I am interested in the functioning of forest ecosystems and how tree diversity influences ecological processes. My current research focuses on how forests respond to drought events, whose frequency and severity are rising under climate change. Specifically, I investigate how the diversity of tree species and mycorrhizal associations as well as hydro-functional traits and their dissimilarity to the surrounding tree neighbourhood affect drought resistance of trees. This work is conducted in the tree diversity experiment MyDiv (Bad Lauchstädt, Germany) and in the research arboretum ARBOfun (Großpösna, Germany) within the framework of the DFG International Research Training Group TreeDì – 林地 at the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig.

Sachsenmaier L, Schnabel F, Dietrich P, Eisenhauer N, Ferlian O, Quosh J, Richter R & Wirth C (2024). Forest growth resistance and resilience to the 2018–2020 drought depend on tree diversity and mycorrhizal type. Journal of Ecology. doi.org/10.1111/1365-2745.14360.