Project properties
Title Tree ring analysis in the Netherlands: At which forest density do trees best withstand hot and dry conditions?
Group Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group
Project type thesis
Credits 36/39
Supervisor(s) prof.dr.ir. FJ (Frank) Sterck, ACE (Eva) Meijers MSc, dr. M (Monique) Weemstra
Examiner(s) dr. JP (Peter) van der Sleen
Contact info Eva.meijers@wur.nl
Begin date 2023/09/04
End date
Description Forest density reductions are suggested to protect our forests from future dry and hot conditions. However, effectiveness of density reductions remains incongruent and not adequately tested. This is primarily due to the lack of experiments. We hypothesize that a density optimum exists at moderate levels of reductions, i.e. ~20-40%. At such an optimum forest density, competition is reduced substantially, yet negative effects from too high levels of incoming radiation and wind speed are kept at bay.

For your thesis, you will make use of an 15-ha forest density experiment located throughout the Netherlands. The experiment concerns even-aged monocultures plots of Douglas, Scots Pine and Common beech, on which various densities have been created in 2019. You will take tree core samples (Oct 2023) and carry out tree ring analysis. You will analyse your data in R. You will conduct your sampling and labwork alongside two other master thesis students, yet you will analyse the data from another angle.


Topic(s): Dendrology/ Time-series analysis/ Climate change effects / Sustainable forest management/ Ecophysiology
Region(s): The Netherlands
Climate(s): Temperate zone
Corona proof: Yes
Used skills R, fieldwork, labwork, statistics
Requirements - WEC-31806 Ecological Methods I, or a comparable alternative course;
- One FEM course (at least), depending on the topic of the thesis: FEM-30306 Forest Ecology and Forest Management, FEM-30806 Resource Dynamics Sustainable Utilization, FEM-32306 Agroforestry, or Models for Ecological Systems FEM-31806