Ecosystem Ecology

Head: Dr. Arthur Gessler

Research focus

The Research Group addresses the impact of natural and anthropogenic environmental changes on the nutrient and carbon fluxes in forests, the hydrological cycle within forests and on forest ecosystem health. To this end the RG studies the biogeochemical cycles of carbon and nutrients and their long-term trends using long-term studies, large-scale surveys, as well as field and laboratory experiments. It also addresses the quantitative effects of forest growth on regional carbon, nutrient and water fluxes and develops methods to quantify resource pools and fluxes in forest ecosystems on different scales.

Main research questions

What is the impact of ...

  • climate change on forest ecosystems?
  • pollution on soil and plants?
  • management on nutrient availability?

Methods

The outcomes of this research allow the development of scenarios to assess and model the risk linked to regional and global anthropogenic changes, including nutrient and pollution deposition, climate change, carbon dioxide increase and changes in forest management, on forest (ecosystem) health, in both, the short and long run.

National and international position

The group has partners both within the WSL and the wider national and international scientific community. The stakeholders are federal and international agencies, the forest services and the forest owners.

The group forms the core of the Swiss contribution to ICP Forests, to which Switzerland has been committed by signing the Geneva Convention on Long-Range Transboundary Air Pollution. It also provides information on several criteria and indicators for sustainable forest management laid down by the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe.

Projects

Staff

Ecosystem Ecology

Arthur Gessler

Groupleader

Mark Anthony

Scientific staff member

Marçal Argelich Ninot

Temporary employee

Frederik Baumgarten

Visiting scientist

Julia Born

Project Manager

Arun Bose

Visiting scientist

Olga Churakova

Visiting scientist

Valentin Comte

PhD student guest

Maaike De Boer

Visiting scientist

Haoyu Diao

Postdoc

Sylvain Eichhorn

Temporary employee

Elham Freund

Visiting scientist

Holger Griess

Scientific staff member

Matthias Haeni

IT specialist

Meisha Holloway-Phillips

Scientific staff member

Zhaoyong HU

Visiting scientist

Christian Hug

Technical staff member

Stefan Hunziker

Scientific staff member

Christine Köchli

Temporary employee

Frank Krumm

Scientific staff member

Jelle Lever

Postdoc

Martin Ley

Administrative specialist

Mirko Lukovic

Scientific staff member

Yunpeng Luo

Postdoc

Francesca Sofia Manca di Villahermosa

Visiting scientist

Bruno Mörgeli

Temporary employee

Christoph Mullis

Technical staff member

Tatiana Nazarova

PhD student

Eugénie Paul-Limoges

Scientific staff member

Simone Maria Pieber

Visiting scientist

Alfred Potzinger

Fieldworker / Deputy Project Manager

Martine Rebetez

Senior Scientist

Matthias Saurer

Scientific staff member

Léonard Schneider

Visiting scientist

Raphael Siegrist

Temporary employee

Rolf Siegwolf

Visiting scientist

Lynsay Spafford

Guest

Pierdomenico Spina

PhD student guest

Flurin Sutter

GIS specialist

Volodymyr Trotsiuk

Software engineer

Maria del Carmen Urena Lara

PhD student guest

Valentina Vitali

Scientific staff member

Yann Vitasse

Scientific staff member

Manuel Walde

PhD student

Micah Wilhelm

Scientific assistant

Artin Zarsav

PhD student