Soil protection and forest health

We investigate the condition of the forest - especially the forest soils - what influencing factors are at work and how it will develop under changed environmental conditions.

The Germany-wide forest monitoring is a coordinated system of repeated inventories (soil and forest condition survey, level I) and intensive forest surveys (level II). The investigations are carried out in close cooperation with the federal states.

Read more about our areas of work below:

Forest Condition Survey

How is the forest doing in Germany? The Forest Condition Survey (WZE; Level I monitoring) investigates this question. The nationwide survey takes annually place on an area-representative sample grid...

National Forest Soil Survey

The National Forest Soil Inventory characterizes the condition of forest soils, identifies changes in the soil condition and answers current research questions, e.g. regarding the carbon inventory.

Monitoring of peatland soils

How much carbon do organic soils store? How much does the forest stand store compared to that? What thickness do the peat layers of drained peatlands still have? How do the emissions of organic soils develop? Peatland soil monitoring clarifies these ...