PD Dr. Norbert Kunert

Tel. +49 176 286 285 41
 

 E-Mail

Research interest

I am interested in the ecosystem functioning of a wide range of forest ecosystems, encompassing tropical and temperate forest, natural forests and plantations. My special focus lies on developing ways to modify forest, for example, with silvicultural treatments to provide a maximum of ecosystem services without for wood production.  A central question of my research is how climate change will affect forest functioning and how we can adapt silvicultural systems to reduce climate change effect on forests. The most thriving questions I would like to answer are:
- Can we design forestry systems that are more resistant to increasing drought frequency in a changing climate? 
- Can we achieve this by amplifying the species pool or by diversification of forest stand?

Teaching

• Module coordinator Tropical Forest Ecology
• Lecturer within the Module Ecosystem Ecology

Education

• 12/2017  Habilitation, Silviculture and Physiological Forest Ecology Falculty Environment and Natural Resources, Freiburg, Germany 
• 06/2010     Ph.D. in Forest Science and Wood Ecology, Department of Tropical Silviculture and Forest Ecology, Georg-August University, Germany
• 02/2007    M.Sc. in Biology, TU-Munich, Germany
• 05/2006    M.Sc. in Wood and Forestry Science, TU-Munich, Germany
• 04/2006    Diploma in Forestry Science and Resource Management, TU-Munich, Germany
• 02/2005    B.Sc. in Forestry Science, TU-Munich, Germany

External links

Review activities on publons
Research gate profile
Google scholar profile

Publications

Vargas, G., Kunert, N., Hammond, W., Berry, Z.C., Werden, L., Smith-Martin, C., Wolfe, B., Toro, L., Mondragón-Botero, A., Pinto L.J. Schwartz, N., Uriarte, M., Sack, L., Anderson-Teixeira, K., Powers, J., 2022. Leaf habit affects the distribution of drought sensitivity but not water transport efficiency in the tropics. Ecology Letters.

Kunert, N., Hajek, P., 2022. Shade-tolerant temperate broad-leaved trees are more sensitive to thermal stress than light-demanding species during a moderate heatwave. Trees, Forests and People 9,100282. 

Kunert, N., Brändle, J., El-Madany, T., 2022. Carbon allocation and tree diversity: shifts in autotrophic respiration in tree mixtures compared to monocultures. Biologia.

Kunert, N., Brändle, J., 2022. How drought tolerant are tropical woody crop species - turgor loss points for the five most common species in the emerging landscapes in Southeast Asia. Earth and Environmental Science  1053, 012023.

Kunert, N., Hajek, P, 2022. Der Hochwald ist tot - es lebe der Niederwald? AFZ – Der Wald 15, 30-34

Jansen, S., Bittencourt, P., Pereira, L., Schenk, J., Kunert, N., 2022. A crucial phase in plants - it’s a gas, gas, gas! New Phytologist 233, 1556–1559.

Kunert, N., Hajek, P., 2021. Hitzetoleranz von Nadelbäumen. AFZ – Der Wald 22, 24-27.

Kunert, N., Hajek, P., Hietz, P., Morris, H., Rosner, S., Tholen, D., 2021. Summer temperatures reach the thermal tolerance threshold of photosynthetic decline in temperate conifers. Plant Biology.

Chitra-Tarak, R., Xu, C., Aguilar, S., Anderson-Teixeira, K.J., Chambers, J., Detto, M., Faybishenko, B., Fisher, R.A., Knox, R.G., Koven, C.D., Kueppers, L.M., Kunert, N., Kupers, S.J., McDowell, N.G., Newman, B.D., Paton, S.R., Pérez, R., Ruiz, L., Sack, L., Warren, J.M., Wolfe, B.T., Wright, C., Wright, S.J., Zailaa, J. and McMahon, S.M. 2021. Hydraulically-vulnerable trees survive on deep-water access during droughts in a tropical forest. New Phytologist .231(5): 1798–1813.

Morgan, R.B., Herrmann, V., Kunert, N., Bond-Lamberty, B., Muller-Landau, H.C., Anderson-Teixeira, K.J., 2021. Global patterns of forest autotrophic carbon fluxes. Global Change Biology 2, 2840-2855. 

Kunert, N., Zailaa, J., Herrmann, V., Muller-Landau, H.C., Wright, S.J., Pérez, R., McMahon, S.M., Condit, R., Hubbell, S.P., Sack, L., Davies, S.J., Anderson-Teixeira, K.J., 2021. Leaf turgor loss point shapes local and regional distributions of evergreen but not deciduous tropical trees. New Phytologist 230 (2), 485-496.

McGregor, I.R., Helcoski, R., Kunert, N., Tepley, A.J., Gonzalez-Akre, E.B., Herrmann, V., Zailaa, J., Stovall, A.E.L, Bourg, N.A.,  McShea, W.J., Pederson, N., Sack, L., Anderson-Teixeira, K.J., 2020. Tree height and leaf drought tolerance traits shape growth responses across droughts in a temperate broadleaf forest. New Phytologist 231, 601-616.

Kunert, N., Tomaskova, I., 2020. Leaf turgor loss point at full hydration for 41 native and introduced tree and shrub species from Central Europe. Journal of Plant Ecology 13 (6),  754–756.

Kunert, N. 2020. Preliminary indications for diverging heat and drought sensitivities in Norway spruce and Scots pine in Central Europe. iForest.

Brändle, J., Kunert, N. 2019. A new automated stem CO2 efflux chamber based on industrial ultra-low-cost sensors. Tree Physiology.
Kunert, N. 2019. Die Trockentoleranz der Eichen. AFZ – Der Wald 20, 15-16.

 Kunert, N., El-Madany, T.S., Aparecido, L.M.T., Wolf, S., Potvin, C., 2019. Understanding the controls over forest carbon use efficiency on small spatial scales: Effects of forest disturbance and tree diversity.Agricultural and Forest Meteorology  269-270C, 136-144. 

 Kunert, N., Zailaa, J., 2019. Specific leaf area for five tropical tree species growing in different tree species mixtures in Central Panama.New Forests, 1-18. 

 Cobb, R.C., Ruthrof, K., Breshears, D., Llorett, F. Aakala,T., Adams, H.D., Allen, C.D., Anderegg, W.L., Ewers, B.E., Galiano, L., Grünzweig, J.M., Hartmann, H., Huang, C., Klein, T., Kunert, N., Kitzberger, T., Landhäusser, S.M., Levick, S., Preisler, Y., Suarez, M.L., Trotsiuk, V.,  Zeppel, M., in press. Ecosystem Dynamics and Management after Forest Die-off: A Global Synthesis with Conceptual State-and-Transition Models. Ecosphere.  

 Kunert, N., 2017. Einschlag zur kurzfristigen Reduzierung von Trockenstress? AFZ - Der Wald 22, 50-52. 

 Kunert, N., Mercado Cárdenas, A., in press. Treasures in insect collections: the future of the bomb-radiocarbon analysis. Insect Science. doi.org/10.1111/1744-7917.12540

 Mewett, G., Köller, A.E., Reinhart, A.L., Sang, Z., Stepehns, A., Strölin, M., Kunert, N., 2017. An ecological, socio-economic and silvicultural assessment of the sustainability of reduced impact logging in tropical forests. Annals of Ecology and Environmental Science 1 (1), 1-15.

Kunert, N., Aparecido, L.M.T., Wolff, S., Higuchi, N., dos Santos, J., Araujo, A., Trumbore, S., 2017. A revised hydrological model for the Central Amazon: The importance of emergent canopy trees in the forest water budget. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 239, 47-57.

Kunert, N., 2016. The rich coast – or the El Dorado in Tropical ecology. Biotropica 48 (6), 926.

Kunert, N., 2016. Curios relationship revealed by looking at long term data sets – the geometry and allometric scaling of diel xylem sap flux in tropical trees. Journal of Plant Physiology 205, 80-83.

Kunert, N., 2016. Wiederaufforstung in den Tropen mit Mischbeständen. AFZ – Der Wald 3, 43-45.

Kunert, N., Edinger, J., 2015. Xylem sap flux affects conventional stem CO2 efflux measurements in tropical trees. Biotropica 47 (6), 650-653.

Kunert, N., Aparecido, L. M. T., Barros, P., Higuchi, N., 2015. Modeling potential impacts of planting palms or trees in small holder fruit plantations on ecohydrological processes in the Central Amazon. Forests 6(8), 2530-2544.

Kunert, N., Aparecido, L. M. T., dos Santos, J., Higuchi, N., Trumbore, S, 2015. Higher tree transpiration due to road-associated edge effects in a tropical moist lowland forest. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 213, 183–192.

Kunert, N., Mercado Cardenas, A., 2015. Are diverse tropical tree plantations more resistant to drought than monocultures? Forests 6(6), 2029-2046.

Aparecido, L. M. T., dos Santos, J., Higuchi, N., Kunert, N., 2015. Ecological applications of differences in the hydraulic efficiency of palms and broad leaved trees. Trees - Structure and Function.

Da Silva, F., Suwa, R., Kajimoto, T., Ishizuka, M., Higuchi, N., Kunert, N., 2015. Allometric equations for estimating biomass including roots for Euterpe precatoria the most abundant palm species in the Amazon. Forests 6(2), 450-463.

Jardine, K., Yañez-Serrano, A.M., Williams, J., Kunert, N., Jardine, A., Taylor, T., Abrell, L., Artaxo, P., Guenther, A., Hewitt, C.N., House, E., Florentino, A. P., Manzi, A., Higuchi, N., Kesselmeier, J., Behrendt, T., Veres, P. R., Derstroff, B., Fuentes, J. D., Martin, S., Andreae M. O. 2015. Dimethyl Sulfide in the Amazon Rainforest. Global Biogeochemical Cycles 29(1), 19-32.

Schwendenmann, L., Pendall, E., Sanchez-Bragado, R., Kunert, N., Hölscher, D., 2015. Tree water uptake in a tropical plantation varying in tree diversity: interspecific differences, seasonal shifts and complementarity. Ecohydrology 8 (1), 1-12.

Kunert, N., 2014. Evaluating the future of our forests. Biotropica 46 (6), 773.

Sapijanskas, J., Paquette, A., Potvin, C., Kunert, N., Loreau, M., 2014. Tropical tree diversity enhances light capture through crown plasticity and spatial and temporal niche differences. Ecology 95, 2479–2492.

Kunert, N., Barros, P., Higuchi, N., 2013. Do palm water use characteristics explain the spatial distribution of palms in the Central Amazon? Acta Horticulturae 99, 197-204.

Trumbore, S., Angert, A., Kunert, N., Muhr, J., Chambers, J.Q., 2013. What’s the flux? Unraveling how CO2 fluxes from trees reflect underlying physiological processes. New Phytologist 197 (2), 353-355.

Kunert, N., Mercado Cárdenas, A., 2012. Effects of xylem water transport on CO2 efflux of woody tissue in a tropical tree. Hoehnea 39(1), 139-144.

Kunert, N., Schwendenmann, L., Potvin, C., Hölscher, D., 2012. Tree transpiration in relation to tree diversity in a Panamanian forest plantation. Journal of Applied Ecology 49, 135-144.

Schneebeli, M., Wolf, S., Kunert, N., Eugster, W.  Mätzler, C., 2011. Relating the X-band opacity of a tropical tree canopy to sap flow, rain interception and dew formation. Remote Sensing of Environment 115, 2116-2125.

Dierick, D., Kunert, N., Köhler, M., Schwendenmann, L., Hölscher, D., 2010. Comparison of tree water use characteristics in reforestation and agroforestry stands across the tropics. In: T. Tscharntke, Ch. Leuschner, E. Veldkamp, H. Faust, E. Guhardja, A. Bidin (eds.) Tropical Rainforests and Agroforests under Global Change. Springer, Berlin, pp 293-308.

Kunert, N., Schwendenmann, L., Hölscher, D., 2010. Seasonal dynamics of tree sap flux and water use in nine species in Panamanian forest plantations. Agricultural and Forest Meteorology 150, 411-419.