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Land Change Science

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Landscapes change over time, shaped by natural processes, such as erosion and succession, and anthropogenic influences, such as agricultural or forestry activity, construction activity - in short: land use. Our research unit investigates this interplay of ecological and anthropogenic influences and its impact on landscape development.

The landscape level shows how sustainably society deals with natural resources - we use this for comprehensive analyses.

Our research and development activities are aimed at the national and international research community. It is equally important to us to carry out relevant research for the general public and to support public administration in fulfilling its tasks.

Research groups

Land Change Science

Topics

Energy and landscape

The Federal Government's Energy Strategy 2050 envisages the phasing-out of nuclear power and increased use of renewable energies. We identify possible...

Urban Development: Making Economical Use of the Land

The configuration and spread of villages and cities affect biodiversity and people's quality of life. We analyse settlement development and its...

Landscape Ecology

Species and ecosystems are influenced by spatial patterns. We study the interactions and influence of landscape change.

Land Use

Land use affects ecosystems and their services. We study how land use changes and develop scenarios for the future.

Landscape Development and Monitoring

We use monitoring programmes to document and quantify how our landscapes change.

Species diversity

We research the diversity of plants and animals, especially in the forests and mountains, and examine the factors that affect species composition.

FURTHER INFORMATION

Projects

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Publications

Landscape: Much more than just a backdrop

Focus WSL magazine Diagonal, 2/17: Whatever we do, we change the landscape. Our landscape researchers take a closer look so that we can shape these transformations together.

WSL Magazine Diagonal 2 17 (pdf, 29 MB)

Read online

Selecteded Publications

Csilléry, K.; Buchmann, N.; Fady, B., 2020: Adaptation to drought is coupled with slow growth, but independent from phenology in marginal silver fir (Abies alba Mill.) populations. Evolutionary Applications, 13, 9: 2357-2376. doi: 10.1111/eva.13029

Li, L.; Hu, R.; Huang, J.; Bürgi, M.; Zhu, Z.; Zhong, J.; Lü, Z., 2020: A farmland biodiversity strategy is needed for China. Nature Ecology & Evolution, 4: 772-774. doi: 10.1038/s41559-020-1161-2

Ginzler, C.; Price, B.; Bösch, R.; Fischer, C.; Hobi, M.L.; Psomas, A.; Rehush, N.; Wang, Z.; Waser, L.T., 2019: Area-wide products. In: Fischer, C.; Traub, B. (eds), 2019: Swiss National Forest Inventory – Methods and models of the fourth assessment. Cham, Springer. 125-142. doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-19293-8_7

Wang, Z.; Ginzler, C.; Waser, L.T., 2020: Assessing structural changes at the forest edge using kernel density estimation. Forest Ecology and Management, 456: 117639 (13 pp.). doi: 10.1016/j.foreco.2019.117639

Bolliger, J.; Silbernagel, J., 2020: Contribution of connectivity assessments to green infrastructure (GI). ISPRS International Journal of Geo-Information, 9, 4: 212 (17 pp.). doi: 10.3390/ijgi9040212

Scherrer, D.; Vitasse, Y.; Guisan, A.; Wohlgemuth, T.; Lischke, H., 2020: Competition and demography rather than dispersal limitation slow down upward shifts of trees' upper elevation limits in the Alps. Journal of Ecology, 108, 6: 2416-2430. doi: 10.1111/1365-2745.13451

Grünig, M.; Mazzi, D.; Calanca, P.; Karger, D.N.; Pellissier, L., 2020: Crop and forest pest metawebs shift towards increased linkage and suitability overlap under climate change. Communications Biology, 3, 1: 233 (10 pp.). doi: 10.1038/s42003-020-0962-9

Kienast, F.; Martius, G.; Gosteli, S., 2020: Erster weltweit zugänglicher Onlinekurs für Landschaftsökologie. Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Forstwesen, 171, 2: 104.

Speich, M.J.R.; Zappa, M.; Scherstjanoi, M.; Lischke, H., 2020: FORests and HYdrology under Climate Change in Switzerland v1.0: a spatially distributed model combining hydrology and forest dynamics. Geoscientific Model Development, 13, 2: 537-564. doi: 10.5194/gmd-13-537-2020

Manel, S.; Guerin, P.E.; Mouillot, D.; Blanchet, S.; Velez, L.; Albouy, C.; Pellissier, L., 2020: Global determinants of freshwater and marine fish genetic diversity. Nature Communications, 11: 692 (9 pp.). doi: 10.1038/s41467-020-14409-7

Descombes, P.; Kergunteuil, A.; Glauser, G.; Rasmann, S.; Pellissier, L., 2020: Plant physical and chemical traits associated with herbivory in situ and under a warming treatment. Journal of Ecology, 108, 2: 733-749. doi: 10.1111/1365-2745.13286

Price, B.; Waser, L.T.; Wang, Z.; Marty, M.; Ginzler, C.; Zellweger, F., 2020: Predicting biomass dynamics at the national extent from digital aerial photogrammetry. International Journal of Applied Earth Observation and Geoinformation, 90: 102116 (10 pp.). doi: 10.1016/j.jag.2020.102116

Bacău, S.; Grădinaru, S.R.; Hersperger, A.M., 2020: Spatial plans as relational data: using social network analysis to assess consistency among Bucharest's planning instruments. Land Use Policy, 92: 104484 (14 pp.). doi: 10.1016/j.landusepol.2020.104484

Brun, P.; Zimmermann, N.E.; Graham, C.H.; Lavergne, S.; Pellissier, L.; Münkemüller, T.; Thuiller, W., 2019: The productivity-biodiversity relationship varies across diversity dimensions. Nature Communications, 10: 5691 (11 pp.). doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-13678-1

Complete lists within the groups

Staff