Vierter und letzter Infoanlass zur Feldkampagne Revision der Roten Liste der Pilze der Schweiz.
“Nature” has diverse meanings, each with its referents. Those working in environmental psychology and allied fields favor some of those meanings, using them and attending to their referents in particular ways. Other meanings see less use, despite their relevance, and their referents receive relatively little attention. I will consider some meanings of “nature” and some problems that their use or neglect has had for environment-behavior-design research. Those problems involve forms of insensitivity or blindness – to some ubiquitous and behaviorally influential natural phenomena, to historical and cultural contingencies of restorative benefits of nature experience, and to limitations of evolutionary assumptions commonly invoked in discussions of such benefits. Awareness of these problems will support further development in theory and methods useful for the study of human-nature relations.
As in all the mountains of the world, the snow, glaciers and permafrost of the European Alps are undergoing major changes in relation to the current global change. After presenting a picture of this evolution of the cryosphere, which has been accelerating since the 1990s, all the more so as the mountains are more affected by the global warming, we will show its effects on geomorphic processes such as rock fall, rock and ice avalanches, debris flows, moraine failure, or lake dynamics.
Für Forschende, die Versicherungs- und Rückversicherungsindustrie sowie für die Bundesverwaltung ist das Thema der Extremereignisse von zentralem Interesse. Dies betrifft die Vorhersage, Vorsorge und Warnung, aber auch die Anpassung und Risikominderung. Dieser vom WSL-Programm Extremes, SCOR und von der Schweizer Hagel organisierte Workshop stimulierte den Dialog zu Themen, wo es Lösungen und Fortschritte braucht, die man gemeinsam anpacken muss (z.B. Standardisierungsbedarf, Dürre-Informationstools, Schnittstelle zum Zivilschutz).
Soils are not only the basis for the production of food and other raw materials, they also store and filter water, store carbon and harbour an overwhelming biodiversity. This multifunctionality emerges from complex interactions of small scale biological, physical and chemical processes. In this presentation we discuss how such processes can be represented in a systemic soil model that allows to predict the impact of soil management and climate change on soil functions and their dynamics at the scale of landscapes.
Iva Franić (WSL) will present her work on tree seed fungi, focusing on their diversity and how they can enhance seedling vigor and resilience or threaten plant vitality.
Die Fotografien von Sam V. Furrer erkunden die zarten Details des Holzes, die Spuren seiner Bewohner sowie das Spiel von Licht und Schatten im Innern des morschen Baumstamms. Die Erläuterungen von Forschenden der WSL geben einen Einblick in eine vielfältige Welt.
The best avalanche forecasts are worth little if users are unable to understand and apply the provided information in their risk management practices. While it is well established in the risk communication community that an in-depth understanding of the needs and skills of the target audience is critical for effective communication, avalanche safety research has traditionally focused mainly on improving the accuracy of avalanche forecasts and did not pay much attention to how the information is interpreted and applied
François Munoz (Université Grenoble Alpes) will introduce a new type of eco-evolutionary modelling, based on a coalescence approach, to evaluate and test different biogeographical and evolutionary scenarios.
Leben und Forschen in der Antarktis. Matthias Jaggi erzählt von seinem Forschungsaufenthalt auf der französisch-italienischen Forschungsstation Concordia auf dem antarktischen Hochplateau.
Climate change threatens cities particularly through increasing frequency and intensity of heat waves, rainstorms and droughts. Green infrastructure is increasingly seen as a key measure for urban climate change adaptation. What potential does it really have and how should it be designed? How can the conflict between densification in growing cities and the development of green infrastructure be resolved? The lecture will present results from research projects at the Centre for Urban Ecology and Climate Adaptation at the Technical University of Munich.
A joint seminar co-organized with the WSL Landscape Center
Nadine Schütz is a media-artist and master student in Curatorial Studies (Art Education) at Zurich University of the Arts. As part of the transdisciplinary Master Series residencies, she accompanied and exchanged with mycologist Artemis Treindl in her field research. Her talk is the end-presentation of this 3-month long exchange.
Debbie Leigh (WSL) will present the results of a common garden experiment to characterize standing local adaptation and trait genomic architecture.
Antrittsvorlesung von Janine Bolliger an der Universität Zürich
Increasingly sophisticated algorithms have already become part of our lives. This development is also starting to extend to avalanche forecasting. It is starting to impact our work as forecasters and will eventually also influence our forecast products.
The operational model chain at SLF now encompasses the physical snow-cover model SNOWPACK but also recently developed machine-learning models. These models deliver predictions on various aspects relevant to regional avalanche forecasting, such as the likelihood of dry-snow or wet-snow avalanches in a region, snowpack instability, and the danger level. Taking the perspective of the avalanche forecaster, I will share examples to underscore the potential advantages and challenges associated with utilizing these models in operational avalanche forecasting at SLF.
Seismometers record signals from more than just earthquakes. Ground vibrations due to natural processes were recognized more than a century ago by scientists designing the instrumentation for earthquake detection, who mostly interpreted those signals as something polluting the seismograms, and therefore to be discarded. However, what happens if we neglect earthquakes and analyse what remains in the records?
New Zealand’s climate and topography create conditions for challenging avalanche problems. For example, large wet avalanches will sometimes generate powder clouds, and storms will bring > 500 mm of rain to an alpine snowpack the middle of winter. Relatively sparse observational records hamper efforts to characterize avalanche hazards in many places. Our work aims to better understand avalanches in New Zealand using remote sensing observations and modelling.
Recent unprecedented heat and heavy rainfall extremes broke previous observed record intensities by large margins. Given their unprecedented intensity some media outlets and scientists raised the question whether extremes intensify faster than projected. Here I address this question and highlight some of the challenges such events pose to widely used methods in model evaluation and attribution. Furthermore, I discuss ways forward in quantifying the potential intensity of future record-shattering events.
Davnah Urbach will introduce the Global Mountain Biodiversity Assessment research network before building on the work it performs to give an overview (i) of the current state of knowledge and research on mountain biodiversity in the face of global change and (ii) of current efforts and options to support science-based policy making for mountain biodiversity.
Glacier mass change has crucial impacts on hydrology, sea level rise, and climate change. Geodetic and glaciological mass balance observations so far have insufficient resolution to capture processes occurring on small spatial and/or short temporal scales. However, a permanent Terrestrial Laser Scanning (TLS) station adjacent to Hintereisferner (HEF, Ötztal Alps, Austria) provides daily Digital Elevation Models (DEMs), which allow closing spatiotemporal gaps in established glacier monitoring methods. An uncertainty assessment showed that smaller-scale processes, such as snow deposition and redistribution with a vertical spatial scale >0.10 m can be investigated with the TLS setup at HEF
Forschung und Verwaltung kommunizieren über verschiedenste Themen: Forschungsresultate, Politik, fachliche Wissensvermittlung und Sensibilisierung und vieles mehr. Damit die unterschiedlichen Kommunikationsbedürfnisse erfüllt werden könnten, braucht es eine gute Abstimmung und Umsetzung. Wissenschaftliche Findings müssen beispielsweise «übersetzt» werden, damit sie für das Zielpublikum wie Medien, Bevölkerung und Politik verständlich sind und einheitlich darüber kommuniziert wird - eine Auslegeordnung aus Sicht des Bundes.
The Living Well Within Limits project investigated the energy requirements of well-being, from quantitative, provisioning systems and political economy perspectives. In this presentation, I will communicate cross-cutting findings from the project, in the form of 10 stylized facts, and their implications, present and future. These stylised facts cover the current and future energy requirements of wellbeing, their unequal distribution, the crucial role played by provisioning systems and public services, the importance of political economy approaches and the necessity to consider transformations beyond capitalism. I will also briefly present upcoming research on post-growth economies. I thus argue for the active (as in activist) engagement of the research community.
Das Projekt untersucht, wie gut zukunftsfähige Baumarten während der Verjüngungsphase in einem Klima mit wärmeren Wintern und heiss-trockenen Sommermonaten wachsen, wie sie sich gegenseitig beeinflussen und welche Auswirkungen ihre Präsenz auf den Boden und die darin lebenden Organismen hat.
Mit indirekten Geschiebetransportmessungen kann man besser verstehen, wie grobe Feststoffpartikel in steilen Bächen (Wildbächen) und Gebirgsflüssen transportiert werden.
Der Druck auf die Landschaft hat in den letzten Jahren stark zugenommen und ist auch im Schweizer Berggebiet spürbar. Am Beispiel des Kulturlandschaftswegs in der Gemeinde Valsot erfassen wir zusammen mit der Stiftung Pro Terra Engiadina und mit Hilfe des LABES-Instrumentes die Landschaftsqualität.
Basierend auf Feinerschliessung, Waldstrukturen und zu bereitzustellenden Ökosystemleistungen werden im Rahmen dieses Projektes neue Grundlagen zur Ausscheidung von Bewirtschaftung- und Eingriffseinheiten als Planungsgrundlage für Gebirgs- und Dauerwälder entwickelt.
Our project will evaluate effects of different forms of interactive involvement in river restoration projects on involved residents’ social learning and their psychological ownership and investigate whether this enhances acceptance of the river restoration projects.
Flächendeckende und räumlich hochaufgelöste Satellitendaten, für kleinere Gebiete Drohnendaten, sind sehr gut zur Dokumentation von Lawinenperioden geeignet. Für eine zeitnahe Verwendung arbeitet das SLF an einer Automatisierung der Kartierung.
In diesem Projekt sollen Elemente der regionalen Frühwarnung vor flachgründigen Hangrutschungen in einem Pilot-Frühwarnsystem im Napfgebiet angewandt und der Nutzen für solche Frühwarnsysteme analysiert werden.
New EU Project on Arctic Biodiversity
The project aims to assess how the abundance of spruce bark beetles affects populations of woodpeckers. Long-term datasets on the annual amount of spruce timber infested by bark beetles and woodpecker abundance data, along with environmental variables are being used to model these relationships.
Können sich Menschen in urbanen Regionen in Grünanlagen von Stress erholen oder gibt es zu viel Lärm? Forschende der WSL und der Empa untersuchen, welche audiovisuellen Anforderungen Grünflächen erfüllen müssen, damit sich lärmbelastete Menschen von Stress erholen können.
Despite being an essential element of the biodiversity and climate change crisis, the feedback between biodiversity and climate remains an understudied subject in biodiversity and climate science. The project FeedBaCks will focus on this important interaction between the two disciplines.
Im Projekt FNEWs wird ein nationales fernerkundungsbasiertes Erfassungssystem für Waldschäden in Deutschland aufgebaut. Im Arbeitspaket der WSL werden die Potentiale von Sentinel-1 C-Band Daten analysiert und aufgezeigt sowie operationelle Abläufe konzipiert.
Aus Erkenntnissen von verschiedenen WSL-Projekten und Resultaten der internationalen Forschung werden Handlungsempfehlungen zur Erhaltung und Förderung der Biodiversität von Waldinsekten abgeleitet.
As part of the Blue-Green Biodiversity Research Initiative (Eawag-WSL funded by ETH), we study differences in the effect of global environmental change on the phenology of primary production in lakes and their surrounding watersheds using remote sensing techniques.
An increase of extreme environmental disturbances is expected, which is for different reasons a big challenge for forest stakeholders on the operating-, strategic-, financial- and environmental level. Using diverse methods, we aim to describe the complexity of the current problem.
Das Ziel dieses Projekts ist die Erarbeitung eines Konzeptes für die Überführung von Elementen der bestehenden Forschungsplattform drought.ch in den operationellen Betrieb beim BAFU sowie eine Integration bei naturgefahren.ch.
Wir untersuchen die Entwicklung der Häufigkeit und des Artenreichtums von aquatischen und terrestrischen Insektengemeinschaften in der Schweiz.
The aim of this project is the complete revision of ROXAS, the successful image analysis tool for quantifying xylem cell anatomical features is ROXAS.
Ziel des Projektes ist es, den Beitrag der Oberflächenerosion aus vegetationslosen Flächen entlang von Gerinnen zur gesamten Geschiebelieferung in kleinen, steilen Einzugsgebieten abzuschätzen.
Insects are among the most successful invasive species but there are surprisingly few aquatic insects that invaded freshwater ecosystems. In this collaborative project between WSL and Eawag we are analysing several international datasets to determine why insects are under-represented among aquatic insects.
Dieses Projekt ist durch die wiederholte Aussage der OECD legitimiert, dass die Biodiversitätspolitik eine Schwachstelle der Schweizer Umweltpolitik sei. Mit moderner Texterkennung evaluieren wir wie die Biodiversitätspolitik in der Schweiz implementiert wird.
Landslides and debris flows are hazardous phenomenon in Switzerland and worldwide. We combine field measurements, numerical modelling and laboratory experiments to further our mechanistic understanding of the motion of these types of mass movements.
The synchronization between supply and demand of resources in temperate forests is vital to ensure the optimal and sustainable functioning of these ecosystems. This project aims to understand how global warming is disrupting interactions between above- and below-ground organisms.
