Biogeochemistry

Projects

Spectral screening for the early detection of a highly invasive beetle in Switzerland

The emergence of visible tree-stress symptoms caused by the emerald ash borer occurs only several years after its arrival and are hard to tell apart from those caused by soil drought. Here, we investigate the potential of reflectance spectroscopy as an early-warning screening tool.

INSIghtForest: IN SItu tracking of water fluxes in Forest ecosystems

INSIghtForest will accompany the Cost Action WATSON "WATer isotopeS in the critical zONeproposes" by establishing a unique data set of high frequency in-situ measured water isotopes located in a long-term irrigation experiment Pfynwald in the naturally dry valley of Valais, Switzerland.

FORWARDS: European Observatory to assess the vulnerability of forests towards climate change

FORWARDS aims to develop, test, and implement a European Observatory that will supply timely and detailed information on European forests' vulnerability to climate change impacts, and provide knowledge to guide climate smart forestry

Carbon cycling in forest floors

The project quantifies carbon fluxes in forest floors along gradients in climate and bedrock in Switzerland and Germany. The approach is to measure radiocarbon contents in C pools and fluxes, and tracing isotopically labelled (13C, 15N, 2H) litter in the forest floor and in the mineral soil beneath.

Nanoplastic uptake and transport in trees

In this project we assess the uptake and transport of nanoplastics in trees by using polystyrene nanoparticles doped with Palladium and detection of these particles with ICP-MS.

TreeWater - Disentangling the isotopic signal transfer from source water to tree rings

TreeWater aims to improve our understanding of whether and how information on water uptake dynamics can be retrieved from the oxygen and hydrogen (i.e. water) isotopes in tree rings.

Forest soil inventory

The repetition of the forest soil inventory provides the basis for representative forest soil monitoring throughout Switzerland. Through the connection to the sampling network of the National Forest Inventory, a variety of possibilities for the use and evaluation of the collected soil data are possible.

ExtremeThaw

In this ambitious project, we study ecological effects of permafrost thaw in the Swiss Alps.

ProtoAIM - Enhanced Plot Design for Advanced Inventorying and Monitoring

We will enhance the design of the Swiss NFI plots to accomodate an augmented series of measurements, sampling and analysis needed to respond to pressing research question on status and change of the Swiss forest.

ICOS-2: Integrated Carbon Observation System in Switzerland, Phase 2017-2021

Die Forschungsstation Seehornwald Davos wurde in den 80er-Jahren von der WSL initiiert und ist damit eine der ältesten permanent betriebenen Wald-Vegetations-Forschungsstationen in der Schweiz.

Abisko Long-Term Ecological Research ALTER

Setting up the ALTER experiment in Abisko, Sweden for non-destructive in situ monitoring of belowground vegetation and microbial dynamics.

Pre-study soil inventory

In the years 2021 - 2025, the forest soil survey of 1993 on the 8 x 8 km will be repeated. This grid does not cover all combinations of soil formation and environmental factors that potentially occur in Switzerland. This project evaluates the most efficient way to close these gaps.

RICH-SOIL: Radiocarbon Inventory of Swiss Soils

RICH-SOIL gains insight into soil C cycling by determining radiocarbon signatures in Swiss soil C pools and fluxes. The project analyses archived samples, national soil inventory, and the LWF (Long-term-Monitoring of Forests Ecosystem) program.

Drought & beech: Effects of the 2018 summer drought on beech on the northern side of the Alps

In this project, we investigate causes for the impacts of the extreme summer drought 2018 on the vitality of beech trees in different regions of the Swiss Plateau and Jura.

PFF2020

Our main objective is the installation of a long-term Plant Physiological Facility for online determination of gas exchange and isotope fractionations at WSL in the 2020s.

Soil organic matter dynamics under drought

DRYSOM assesses soil organic matter (SOM) to drought in a long-term irrigation experiment (Pfynwald). Responses range from a suppressed processing through microbial and faunal communities, decreases in carbon inputs from trees into soils, to shifts in soil carbon storage.

Habitat Map of Switzerland

Spatially explicit distribution of habitats in Switzerland

Give and take: how much water does soil retain for trees?

Establishing an inventory of soil water availability to trees in Swiss forest soils. This is done by means of model-based analysis of the water balances at 16 long-term monitoring sites in Switzerland, representing various geographical locations, soil and vegetation types.

FORClimateS

The project aims to aggregate and synthesize existing information on different spatial and temporal scales to provide decision-makers with relevant and robust information on short- and long-term risks for forests and forest functions and on adaptation strategies under different climate futures

SwissSPOT- Swiss forest Soil water POTential network

SwissSPOT is a network to monitor soil water down to 2m soil depth at Swiss Long-term Forest Ecosystem Research (LWF) sites.

Root endophytic fungi and their contribution to arctic and alpine climate change feedback

Arctic and Alpine vegetation dynamics under climate change can exert a lasting impact on belowground processes and ultimately on world's largest carbon stocks. This long-term field manipulation investigates the functional significance of plant interactions with species-specific endophytic fungi.

The role of mycorrhizae in soil carbon storage of mountain ecosystems

This research project focuses on the role of mycorrhizae in the turnover of soil organic carbon in mountain ecosystems. It estimates the potential release of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere resulting from changes in above and belowground communities.

Junior Research: Der Waldboden lebt, Föhren sterben heimlich und Jahrringe erzählen aus der Vergangenheit

Was steckt hinter diesen Aussagen? SchülerInnen vertiefen sich in eines dieser Themen, eignen sich neues Wissen an, lernen genau hinzuschauen und haben Gelegenheit, sich zeigen zu lassen, wie in der Forschung gearbeitet wird.

Tea bag decomposition study

Decomposition of plant litter is a key process for the transfer of carbon and nutrients in ecosystems. Carbon contained in the decaying biomass is released to the atmosphere as respired CO2, and may contribute to global warming. Litterbag studies have been used to improve our knowledge of the drivers of litter decomposition, but they lack comparability because litter quality is plant species-specific. The use of commercial tea bags as a standard substrate was suggested in order to harmonize studies, where green tea and rooibos represent more labile and more recalcitrant C compounds as surrogates of local litter.

Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS)

Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS) is a European research infrastructure to quantify and understand the greenhouse gas balance of the European continent and of adjacent regions.

Stillberg enzyme activities

Climate change will particularly influence species distribution and the structure and function of sensitive ecosystems at the treeline. In an interdisciplinary experiment carried out at Stillberg Davos we will investigate how soil warming and enhanced CO2 concentrations will affect the ectomycorrhizal community structure and extracellular enzyme activities in the soil and at mycorrhizal roots.

Forest and climate

An expansion of forested zones could bring about a warming of the atmosphere at higher altitudes.

Below-canopy climate

Microclimate is a key factor influencing regeneration in forests. Particularly available light, water supply and temperature determine the success or failure of certain tree species. How will future climate change influence below-canopy microclimate and tree regeneration?

Stable isotopes treerings and foliage

Using nitrogen and carbon stable isotopes of beech and spruce tree-rings and foliage, we investigate the influence of N deposition and drought on forests.

Nitrate Leaching under changed climate conditions

Nitrate concentrations in groundwater have increased, mainly due to intensive agriculture, and constrain its usage as drinking water in parts of Switzerland. Nitrate leaching from forests are, in comparison, generally small but may increase due increased nitrogen deposition and warm and dry periods. This project aims on exploring the possibilities and limitations for a better estimation of the risk of future nitrate leaching from forests.

Soil as a site factor

This project delivers soil and site related information for Swiss forests which are based mainly on measured values: (i) response of tree species relating to direct and indirect environmental variables, (ii) quantitative characterisation of species' ecological niche and (iii) soil ecological indicator values for forest plant species.

BigLink-SoilSolution

This project is part of the multidisciplinary CCES project BigLink (“Biosphere-Geosphere interactions: Linking climate change, weathering, soil formation and ecosystem evolution”). It studies the plant-soil-microbe interactions at early succession stages in the Damma glacier forefield occurring in response to limited nutrient availability.

Control on soil organic matter in Swiss forests

The cycling of carbon and nitrogen are closely linked and thus, the increasing deposition of nitrogen very likely affects soil organic matter dynamics. We are adding 13C and 15N labeled litter from beech to soils and investigate how experimentally increased N inputs influence the fate of litter-derived C and N.

Composition of the driftwood

During the floods in August 2005 in Switzerland, many villages encounter problems not only because of a high water flow, but also because of large amounts of driftwood. Therefore the question of the origin and the formation of the driftwood arised.

Nadelchemie der Fichte

Mit dem Projekt "Monitoring Flankierende Massnahmen Umwelt" (MFM-U) untersucht die Schweiz die Umwelt-Auswirkungen des Landverkehrsabkommens mit der EU sowie die Umwelt-Auswirkungen der flankierenden Massnahmen. Im diesem Teilprojekt stehen die Auswirkungen auf den Wald im Vordergrund.

Alpine treelines in a CO2-rich and warm world

Concentrations of atmospheric CO2 and temperatures will strongly increase during the next century. We are investigating how these climatic changes will affect plant growth, biodiversity, and the cycling of carbon and nutrients in temperature sensitive ecosystems at the alpine treeline.

Treeline in Ural

Historical photographs document that the upper treeline of the Ural mountains has moved up 60 to 80 m during the last century. We assess how the expansion of forests into tundra affects soil organic matter dynamics in the pristine Southern, Northern and Polar Ural.

CO2 and N availability (SCC Hofstetten)

The goal of the project is to measure the effect of an elevated CO2 concentration onto the availability of nutrients in the soil, especially nitrogen. Are nutirents becoming more and more a limiting factor as CO2 availability to trees increases?

Soil solution in LWF plots

The chemistry of soil solution and the soil water availability for plants have been monitored since 1997 in seven forest plots in Switzerland. This project, linked to the Swiss Long-term Forest Ecosystem Research project (LWF), aims to assess the soil response to atmospheric pollution (acidifying substances and nitrogen) and to climate change.

Nitrogen and ground vegetation

Ground vegetation is a powerful bio-indicator of the environment. The project aims at discriminating the various factors which may influence the dynamics of ground vegetation. Emphasis is being given to the role of nitrogen.

Biogeochemical cycling and ground vegetation

The better understanding of the processes driving the dynamics of forest ecosystems requires the documentation of the constantly interacting compartments and fluxes of the biogeochemical cycle. Scientists study two fluxes (deposition of nutrients through precipitation and litterfall) and two compartments (foliage and ground vegetation).

N dynamics Alptal

This framework project contains research done on the site Erlenhöhe at Alptal (canton Schwyz, central Switzerland). It consists mainly of a nitrogen (N) addition experiment in which the effetcs of N deposition on a subalpine forest ecosystem are studied.

TreeNet

TreeNet is a biological drought and growth indicator network of forest ecosystems. It provides information about drought responses of trees all over Switzerland and their effects on the carbon balance of forests. TreeNet links the research of the eddy flux super sites Davos and Lägeren to the forest next to your home.

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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

Dr. Frank Hagedorn	Groupleader, Senior Scientist
Fabian Bernhard	PhD student
Philipp de Jong	PhD student
Dr. Katrin Di Bella Meusburger	Scientific staff member
Ika Djukic	Visiting scientist
Jasmin Fetzer	Visiting scientist
Dr. Konstantin Gavazov	Visiting scientist
Michael Guggenbühl	Master student
Dr. Claudia Guidi	Postdoc Marie Curie
Noureddine Hajjar	Technical staff member
Tatiana Hirsiger	Technical staff member
Dr. Mathias Mayer	Postdoc
Luisa Isabell Minich	PhD student
Margaux Moreno Duborgel	PhD student
Anita Nussbaumer	Technical staff member
Patrizia Palermo	Technical staff member
Mark Steve Riedi	Temporary employee
Melina Sophie Schaller	Master student
Dr. Patrick Schleppi	Scientific staff member
Maria Schmitt Oehler	Scientific staff member
Tanja Stutz	Technical staff member
Dr. Anne Thimonier Rickenmann	Scientific staff member
Annegret Udke	PhD student
Dr. Peter Waldner	Scientific staff member
Joachim Zhu	Technical staff member
Jan Ziegler	Technical staff member
Alois Zürcher	Technical staff member

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