The CliMax project, initiated in a collaboration between the TU Braunschweig and the Julius Kühn Institute (JKI) and funded by the German Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) as part of the Climate Protection Research Programme, deals precisely with these important questions and attempts to find answers to them.
Using various methods (remote sensing, geophysics, plant physiological measurements, ecohydrological monitoring, terrestrial laser scans), urban trees at a total of nine locations (each with three examined trees) have been studied in detail since this year. The initial focus is on three tree species planted at sites with different degrees of sealing (unsealed, partially sealed, fully sealed). How well are these trees doing at the moment? How much water is available in the soil? How much water do the trees transpire and from which soil depths do they draw it? - with the continuous measurements and date sampling of important vitality parameters, we can answer these questions directly.
On 21 June - a few days after the official permission to equip the trees with measuring sensors was granted - the first sensors were installed on the first three trees (tree hazels) at Langer Kamp. Students Frederike Bossy (Fig. 1), PhD students Malkin Gerchow and Alberto Iraheta (Fig. 2) as well as Matthias Beyer (group leader Isodrones, Fig. 4) had great fun working in the city, where many interested citizens also came by. They installed soil moisture sensors (Fig. 4) to record the water content in five soil depths down to two metres, sap flow sensors (Fig. 3) to measure the water uptake rate of the trees, and membranes to determine the stable water isotopes in trees and plants. The latter information makes it possible to determine the water uptake depths of the trees studied. The data is sent to a cloud every 30 minutes and is directly available online.How will our urban trees fare this summer?
The departments of Environmental Systems Analysis (Prof. Schröder-Esselbach/Dr. Strohbach) and Environmental Geochemistry - Isodrones (Prof. Biester/Dr. Beyer) are involved at the IGÖ. The TU's Urban Geophysics Group (Jun.-Prof. Bücker) is also involved. A cooperation agreement has been concluded with the Department of Urban Greening and Sport of the City of Braunschweig.
Further information: https://wissen.julius-kuehn.de/urbanes-gruen/themen/klimaschutz-durch-stadtgruen/climax and
Contact TU Braunschweig: Dr Matthias Beyer, matthias.beyer(at)tu-bs.de, Dr M Strohbach, m.strohbach(at)tu-bs.de
Contact JKI: Dr Mona Quambusch, mona.quambusch(at)julius-kuehn.de