Dr. Flurin Babst
Funktion
Gastwissenschafter
Eidg. Forschungsanstalt WSL
Zürcherstrasse 111
8903 Birmensdorf
Standort
Birmensdorf Bi HL C 39.1
Scientific record
Researcher ID (Web of Science): C-5651-2017
ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-4106-7087
Research interests
My primary research activities focus on small to large scale influences of (a)biotic factors on forest growth. I investigate spatial and temporal trends in the climate response of forests and quantify the resulting changes in biomass accumulation and resource allocation. While my background is in dendrochronology, I use tree rings in conjunction with other observational (e.g. eddy-covariance data, forest inventories, earth observations) and computational sources to address environmental change questions. Tree rings thereby enable the contextualization of shorter-term data streams and recent extreme events. I am further interested in natural and anthropogenic disturbances on forest growth. My work contributes to reducing uncertainties in terrestrial carbon and water cycling in light of the ongoing and predicted climate change.
Academic memberships
Association for Tree-Ring Research (ATR)
FURTHER INFORMATION
Publications WSL
Scientific publication article peer reviewed
Lu, X.; Liang, E.; Wang, Y.; Babst, F.; Leavitt, S.W.; Julio Camarero, J., 2019: Past the climate optimum: recruitment is declining at the world's highest juniper shrublines on the Tibetan Plateau. Ecology, 100, 2: e02557 (10 pp.). doi: 10.1002/ecy.2557
Babst, F.; Bouriaud, O.; Poulter, B.; Trouet, V.; Girardin, M.P.; Frank, D.C., 2019: Twentieth century redistribution in climatic drivers of global tree growth. Science Advances, 5, 1: eaat4313 (9 pp.). doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aat4313
Wu, X.; Li, X.; Liu, H.; Ciais, P.; Li, Y.; Xu, C.; Babst, F.; Guo, W.; Hao, B.; Wang, P.; Huang, Y.; Liu, S.; Tian, Y.; He, B.; Zhang, C., 2018: Uneven winter snow influence on tree growth across temperate China. Global Change Biology, doi: 10.1111/gcb.14464
Babst, F.; Bodesheim, P.; Charney, N.; Friend, A.D.; Girardin, M.P.; Klesse, S.; Moore, D.J.P.; Seftigen, K.; Björklund, J.; Bouriaud, O.; Dawson, A.; DeRose, R.J.; Dietze, M.C.; Eckes, A.H.; Enquist, B.; Frank, D.C.; Mahecha, M.D.; Poulter, B.; Record, S.; ... Evans, M.E.K., 2018: When tree rings go global: challenges and opportunities for retro- and prospective insight. Quaternary Science Reviews, 197: 1-20. doi: 10.1016/j.quascirev.2018.07.009
Klesse, S.; Babst, F.; Lienert, S.; Spahni, R.; Joos, F.; Bouriaud, O.; Carrer, M.; Di Filippo, A.; Poulter, B.; Trotsiuk, V.; Wilson, R.; Frank, D.C., 2018: A combined tree ring and vegetation model assessment of European forest growth sensitivity to interannual climate variability. Global Biogeochemical Cycles, 32, 8: 1226-1240. doi: 10.1029/2017GB005856
Marchand, W.; Girardin, M.P.; Gauthier, S.; Hartmann, H.; Bouriaud, O.; Babst, F.; Bergeron, Y., 2018: Untangling methodological and scale considerations in growth and productivity trend estimates of Canada’s forests. Environmental Research Letters, 13, 9: 093001 (23 pp.). doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/aad82a
Zhang, Z.; Babst, F.; Bellassen, V.; Frank, D.; Launois, T.; Tan, K.; Ciais, P.; Poulter, B., 2018: Converging climate sensitivities of European forests between observed radial tree growth and vegetation models. Ecosystems, 21: 410-425. doi: 10.1007/s10021-017-0157-5
Trouet, V.; Babst, F.; Meko, M., 2018: Recent enhanced high-summer North Atlantic Jet variability emerges from three-century context. Nature Communications, 9, 1: 180 (9 pp.). doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-02699-3
Wu, X.; Liu, H.; Li, X.; Ciais, P.; Babst, F.; Guo, W.; Zhang, C.; Magliulo, V.; Pavelka, M.; Liu, S.; Huang, Y.; Wang, P.; Shi, C.; Ma, Y., 2018: Differentiating drought legacy effects on vegetation growth over the temperate Northern Hemisphere. Global Change Biology, 24, 1: 504-516. doi: 10.1111/gcb.13920
Pappas, C.; Mahecha, M.D.; Frank, D.C.; Babst, F.; Koutsoyiannis, D., 2017: Ecosystem functioning is enveloped by hydrometeorological variability. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 1, 9: 1263-1270. doi: 10.1038/s41559-017-0277-5
Alexander, M.R.; Rollinson, C.R.; Babst, F.; Trouet, V.; Moore, D.J.P., 2017: Relative influences of multiple sources of uncertainty on cumulative and incremental tree-ring-derived aboveground biomass estimates. Trees: Structure and Function, 32, 1: 265-276. doi: 10.1007/s00468-017-1629-0
Babst, F.; Poulter, B.; Bodesheim, P.; Mahecha, M.D.; Frank, D.C., 2017: Improved tree-ring archives will support earth-system science. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 1, 2: 0008 (2 pp.). doi: 10.1038/s41559-016-0008
Montané, F.; Fox, A.M.; Arellano, A.F.; MacBean, N.; Ross Alexander, M.; Dye, A.; Bishop, D.A.; Trouet, V.; Babst, F.; Hessl, A.E.; Pederson, N.; Blanken, P.D.; Bohrer, G.; Gough, C.M.; Litvak, M.E.; Novick, K.A.; Phillips, R.P.; Wood, J.D.; Moore, D.J.P., 2017: Evaluating the effect of alternative carbon allocation schemes in a land surface model (CLM4.5) on carbon fluxes, pools, and turnover in temperate forests. Geoscientific Model Development, 10, 9: 3499-3517. doi: 10.5194/gmd-10-3499-2017
Belmecheri, S.; Babst, F.; Hudson, A.R.; Betancourt, J.; Trouet, V., 2017: Northern Hemisphere jet stream position indices as diagnostic tools for climate and ecosystem dynamics. Earth Interactions, 21, 8: 1-23. doi: 10.1175/EI-D-16-0023.1
Evans, M.E.K.; Falk, D.A.; Arizpe, A.; Swetnam, T.L.; Babst, F.; Holsinger, K.E., 2017: Fusing tree-ring and forest inventory data to infer influences on tree growth. Ecosphere, 8, 7: e01889 (20 pp.). doi: 10.1002/ecs2.1889
Szejner, P.; Wright, W.E.; Babst, F.; Belmecheri, S.; Trouet, V.; Leavitt, S.W.; Ehleringer, J.R.; Monson, R.K., 2016: Latitudinal gradients in tree ring stable carbon and oxygen isotopes reveal differential climate influences of the North American Monsoon System. Journal of Geophysical Research G: Biogeosciences, 121, 7: 1978-1991. doi: 10.1002/2016JG003460
Charney, N.D.; Babst, F.; Poulter, B.; Record, S.; Trouet, V.M.; Frank, D.; Enquist, B.J.; Evans, M.E.K., 2016: Observed forest sensitivity to climate implies large changes in 21st century North American forest growth. Ecology Letters, 19, 9: 1119-1128. doi: 10.1111/ele.12650
Babst, F.; Wright, W.E.; Szejner, P.; Wells, L.; Belmecheri, S.; Monson, R.K., 2016: Blue intensity parameters derived from Ponderosa pine tree rings characterize intra-annual density fluctuations and reveal seasonally divergent water limitations. Trees: Structure and Function, 30, 4: 1403-1415. doi: 10.1007/s00468-016-1377-6
Frank, D.; Reichstein, M.; Bahn, M.; Thonicke, K.; Frank, D.; Mahecha, M.D.; Smith, P.; Van der Velde, M.; Vicca, S.; Babst, F.; Beer, C.; Buchmann, N.; Canadell, J.G.; Ciais, P.; Cramer, W.; Ibrom, A.; Miglietta, F.; Poulter, B.; Rammig, A.; ... Zscheischler, J., 2015: Effects of climate extremes on the terrestrial carbon cycle: concepts, processes and potential future impacts. Global Change Biology, 21, 8: 2861-2880. doi: 10.1111/gcb.12916
Wu, X.; Babst, F.; Ciais, P.; Frank, D.; Reichstein, M.; Wattenbach, M.; Zang, C.; Mahecha, M.D., 2014: Climate-mediated spatiotemporal variability in terrestrial productivity across Europe. Biogeosciences, 11, 11: 3057-3068. doi: 10.5194/bg-11-3057-2014
Nehrbass-Ahles, C.; Babst, F.; Klesse, S.; Nötzli, M.; Bouriaud, O.; Neukom, R.; Dobbertin, M.; Frank, D., 2014: The influence of sampling design on tree-ring-based quantification of forest growth. Global Change Biology, 20, 9: 2867-2885. doi: 10.1111/gcb.12599
Babst, F.; Bouriaud, O.; Alexander, R.; Trouet, V.; Frank, D., 2014: Toward consistent measurements of carbon accumulation: a multi-site assessment of biomass and basal area increment across Europe. Dendrochronologia, 32, 2: 153-161. doi: 10.1016/j.dendro.2014.01.002
Babst, F.; Bouriaud, O.; Papale, D.; Gielen, B.; Janssens, I.A.; Nikinmaa, E.; Ibrom, A.; Wu, J.; Bernhofer, C.; Köstner, B.; Grünwald, T.; Seufert, G.; Ciais, P.; Frank, D., 2014: Above-ground woody carbon sequestration measured from tree rings is coherent with net ecosystem productivity at five eddy-covariance sites. New Phytologist, 201, 4: 1289-1303. doi: 10.1111/nph.12589
Babst, F.; Poulter, B.; Trouet, V.; Tan, K.; Neuwirth, B.; Wilson, R.; Carrer, M.; Grabner, M.; Tegel, W.; Levanic, T.; Panayotov, M.; Urbinati, C.; Bouriaud, O.; Ciais, P.; Frank, D., 2013: Site- and species-specific responses of forest growth to climate across the European continent. Global Ecology and Biogeography, 22, 6: 706-717. doi: 10.1111/geb.12023
Babst, F.; Carrer, M.; Poulter, B.; Urbinati, C.; Neuwirth, B.; Frank, D., 2012: 500 years of regional forest growth variability and links to climatic extreme events in Europe. Environmental Research Letters, 7, 4: 045705 (11 pp.). doi: 10.1088/1748-9326/7/4/045705
Wilmking, M.; Hallinger, M.; Van Bogaert, R.; Kyncl, T.; Babst, F.; Hahne, W.; Juday, G.P.; De Luis, M.; Novak, K.; Völlm, C., 2012: Continuously missing outer rings in woody plants at their distributional margins. Dendrochronologia, 30, 3: 213-222. doi: 10.1016/j.dendro.2011.10.001
Babst, F.; Esper, J.; Parlow, E., 2010: Landsat TM/ETM+ and tree-ring based assessment of spatiotemporal patterns of the autumnal moth (Epirrita autumnata) in northernmost Fennoscandia. Remote Sensing of Environment, 114, 3: 637-646. doi: 10.1016/j.rse.2009.11.005
Further scientific publications
Magazine article and brochures
Links
Tree-rings
Data & Info
Association for Tree-Ring Research (www.tree-ring.org)
International Tree-Ring Data Bank (www.ncdc.noaa.gov/data-access/paleoclimatology-data/datasets/tree-ring)
Ultimate Tree-Ring Webpages (web.utk.edu/~grissino/)
Specialised journals
Dendrochronologia (www.journals.elsevier.com/dendrochronologia/)
Tree-Ring Research (treeringresearch.org)
IAWA journal (www.iawa-website.org)
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Climate data
Climate Research Unit, University of East Anglia (www.cru.uea.ac.uk/data)
KNMI Climate Explorer (climexp.knmi.nl/start.cgi)
20th Century Reanalysis (www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/20thC_Rean/)
NCEP/NCAR Reanalysis (www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/data/gridded/data.ncep.reanalysis.html)
CRUNCEP (www.earthsystemgrid.org/browse/viewActivity.html)
Worldclim (www.worldclim.org)
PRISM (www.prism.oregonstate.edu)
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Earth observations
FLUXNET (fluxnet.ornl.gov)
ICOS (www.icos-ri.eu)
GloVis (glovis.usgs.gov)
NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory (www.esrl.noaa.gov)
NASA Earth (www.nasa.gov/topics/earth/index.html)
Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry data portal (www.bgc-jena.mpg.de/geodb/projects/Home.php)
Curriculum vitae
Education
2009 – 2013: PhD in Physical Geography, Johannes Gutenberg University of Mainz, Germany & Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL (Thesis: “Climatic Drivers of Forest Productivity across Europe”)
2006 – 2009: Master of Science in Geography, University of Basel, Switzerland (Thesis: “Remote sensing and tree-ring based assessment of Epirrita autumnata defoliation in Fennoscandian Mountain Birch Forests”)
2003 – 2006: Bachelor of Science in Geosciences, University of Basel, Switzerland
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Experience
Oct 2015 – present: Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL (Postdoc)
Summary: Coordination and realization of all tree-ring tasks in the Horizon-2020 project “BACI”; homogenization of continental-scale tree-ring width, biomass, and stable isotope networks; tree-ring integration with Earth observations, CO2-flux measurements, and vegetation model simulations; development of gridded tree-ring products; contributions to other projects (e.g. Horizon2020 “GenTree”); advising a Master’s student
Jan 2013 – Sep 2015: Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research, University of Arizona (Postdoc)
Summary: Carried out two sequential Swiss National Science Foundation mobility fellowships; contributed to several US funded projects (e.g. “North American Monsoon Macrosystems”); assessed seasonal carbon and water cycling in forests from the US Southwest; developed a high-resolution methodology to characterize wood density fluctuations (currently applied by another Postdoc); integrated tree-ring observations and mechanistic model estimates of forest growth; contributed to tree-ring reconstructions of Sierra Nevada snowpack and Northern Hemisphere Jetstream variability; participated in field work, teaching, mentoring PhD students, and public outreach; supervised an intern
Jun 2009 – Jan 2013: Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL (PhD student)
Summary: Coordinated and realized all tree-ring tasks in the EU-FP7 project “CARBO-Extreme”; organized field campaigns at five CO2-flux tower sites; developed a novel sampling scheme for tree-ring based forest biomass estimates; assessed climatic drivers of tree growth across Europe; used tree-ring networks to benchmark vegetation model output; advanced experience in data acquisition, analysis, dissemination, and publication; supervised interns
Aug 2007 – Feb 2008: Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL (Internship)
Summary: Developed a 1000-year tree-ring width and maximum latewood density chronology; tested blue intensity as a climate proxy; learned principals and techniques of dendrochronology; advanced skills in tree-ring programs (COFECHA, ARSTAN, WinDendro); first lecture at an international scientific conference; peer-reviewed publication
Oct 2006 – Feb 2007: German National Weather Service (Internship)
Summary: Validated NCEP/NCAR reanalysis data using remote sensing observations; acquired basic programming skills in C; obtained work experience in a professional research environment; interacted with multiple weather service facilities and the European Space Operations Centre; published first lead-author ISI paper
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Professional training
Workshop on the Earth System Data Cube (CAB-LAB project; 2 days; 2015), Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
Research stay on dynamic vegetation modeling (2 months; 2015) at the Poulter Lab, Montana State University, Bozeman, USA
Workshop on the “fading record problem” in forest biomass reconstructions (PalEON project; 2 days; 2014), University of Arizona, Tucson, USA
Intensive course in stable isotope biogeochemistry & ecology (IsoCamp; 2 weeks; 2013) at the SIRFER Laboratory, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, USA
Workshop on data harmonization (CARBO-Extreme, CC-Tame, GHG-Europe, and NitroEurope projects; 3 days; 2011), Max Planck Institute for Biogeochemistry, Jena, Germany
Intensive course in wood anatomy (1 week; 2010) at the University of Lisbon, Portugal
Field course in dendrochronology (Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL; 1 week; 2007 & 2008), Lötschental, Switzerland
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Technical skills
Languages: Swiss German (native), English (Cambridge Proficiency Certificate), French (fluent), Polish (basics), Spanish (very basics)
Software: R, Adobe Suite, WinDendro, TSAP-Win, ARSTAN, ENVI, IDRISI, ArcGIS, MS Office
Analytics: Uni- and multivariate statistics, time-series analyses, clustering techniques, digital image analysis, climate reconstruction, basics in vegetation modeling
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Reviewer service
Journals: Nature Scientific Reports, Global Change Biology, New Phytologist, Global Ecology and Biogeography, Environmental Research Letters, Biogeosciences, Oecologia, Journal of Biogeography, Scandinavian Journal of Forest Research, Forest Ecology and Management, PLOS ONE, Ecosphere, Trees – Structure and Function, Tree Physiology, Dendrochronologia, Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
Funding Agencies: Swiss National Science Foundation
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Teaching and mentoring
Guest lecturer on “Tree rings and the terrestrial carbon cycle” in the Introduction to Dendrochronology class, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA (2014)
Supervisor of a student internship on high-resolution blue intensity profiles and stable isotope measurements of Pinus ponderosa tree rings from Arizona and New Mexico, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA (2014)
Guest lecturer on “Biomass estimates from tree rings“ in the Dendroecology Workshop, University of Arizona, Tucson, USA (2013)
Taught semester class Introduction to Remote Sensing, University of Mainz, Germany (2012)
Instructor at the intl. dendrochronological fieldweek, Engelberg, Switzerland (2011)
Taught semester class Introduction to Remote Sensing, University of Mainz, Germany (2011)
Supervisor of a student internship on tree-ring biomass estimates of Quercus robur near the Braschaat flux-tower site, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland (2011)
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Selected talks
Progress Meeting of the Horizon-2020 Project “BACI” (06/7-9/2016, Jena, Germany) “On the potential and challenges for integrating global tree-ring archives with in-situ and Earth observations”
EGU General Assembly (04/17-22/2016, Vienna, Austria) “Characterizing intra-annual density fluctuations using fine-spatial resolution blue intensity profiles”
Lecture Series of the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research (05/13/2015, Tucson, USA) “Tree rings go global: the use of large networks in environmental change research”
North American Carbon Program, Principal Investigators Meeting (01/26-29/2015, Washington DC, USA) “Altered forest growth rates projected for North America with regionally variable climate response regimes”
PalEON workshop on the fading record problem (03/19/2014, Tucson, USA) “The influence of sampling design on tree-ring based quantification of forest growth
AGU Fall Meeting (12/9-13/2013, San Francisco, USA) “Coherence between woody carbon uptake and net ecosystem productivity at five eddy-covariance sites”
North American Carbon Program, All Investigators Meeting (02/4-7/2013, Albuquerque, USA) “Observed and simulated climate sensitivity of large-scale forest productivity”