Publications
NIBIOs employees contribute to several hundred scientific articles and research reports every year. You can browse or search in our collection which contains references and links to these publications as well as other research and dissemination activities. The collection is continously updated with new and historical material.
2026
Abstract
This chapter presents a very brief overview of the status of nature-based solutions (NbS) and geographical spread of various approaches, including regenerative, organic and biodynamic farming in vineyards in France. The authors further discussed the impacts generated by practicing selected NbS on the vineyard ecosystem systems, the main challenges in producing organic, biodynamic or regenerative wines in France, and the technology and policy implications in the context of vineyards in France. Three case studies practicing NbS have been presented in the second part of this chapter to illustrate the contribution to biodiversity conservation and ecosystem services. Despite the constraints, there is much to learn from the experiences and knowledge developed in the vineyards in France practicing NbS.
Abstract
Intensive farming systems are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, especially methane and nitrous oxide, thereby contributing to the acceleration of climate change, which in turn contributes to frequent extreme weather events (droughts, floods, heat stress). However, reducing methane emissions in the agricultural sector is much tougher, especially in open landscapes. Considering this, new systemic solutions that are sustainable and implementable at landscape level are necessary. This chapter broadly presents the concept of nature-based solutions (NbS), its brief history and how it was mainstreamed into the research and development agenda in recent years. This is followed by a discussion of major challenges of the current farming systems in general and vineyard landscapes in particular. This chapter provides a review of innovative approaches and pathways for a transition towards sustainable NbS, including biodynamic, organic and regenerative viticulture. This is followed by a transdisciplinary conceptual framework for NbS implementation, showing the importance of linkages between science, stakeholders and policy. In addition, the benefits of implementing NbS and the supporting policy frameworks were briefly discussed. Towards the end, a brief outline of the book was described in this chapter.
Authors
Sekhar Udaya NagothuAbstract
The final chapter in this book summarizes the main messages and recommendations from the different chapters. The experiences from different chapters show that nature-based solutions (NbS) have the potential to address key societal challenges in vineyard socio-ecosystems. This chapter discusses the limitations for upscaling NbS and measures to overcome them. Scaling up of NbS at the landscape level requires an integrated approach that links policy, financial instruments and technical solutions. Towards the end, the current policy framework available for upscaling of the evidence-based NbS is presented, which could be useful for managers working in the winegrowing regions of the Mediterranean.
Authors
Julian Oeser Rafał Kowalczyk Dries Kuijper Wiebke Neumann Rudolf Reiner Rupert Seidl Cornelius Senf Hendrik Bluhm Nadège C. Bonnot Luca Börger Tomasz Borowik Francesca Cagnacci Marcin Churski Benedikt Gehr Marco Dietmar Heurich A. J. Mark Hewison Klemen Jerina Max Kröschel Nicolas Morellet Atle Mysterud Nives Pagon Gabriele Retez Sebastian Seibold Rita T. Torres Alba Viana-Soto Adrian Mihai Aldea Roksana Baryło Sophie Baur Sebastian Catanoiu Rok Černe Marcin Grzegorzek Dário Hipólito Maciej Januszczak Anders Jarnemo Miloš Ježek Artūras Kibiša Daniel Klich Alain Licoppe Julien Lievens Matthias-Claudio Loretto Weronika Maślanko Erling Meisingset Rasmus Mohr Mortensen András Náhlik Wanda Olech Astrid Olejarz Federico Ossi Algimantas Paulauskas Maryline Pellerin Kajetan Perzanowski Wibke Peters Mirosław Ratkiewicz Thomas Rempfler Sonia Saïd Călin Constantin Șerban Kastytis Šimkevičius Jakub Skorupski Maria Sobczuk Nikica Šprem Peter Sunde Tamás Tari Maciej Tracz Magdalena Tracz Aleksandra Wołoszyn-Gałęza Tobias KuemmerleAbstract
Forest disturbances have increased in many regions, but how they impact habitat suitability for wildlife remains poorly understood. Here, by combining tracking data on 3,069 individuals of four ungulate species (European bison, moose, red deer and roe deer) with satellite-based maps, we perform a continental, multi-decadal assessment of large herbivore responses to forest disturbance. Despite strong intraspecific variation, all species show an increased selection of disturbed areas for ≥35 years after disturbance. Although the patterns closely reflect species-specific foraging strategies, all species selected more strongly for smaller disturbance patches, depending on the availability of alternative foraging habitats (grasslands and croplands). Model projections across the species’ range extents show positive but regionally varying effects of forest disturbances on habitat suitability between 2000 and 2023. Our findings indicate that forest disturbances can attract large herbivores and that the recent increase in forest disturbances improved habitat suitability for our study species across Europe, highlighting the importance of considering long-term disturbance-related dynamics for wildlife and forest management. Given expected future increases in disturbance, resulting habitat improvements could amplify conflicts with forestry, but also contribute to restoring large herbivores and their ecological functions.
Authors
Maarten de Groot Tine Hauptman Kristjan Ait Flavius Bălăcenoiu Eckehard G. Brockerhoff Luka Capuder Gyorgy Csoka Mirza Dautbasic Massimo Faccoli Juraj Galko Jean Claude Grégoire Jaroslav Holuša Mats Jonsell Boris Hrašovec Hervé Jactel Magdalena Kacprzyk Urs Kamm Markus Kautz Maartje J. Klapwijk Marija Kolšek Paal Krokene Diana Marčiulynienė Markus Melin Marton Paulin Milan Pernek Jason Sumner-Kalkun Floor Vodde David Williams Tiina Ylioja Gernot HochAbstract
In the last few decades, bark beetle outbreaks have increased in European forests, triggered by extreme weather events, such as drought and windstorms. A core element of integrated pest management to control outbreaks are salvage logging and sanitation felling, i.e., the timely removal or treatment of potential brood material and already infested trees after disturbance events. Associated with these management operations as well as with regular, planned thinning and cutting, felling residues, such as treetops, branches and stumps that remain in the forest provide potentially suitable breeding material for bark beetles and may trigger further outbreak events. Although felling residue management is part of regular forest management in most of Europe, no overview exists on its use throughout the continent. To fill this gap, we gathered forest health experts from 20 European countries and used a questionnaire to provide information on felling residue management in the context of forest protection in managed forests. Relevant legislation in these countries was reviewed for regulations concerning this topic. We found that most countries have felling residue management in their legislation and/or perform it in practice. In 12 of the 20 countries, felling residue management is being applied to manage bark beetles, particularly in areas that have experienced large-scale outbreaks in the last few decades. Felling residues are mainly managed in forests dominated by Norway spruce ( Picea abies L. Karst) and pines ( Pinus spp.) (in 19 and 17 of the countries, respectively). The most frequently used management methods on a European level were piling or mulching of felling residues. These methods were used in 14 and 16 of the countries, respectively. Besides bark beetle management, use of residues for bioenergy (4 countries) and biodiversity conservation (6 countries) was reported. The diversity of felling residue management practices across Europe may reflect differences in forest policies and climatic gradients that are affecting bark beetle outbreak risks. This overview presents the variety of felling residue management applied across 20 European countries, highlighting the reasons for and implications of its use, as well as further research needs.
Authors
Anna Wöhlbrandt Anabel Onay Ute Bachmann-Gigl Wolfgang Falk Christian Temperli Samuel Aspalter Debojyoti Chakraborty Silvio Schüler Johannes Breidenbach Jonas Fridman Miriam Isaac-Renton Vladimír Šebeň Mitja Skudnik Tzvetan Zlatanov Dominik Thom Eric A. ThurmAbstract
Amid increasing temperatures and extended drought periods, forest managers require comprehensive information regarding the suitability of various tree species under changing climatic conditions. To address this need, we assembled a unique dataset spanning Europe, incorporating multiple data sources such as national forest inventories, forest management plans, and data from ICP Forests. Our database ultimately included over six million individual trees across 860,000 forest plots throughout Europe. Using this extensive dataset, we developed Species Distribution Models (SDM) for 30 and Site Index Models (SIM) for 25 European tree species, the latter limited by data availability. Both model types were used to generate predictions at a spatial resolution of 1 × 1 km for the periods 2011–2040, 2041–2070, and 2071–2100 under climate change scenarios RCP2.6, RCP4.5 and RCP8.5. The model predictions aim to estimate the top height and assess climate suitability across Europe under future climate conditions. One potential application of these models is in a decision support system (DSS) to inform tree species selection and management strategies in the context of climate change. Provided are the models, prediction outputs, and supporting information, as the underlying database is restricted by data use agreements.
Authors
Johannes Schumacher Alessandro Cescatti Gherardo Chirici Giovanni D’Amico Saverio Francini Johannes Hertzler Lauri Mehtätalo Gert-Jan Nabuurs Mats Nilsson Juho Pitkänen Johannes BreidenbachAbstract
The availability of reliable ground-truth data is one of the main bottlenecks for improving high-resolution forest attribute maps from Earth observation data. This is underpinned by the European Union (EU) Forest Strategy for 2030 that underscores the need for harmonized, cross-border forest resource assessments that integrate both remote sensing and field-based National Forest Inventory (NFI) data. However, confidentiality constraints on NFI plot coordinates present a significant barrier to aligning these datasets, thereby limiting the development of unified forest monitoring systems that can fully leverage the potential of Earth Observation data. To overcome these data-sharing limitations we explored the effectiveness of a privacy-enhancing technique, known as Federated Learning (FL), that is a form of distributed computing aimed at preserving the privacy and confidentiality of data owned by different organizations. This methodology has been tested for the collaborative modelling and mapping of forest timber volume across four European countries: Norway, Sweden, Finland, and Italy. We employed a time-series convolutional neural network (CNN) architecture tailored to integrate 40 years of Landsat or 7 years of Sentinel imagery and terrain variables with harmonized NFI data from more than 85,000 sample plots. This model architecture was used for the FL approach and compared to traditional country-specific and centralized modelling strategies. FL models achieved predictive performances comparable to the traditional models, which proofs the effectiveness of the proposed approach. Centralized or global models showed slightly reduced performance compared to the national models, highlighting the value of fine-tuning with local ground-truth data. By aligning with the EU’s forest monitoring objectives, FL facilitates the generation of harmonized models and maps of forest features, like timber volume and biomass, that are critical to support evidence-based forest policy and management. The findings underscore the potential of FL to transform collaborative environmental monitoring, particularly in domains where data confidentiality and interoperability are critical.
Abstract
Individual tree structure plays a key role in forest monitoring, biomass estimation, and ecological assessment. However, ground-based remote sensing methods such as terrestrial and mobile laser scanning frequently produce incomplete point clouds due to occlusion, particularly in the upper canopy. This limits the accuracy of derived structural metrics such as tree height or crown volume. In this study, we present a novel deep learning-based method to reconstruct the outer crown shape of coniferous trees from incomplete point clouds. Instead of completing the full tree structure, we focus on predicting the alpha-shape of the crown, enabling a more efficient and generalizable approach for structural reconstruction. We train a geometry-aware transformer model (AdaPoinTr) on synthetically generated partial tree crowns and evaluate its performance across three independent datasets encompassing different forest types and acquisition conditions. The model consistently improved the similarity metric Chamfer distance (CD) between partial and predicted tree crown shapes and reduced height estimation errors compared to using partial data alone (reduced bias from -11% to -3.5%). Our results demonstrate that this shape-based strategy enables the extraction of key tree-level parameters from incomplete data, offering a practical solution for gaining improved 3D forest structural information from cost-sensitive or logistically constrained forest monitoring acquisitions.
Abstract
Green roofs are increasingly recognized as nature-based solutions that enhance urban resilience by supporting biodiversity, regulating microclimates, and mitigating stormwater runoff. However, their performance—particularly in extensive, lightweight systems—is often constrained by drought stress, which limits plant survival and ecosystem functioning under climate change. While substrate composition has been widely investigated in this context, the role of wind as a co-driver of drought impacts remains poorly understood. In this study, we examined how moderate wind interacts with substrate properties to shape drought responses in green roof vegetation. Using three non-succulent species (Plantago maritima, Pilosella officinarum, and Festuca rubra), we quantified substrate and plant water balance, physiological performance, wilting dynamics, and survival under prolonged drought conditions. Our results demonstrate that wind significantly accelerates drought effects—regardless of species or substrate—by intensifying substrate desiccation, with critical moisture thresholds reached at 6–8%. While wind alone did not impair plant performance under well-watered conditions, its interaction with drought markedly reduced survival time and increased physiological stress. Although general response patterns were consistent across species, subtle interspecific differences indicate that plant selection for green roofs should account for combined drought and wind exposure. These findings highlight wind as an overlooked but critical factor in the design and evaluation of resilient green roof systems and potentially contribute to a more comprehensive understanding of vegetation performance in urban nature-based solutions under climate stress.
Authors
Raphael Silva Thiago Inagaki Thomas Trentin Laura Péres Cléber Jesus Luis Alleoni Matheus SoaresAbstract
Highly reactive, fine-particle biochars are particularly effective in recarbonizing degraded soils, but they can be more vulnerable to fire degradation due to higher surface area. How biochar particle size influences its persistence in the environment remains poorly understood, particularly in regions affected by fire events such as the Cerrado. In this study, we investigated the stability of micrometric (200 µm) and nanometric (<50 nm) açaí seed biochar incubated in an Oxisol for 180 days, followed by simulated burning using a propane–butane torch. Biochar amended soil had higher total C and nitrogen (N) contents, with a 43% increase for microbiochar and 88% for nanobiochar in the mineral-associated organic matter (MAOM) fraction, indicating incorporation into stable pools. Burning reduced C associated with the particulate organic matter (POM) more when amended with microbiochar than with nanobiochar, demonstrating their vulnerability fire. An increase, up to fivefold, in dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and nitrogen (DN) contents occurred after burning. XRD data showed no mineralogical differences among samples, while FTIR indicated loss of polysaccharides after burning. TGA revealed that microbiochar was more thermally stable under unburned conditions but lost stability after burning. In contrast, nanobiochar was less stable in unburned soil but became more stable following burning, resulting in lower mass loss. The reduced mass loss in the burned control is attributed to its ~40% lower soil C content. Biochar’s particle size governs carbon stability, fire vulnerability, and post-burn soil resilience, thereby using nanobiochar for fire-prone areas act as strategy improving the management of agricultural soils.