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HEIndividual fellowship2023–2025

BoTWU · Tree water use under changing snow/rain seasonality: The forgotten tree-induced upward preferential flow in boreal soils

Horizon Europe — Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions

Duration
2023-10-01 → 2025-09-30
EU contribution
€215,534
Participants
1
Scheme
HORIZON-TMA-MSCA-PF-EF

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Results in brief

Tree water use under changing snow/rain seasonality: The forgotten tree-induced upward preferential flow in boreal soils

Trees start growing in spring. In boreal forests, it is known that trees do not rely only on rainfall during the growing season, but also use snowmelt water from winter. Under climate change, the seasonal pattern of winter snowfall and growing-season rainfall is changing in northern environments. Winter snow has increased in some regions and decreased in others, and growing-season rainfall has become more variable in terms of amount, duration, and intensity. Do these changes alter boreal tree water use during the growing season, which strongly influences tree growth in regions where timber productivity is critical for the local economy? Meanwhile, as a dominant component of the forest water budget, how does altered tree water use further modify soil moisture conditions in boreal forests, thereby affecting local water resource dynamics? Answering these questions is critical for providing a scientific basis and new insights for developing sustainable and climate-smart forest and water resource management in boreal regions, in order to cope with the rapid changes in seasonal precipitation occurring in high-latitude areas. Therefore, by applying an array of interdisciplinary methods in an experimental setup with innovative high-resolution, in-situ, and non-destructive water isotope and water flux measurements, BoTWU explores boreal tree water uptake strategies under changing rain-snow seasonality. At the same time, BoTWU research and knowledge exchange between the researcher and the host boosted the researcher’s career development as a forest ecohydrologist and expanded the research scope of boreal forest (eco)hydrology at the host institution.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union

Project objective

The project ‘Tree water use under changing snow/rain seasonality: The forgotten tree-induced upward fast flow in boreal soils’ aims to go beyond the state-of-the-art in boreal tree water use (TWU) research by (1) challenging the fundamental TWU assumption of no water isotope fractionation along the boreal TWU pathway, (2) unravelling the hydrological importance of the forgotten ‘upwards preferential flow’ in boreal forest soil, and (3) being the first to systematically consider biophysical impacts of changing snow and rain on TWU from the root level to individual level. Under the supervision of Prof. Hannu Marttila (University of Oulu), these aims will be supported by an innovative experiment set-up (high-resolution water isotopes and bi-directional fluxes on roots to stems) and up-to-date methodology and instruments (in-situ non-destructive Water Isotope Probes, Picarro L2140-I isotope analyzer, heat-plus-method sap flow sensors), where the research will be conducted in a boreal forest near the Arctic Circle on three typical boreal species with manipulated snowpack depth. During the project, my expertise in (eco)hydrology will expand from temperate forests and sap flow techniques to boreal forests and stable water isotope techniques, which will be a stepping stone in my long-term academic career plan for becoming a leading and independent ecohydrologist. Meanwhile, my know-how in tree transpiration and tree ecophysiology complements the expertise in northern hydrology at UOULU. The proposed dissemination, exploitation, and communication measures and activities will significantly impact the ecohydrology community and will subsequently contribute to improving sustainable-use, climate-smart forest and water resource management benefitting forest and water resource related stakeholders and lowering climate risks for society.

Original text from CORDIS.

Participants

  • OULUN YLIOPISTO · OuluCoordinatorFinland

Links

Data: CORDIS, © European Union