Description of the Seehornwald Davos research site

Location of the Seehornwald Davos research site. Hurni, L. (ed.) (2004) Atlas of Switzerland, Version 2.0.1 (CD-ROM. ed.). Wabern–Bern: Swisstopo.

The Seehornwald Davos research site is located at 46°48’55.2” N, 9°51’21.3” E at 1639 m a.s.l. in the middle range of the subalpine belt in the eastern part of the Swiss Alps.

The coniferous forest is dominated by Norway spruce (Picea abies (L.) Karst.) with a maximum canopy height of 27 m, and a leaf area index of about 3.9 m² m⁻². Tree age of the dominant trees ranges between 250 and 400 years. The understorey vegetation is rather patchy, covering roughly 30% of the forest floor, and is mainly composed of dwarf shrubs, primarily Vaccinium myrtillus and Vaccinium gaulterioides as well as mosses.

The research site offers a unique combination of ongoing long-term measurements of regional climate, CO₂ and microclimate profiles through the forest, tree physiological records such as sap flow and continuous stem radius changes, turbulent fluxes by eddy covariance, continuous atmospheric NO, NO₂ and O₃ concentrations, and multiple properties of the vegetation (e.g. crown transparency, litterfall, rain deposition) and soil structure. Check the history of the Seehornwald Davos research site to get more informations about the equippment installed.

The very long continuous track record of most measurements makes this research site to a predestined location for investigations about (missing) links between climate change and tree physiological adaptations and to a hot spot for addressing questions about the ecosystem carbon balance in relation to soil related components and tree physiological processes (under changing environmental conditions). 

Further details about the Seehornwald Davos research site can be found under: 

• site description ETHZ
  
• site description LWF