Dynamics of the vegetation in oak forests in Northwest Germany - Effects of environment and management

The main aim of this thesis is to detect and understand long-term changes of the vegetation in the four oak forest types occurring in NW Germany. The following main questions were addressed: (1) How has the vegetation of Alluvial hardwood oak forests, Thermophilious oak-hornbeam forests, Sub-atlantic oak-hornbeam forests and Acidophilous oak forests changed over the past decades? (2) What are the drivers of the changes in the vegetation in these oak forests? (3) Do the observed changes and the drivers differ between the different oak forest ecosystems?