ultimately supply FORWARDS with near real-time data on tree growth, weather conditions, and soil water status, both during and after the project lifetime.

• UPLINK with iFLUX NV and the University of Antwerp, both in Belgium. Arthur De Veirman introduced the main concept: to upscale the Brasschaat ICP Forest Level II site to a FORWARDS supersite. The Brasschaat site is an ICOS/eLTER site and a pioneer in eddy covariance. It has nearly 30 years of continuous flux data and is one of the world’s oldest flux stations. The upgrade will use the complete FORWARDS linking method sensor set, including soil moisture, soil matric potential, dendrometers, and groundwater level sensors. Innovative groundwater flux sensors will be used to gain a better understanding of the water cycle. Fran Lauriks continued the presentation by explaining the data collection methods. A custom-built drone and wider UAV surveys will support canopy monitoring and regional representativeness. The project will use a dual modelling framework. This will use a machine learning approach to determine the relationship between historic data and new sensors, ensure the long-term comparability of historic and new datasets using process-based modelling and apply both modelling approaches to transfer knowledge from supersites to supporting sites. A replication guidance package will be produced to ensure that the monitoring, modelling and UAV approach developed at Brasschaat can be continued, and that knowledge can be transferred to other sites.

Cover photo from Freepik.com