PhD defence: Na Yan

Na Yan defends her thesis,

Climate responses and resilience after extreme events in Fagus sylvatica, Quercus robur and Picea abies

Zoom link

Supervisors:
Professor Erik Dahl Kjær, IGN
Senior researcher Jon Kehlet Hansen, IGN
Professor Lisbeth Garbrecht Thygesen, IGN

Assessment Committee:
Head of research Tor Myking, NIBIO – Norway
Senior scientist Patrick Fonti, WSL – Switzerland
Associate Professor Anders Ræbild (chair), IGN

Summary:
Climate change leading to warming and changing precipitation patterns emphasises the need for sustainable forest management to mitigate possible negative effects of climate change and in particular drought. In this context, it is of importance to know the response and resilience of different trees species to climate variations and climate extremes, if thinning operations may mitigate the negative influence of climate change and the possibilities to breed for drought tolerance. The aim of the present thesis was therefore to explore and compare the growth responses to climate variations of Fagus sylvatica and Quercus robur under different thinning regimes in long-term thinning experiments in Denmark. For Picea abies, the focus was to test for long-term effects of genetic differences in health decline observed in the 1990s, and to study if the genetic variation in health decline was of special importance for growth 201 6-2020 including a severe drought year-2018.

A digital version of the PhD thesis can be obtained from the PhD secretary Anne Marie Faldt at anmf@ign.ku.dk