The dry laboratory ("Drylab") is an experimental laboratory used to investigate the reaction of young trees to drought stress under field conditions. This simulates an important impact of climate change, the increased summer drought.

The Drylab is a system of eight soil columns, each with two square meters surface, filled with soil substrate and isolated from the surrounding soil. They are placed at a grade. Several young trees could be planted in each soil column. Using a sliding, translucent roof to block rainfall, the conditions of drought can be controlled simulated. Moisture sensors measure the water in the soil at many points. Special cameras, installed in 8 tubes per lysimeter, show the root growth. Because the response of fine roots to drought has so far been little explored, the scientists hope to gain valuable information from this experiment.

For the first run the Drylab was planted with young beech from Germany and Poland, which are adapted to different climatic conditions. The most important tree species in Germany’s near to nature forests is the European beech. It also plays an important role for the forest management in the future. With the experiment we want to test which beech provenience copes best with the climate conditions in the future. Especially young trees have a special significance, because they grow fastest and are most sensitive to environmental stress because of their shallow root system. The experiment is scheduled to run about five years. A modern climate station of the weather service Meteo Media (Station Eberswalde), providing important reference values for drought simulation, is operated in the immediate vicinity of the Drylab in cooperation with the University for Sustainable Development.

With the Drylab it is possible to give accurate assessments of the threats today's forests may face in the future and to develop adaptation strategies concerning expected climate change. The results are of central interest for the German forestry and forest policy decisions of the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture  (BMEL).