The DFG project "Enhancing the structural diversity between patches for improving multidiversity and multifunctionality in production forests" addresses the relationship between biodiversity, ecosystem services and their stability. In German forests, a decline in β-diversity driven by coniferous forest monocultures has been observed for years, which is hypothesized to lead to decreasing multifunctionality in the forest. An ecologically oriented, sustainable forest management that allows and retains disturbances and changes in the forest at different scales can contribute to an increase in heterogeneity and multifunctionality.
In BETA-FOR, the influence of forest management practices on β-diversity is investigated and in a transdisciplinary consortium of forest scientists, biologists, ecologists, and geoscientists, structural parameters in the forest are also recorded by means of earth observation and jointly analyzed with taxa data.
Extension of expertise in the field of analysis of national EO data sets (S-1, S-2, S-3, Landsat, Planet, aerial photographs, ALS) for the derivation of structural parameters and biodiversity indices for the German forest. Modeling for the analysis of EO data and field data on diverse taxa in the context of alpha, beta and gamma diversity in the context of a PhD thesis. Collaboration of biologists, ecologists, modelers and remote sensing scientists.