GLOBAL CANOPY PROGRAMME UPDATE

Europe’s Forests under Global Change

Biodiversity, Functions and Future Trajectories
EOI Submitted by European Canopy Network (EUCAN)

On behalf of a consortium of European Institutions the Global Canopy Programme has submitted an
Expression of Interest (EOI) to the EU proposing a major Integrated Project on the role of biodiversity in
maintaining ecosystem resilience to atmospheric and hydrological change across Europe and into the
tropics. For the first time, this project will investigate whole, mature, forest ecosystems - from canopy to
soil - through the use of new forest access technologies and the creation of a European Canopy Network
(EUCAN) to carry out the project.

Initially, 10 or more sites will be chosen across Europe’s climatic zones and into the tropics. The physical
and biological environment above and below ground will be manipulated (including water and CO2)
using new techniques developed only in Europe. In conjunction, evaluation of changes to ecosystem
functions and biodiversity, forecast modelling and analysis of sustainable ecosystem management
options, will be undertaken. This project will enable scientists to see how real-scale forest ecosystems
may respond to global change and will provide critical data on how the least known terrestrial
environment on earth – the forest canopy - helps to maintain a stable planet.

Objectives
The objective will be to determine the role of biodiversity in
maintaining ecosystem resilience to key components of environmental
change in mature and diverse forest ecosystems in a gradient across
Europe and into the tropics. The aim will be to predict future
trajectories and the vulnerability of forest ecosystems and services to
global change and to explore potential mitigation methods.

Project design
EUCAN proposes that twelve or more sites
are set up in an appropriate climatic and
geographic gradient across Europe and into
the tropics. At each site major canopy and
soil access facilities will be established1 and
atmospheric2 and hydrological3
manipulations will be undertaken. The main
Fig 2: Potential site locations
1
Detailed study from forest canopy to soil requires easy 3 dimensional access to all sections of the forest. This can be achieved,
at each site, through the establishment of construction cranes in the forest, an innovative use of an old and well-serviced
technology. Provision for soil sampling will also be made at each site
2
CO2 enrichment will be simulated using web-FACE technology developed in Switzerland in at least 5 sites.
3
Forest irrigation will be used to simulate flooding and drought will be simulated by prevention of rainfall infiltration as
pioneered in N Sweden and Gottingen.
focus of the experimental work will be the impacts of elevated CO2 levels and changed water supply.
Rising CO2 concentration is a global phenomenon and affects transpiration as well as carbon uptake of
trees. Changes in precipitation patterns are likely to be one of the most serious impacts of climate change
in Europe. A preliminary assessment of the potential for these factors to interact with others, such as
nitrogen deposition, is also proposed. Climatic factors will be examined through a comparison of sites
across Europe. The influence of management history and interventions will also be assessed through
comparison of diverse and monoculture forests in each region. Potential sites and project design are
indicated in the figures below.

Specific studies
At each site a variety of ecophysiological
and ecological processes will be examined
using standard methodology developed and
agreed by all project partners. Figure 3.

Why Europe, why now?

There are significant and unrecognised
Potential risks to society due to the impacts
of global change on forests. Early
indications from preliminary studies of
atmospheric change on mature forest
ecosystems indicate there could be three
major effects of significance to human
society:
(1) Water: Direct changes in precipitation
and the effects of CO2 enrichment on
Fig 3: Project implementation stomata (which release 70 % of all vapour
We would like to acknowledge the pioneering work of from Europe) will affect ground water
Professor Cristian Körner, University of Basel, Switzerland formation, drought and flood risk,
who has developed this web-FACE technology for CO2 evapotranspiration losses and reliable river
manipulation. flows, climatic feedback etc., all of which
have a direct socio-economic impacts on
water supply, river pollution and agriculture. An ongoing pilot study in Switzerland has noted
differential species responses to CO2 -enrichment amongst mature trees, with an overall reduction in
forest transpiration of 10-15 %. This has far-reaching implications for hydrology in the European
continent as a whole, which may be dependent on biodiversity.
(2) Mechanics: Increased CO2 may affect wood properties and morphology, which in turn affect the risk
of wind throw. CO2 and water interact with nitrogen deposition in antagonistic ways, with
biodiversity greatly buffering effects, as was seen during the Dec 99 storm. This has important
implications for the forest industry.
(3) Biotic interactions: Altered tree tissue chemical composition will affect species competitiveness,
feeding ecology of herbivores, decomposition, pathogen outbreaks, plant-soil fungus interactions and
nutrient release to ground water, factors affecting productivity and water quality.

Many of the effects outlined above have severe implications for the insurance industry, water services,
ecotourism, conservation, housing and agriculture, who will bear the cost of tree fall, flood damage,
water quality changes and losses in plantations. Governments and the public today are largely unaware
that atmospheric change poses a major threat to ecosystem function and personal livelihoods, via the
above routes.

Europe’s environmental footprint extends to the tropics and Europe receives goods and services from
tropical forests. The need to undertake parallel work in the tropics is of global importance as this is
where the majority of the world’s biodiversity resource is located and is most threatened. It is likely that
resilience to global scale change will depend on the whole resource and not only the European resource.
Although the initial focus of the project will be specifically on European sites, some tropical sites will
also be included to extend the gradient to include more diverse and complex biodiversity systems.
Because of difficulties of access, forest canopies are the least known terrestrial ecosystem and yet they

2
could contain the majority of the world’s terrestrial biodiversity. The in-situ study of the tropical forest
canopies is currently largely led by US scientists, yet there are more canopy cranes in Europe than
anywhere else in the world.

Integration and Coordination

A partnership of scientists and centres of excellence has been set up in Europe to implement the EUCAN
project should it be funded. This partnership of soil scientists, global change specialists and hydrologists
is now ready to form the multidisciplinary team required to undertake this integrated project. Many of
these disciplines have been examining the implications of climate change for biological systems in
isolation and now the time is ripe for them to join forces and work on mitigation and adaptation solutions
within the more complicated ‘real’ world of diverse mature forest ecosystems. The implementation of
such work across a huge network of sites is unprecedented and will enable us to make reasonable
generalisations about forest ecosystem responses to global change. However, to implement a project at
this scale will require many millions of Euros and it will not be possible to proceed without governmental
or other sources of funding. Currently scientists in the partnership are located within the UK, Germany,
Switzerland, France, Sweden, Finland, Spain, Poland, Czech republic, Italy, Austria, Estonia and the
Netherlands. But we hope to extend this to partners in other European countries. The EUCAN Integrated
Project is closely affiliated with but separate from, EUTROSPHERE, a proposed European Network of
Excellence submitted as an EOI by the University of Ulm. It will draw together tropical forest
researchers from across Europe and will focus this expertise primarily on French Guiana, a French
Department. Many of the participants in this network will also participate in EUCAN. In addition
EUCAN will be able to draw upon non-European expertise through ICAN with which it is also affiliated
through the GCP.

A call for proposals at this scale is due to be released by the EU on the 17th December 2002. We hope
that the Global Canopy Programme has been able to bring momentum to the canopy science community
and create a network of scientists who are willing to work together with the EUCAN programme should
funds become available.

The full proposal can be viewed at: http://eoi.cordis.lu/dsp_details.cfm?ID=36605