The Drought ForC project, selected by FairCarboN PEPR, will be carried out on 4 experimental forestry sites in the AnaEE infrastructure

4 AnaEE sites and 5 ICOS sites, coordinated by Jean-Marc Limousin (scientific manager of the Puéchabon Mediterranean forest site), have joined forces to propose the Drought ForC project, winner of the PEPR FairCarboN 2023 call for projects.

The Drought ForC project focuses on forest ecosystems, which are both strongly affected by current climate change and at the heart of the mitigation strategy. A better understanding of the effects of climate on forest carbon sinks is a major challenge for both scientists and foresters.

The questions raised by the Drought ForC project concern:

• Carbon allocation among the various tree organs and the link between photosynthetic assimilation and carbon sequestration in perennial organs;
• The degradation of organic matter and carbon sequestration in the soil under the antagonistic effects of warming and soil drying;
• The effects of water deficit on mineral nutrition and its consequences for tree growth and functioning.

The project aims to study these issues by bringing together all the French forestry sites of the ICOS and AnaEE infrastructures that measure carbon fluxes using the turbulent correlation technique or use in situ rainfall manipulation experiments, as well as a large consortium of modellers. It will use data already acquired at each of the forest sites, new experimental set-ups and a wide range of modelling approaches to gain a better understanding of the mechanisms by which forests respond to climate change, quantify their impact on the carbon balance and improve future climate projections.

Drought ForC is a federative project based on French forest sites (5 belonging to ICOS and 4 to AnaEE), 12 process-based models working on different time and space scales, and the work of 25 researchers from 10 laboratories.

The project is designed to improve the transfer of knowledge from experiments to models and encourage the integration of experimental facilities and models on a national scale.

More information on the FairCarboN website.