Forest Dynamics

The Research Unit explores the functional significance of forest diversity with respect to the ecology of managed and unmanaged forests. In order to assess the future development of forests in Switzerland and other temperate and mountainous regions, the Unit pursues a threefold research agenda:

  1. it performs basic research on forest diversity and its influence i) on forest dynamics, i.e. successional processes including tree growth, mortality and regeneration, and ii) on ecosystem goods and services;
  2. it studies the disturbance agents such as storms, avalanches, fires and insects with respect to their occurrences and their impact on forest dynamics, as well as the importance of forest diversity to resist disturbance;
  3. it investigates the impact of management operations on forest structure and development to improve sustainable forest management.

Based on the research outcomes, the Unit develops recommendations for best practice to sustain or improve forest products and services such as production of timber and other forest goods (e.g. mushrooms), catchment value, water quality, protection against natural hazards and pests, conservation and recreation. The infrastructure of the Research Unit includes extensive networks of forest study plots and laboratories for insects and fungi analysis.

The Unit has partners both within WSL and the wider scientific community. Stakeholders are mainly the forest services, forest owners and federal agencies.
 

Topics

Projects

Research Groups and Staff

Forest Dynamics

Thomas Wohlgemuth

Member of Directors Board; Senior Scientist, interim Head of Research Unit

Christian Raphael Ledergerber

Master student

Elisabet Martinez Sancho

Visiting scientist

Andreas Rigling

Visiting scientist

Ulrich Wasem

Temporary employee

Dendrosciences

Georg von Arx

Group leader

Jesper Björklund

Visiting scientist

Seraina Brandes

Master student

Antoine Cabon

Scientific staff member

Paolo Cherubini

Senior Scientist

Savannah Collins-Key

Visiting scientist

Alberto Danieli

PhD student guest

Micaela Dassié

Master student

Patrick Fonti

Senior Scientist

Holger Gärtner

Scientific staff member

Lisa Marie Yvette Jourdain

Visiting scientist

Valentino Känzig

Master student

Marc Katzenmaier

PhD student guest

Stefan Klesse

Scientific staff member

Camille Marande

PhD student guest

Elisabet Martinez Sancho

Visiting scientist

Chloé Mayoraz

Master student

Daniel Nievergelt

Technical staff member

Loïc Schneider

Technical staff member

Kristina Seftigen

Visiting scientist

Lenka Slámová-Matéju

Visiting scientist

Simona Staub

Master student

Nadja-Tamara Studer

Assistante scientifique

Kerstin Treydte

Senior Scientist

Anne Verstege

Technical staff member

Wenjin Wang

Postdoc

Danyang Yuan

PhD student guest

Liangjun Zhu

Visiting scientist

LWF I

Christoph Mullis

Technical staff member

Ecophysiology

Marcus Schaub

Group leader

William Aeberhard

Visiting scientist

Isabelle Arnold

Visiting scientist

David Jonas Basler

Postdoc

Carlo di Bello

PhD student

Sophia Etzold

Scientific staff member

Jonas Gisler

Technical staff member

Madeleine S. Goerg-Günthardt

Visiting scientist

Maxwell Guerne

Civilian service employees

Rudolf Häsler

Visiting scientist

Hakima Hedjam

Visiting scientist

Dominik Andrin Hummel

Technical specialist

Maihe Li

Senior Scientist

Na Li

PhD student guest

Marcus Maeder

Visiting scientist

Capucine Agathe Marion

PhD student guest

Eliot Perrin

Master student

Richard Peters

Visiting scientist

Volodymyr Trotsiuk

Data Scientist

Pierre Vollenweider

Scientific staff member

Cong Wang

Visiting scientist

Yanli Zhang

PhD student

Yi Zhu

PhD student guest

Roman Zweifel

Scientific staff member

Samuel Zweifel

Master student

Ecosystem Ecology

Arthur Gessler

Group leader

Leo Amrein

Temporary employee

Mark Anthony

Visiting scientist

Frederik Baumgarten

Visiting scientist

Mirela Beloiu Schwenke

Visiting scientist

Julia Born

Project Manager

Arun Bose

Scientific staff member

Alessandra Bottero

Scientific staff member

Liangzhi Chen

Postdoc

Olga Churakova

Visiting scientist

Valentin Comte

Visiting scientist

Maaike De Boer

Visiting scientist

Nicolas De Girardi

Temporary employee

Haoyu Diao

Postdoc

Petra DOdorico

Scientific staff member

Luca Ferrari

Visiting scientist

Elham Freund

Visiting scientist

Matthias Haeni

IT specialist

Cecilia Franka Hofmann

Temporary employee

Christian Hug

Technical staff member

Stefan Hunziker

Scientific staff member

Stefan Klesse

Scientific staff member

Frank Krumm

Scientific staff member

Marco Lehmann

Scientific staff member

Jelle Lever

Postdoc

Martin Ley

Administrative specialist

Mirko Lukovic

Scientific staff member

Yunpeng Luo

Scientific staff member

Vincent Masserey

PhD student guest

Bruno Mörgeli

Temporary employee

Christoph Mullis

Technical staff member

Eugénie Paul-Limoges

Scientific staff member

Simone Maria Pieber

Scientific staff member

Alfred Potzinger

Fieldworker / Deputy Project Manager

Martine Rebetez

Senior Scientist

Matthias Saurer

Scientific staff member

Léonard Schneider

Visiting scientist

Pascal Schneider

PhD student

Ryan Shipley

Scientific staff member

Raphael Siegrist

Temporary employee

Rolf Siegwolf

Visiting scientist

Lynsay Spafford

Guest

Flurin Sutter

GIS specialist

Jan Svoboda

Scientific staff member

Volodymyr Trotsiuk

Data Scientist

Valentina Vitali

Visiting scientist

Yann Vitasse

Scientific staff member

Manuel Walde

PhD student

Micah Wilhelm

Scientific assistant

Zhongyu Xia

PhD student guest

Artin Zarsav

PhD student

Jan Ziegler

Technical specialist

rog. SwissForestLab

Yann Vitasse

Scientific staff member