Ecophysiology

Head: Dr. Marcus Schaub

• What are the physiological and morphological responses to environmental constraints/fluctuations at cell, tree, and ecosystem level?
• What is the strength/risk of various stressors for forest ecosystems?
• How can we differentiate the various stressors and their effects?

We use long-term observations in natural ecosystems in combination with (long-term) experimental studies under (semi)controlled environmental conditions for the development of quantitative scenarios of global change effects on trees and forest ecosystems.

Contributing to various scientific networks allows us to achieve a high degree of interdisciplinary collaboration. These include the European network ICP-Forests and the national Long-Term Forest Ecosystem Research Program LWF, both based on the UNECE Convention on Long-range Transboundary Air Pollution LRTAP. These collaborations are complemented by our own research platforms, such as Pfynwald (with VPDrought to disentangle atmospheric from soil drought), TreeNet, the WSL Model Ecosystem Facility MODOEK, and our microscopy lab MICRO.

The research group fosters close collaboration with universities and stake holders such as the Federal Office for the Environment FOEN, the Swiss National Science Foundation SNF, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne EPFL, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich ETHZ, the University of Basel UNIBAS, the Chinese Academy of Sciences CAS, the Integrated Carbon Observation System ICOS Switzerland, the International Co-operative Programme on Assessment and Monitoring of Air Pollution Effects on Forests ICP-Forests, the Integrated European Long-Term Ecosystem, critical zone and socio-ecological Research platform eLTER, and the International Union of Forest Research Organizations IUFRO.

With our large scale and long-term research infrastructure, we are part of the SCNAT National Geosciences Roadmap 2025-2028 and the International Roadmap of the European Strategy Forum on Research Infrastructures ESFRI.