CREAFTalk with Guillermo Gea - Physiological mechanisms and ecological dynamics under increased hot drought in forest ecosystems

In this talk Guillermo will discuss the physiological mechanisms explaining forest dynamics under increased hot drought. Particularly the talk will focus on the negative forest dynamics currently expressed through increases in tree mortality rates and species decline in Mediterranean forest ecosystems. Based on different examples from his research he will stress the need to develop multidisciplinary approaches and assess complete functional responses of carbon and water dynamics across spatio-temporal scales in forests. The ultimate goal is to improve forest process-based models, both to increase knowledge and mitigate the future negative impacts of climate change on forest ecosystems. 

Who is Guillermo Gea?

Guillermo is a scientific researcher at ICIFOR-INIA, CSIC (Madrid, Spain). His research deals with global change forest ecology and management, and studies the impact of abiotic and biotic stresses associated with climate change on the dynamics of Mediterranean forests. To increase understanding on the physiological mechanisms explaining forest dynamics under increased climatic stress, he combines multiple disciplines like forest functional ecology, ecophysiology, dendroecology, quantitative wood anatomy and mechanistic modeling of functional processes.