The Idea Team

We are a team of Bachelor's and Master's students of biology and support our lecturer PD Dr. Manfred Forstreuter in his teaching and research work in the climate forest.

The climate forest is a research project that Manfred Forstreuter initiated 20 years ago. There are over 1600 copper beeches from all over Europe on an area of the Berlin Forests in Grunewald. The area is being used to research whether there are 'origins' among the copper beeches that are better adapted to the increasingly extreme climatic conditions. This is because the copper beeches in the research area in Grunewald stand in sandy soil. These are dry conditions under which the trees become drought-stressed when temperatures are high and rainfall is low, and it is possible that copper beeches originating from southern regions of Europe, such as Spain or Sicily, cope better with drought stress.

This can be tested in the climatic forest because parts of the research area can be "dried out" using the irrigation system, which can be specifically controlled. As ecology students, we want our work in the climate forest to contribute to solving climate-related and social problems. Manfred Forstreuter's work in the climate forest gives us the opportunity to work on this practically during our studies and to get actively involved.

About the Idea

Applied climate impact research is carried out on the climate forest research plot. As a research group, we are asking ourselves whether there are red beech origins that are adapted to extreme weather events such as heat waves and late frosts. This knowledge is necessary to ensure that our copper beech forests can be preserved in the future.

Climate-related research is moving further into focus due to Freie Universität's declaration of emergency. Departments should further differentiate their courses and offer more courses on topics relevant to climate protection. Students have the opportunity to conduct research on these topics in various projects in the climate forest and are introduced to current experiments and learn to conduct practical research through the course "Applied woody ecology and climate change".

Our goal is to build a weather-protected space in the form of a construction trailer or pavilion at the research site by the end of 2023. The "teaching pavilion" will be equipped with solar panels in order to achieve the goal of climate neutrality at the site in 2023. In addition, copper beeches of various European origins will be planted on the FU campus in late 2023 for publicity purposes. This will represent the climate protection-relevant teaching and research taking place in Grunewald on the FU campus.

We have already taken an important step towards expanding our teaching and research infrastructure. At the end of March, we literally laid the foundations for our teaching and research container: We leveled the ground and set concrete pillars on which the container can be placed in the near future. Both the concrete pillars and the container were provided to us second-hand by the company LAT GmbH. We will rebuild and upgrade the container for our purposes.

We want to develop the climate forest into a place for sustainable teaching and research in the open air. The future-oriented research taking place at Freie Universität should be represented by the climate forest. The Climate Forest should also continue to be used for educational purposes and be available to future generations of students and researchers across disciplines. The goal of climate neutrality at Freie Universität Berlin by 2025 is to be achieved at the research location.

Conclusion and outlook

By participating in Futurist, we were able to make significant progress on the climate forest project. The scenario workshop helped us greatly in successfully implementing the final stage of our project, the high-profile red beech planting campaign, despite the short preparation time. The project showed us that we can plan and implement measures effectively in a short period of time. By participating in the Futurist call for proposals, we know that we are capable of achieving goals together as a team, even under time pressure. The investments made in the infrastructure at the site enable us to further expand the teaching and research opportunities in the climate forest. We are proud that our project is promoting not only ecological but also sustainable scientific developments.

Looking ahead, we plan to expand the project's personnel capacity. Applying for additional project funding will enable us to finance one or two project positions, thereby ensuring the continuity and success of our project.

We won first prize with our poster at the Teaching Theme Day on November 18, 2024.

Contact

Research area on the grounds of the Forest Museum and the Berlin Forests in Grunewald
Königsweg 4
14193 Berlin

Supervised by PD Dr. Manfred Forstreuter: manfred.forstreuter@fu-berlin.de