Head: Dr. Frank Hagedorn

How does environmental change affect carbon and nutrient fluxes in ecosystems? The research group Biogeochemistry (1) studies long-term changes of biogeochemical cycles in Swiss forests (LWF); (2) manipulates climatic conditions (temperature, CO2 concentrations, N deposition) in field and lab experiments; and (3) traces carbon and nitrogen fluxes using stable isotopes.

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Projects

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

Knowledge about plant available soil water is often the missing link to understand large-scale vegetation health observations. This project aims at modelling soil water fluxes with an emphasis on below-ground processes to improve our ability to explain patterns of impacted forest health condition.

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

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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Staff

Biogeochemistry

Dr. Frank Hagedorn	teamleader, senior scientist
Severin-Luca Bellè	PhD student guest
Dominik Brödlin	PhD student guest
Yuk Ying Cheung-Tang	technical staff member
Dr. Alex Tat-Shing Chow	fellow
Dr. Katrin Di Bella Meusburger	scientific staff member
Ika Djukic	visiting scientist
Jasmin Fetzer	PhD student
Decai Gao	Postdoc
Dr. Konstantin Gavazov	scientific staff member
Claudia Guidi	visiting scientist
Noureddine Hajjar	technical staff member
Tatiana Hirsiger	technical staff member
Julia Maschler	PhD student guest
Lorenzo Masini	trainee
Anita Nussbaumer	technical staff member
Maryam Salehi	Postdoc
Dr. Patrick Schleppi	scientific staff member
Maria Schmitt Oehler	scientific staff member
Oliver Schramm	technical staff member
Linus Signer	Zivildienst-Mitarbeiter
Benjamin Stern	master student
Dr. Anne Thimonier Rickenmann	scientific staff member
Dr. Peter Waldner	scientific staff member
Alois Zürcher	technical staff member

WSL websites

waldwissen.net

Knowhow for forestry experts and all others interested in the forest

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Avalanche knowledge and prevention, e-learning an tour planning

lfi.ch

Swiss National Forest Inventory NFI - a forest information service

natural-hazards.ch

Warnings on natural hazards by Swiss federal authorities

envidat.ch

Access to environmental monitoring and research data

slf.ch

WSL Institute for Snow and Avalanche Research SLF in Davos

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Biogeochemistry

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FURTHER INFORMATION

Projects

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

FORClimateS

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

The role of mycorrhizae in soil carbon storage of mountain ecosystems

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

Tea bag decomposition study

Integrated Carbon Observation System (ICOS)

Stillberg enzyme activities

Forest and climate

Below-canopy climate

Stable isotopes treerings and foliage

Nitrate Leaching under changed climate conditions

Soil as a site factor

BigLink-SoilSolution

Control on soil organic matter in Swiss forests

Composition of the driftwood

Nadelchemie der Fichte

Alpine treelines in a CO2-rich and warm world

Treeline in Ural

CO2 and N availability (SCC Hofstetten)

Soil solution in LWF plots

Nitrogen and ground vegetation

Biogeochemical cycling and ground vegetation

N dynamics Alptal

TreeNet

Staff

Biogeochemistry

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