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.

Available languages: German  English  French 

The Sanasilva Inventory has been carried out in its current form since 1985. Its aim is to monitor the health of the Swiss forest using crown and tree parameters as indicators of forest condition. The name of the inventory has changed subsequently with the change in assessment methods.

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Since 1985, the condition of forests in Switzerland has been monitored through the Sanasilva Inventory. It is important to have good information on the condition of the trees in the plots. Therefore scientists determine the relationships between crown condition and a number of environmental parameters.

Available languages: English 

The better understanding of the processes driving the dynamics of forest ecosystems requires the documentation of the constantly interacting compartments and fluxes of the biogeochemical cycle. Scientists study two fluxes (deposition of nutrients through precipitation and litterfall) and two compartments (foliage and ground vegetation).

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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 

In der Langfristigen Waldökosystem-Forschung LWF wird die Entwicklung von16 unterschiedlichen Waldökosystemen in der Schweiz mit spezieller Berücksichtigung der anthropogenen Einwirkungen untersucht. Der Boden bildet dabei als wichtige Komponente jedes Waldökosystems ein zentrales Untersuchungsobjekt.

Available languages: German 

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.

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Can hourly and daily changes of the circumference of tree stems be used as indicators of tree condition? Can they be used to find the effects of weather and soil water availability on tree growth and vitality? Can the information be used to explain past tree increment? What are the interactions between neighbour trees?

Available languages: German  English 

Meteorological factors and regional climate changes play an important part in the long-term forest ecosystem research (LWF). In order to document these climate changes and to understand the dynamics in the ecosystems, site-specific meteorological data is required.

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In long-term projects like Long-term Forest Ecosystem Research (LWF), collected data represent an important scientific asset/treasure. Thus, it is of primer importance to store this data in controlled and well documented structures.

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

Available languages: English 

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 

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 

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 

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 

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 

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 

The aim of this project is to obtain an overview of contents, effective mobility and potential ecotoxicity of heavy metals in Swiss forest soils.

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Since two decades an increase of defoliation has been observed in forest trees. There are suggestions that the water budget is a critical factor affecting needle and leaf loss. A water budget model is used to investigate the relationships between water budget and defoliation.

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Cette recherche, située dans le cadre du projet européen COST E39, vise à mieux connaître la contribution des forêts à la santé et au confort de la population en Suisse en quantifiant les différences existant entre le climat sous couvert forestier et le climat hors couvert forestier. Il analysera les mesures du réseau LWF.

Available languages: French 

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 

WSL contribution to the project 'Spatial extremes and environmental sustainability: Statistical methods and applications in geophysics and the environment' of the 'Competence Centre for Enviromnent and Sustainability' of the ETH Domain (CCES EXTREMES)

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Ziel dieses Dienstleistungsprojektes ist die Erhöhung der Vertrauenswürdigkeit aller LWF-Meteodaten von 1997-2011 mittels einer zentralen, einheitlichen Qualitätsprüfung und Bereinigung mit den Methoden, wie sie MeteoSchweiz verwendet. Auch soll die Datenzugänglichkeit erleichtert und damit der Aufwand zur Bearbeitung von Datenanfragen reduziert werden.

Available languages: German