Head: Dr. Martina Peter

We study ecological processes in populations of plants, mycorrhizal fungi and animals with molecular-genetic methods and supplement them with experimental approaches. We mainly investigate species that are relevant for Switzerland owing to their function in ecosystems, their distributional focus or their conservation status. We describe how plants of the Alpine region evolve to adapt to changing environmental conditions (adaptation). As important symbiosis partners of our forest trees, we investigate mycorrhizal fungi, their adaptation to tree partners and local conditions, and their significance for the stability of forest ecosystems in a changing environment. We study what effects the characteristics and configuration of landscape elements impose on the dispersal and the connectivity of organisms and their populations or how land use affects rare species of plants and animals (conservation genetics).

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Projects

OAKID2

Transferability and phylogenetic extension of species-diagnostic SNP markers in European white oak species

Molekulare Diagnostik

Mit molekularen Methoden versuchen wir der Ursache für erkrankte Bäume auf den Grund zu gehen - und stossen dabei nicht selten auf sehr komplexe Zusammenhänge.

GenWood

We link genomic and dendro-phenotypic data in Norway Spruce (Picea abies) to study the genomic basis of wood anatomy and assess the adaptive potential of forest trees under climate change.

BLACKDYNAMITE

This Swiss-Spanish project investigates the dynamics and competition of the black Périgord and Burgundy truffles under the influence of climate change.

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.

Tool kit conservation genetics

Partners from the private and academic sector joined to set up a ready-to-use tool kit, which allows authorities and consultancies to apply conservation genetic methods in a standardized way in their everyday work.

Metalink

Soil contamination with heavy metals is a widespread problem affecting natural, cultivated, urban and industrial sites throughout Europe. The main objective in this Swiss/Polish collaboration project is to characterize the links between environmental, genotypic, and phenotypic features in the metal-tolerant plant model Arabidopsis halleri.

GenTree

GenTree aims at providing the European forestry sector with better knowledge, methods and tools for optimizing the management and sustainable use of forest genetic resources in Europe in the context of climate change and continuously evolving demands for forest products and services.

PiCadapt - Adaptive genetic variation of Swiss stone pine in response to environmental gradients across the Alpine timberline ecotone

PiCadapt aims to study gene-encoded nucleotide variation in the bird-dispersed P. cembra, a keystone tree species of the Alpine timberline ecotone, in response to environmental gradients.

GeneScale

GeneScale describes genomic variation in the Alpine rock-cress (Arabis alpina) and seeks indications of local adaptation to small-scale environmental conditions.

Population ecology of the mountain hare

We study the distribution, abundance and dynamics of a mountain hare population in a strictly protected Alpine ecosystem with annual field surveys and non-invasive genetic methods.

QuercAdapt

We investigate the relationship between genetic variation and environmental factors, notably soil characteristics, in three native oak species. Thereby we can investigate the adaptedness of the different species and provenances in the context of silvicultural practice under climate change.

Disentangling truffle ecology

We study the complex biotic and abiotic ecology and the population genetics of the Burgundy truffle (Tuber aestivum) in Switzerland and the German pre-Alps, with particular emphasis on the ecological and climatological drivers for the productivity and phenology of this most valuable truffle species.

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.

Exotic tree species

Exotic tree species, which are adapted to a warmer and dryer climate, could contribute to coping with climate change. Six such species are tested in a long-term field experiment near Mutrux (Canton of Vaud).

AVE

The main aim of this SNF-supported SINERGIA project is to characterize adaptive genetic diversity associated with environmental heterogeneity in natural populations of related plant species and to experimentally test the adaptive value of candidate loci under ecologically relevant environmental conditions

Kastanienrindenkrebs

Der eingeschleppte Kastanienrindenkrebs gefährdet die Edelkastanienbestände auf der Alpennordseite. Um diese Bestände zu erhalten, wird im Rahmen dieses Projektes der Kastanienrindenkrebs auf der Alpennordseite mit hypovirulenten Pilzstämmen bekämpft

Mycorrhiza and forest fire

In this project, we aim to investigate 1) to what extent diversity of mycorrhizal fungi is diminished by forest fire, and 2) whether this has consequences for performance of Pinus sylvestris seedlings.

Gene flow in Swiss stone pine

Stone pines depend on nutcrackers for seed dispersal to favorable microsites, while nutcrackers almost exclusively forage on the pines, caching their seeds for winter food reserves. Genetic parentage analysis on juvenile stone pines germinated from cached nuts, will elucidate how dispersal by nutcrackers affects the spatial genetic structure of future pine populations.

Evoltree

A large network of research institutions collaborates within an EC-funded Network of Excellence to study the impacts of climate change on forest ecosystems from an evolutionary perspective.

IntraBioDiv

Within an EC-funded project, scientists from WSL study possible correlations between intraspecific diversity and species richness or habitat variation. They want to find and explain possible relationships among different levels of plant biodiversity, to elaborate a modelling approach.

WATER

A network of four research institutions collaborates within an EC-funded Network of Excellence to determine and understand the influence of genetic diversity of trees and site water regime on neutral and functional diversities of the associated mycorrhizal community.

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Staff

Ecological Genetics

Dr. Martina Peter	teamleader
Dr. Felix Gugerli Künzle	senior scientist, deputy teamleader
Dr. Alicja Agnieszka Babst-Kostecka	visiting scientist
Melanie Beck	apprentice
Sabine Brodbeck	technical staff member
Dr. Katalin Csillery	visiting scientist
Dr. Benjamin Dauphin	Postdoc
Dr. Simon Egli	scientific staff member
René Graf	technical staff member
Dr. Elisabet Martinez Sancho	Postdoc
Lenka Matéju	technical staff member
Dr. Lars Opgenoorth	fellow
Stephanie Pfister	Laborantin
Yasmine Pinuela Samaniego	visiting scientist
Dr. Christian Rellstab	scientific staff member
Oliver Reutimann	trainee
Aude Rogivue	scientific assistant
Olivia Rusconi	PhD student guest
Laura Schürz	trainee
Florian Staubli	master student
Dr. Brian S. Steidinger	visiting scientist
Evelyn Terzer	master student