ERC Consolidator Grant · 2024
Improving forest drought resilience through tree xylem eco-physiological mechanisms
Trees play a major role in Earth’s water and carbon cycles. Climate change puts trees under a growing threat of drought-induced mortality. This already happens in Europe, where summers are becoming hotter and drier, and across global forest biomes. Due to their large size and long lifespan, trees need time to adapt and migrate, time they lack under the fast rate of global change. On the other hand, foersts are amog the most important ecosystems we simply cannot afford to lose. Loss of xylem hydraulic conductivity due to eruption of air bubbles is termed xylem embolism. Despite many years of studying tree responses to drought, it is still debated whether xylem embolism actually kills trees.…
From the public funding record at EU CORDIS. Describes the funded project, not the reviews below.