Microscopical changes in cells and tissues in response to various environmental stress factors are investigated in trees to develop diagnosis tools and understand the mechanistic link between stress and injury.

Available languages: German  English  French 

By sunny weather, when increased ozone concentration lasts longer then 2 weeks, ozone symptoms can appear on leaves and conifer needles. The Validation Centre offers diagnosis, training, information and consulting. Products are an Ozon-Quiz, an Ozone-CD and the International Ozone Injury Database.

Available languages: German  English  French 

Little information was available on the effects of ozone on the multitude of native forest plant species. Hence, the aim of this study was to examine long-term ozone concentrations in relation to the onset and development of visible foliar injury on several forest, shrub and herb species.

Available languages: English 

Ozone is the most important regional air pollutant that may impact forest vegetation in Europe. This project addressed an important ecological, scientific and political issue: Provide a synoptic view of descriptors of ozone concentration at 62 forest sites in south-western Europe and evaluate the factors associated to ozone concentration.

Available languages: English 

The mission of LWF is to improve our understanding of how natural and anthropogenic stresses affect forests in the long term, and which risks for humans are involved. Consequently, we need to gain a more profound knowledge of the cause-effect relationships in the forest ecosystem and the underlying processes.

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Ozone effects on plants mainly depend on atmospheric transport and stomatal uptake. Thus ozone risk assessments should not only use measured ozone concentrations, but should also account for the influence of atmospheric conditions and soil moisture on stomatal conductance and non-stomatal ozone deposition.

Available languages: English 

The knowledge of the defoliation effects on the physiological processes resulting in tree growth is still lacking. How are the responses of the photosynthetic activity and the coresponding available carbohydrates to defoliation? What are the effects on height, on diameter growth and in the wood anatomical characteristics of tree rings?

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 

TreeNet is a biological drought and growth indicator network of forest ecosystems. It provides information about drought responses of trees all over Switzerland and their effects on the carbon balance of forests. TreeNet links the research of the eddy flux super sites Davos and Lägeren to the forest next to your home.

Available languages: English 

Microclimate, fluxes of CO2 and other gases by eddy covariance and tree physiological measurements under field conditions have been recorded at the Seehornwald Davos research site for two decades. Currently, we are analyzing the unique data sets in terms of tree physiological responses to climate change over the recent decades.

Available languages: German  English 

Concentrations of atmospheric CO2 and temperatures will strongly increase during the next century. We are investigating how these climatic changes will affect plant growth, biodiversity, and the cycling of carbon and nutrients in temperature sensitive ecosystems at the alpine treeline.

Available languages: German  English 

Die Modellökosystemanlage (MODOEK) wurde 1992 gebaut und erstmals in Betrieb genommen. Zurzeit steht eine Modernisierung der Steuerung bevor. In der Anlage wurden seit 1992 mehrjährige interdisziplinäre Projekte erfolgreich durchgeführt.

Available languages: German  English  French 

Since 1993 Prunus serotina showed symptoms typical of ozone injury at many sites in southern Ticino. The aims of this project were to confirm that this foliar injury is caused by ozone and to determine the ozone concentrations that induce the injury.

Available languages: English 

Long-range transport of tropospheric ozone and its pollutant precursors has been identified in southern Switzerland. The aims of this project were to assess the extent of ozone-induced foliar injuries in the most highly exposed forests and to confirm the cause of injury by controlled exposures.

Available languages: English 

Within the frame work of the UNECE Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution, the WSL investigates the physiological and growth effects on trees by means of ozone flux modeling in order to assess the risk of ozone on forest ecosytems.

Available languages: English 

PO3PLAR is a bio-indicator initiative to contribute to an ozone risk assessment based on the Level II network.

Available languages: English