FORFUS

Inspiration

More than one third of Luxembourg's land surface is covered by forests. These provide important ecosystem functions for society and the economy. However, the health status of these forests has been declining severely in the past two decades. The proportion of undamaged trees in Luxembourg’s forests has more than halved, while that of severely damaged or dead trees has more than doubled over the past 20 years, according to regular forest surveys.

Innovation

The “Forest function under stress” (FORFUS) is a dedicated doctoral training unit aiming to address the urgent societal need for science-based management recommendations for forests under increasing pressure, and to leverage the fast-developing expertise in multi-disciplinary forest research in Luxembourg. It consists of four inter-linked research clusters, focusing on below-ground processes, tree and canopy processes, remote sensing observations, and the prediction and valuation of forest functions.

Methods used will include field monitoring, field and lab experiments, remote sensing, data science including machine learning, and numerical modelling. We will hereby build on LIST's long-term eco-hydrological monitoring network and closely coordinate activities with the parallel project FORLUX, which will establish a dedicated forest monitoring network in collaboration with the City of Luxembourg and the ANF. We believe that intensified, coordinated and sustained multi-disciplinary research in local forests will dramatically improve our ability to detect emerging threats early and make well-informed management decisions for the future.

Impact

FORFUS is coordinated by LIST and co-hosted by the University of Luxembourg and LISER. It will combine 13 doctoral candidates and one postdoc investigating carbon, water and nutrient cycling in the soil, heat and water stress in the canopy, air pollution, new methods for observing forests using satellites and drones, and new approaches for the prediction and valuation of forest functions.

FORFUS will deliver ground-breaking multidisciplinary training to the next generation of forest researchers and managers by bringing together leading scientists from different disciplines involved in forest research and including national and international stakeholders from the start.

The broad involvement of national and international stakeholders and researchers (from 8 national and 15 international groups and institutions) will ensure that the research and training is of high societal and academic relevance in Luxembourg and beyond. New standards in Open Science practices will further enable broad participation in the scientific discourse and maximize the utility of the research methods and results emerging from FORFUS.

Discover our projects and open positions

Research cluster RC1: The role of below-ground processes for forest functioning

 Research cluster RC2: Tree and canopy processes

Research cluster RC3: Observe forests from above

Research cluster RC4: Predict and value forests