Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL

Plant regeneration ecology

We study the importance of extreme events such as drought, storms, forest fires or clearings for the forest dynamics. In the frame  of such disturbances we focus on:

  • resistance to disturbance: the potential to resist; we experimentally test the drought resistance of regenerating trees
  •  resilience after disturbance: the potential to regenerate; we monitor severely disturbed forests on the basis of systematic or stratified samples
  • functional traits of forest plant species
     

Both the strong climate warming and a growing demand of forest goods (timber, fuel) will result in a general increase of disturbances. We elaborate basic knowledge for an adaptive forest management.

Reaction of beech trees to summer drought. (Waldrand, Hemishofen SH)
Pine forest suffering under drought. (Notdhang, Visp VS)
Large scale infection by bark beetle in spruce stands. (Gandberg GL)
Wind throw. (Niderental, Schwanden GL)
Steep protection forest after a large forest fire. (Visp VS)
Forest regeneration after a high intensity forest fire. (Waldbrandfläche Leuk VS)

Projects