40 years of successful collaboration

Cooperation with the Research Institute for Forest Ecology and Forestry, Trippstadt

We have been collaborating successfully with the Rhineland-Palatinate State Forestry / Research Institute for Forest Ecology and Forestry (FAWF) in Trippstadt for 40 years. The FAWF relies on our chemical analyses; the focus is on forest environmental monitoring, the results of which are included, for example, in the annual forest status report published by the FAWF. For the research institute's forest monitoring, we analyze around 2,300 water samples (precipitation, soil seepage, groundwater and spring water) and around 500 plant samples (leaves, needles and litterfall) for a wide variety of substances, as well as around 100 mineral soil and humus samples per year. Those analyses require a wide range of methods and a great deal of expertise. The collaboration is supervised by graduate engineer Sabine Reh, who is also a member of the expert committee for forest analysis of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture.

To clarify the causes of forest damage and to determine the effects of climate change, air pollution and other stress factors on forest ecosystems, measurement and observation areas are operated throughout Rhineland-Palatinate, including one in the middle of the Palatinate Forest near Merzalben since 1985. Here, in addition to numerous other studies, air pollutant concentrations and substance inputs into the forest soil are recorded in order to assess the effects of these factors on the forest soil, ground vegetation, forest trees and other elements of the ecosystem. In addition to this forest monitoring, there is also collaboration on research projects, such as the effects of soil protection liming or the “Nutrient sustainability of forest management” project, for which LUFA is analyzing 400 wood samples this year. Another joint project is concerned with short rotation plantations, i.e. fast-growing wood on agricultural land, for which trial areas have been established in the Northern Palatinate and on the LUFA's Rinkenbergerhof field trial station.

The third area of cooperation is the German Forest Soil Condition Survey (BZE), where the questions are: What is the state of our forest soils and how has it changed over the last 20 years? What are the links between soil state and vegetation, forest nutrition, crown condition and drought stress? And how much carbon is stored in the forest soil? The first Soil Condition Survey in the Palatinate Forest took place from 1987 to 1992 at around 1,900 points. A further inventory was carried out from 2006 to 2008. The third survey is currently underway from 2023 to 2025; among other things, 1,200 soil and humus samples and 800 leaf/needle samples are being analyzed.