Is the plant cover of the earth determined by environmental factors, by evolutionary processes or by human influence? Using various real-life examples this book explains how data analysis and subsequent interpretation can help to find answers. Second amplified edition.

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Auf www.lfi.ch bietet das Schweizerische Landesforstinventar LFI die umfassendste Informationssammlung über den Schweizer Wald. Neu gibt es diese Daten zur besseren Übersicht auch in Form von interaktiven Karten.

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A further strengthening of energy research is on the 2013 agenda of the ETH Domain, to which WSL belongs. WSL Director Konrad Steffen’s research reveals that the retreat of Swiss glaciers need not have a negative impact on either availability of water or hydroelectric power generation.

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Das Lehrbuch Forstökonomie vermittelt Grundlagen zur ökonomischen Bewertung von öffentlichen Gütern der Wald- und Forstwirtschaft. WSL-Forscher Roland Olschewski und seine Mitautoren haben das Standardwerk aktualisiert und erweitert.

Available languages: German

The Northern and Southern Hemispheres have experienced significantly different climate changes over the past one to two millennia. This is the conclusion of a new study conducted as part of the Past Global Changes (PAGES) 2k project. WSL researchers made important contributions to the temperature reconstructions for Europe, South America and Australia.

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In the Swiss Plateau in particular, the winter of 2012/13 was long, cold and accompanied by large quantities of snow. It has been 26 years since it snowed on so many days at low altitudes. A lot of snow was lying in the mountains, especially in the west and north.

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Thin, low-lying clouds over the central Greenland Ice Sheet last July allowed the sun’s energy to warm the surface of the ice, while at the same time trapping infrared radiation near the surface which led to additional warming. This combination played a significant role in last summer's record-breaking melt.

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Mountain landscapes dominated by agricultural and forest land-uses will change in the decades ahead. Thus cantons should also pay attention to these marginal areas when they revise their spatial development plan (“Richtplan”) as part of the implementation of the revised Swiss Federal Spatial Planning Act.

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Wie verändert sich der Wald? Was bewirkt ein Sturm? Können Gefahren auch Chancen sein? Diesen Fragen gingen die Besucher des diesjährigen Waldanlasses mit Forschenden nach. Im Wald, natürlich.

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Landslides, debris flows, floods and rockfalls gave rise to property damage in Switzerland of almost 40 million Swiss Francs in 2012 – much less than the long-term average figure for the period 1972-2011. Each of the five deaths in 2012 is attributable to rockfall.

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Yearly temperature and precipitation variation and extremes have previously been underestimated in comparison to longer-term climatic trends. These findings were just published in an early release issue from the renowned journal Nature Climate Change.

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Surprising details on changes in Earth’s climate: Even though temperatures in Northern Greenland were 5-8 degrees Celsius higher than today, the thickness of the ice sheet was only a few hundred meters lower. A new study has now been published in "Nature".

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Auch wenn es in den Waadtländer Bergregionen in Zukunft weniger schneit, wird sich der Tourismus an das veränderte Klima anpassen können und weiterhin zahlreiche Wintersportaktivitäten ermöglichen. Zu diesem Schluss kommt ein Forschungsbericht der WSL.

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Socio-cultural disruptions in Eastern Europe during the past millennium coincided with periods of decreased temperature, and recent temperatures in this region are warmer than at any previous time during this period. These two key findings derive from a dendrochronological study published in the journal PNAS.

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