WSL forest researcher appointed associate professor at EPFL

How do forests respond to climate change, particularly in an increasingly hot and dry atmosphere? Forest ecologist Charlotte Grossiord and her team are investigating this through field experiments, laboratory work and remote sensing methods. To this end, they occasionally subject trees to extreme conditions to understand when and why they reach their tolerance limits. Grossiord’s research thus provides fundamental insights into how plants and ecosystems function in the context of climate change. 

These insights help to identify ways of strengthening the resilience and adaptability of forests – which is highly relevant for policymakers and practical applications. “The tenured professorship gives me the stability and freedom to develop a long-term research programme on this topic,” says Grossiord. 

Over the coming years, she intends to explore the links between plant physiology and the responses of ecosystems on a large scale. This means her team will carry out detailed measurements of tree growth, water consumption and mortality, and extrapolate these findings to the landscape level. In addition, the group will also address applied questions, such as how forest management and urban greening can make nature and people more resilient to climate extremes.

Grossiord holds a joint professorship at the WSL and EPFL. She heads WSL’s ‘Functional Plant Ecology’ research group, and her laboratory is based at the School of Architecture, Civil and Environmental Engineering (ENAC) at EPFL.