Earth Observation for Ecosystem Management at TUM

How fires, storms, and bark beetles will shape the future of Europe’s forests TUM researchers have modeled how bark beetles, storms and wildfires could affect Europe’s forests. A doubling of forest damage is possible.

An international team led by researchers at TUM has calculated how disturbances could transform Europe’s forests by 2100:

www.tum.de/en/news-and-...

Long‐term comparison shows protected and non‐protected forests differ in harvesting, but not in wildfires or drought‐driven dieback Lower forest harvesting in Natura 2000 sites may align with socio-economic barriers often claimed by local communities, but protection does not influence vulnerability to other disturbances. In a gen....

New paper out!

In this collaboration with colleagues from Spain we show that Nature 2000 areas efficiently reduce harvest but not wildfire and drought disturbances.

onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/1365-2664.70282

New paper by @albavianasoto.bsky.social and @corneliussenf.bsky.social on forest reburns in southern Europe, published in Glob. Ecol. and Biogeography🌲🔥
Highlight: 30.1% of burned forest area experiencing multiple fire events since 1985.
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Prof. Cornelius Senf @corneliussenf.bsky.social has been appointed to the Landsat Science Team! ✨🛰️🌲

The members of the team are among the world's leading Earth Observation researchers and contribute directly to the strategic development of the Landsat program.

More: shorturl.at/NMLAy

The impact of extreme disturbance events on the economic attractiveness of stand types: A Monte Carlo simulation-based study Climate change and the increasing frequency of extreme disturbance events pose major challenges for sustainable forest management. Quantifying the eco…

New paper in collaboration with Thomas Knoke's group and led by Reyhaneh Farahani: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti.... We incorporate extreme disturbance events into and economic assessment and show that extreme disturbances can lead to significant economic losses.

New paper out!
We mapped forest recovery and its drivers in the Alps using multi-decadal fractional cover maps 🛰 and ecologically-informed recovery indicators 🌲.

We’re thrilled to be part of SafeNet, a Europe-wide effort to tackle biodiversity loss and boost forest resilience 🌳🌲

Watch the project video to learn more!

SafeNet project website: safenet-project.eu

ForestChats Episode 2: The European Forest Disturbance Atlas YouTube video by ForestPaths Project

Our postdoc @albavianasoto.bsky.social took part in a new ForestChats podcast talking about forest disturbance in Europe - where, when and why it happens. Tune in if you want to learn more about our work! 🔊

www.youtube.com/watch?v=sD1n...

New paper by Wout Cherlet of @qforestlab.bsky.social with very valuable insights into tree instance segmentation including one of our intensive measurement sites in #Berchtesgaden National Park 🌳✂️🌲

Co-authored by @hanzlan.bsky.social and @corneliussenf.bsky.social.

doi.org/10.1016/j.is...

The amount of undisturbed forest in proximity of severe disturbance patches enhances their recovery in temperate Europe - Landscape Ecology Context Forest recovery following disturbances is essential for maintaining ecosystem services, especially after large-scale events where regeneration is limited by seed availability. Understanding ho...

A new paper by @lisa-mandl.bsky.social! By linking satellite time series with ground inventories (contributed by >50 coauthors across Europe), Lisa quantified the scale-sensitivity of landscape effects on forest recovery, showing the importance of landscape context.
link.springer.com/article/10.1...

ForestPaths disturbance maps now available on FISE With ForestPaths releasing the European Forest Disturbance Atlas - a dataset of annual forest disturbance maps across 38 European countries - it is also now featured on the Forest Information System f...

🌲 The European Forest Disturbance Atlas by ForestPaths is now on Forest Information Systems for Europe!

Using Landsat data (1985–2023), the maps track fires, storms, bark beetles & harvesting across 38 countries — open-source & updated annually.

🔗 Explore more: forestpaths.eu/news/forestp...

Rising cost of disturbances for forestry in Europe under climate change - Nature Climate Change Climate change will raise the severity and frequency of forest disturbance, damaging the economic value of timber. Researchers show Europe’s timber-based forestry could lose up to €247 billion, yet in...

A new study by Mohr et al. (including our very own Prof. Senf) shows that forest disturbance costs in Europe could more than double under future climate scenarios, underlining the importance of adaptation in forestry. More details: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

We keep growing!
Are you excited about remote sensing and mountain forests? Then consider applying to this PhD position, supported by the TUM Center for Forest Management in the Alps! More details at: portal.mytum.de/jobs/wissens...

Can we map species richness across taxonomic groups from space? Promising results for fungi, plants, insects and birds in a mountain forest landscape, obtained by @corneliussenf.bsky.social et al. by combining different sensors (EnMAP, Sentinel-1/2). doi.org/10.1016/j.ja...

We had to change our summer retreat plans due to bad weather but Munichs technical museum was a great alternative. They even have a stuffed spy pigeon on display!

Prof. Seidl, Prof. Senf, Dr. Mandl, Prof. Stritih

We warmly congratulate @lisa-mandl.bsky.social on her successful PhD defence! In accordance with tradition, Lisa is wearing a special hand-made hat 🎓, illustrating her research and PhD journey, and signifying her transformation into Dr. Mandl😉

Were recent waves of large-scale forest dieback predictable? We say yes! A simple approach to describe temporal disturbance dynamics based on Taylor's Law. Now out in Nature Communications: rdcu.be/euG1A Thanks @tommaso-jucker.bsky.social and @rupertseidl.bsky.social for this great project!

Realistic virtual forests for understanding forest disturbances and recovery from space Forests worldwide are undergoing large-scale and unprecedented changes in terms of structure and composition due to land use change and natural distur…

Our new perspective on the use (& misuse) of what we're calling virtual forests (rather than digital twins!), for forest change from space, led by @kimcalders.bsky.social w many great colleagues 🔭 🧪🔬 www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Greetings from the #LPS in Vienna! Tomorrow's the last and the hottest (at least for us) day at the conference: a talk by @albavianasoto.bsky.social and posters by a lot of PhD students! Do not miss the chance to connect ;)

We will be in Vienna for the entire next week, attending the Living Planet Symposium! Below is an overview of our talks and posters:🧵

#LPS25

🎓 Come work with us!
We are offering a new PhD position in our lab! You will study the impacts of forest disturbance and fragmentation on microclimate and forest regeneration, together with @katjakowalski.bsky.social.
Applicants from diverse backgrounds encouraged!

shorturl.at/RT4uk
Please RT!