Microclimate is a key factor influencing regeneration in forests. Particularly available light, water supply and temperature determine the success or failure of certain tree species. How will future climate change influence below-canopy microclimate and tree regeneration?

Available languages: English 

Special focus of the Integrated Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Ecosystems is to improve the understanding about the effects of sulphur and nitrogen inputs into ecosystems. The research methods are intensive and are carried out within ecosystems in small hydrologically delineated catchments.

Available languages: English 

Nitrate concentrations in groundwater have increased, mainly due to intensive agriculture, and constrain its usage as drinking water in parts of Switzerland. Nitrate leaching from forests are, in comparison, generally small but may increase due increased nitrogen deposition and warm and dry periods. This project aims on exploring the possibilities and limitations for a better estimation of the risk of future nitrate leaching from forests.

Available languages: English 

European forests are exposed to atmospheric deposition of air pollutants changing climate and forest management In this project, the biogeochemical cycle and ground vegetation species composition of long-term forests ecosystem monitoring plots in Switzerland is modelled with ForSAFE. The model is verified with measurement data, improved and used for scenario analyses.

Available languages: English 

Im Wallis weisen die Waldföhren seit Jahrzehnten eine erhöhte Sterberate auf. Dafür wächst vermehrt die Flaumeiche. Wissenschafter der WSL haben die komplexen Ursachen des Waldföhrensterbens entschlüsselt.

Available languages: German 

This project is part of the large multidisciplinary CCES project RECORD (Assessment and Modeling of Coupled Ecological and Hydrological Dynamics in the Restored Corridor of the River Thur). It deals with the role of microbial transformations and plant uptake in the cycling of nitrogen in different functional processing zones of a restored section of river Thur. The results will help to gain a better understanding of the filter function of restored river corridors and of their potential to emit greenhouse gases.

Available languages: English 

The aim of this project is to investigate whether roots of European chestnut (Castanea sativa) show physiological reactions to soil acidification processes.

Available languages: English 

Das Projekt liefert auf Messwerten beruhende boden- und standortskundliche Informationen für den Schweizer Wald: ökologische Zeigerwerte von Waldpflanzen, umfassende Charakterisierung von Waldstandorten, geographische Verbreitung von Bodentypen und ökologisch relevanten Bodeneigenschaften.

Available languages: German 

The sources of nitrate in ground water and the transformation of nitrogen along hydrologic flow paths are investigated in a riparian zone along a restored corridor of the river Thur in Switzerland using oxygen and nitrogen isotopes in nitrate.

Available languages: English 

The chemistry of soil solution and the soil water availability for plants have been monitored since 1997 in seven forest plots in Switzerland. This project, linked to the Swiss Long-term Forest Ecosystem Research project (LWF), aims to assess the soil response to atmospheric pollution (acidifying substances and nitrogen) and to climate change.

Available languages: English