Acidification is a major threat to forest ecosystems. All over Europe, liming is therefore a common practice to increase pH-values. However, a critical assessment of the long-term impacts of liming on ecosystems and especially soil organisms is missing. In this project, we investigate the effect of liming in three forests in Rhineland-Palatinate. We therefore compare forest plots with different liming treatments, which are part of a long-term monitoring program of the “Forstanstalt für Waldökologie und Forsten”. We focus on soil arthropods, earthworms and snails and use different sampling methods. Species identification will be done using a metabarcoding approach.

Jens Schirmel

2021-

Forstanstalt für Waldökologie und Forsten

Forstanstalt für Waldökologie und Forsten (Dr. Martin Greve)

biodiversity, global change; forests; arthropods; Germany