In diesem Projekt werden verschiedene MODIS-Datensätze auf ihre Brauchbarkeit getestet. Wissenschafter vergleichen angebotene Fertigprodukte mit bestehenden Waldinventurdaten und CORINE-Daten. Für Snowcover-Untersuchungen verwenden sie Original-Spektraldaten. MODIS steht für "Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer".

In the Alps, the multipurpose utilisation of agricultural and forest resources has a long tradition. But domestic animals grazing in forests are considered hindering tree regeneration, reducing timber quality and impairing the protective function of mountain forests. What is the effective impact of forest grazing?

Available languages: German English

Spatial interpolation of biological and biophysical variables is of central interest to many landscape ecologists. In this study, scientists evaluated the utility, accuracy, and effectiveness of ordinary kriging, inverse-distance weighting, and thin-plate smoothing splines with tensions using soil samples from the Omo Basin, Ethiopia.

Available languages: English

High resolution climate maps were generated for NW-Wyoming (USA) in order to measure tree species realized niches. The goal of this study was to define species parameters for a spatially-explicit, dynamic forest simulation model.

The potential of plants to migrate to habitats which are more favourable under changed conditions plays a key role in assessing the impacts of climate change on terrestrial ecosystems. A new, spatially explicit, physiologically mechanistic, and efficient forest succession model was developed in order to study the potential of trees to invade, migrate and get extinct under current and possibly changed future climate.

The main objectives of this project were to stratify the landscape of individual military ranges, to identify the fundamental vegetation and soil attributes, to establish ecosystem response and recovery in relation to disturbance (land use), to identify the attributes of remote sensing systems and to develop methods for scaling indices between coarse and fine resolution imagery.

Forests of the Central Rocky Mountains are of value for nature conservation and biodiversity maintenance. Developing a spatially explicit forest succession model upon a sound physiological basis is important to assist management and to further science of these crucial forests.

Only 150 years ago, Swiss forests were markedly affected by agro-forestal uses. In many places leaf litter was collected for different reasons. By experimental removing of the leaf litter, we examine the ecological consequences of this forest use and we evaluate it's potential as a new tool for nature conservation in forests.

Available languages: German English

In a changing environment, the analysis of how forest ecosystems may react under scenarios involving changing climatic conditions is of major importance. This project wants to evaluate the influence of expected climatic changes (precepitation and temperature regimes) on trees and the state of our forests.

Available languages: English