Group Leader: Research Group Sylvanus, Institute for Technology Assessment and Systems Analysis (ITAS), Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT)
"KIT-Associate-Fellow" [eligible to be a Ph.D. Supervisor and Examiner (Prüfungsberechtigung)] at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Geo and Environmental Sciences, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Emails: somidh.saha@kit.edu; somidhs@gmail.com
"KIT-Associate-Fellow" [eligible to be a Ph.D. Supervisor and Examiner (Prüfungsberechtigung)] at the Faculty of Civil Engineering, Geo and Environmental Sciences, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology
Emails: somidh.saha@kit.edu; somidhs@gmail.com
Key research publications and grant updates
Key outreach and media contribution updates
- European beech trees of a same population responded differently to drought with a changing soil water storage capacity at their dry distribution limit (2022)
- Native pedunculate oaks provided more microhabitat abundance, richness and supported bat activities than exotic red oak BUT exotic oaks are healthier than native oaks (2022)
- Drought tolerance differed between 5 temperate urban tree species but traffic pollution did not influence tree ring growth. Drought in spring had more negative effect on tree ring growth than drought in summer (2022)
- Our research had shown how trade-offs and synergies between different types of ecosystem services vary in urban and peri-urban forests (2022)
- Stakeholders' supported conversion of monoculture to mixed forests in the Black Forest region (2021)
- The GrüneLunge 2.0 project, a urban forestry research consortium lead by me at the Karlsruhe region, received another 1.1 million Euro funding from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) for implementing the results from the first phase of the project (2021)
- Our research showed that cultural ecosystem services from urban and peri-urban forests reduced stress among the residents of Karlsruhe and Rheinstetten during the Covid-19 related lockdown (2021)
- I won the YIN (Young Investigator Network) Award 2021 and YIN Research Grant 2021 (Euro 20,000) of the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology jointly with Dr. Claudia Bizzarri for our project on photosynthesis (2021)
- Research grant on regeneration and restoration after forest fire (2020)
- A new project on future "biocities" (Euro 10,000) (2020)
- Project on mitigation of heat islands' impact in urban areas (2019)
- Research grant on increasing resilience of urban forests (2018)
Key outreach and media contribution updates
- Our research on urban forest resilience to climate change impacts in Karlsruhe city was highlighted in n-tv/RTL documentary Städtebau heute - Bienenwiese oder Betonwüste (2022)
- I presented in German Parliament/Bundestag on "Contrast, Consensus and Co-creation in Forest Management Under Anthropogenic Disruption" (presentation can be watched and listened after ca. 6 hours in this link) (2022)
- KIT Campus Radio interview on "Das Wissen über die Dynamik von Waldbränden ist lückenhaft" or "Knowledge about the dynamics of forest fires is patchy"
- Germany may become a forest-fire-country: we should invest more resource to forest fire protection, forest fire fighting, restoration of fire-damaged forests and forest fire research. Future forest should be more resistant to fire (2022)
- I talked very briefly about city trees in Radio Deutschlandfunk Nova on 23.03.2022 (2022)
- Research activities of my group were featured in a short documentary from the Deutsche Welle's Eco India program (2021)
- An article about my research and personal story on my journey from a small village of Assam, India to Karlsruhe (Germany) via Bhutan, West Bengal and Dehra Dun! (2021)
- Listen a Deutsche Welle's Podcast where I talked about our research on forest mortality (2021)
- Our research on forest fire was highlighted in ZDF television's Planet E documentary (2021)
About my research
I am a forestry researcher who loves working in urban and natural/semi-natural/planted forests. I was trained as a forester and silviculturist in India and Germany.
Globally, forests are declining due to human activities, diseases, and climate change-induced disturbances. Broadly, my research aims to restore forests after disturbances and make future forests more resilient to climate change impacts. Therefore, I try to understand how forest structure and composition, both in the artificial urban ecosystem and in natural/semi-natural/planted forests, are related to ecological and biophysical processes and how those relations influence supply, synergy, and trade-off of ecosystem services. I am also engaged in research where findings can be implemented in practice to transform our forests to increase our forests' social-ecological resilience. Since 2018, I have also involved stakeholders from all interest groups while desiging and creating future forests to ensure environmental and social justice for all. In my opinion, sustainable solutions for challenges in forest management can only be realized in a democratic and free society if we invite and involve stakeholders and multiple sectors from the beginning of the research project. As a result, some of my research works are interdisciplinary as well as transdisciplinary.
I work in temperate, subtropical, and tropical forest ecosystems. My current research activities are in Germany, India, China, Ghana, Indonesia, and South Korea.
I am a forestry researcher who loves working in urban and natural/semi-natural/planted forests. I was trained as a forester and silviculturist in India and Germany.
Globally, forests are declining due to human activities, diseases, and climate change-induced disturbances. Broadly, my research aims to restore forests after disturbances and make future forests more resilient to climate change impacts. Therefore, I try to understand how forest structure and composition, both in the artificial urban ecosystem and in natural/semi-natural/planted forests, are related to ecological and biophysical processes and how those relations influence supply, synergy, and trade-off of ecosystem services. I am also engaged in research where findings can be implemented in practice to transform our forests to increase our forests' social-ecological resilience. Since 2018, I have also involved stakeholders from all interest groups while desiging and creating future forests to ensure environmental and social justice for all. In my opinion, sustainable solutions for challenges in forest management can only be realized in a democratic and free society if we invite and involve stakeholders and multiple sectors from the beginning of the research project. As a result, some of my research works are interdisciplinary as well as transdisciplinary.
I work in temperate, subtropical, and tropical forest ecosystems. My current research activities are in Germany, India, China, Ghana, Indonesia, and South Korea.
About me
My first name in the Sanskrit language ("Somidh" in Latin script, "समिध " in Devanagari, and "সমিধ " in Bengali script) means sacred wood of species such as Aegle marmelos, Santalum album, Ficus spp., which are burned during Yajñá or religious fire ceremony to worship Hindu God of Fire Agni.
I was born in the village of Bhowraguri, Kokrajhar district, Assam, India, which is situated near the Eastern Himalayas. I spent until the age of 10 at the village Lhamoyzingkha of Bhutan (Kalikhola in Nepali), at the lush green Himalayan valley of the river Sankosh. My first schooling was at the Lhamoyzingkha Central School, also known as Kalikhola Junior High School. My childhood in Bhutan, immersed in the beautiful forests of the majestic Himalayas, influenced my later education and career.
My family moved to Bhadreswar, Hooghly district of West Bengal, India, in 1991. I studied from class five to twelve in the neighboring city of Chandernagore at the higher secondary school Kanailal Vidyamandir, which the French Colonial Administration established as Ecole de Sainte Marie/Dupleix College in 1862. I graduated with B.Sc. Honours in Zoology from the Presidency College, University of Calcutta, in 2003. An excursion to the Jim Corbett National Park in north India as a B.Sc. student ignited the jungle lore of my childhood, hence, motivated me to study Forestry.
I completed an M.Sc. degree in Forestry from the Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun, India, in 2005. The German Forester Sir Dietrich Brandis established the Forest Research Institute of India ("father of tropical silviculture") in 1878 as the first western forestry training school outside Europe. My interest in German forestry and sustainability research grew when I was a student at the Forest Research Institute of India.
I worked as a Forester in the Eastern Indian state of Odisha from 2005 to 2008 at Ballarpur Industries Limited, then India's largest pulp and paper company.
I moved to Germany in 2008 with a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) to do a Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.) in Forestry at the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bauhus. I did my Postdoctoral Research in Freiburg and worked there until 2016.
I joined the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) on 1st January 2017 as a Scientist. Since November 2021, I have been working in KIT as a "research group leader/senior scientist" in a permanently employed position.
I am married, and my son was born in Karlsruhe in 2019.
My first name in the Sanskrit language ("Somidh" in Latin script, "समिध " in Devanagari, and "সমিধ " in Bengali script) means sacred wood of species such as Aegle marmelos, Santalum album, Ficus spp., which are burned during Yajñá or religious fire ceremony to worship Hindu God of Fire Agni.
I was born in the village of Bhowraguri, Kokrajhar district, Assam, India, which is situated near the Eastern Himalayas. I spent until the age of 10 at the village Lhamoyzingkha of Bhutan (Kalikhola in Nepali), at the lush green Himalayan valley of the river Sankosh. My first schooling was at the Lhamoyzingkha Central School, also known as Kalikhola Junior High School. My childhood in Bhutan, immersed in the beautiful forests of the majestic Himalayas, influenced my later education and career.
My family moved to Bhadreswar, Hooghly district of West Bengal, India, in 1991. I studied from class five to twelve in the neighboring city of Chandernagore at the higher secondary school Kanailal Vidyamandir, which the French Colonial Administration established as Ecole de Sainte Marie/Dupleix College in 1862. I graduated with B.Sc. Honours in Zoology from the Presidency College, University of Calcutta, in 2003. An excursion to the Jim Corbett National Park in north India as a B.Sc. student ignited the jungle lore of my childhood, hence, motivated me to study Forestry.
I completed an M.Sc. degree in Forestry from the Forest Research Institute, Dehra Dun, India, in 2005. The German Forester Sir Dietrich Brandis established the Forest Research Institute of India ("father of tropical silviculture") in 1878 as the first western forestry training school outside Europe. My interest in German forestry and sustainability research grew when I was a student at the Forest Research Institute of India.
I worked as a Forester in the Eastern Indian state of Odisha from 2005 to 2008 at Ballarpur Industries Limited, then India's largest pulp and paper company.
I moved to Germany in 2008 with a scholarship from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD - Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst) to do a Ph.D. (Dr. rer. nat.) in Forestry at the Albert Ludwigs University of Freiburg under the supervision of Prof. Dr. Jürgen Bauhus. I did my Postdoctoral Research in Freiburg and worked there until 2016.
I joined the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) on 1st January 2017 as a Scientist. Since November 2021, I have been working in KIT as a "research group leader/senior scientist" in a permanently employed position.
I am married, and my son was born in Karlsruhe in 2019.
