OPERAs members Sven Lautenbach and Martin Volk together with colleagues from the CONNECT project published a new paper[1] in Ecological indicators that investigates trade-offs between plant species richness and carbon storage in the German Mulde basin triggered by afforestation scenarios. While overall plant species richness and carbon storage were both increased by afforestation measures both the strength and the direction of this relationship differed in space. Furthermore the relationship between plant species richness and carbon storage differed by plant group. Taken together these results are important to inform spatial planners in the region. On a more general perspective the results highlight that varying environmental conditions lead to spatial varying trade-offs that could be employed by spatial planning.

The manuscript is freely accessible till the 17th of November under http://authors.elsevier.com/a/1To7r,XRNLRPty

[1] http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1470160X16305660