Abstract
The present report is based on the National Forest Soil Inventory (NFSI) as well as on case studies from Intensive Forest Monitoring sites in Germany. The current as well as the temporal development of forest soil conditions and the major threats to forest ecosystems are discussed. Following the discussion on forest decline in 1980s, a national forest monitoring was established, consisting of the Forest Condition Survey, the Intensive Forest Monitoring as well as the NFSI. In 1984, the sites for the Forest Condition Survey were installed on a 16 × 16 km grid which is part of the UN/ECE ICP Forests Level I Monitoring as well as of the European Soil Monitoring Project (BioSoil). The NFSI plots were subsequently established based on the same grid with an 8 × 8 km raster yielding at about 1800 sampling sites. The first NFSI took place between 1987 and 1992. In 2006, the second NFSI was conducted simultaneously with the BioSoil programme. The NFSI focused on specific questions for forest soils in respect to nitrogen levels and sensitivity to inputs of nitrogen; to carbon storage and carbon stock changes; to background loading with heavy metals and organic trace elements; to the interplay of soil characteristics and forest nutrition, crown condition and vegetation; to the risk due to negative changes such as nutrient removal or soil acidification; and to effects in terms of soil chemistry and nutritional status measures to stabilize forest ecosystems. To fulfil these objectives, the NFSI included the sampling of chemical and physical soil parameters, the determination of foliar element concentrations, the assessment of the composition and diversity of understory vegetation as well as an inventory of the tree stands including dead wood. A comprehensive concept of quality control and quality assurance for field assessments, laboratories, data management and evaluations has been established to ensure data harmonization and a high quality of statistical evaluations.
Highlights
What is the state of our forests and forest soils today? How have they changed over the past 20 years? What actions have had an effect on their status and how? What are the risks that continue to play a role or become relevant in the future? The present report based on the National Forest Soils Inventory (NFSI) as well as on case studies from Intensive Forest Monitoring sites in Germany addresses these questions and provides a nationwide summary on the current state and development of forests and forest soils
Data and analyses from the NFSI provide an important basis for the national reporting on greenhouse gases under the Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and the Kyoto Protocol, as well as succeeding regulations in the “land use, land-use change and forestry” (LULUCF) soil group in the areas of soil and litter
The guidelines for the survey were supplemented with the “Handbuch Forstliche Analytik” (“Handbook of Forest Analysis”; Handbuch forstliche Analytik (HFA)) prepared by the Forest Analysis Advisory Committee (GAFA) of the Federal Ministry for Food and Agriculture (BMEL), which describes the harmonized methodologies for laboratory analyses (GAFA 2005, 2009, 2014)
Summary
What is the state of our forests and forest soils today? How have they changed over the past 20 years? What actions have had an effect on their status and how? What are the risks that continue to play a role or become relevant in the future? The present report based on the National Forest Soils Inventory (NFSI) as well as on case studies from Intensive Forest Monitoring sites in Germany (see below) addresses these questions and provides a nationwide summary on the current state and development of forests and forest soils. Nutrients required for forest growth, buffer loading of toxins and acidification and compensate for water shortages during droughts. Forests and their soils represent one of Germany’s most natural ecosystems and contribute an important share to its biodiversity. The current condition of forest soils is the result of both natural changes over long periods of time and anthropogenic influences. For many German forest stands, an increasing risk of drought stress has been identified over the last 60 years, due to climate change (von Wilpert et al 2016; Schmidt-Walter et al 2017). Forests can suffer from interactive effects of both atmospheric pollution and climate change impacts like increasing drought (Bytnerowicz et al 2007; Hickler et al 2012)
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