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Forest Health and Biotic Interactions

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The research unit studies the effect of biotic factors (in particular insects and fungi) on forest health and develops the scientific basis for protecting the forest against potential pests and pathogens. We conduct surveys on the emergence of forest pests and diseases, advise forestry services on forest protection issues, and assist the federal government and cantonal authorities with measures to combat pests and pathogens. The unit's infrastructure includes a modern diagnostic laboratory and a high-security plant protection laboratory, so that alien organisms can be dealt with appropriately.

Another focus of the unit is on studying the effect of biotic (alien species) and abiotic disturbances (wind damage, climate change), as well as cultivation, on invertebrate fauna and the interactions between them and their host trees.

Research groups

Forest health and biotic interactions

FURTHER INFORMATION

Staff

Forest health and biotic interactions

Dr. Eckehard G. Brockerhoff	Head of Research Unit
Dr. Martin Bader	Visiting scientist
Dr. Marco Basile	Postdoc
Dr. Robert McElderry	Postdoc
Andrea Minetti	Software developer

Swiss Forest Protection

Dr. Valentin Queloz	Groupleader
Dr. Benno Andreas Augustinus	Postdoc
Dr. Ludwig Beenken	Scientific staff member
Dr. Simon Blaser	Scientific staff member
Elisabeth Britt	Technical staff member
Dr. Francesca Giulia Dennert	Scientific staff member
Vivanne Dubach	forest pathologist
Dr. Doris Hölling	Scientific staff member
Dr. Martina Kicic	Visiting scientist
Jolanda Klaver	Temporary employee
Federico Monteleone	Trainee
Maurice Moor	Technical staff member
Max Liam Philippi	Trainee
Mario Sahli	Technical staff member
Dr. Sophie Stroheker	Technical staff member
Fabian Suter	Temporary employee
Deborah Wyss	Bachelor student

Phytopathology

Dr. Simone Prospero	Groupleader
Franco Borsien	Wissenschaftlicher Assistent
Dr. Carolina Cornejo	technical staff member, training supervisor
Ana Diaz Zuniga	Trainee
Dr. Iva Franic	Visiting scientist
Dr. Renate Heinzelmann	Postdoc
Kevin Kleeb	Bachelor student
Aaron Kopp	Bachelor student
Quirin Kupper	lab technician
Dr. Jana Mittelstrass	Scientific staff member
Patrizia Palermo	Technical staff member
Dr. Daniel Rigling	Visiting scientist, Senior Scientist
Dr. Beat Ruffner	Scientific staff member
Nicolò Sasso
Donike Sejdiu	PhD student guest
Dr. Wajeeha Shamsi	Postdoc
Jennifer Stucki	Apprentice
Dr. Tetyana Tsykun	Visiting scientist
Sven Ulrich	lab technician
Robin Winiger	lab technician

Forest Entomology

Prof. Dr. Martin Gossner	Groupleader, Senior Scientist
Carl-Michael Heimo Andersson	Technical staff member
Astrid Bächli	Technical staff member
Giovanna Ceppi	Trainee
Francesca Cerroti	PhD student guest
Tobia Diggelmann	Civil service employee
Bastiaan Drost	PhD student
Dr. Michael Andreas Eisenring	Scientific staff member
Dr. Nina Feddern	Visiting scientist
Dr. Andrés Garcia	Visiting scientist
Cristina Haldemann	Scientific assistant
Reto Henzmann	Civil service employee
Dr. Maja Ilic	Postdoc
Lara Indra	Visiting scientist
Julia Kappeler	Master student
Dr. Thibault Lachat	Visiting scientist
Anouchka Perret-Gentil	lab technician
José Pedro Zé Ribeiro Correia	Trainee
Caio Graco Rodriguez Leandro Roza	Visiting scientist
Dr. Thibaut Rota	Visiting scientist
Nicolas Roth	Visiting scientist
Saskia Scharl	Apprentice
Simone Emanuele Schmid	Trainee
Doris Schneider	Technical staff member
Philip Vonschallen	Civil service employee
Dr. Beat Wermelinger	Visiting scientist
Dr. Mark Wong	Visiting scientist
Veronika Zengerer	Technical staff member

Projects

Stand- und Bruchsicherheit von Eschen mit Eschentriebsterben und Hallimasch

Viele Eschen in der Schweiz sind vom Eschentriebsterben betroffen und zeigen Kronenschäden. Wir untersuchen, wie das Eschentriebsterben und sekundärer Hallimaschbefall die Stand- und Bruchsicherheit von Eschen beeinflussen, damit Risikobäume gezielter identifiziert und gefällt werden können.

Viruses of Armillaria

In this project, we are screening our Armillaria culture collection for fungal viruses. We use new generation sequencing method for detecting RNA viruses, which we will be tested for their effect on the fungal pathogen. We are searching for viruses, which have a negative effect on Armillaria to control the root-rot disease.

DEFENDASH

Ash is currently suffering from Ash dieback ADB and a new threat, the Emerald Ash Borer EAB, is spreading towards Central Europe. The project aims at understanding the milti-trophic interactions between different ash genotypes, ADB, EAB and its natural enemies under different climatic conditions.

Biomass decomposition of Douglas fir

The influence of the Douglas fir on ecological processes in the forest has not yet been sufficiently studied. The aim of the cooperation project (HAFL, WSL, University of Göttingen) is to create the scientific basis for an evaluation of Douglas fir cultivation with regard to biomass degradation and functional biodiversity.

Mal dell'inchiostro del castagno

Lo scopo di questo progetto è quello di determinare l'effetto dei cambiamanti climatici sulla diffusione e l'incidenza del mal dell''inchiostro del castagno al sud delle Alpi della Svizzera.

Nanopore Sequencing Technology for Forest Health Diagnostics and Research

This project works on optimizing the MinION-based sequencing technology for forest health diagnostics and research.

Dynamics of virus infection in mycovirus-mediated biological control of a fungal pathogen

Hyperparasitism, the fundamental relationship between two parasitic organisms typically provides the basis for biological control. We investigate the infection dynamics of a mycovirus, which acts as biological control agent of the introduced tree disease.

ISOWEB

Our objective is to develop a protocol to analyse food webs in deadwood using compound-specific stable isotope analyses. The applicability to track changes in foodwebs between tree species and different management types along deadwood decomposition will be tested using data from a large experiment.

Energy flux through ecological networks

One of the main drivers of the ongoing loss of biodiversity and the provisioning of important ecosystem functions is nutrient enrichment due to increased fertilizer use in agriculture and fossil fuel combustion. In this project we aim to assess energy fluxes through ecological food webs as an independent measure of ecosystem functioning on an island system in lakes in northern Sweden.

Molecular epidemiology of fungal invasions

In this project, we investigate the molecular epidemiology of invasive European populations of the chestnut blight fungus Cryphonectria parasitica.

Impact of fuel wood piles on saproxylic beetles

In Switzerland, a strong increase in the demand for energy wood is expected for the next decades. This is likely to have a strong influence on saproxylic beetles (dependent on dead wood). On the one hand, fewer old trees and less deadwood will remain and decompose in the forest, which directly limits habitat availability for saproxylics. On the other hand, fuel wood exploitation might have indirect ecological consequences.

Genes behind the interaction of Armillaria ostoyae with its hosts

Based on the genome sequence and gene expression profiles we will identify genes involved in the parasitic interaction of Armillaria ostoyae with its hosts. Knowing those genes will help better understanding the mechanisms behind necrothrophic tree diseases and developing new control strategies.

Ash dieback

The ascomycetous fungus Chalara fraxinea is a new invasive pathogen causing severe ash dieback thus threatening the existence of Fraxinus spp. in Europe. Our main aim is to characterize epidemic (Swiss) and post-epidemic (Lithuanian) populations of the ash dieback pathogen C. fraxinea.

Phytophthora genetics

Within the cosmopolitan plant pathogenic species Phytophthora citricola, high levels of morphological and molecular variation were previously observed. Recently, DNA analyses revealed that the P. citricola complex actually includes four species, namely P. multivora, P. plurivora, P. citricola I, and P. citricola sensu strictu, which show different geographic distributions and host ranges.

Dynamics of dead wood and saproxylic insects

Dead wood is a vital prerequisite for a quarter of all organisms living in a forest. The future intensification of forest management will pose a threat to many wood inhabiting (saproxylic) insect species. In forest reserves the formation and decay process of dead wood is quantified and the importance of micro-habitats for saproxylic beetles is investigated.

Diagnose von Wald- und Baumkrankheiten

Wichtige Informationen zur Beurteilung der Waldgesundheit stammen aus der Beratung, bei welcher mittels differenzialdiagnostischen Methoden die Ursachen von Baumkrankheiten analysiert werden. Die Kunden agieren als externe Mitarbeiter und erhalten als Gegenleistung die Diagnose inklusive einer Empfehlung für das geeignete weitere Vorgehen.

Schadenanalysen in Forstentomologie

Insekten prägen massgebend die Dynamik unserer Waldökosysteme. Informationen zur Verbreitung, Biologie und Epidemiologie der Waldinsekten dienen dazu, für Praxis und Behörden angepasste Massnahmen der Überwachung und Bekämpfung zu erarbeiten.

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Publications

Romon-Ochoa, P.; Smith, O.; Lewis, A.; Kupper, Q.; Shamsi, W.; Rigling, D.; Pérez-Sierra, A.; Ward, L., 2023: Temperature effects on the Cryphonectria hypovirus 1 accumulation and recovery within its fungal host, the chestnut blight pathogen Cryphonectria parasitica. Viruses, 15, 6: 1260 (13 pp.). doi: 10.3390/v15061260

Staab, M.; Gossner, M.M.; Simons, N.K.; Achury, R.; Ambarlı, D.; Bae, S.; Schall, P.; Weisser, W.W.; Blüthgen, N., 2023: Insect decline in forests depends on species' traits and may be mitigated by management. Communications Biology, 6, 1: 338 (13 pp.). doi: 10.1038/s42003-023-04690-9

Neff, F.; Prati, D.; Achury, R.; Ambarlı, D.; Bolliger, R.; Brändle, M.; Freitag, M.; Hölzel, N.; Kleinebecker, T.; Knecht, A.; Schäfer, D.; Schall, P.; Seibold, S.; Staab, M.; Weisser, W.W.; Pellissier, L.; Gossner, M.M., 2023: Reduction of invertebrate herbivory by land use is only partly explained by changes in plant and insect characteristics. Ecological Monographs, 93, 2: e1571 (26 pp.). doi: 10.1002/ecm.1571

Hölling, D.; Brockerhoff, E.G., 2023: Express Pest Risk Analysis (PRA) for: Anisandrus maiche (Kurentzov). Organisation Européenne et Méditerranéenne pour la Protection des Plantes (EPPO PM 5/5(1)). (17 pp.) p.

Sanchez, A.; Chittaro, Y.; Frey, D.; Koch, B.; Hölling, D.; Brockerhoff, E.G.; Ruffner, B.; Knížek, M., 2023: Three alien bark and ambrosia beetles (Coleoptera, Curculionidae, Scolytinae) new to Switzerland. Alpine Entomology, 7: 45-55. doi: 10.3897/alpento.7.103269

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WSL websites

waldwissen.net

Knowhow for forestry experts and all others interested in the forest

lfi.ch

Swiss National Forest Inventory NFI - a forest information service

envidat.ch

Access to environmental monitoring and research data

natural-hazards.ch

Warnings on natural hazards by Swiss federal authorities

slf.ch

WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF in Davos

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