Thinning and impact of drought in mountain forests

The recent drought-triggered tree mortality events observed around the globe put emphasis on the need for forest management options that mitigate drought effects. Thinning is often recommended to minimize drought impacts on forests. However, thinning options need to be developed while considering not only drought mitigation, or wood production, but also biodiversity and other ecosystem services such as protection from avalanches and rockfall, which are often not considered by studies on this topic. To better inform forest practitioners, in this internal project we will examine trade-offs among drought impact on forest growth, ecological functions and ecosystem services in thinned and unthinned Norway spruce-dominated stands in Switzerland.