Meet our Working Groups

Meet our Working Groups

CLEANFOREST is organized in 4 WGs addressing the three Challenges vertically (from the atmospheric components of the global change drivers down to tree and soil in forest ecosystems) and horizontally (along the continuum NPU forests).

WG1 will provide a comprehensive overview of where and how global change drivers have changed over the last decades in Europe. The dataset produced will be crucial to achieve objectives within WG2 and WG3, exploring the effects of global change drivers on trees and soil processes. Finally, WG4 will review existing manipulation experiments and monitoring networks (in collaborations with WGs 2-3), to identify limitations and knowledge gaps that can be overcome with future transdisciplinary and international research initiatives.

WG1: Assessing spatial-temporal changes in global change drivers

Core team

Ajinkya Deshpande

Ajinkya Deshpande

WG1 Leader
UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
MAO

Maria Alexandra Oliveira

WG1 co-leader, MC Member
Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa
Portugal
Portugal
MP

Mário Gonzalez Pereira

WG1 co-leader
UTAD
Portugal
Portugal
Arne Verstraeten

Arne Verstraeten

WG1 Advisor, MC Member
Research Institute for Nature and Forest (INBO)
Belgium
Belgium
Rocío Alonso

Rocío Alonso del Amo

WG1 Advisor, MC Member
Research Center for Energy, Environment and Technology – CIEMAT
Spain
Spain

Specific goals and link to the main Challenges

Current activities

The WG is currently divided in three sub-group, focusing on the following sub-topics:

a. Climate datasets
b. Atmospheric deposition datasets
c. Reviewing monitoring techniques

Get in touch if interested!

WG2: Interactions between global change drivers and forest ecosystems health and functioning

Core team

Danielle Creek

Danielle Creek

WG2 Leader
NMBU
Norway
Norway
Nikolaos Fyllas (1)

Nikolaos Fyllas

WG2 co-leader
University of the Aegean
Greece
Greece
Lewis_Caitlin_pic

Caitlin Ruth Lewis

Science Communication Leader, WG2 co-leader
School of Agriculture, Policy and Development
United Kingdom
United Kingdom
Mathieu Lévesque

Mathieu Lévesque

WG2 co-leader
ETH Zurich
Switzerland
Switzerland
Tom Pugh

Thomas Pugh

WG2 co-leader, MC Member
Lund University
Sweden
Sweden
Maurizio Mencuccini

Maurizio Mencuccini

WG2 Advisor, MC Member
ICREA
Spain
Spain
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Denis LOUSTAU

WG2 Advisor, MC Member
INRAE
France
France

Specific goals and link to the main Challenges

Current activities

We are currently working on a review paper, which aims to provide an overview on the status of European forests with focus on growth, water-use efficiency and mortality as assessed at different scales (tree, ecosystem, regional and continental). Specific sub-groups are:

  1. Influence of N/S deposition and climate extremes on forest response to CO2 – focus on growth (contacts: Danielle Creek and Mathieu Lévesque)
  2. Influence of N/S deposition and climate extremes on forest response to CO2 – focus on WUE (contacts: Rossella Guerrieri and Maurizio Mencuccini)
  3. Mortality patterns across Europe (contacts: Thomas Pugh and Nikos Fyllas).

Get in touch if interested!

WG3: Interactions between global change drivers and tree and soil biogeochemical processes

Core team

MircoMigliavacca

Mirco Migliavacca

WG3 Leader
European Commission Joint Research Centre
Italy
Italy
Mana Gharun

Mana Gharun

WG3 co-leader
Landscape Ecology
Germany
Germany
Kate Buckeridge

Kate Buckeridge

WG3 co-leader, MC Member
Luxembourg Institute of Science and Technology
Luxembourg
Luxembourg
Cristina Branquinho

Cristina Branquinho

WG3 Advisor, MC Member
Faculty of Sciences University of Lisbon
Portugal
Portugal
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Douglas Godbold

WG3 Advisor, MC Member
Universität für Bodenkultur
Austria
Austria
miglena

Miglena Zhiyanski

WG3 Advisor, MC Member
Forest Research Institute - Bulgarian Academy of Sciences
Bulgaria
Bulgaria

Specific goals and link to the main Challenges

Current activities

We are currently drafting two literature review papers:

  • Topic 1. Effect of global change drivers on C fluxes, acclimation, and resilience of EU forests (contact, mana.gharun@wwu.de).
  • Topic 2. The influence of N deposition on soil biodiversity and soil C in EU forests (contact, kate.buckeridge@list.lu).

WG4: Next generation manipulation experiments and monitoring network

Core team

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Ivika Ostonen-Märtin

WG4 Leader
University of Tartu
Estonia
Estonia
Lena Muffler-Weige

Lena Muffler-Weigel

WG4 co-leader
Albrecht-von-Haller-Institute for Plant Sciences
Germany
Germany
Line Nybakken

Line Nybakken

WG4 co-leader, MC Member
Norwegian University of Life Sciences
Norway
Norway
Richard Nair

Richard Nair

WG4 co-leader, MC Member
Trinity College Dublin
Ireland
Ireland
Marco_Ferretti (1)

Marco Ferretti

WG4 Advisor, MC Member
Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL
Switzerland
Switzerland
Sami Ullah (1)

Sami Ullah

WG4 Advisor, MC Member
University of Birmingham
United Kingdom
United Kingdom

Specific goals and link to the main Challenges

Current activities

We are working on a review and systematic metastudy on the effect of climate extremes on forest productivity and forest health under different nitrogen deposition scenarios. We do so by using the established MESI database (https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16585) and try to complement the data by our own systematic webofscience scoping.

The goal is to compile a database of multi-year N addition experiments in forest ecosystems worldwide. The systematic review is currently led by a core group of Robert Weigel, Richard Nair, Lena Muffler, Ivika Ostonen, Mario Pereira, Rossella Guerrieri. The further participants of the group (20-40 persons) will assist to browse all articles (title and abstract) for their suitability in our study. Further, we are still open to further participation, for example to assist with the systematic literature scoping or general writing of the review article.

Larger group meetings will be announced to all COST participants and the meeting link and date will be given as an open invitation to participate for everybody in the whole COST Action. Alternatively, to express interest in taking part in this project, please contact Robert Weigel (robert.weigel@uni-goettingen.de), who is leading this task.