Yasha Magarik

I am a research PhD candidate focusing on the impacts of climate change – particularly extreme heat and drought events – on the growth of urban trees. The geographical focus for this project is the Upper Rhine Valley of Germany. This research project is situated within the URBORETUM project/consortium, funded by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research via its REGULUSprogramme.

I will collect both tree cores, soil samples, and other relevant tree crown/condition-related data from trees in several cities in the region (including Freiburg and Karlsruhe), and process and analyze them, with the help of partners both at the University of Freiburg (such as Dr. Mareike Hirsch, based in the Chair of Forest Growth and Dendroecology , and the Swiss Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research (WSL)’s isotope analysis laboratory . We aim to understand urban tree growth in the face of climatic and environmental stressors across a series of gradients: latitudinal, soil metrics, species, site (urban – peri-urban), and others. Using this data, we hope to recommend species and/or management practices that could help urban foresters in the region (and beyond) adapt their forests more nimbly to climate change shocks in the coming decades. At the same time, we hope to identify drought-tolerant species that promise to be useful in forestry contexts outside cities.

PRIOR EXPERIENCE

Before moving to Freiburg-im-Breisgau, Germany and beginning this research in July 2024, I received my Master of Forestry from Yale School of the Environment’s Forest School, and served as an urban forester and arborist – first with the Neighborhood Design Center, in Prince George’s County, Maryland (USA).

 then with the District Department of Transportation’s Urban Forestry Division, in Washington, DC (USA)  While at forestry school, I focused on urban forestry both in research and in practice . As an urban forester and ISA-certified, TRA-qualified, suburban and then municipal arborist, I worked on a variety of both management and research activities, and became fascinated by the twin forces that drive urban forest composition, structure, and function: growth and mortality.