Harvesting for the future. Impacts of tree harvest intensity and drought on soil carbon and fungi in forests

Harvesting a few trees can help making our forests future-proof. Forests are facing more frequent and severe drought events due to ongoing climate change, threatening timber production and biodiversity. Moreover, it reduces the uptake and storage of atmospheric carbon in trees and soils, limiting forests in their climate-change mitigation potential. By reducing the number of trees per area, competition for soil water can be lowered, potentially increasing tree growth and survival under drought. This may also benefit soil fungi, which play a key role in both tree performance and soil carbon storage. However, little is known about how different tree harvest intensities affect soil carbon cycling and fungi under both drought and no-drought conditions. In this thesis, I investigated the effects of harvest intensity and drought on soils using a unique forest management experiment. I found that harvesting a few trees had minor effects on  soil carbon and fungi, yet it did not alleviate the effects of drought.