Dr. Jan Tumajer
Junior Fellow, October 2025 to September 2026
Christian-Albrechts-Universität zu Kiel
- Dendroecologist and forest ecologist with a focus on tree growth dynamics
- Research into tree responses to environmental instabilities across various timescales – from hourly to centuries-long processes
- Combining empirical wood formation data with process-based models to analyze growth mechanisms and environmental interactions
Fellow-Projekt: "Tracking the Link Between Stressed Trees, Forest Ecosystem State, and Human Health"
Temperate forest ecosystems of Central Europe provide a society with diverse ecosystem services. The accelerating pace of climate change observed since the second half of the 20th century increases a need for a mechanistic understanding of their responses to climatic instability and how their changes might affect human health and well-being. This emerging question needs to be addressed on various hierarchical levels spanning from individuals to communities. With this proposal, I aim to characterize (WP1) the level of growth decoupling between coexisting species during the growing season, and (WP2) how reproduction dynamics of forest tree species propagate through parasitic food web towards affecting human health by tick-borne diseases. To address these WPs, I will analyze data collected in a large network of forest monitoring plots across Mecklenburg-Vorpommern. Instrumentation of these sites includes dendrometers (automatic devices continuously recording stem growth and stem size variation), rhizotrones (recording growth of roots), crane (monitoring canopy health and growth), and seed traps. By comparing intra-annual growth patterns measured by dendrometers in mixed forest stands, I will analyze the level of temporal growth decoupling between coexisting species as a potential mechanism reducing inter-specific competition for resources (WP1). Finally, I will test the reproduction intensity of forest tree species as a predictor for the incidence of tick-borne diseases in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern using structural equation models (WP2). The outputs of this project will contribute to a mechanistic understanding of how the growth of temperate trees responds to ongoing climate change on various hierarchical scales, over the course of the growing season, and how ecosystem health propagates through a parasitic food web into society.