Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL

Avalanche bulletin and snow situation
Edition: Wed 25.3., 17:00
Avalanche Bulletin

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In the media and multimedia

Multimedia

Kaisa Rissanen's video shows a day in life of a forest scientist: studying the effects of drought and irrigation on Scots pine resin dynamics and the emissions of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) from the pine stems.
In a new study, researchers from the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL show how tree stress can be detected before it becomes visible to the eye, extracting information from spectral data collected using drones.

More info at https://www.wsl.ch/drone-pfynwald-EN

VPD (Vapor Pressure Deficit) is one of the main forces governing plant transpiration. Prof. Charlotte Grossiord and her team try to disentangling the effects of VPD from those of other factors such as heat and drought.
As a tree physiologist at WSL, Leonie Schönbeck researches how trees take up and store energy, and how they use their reserves to recover from drought.

In the media

In the Finges forest, researchers are studying the effects of shearing on the trees using giant brumisateurs

Reportage du 19h30 (RTS La Première) le 28 août 2024

Atmospheric Forest is a large-scale VR point cloud installation that visualizes and acoustically translates the relationship between forest and climate. It shows the interactions between the emissions of the pine trees in the Pfynwald, an old Swiss Alpine forest, and the weather conditions in this valley, which is affected by drought.

Un brouillard artificiel pour tester l'impact du changement climatique sur les forêts

Dossier de la RTS La Première du 29 août 2024, reportage de La Matinale (2') et sujet de CQFD (14'49")

New study in the Pfynwald forest shows that drought inhibits carbon storage by earthworms.

Drought inhibits carbon storage by earthworms.

Earthworms in drought sleep: Due to climate change, periods of drought are becoming longer and longer, which puts pressure on soil organisms. A long-term study in the Pfynwald forest shows just how much

Channel 9, 9.06.2022, Michèle Ursprung

Researchers: Dry forest soils can store less CO2 in the long term

Dry forest soils can store less CO2 in the long term

Dry forest soils have a negative effect on climate change because earthworms in particular can no longer contribute effectively to fixing carbon in the soil, explains material cycle expert Frank Hagedorn on Dlf. Earthworms decompose less leaf litter during drought. In the long term, less carbon and thus also climate-impacting CO2 would be stored in the soil.

Ralf Krauter, Deutschlandfunk | 1.6.2022

Mysterious network: How trees in the forest are connected to each other

A report by [w] wie Wissen about the 'Wood Wide Web' in Pfynwald, with Martina Peter and members of her team

The First, 26.09.2020

Ecoacoustics: The soundtrack of climate change. SRF Einstein

What does the ground sound like? What does the forest sound like in a dry summer? Eco-acousticians such as the Swiss sound researcher Marcus Maeder use sound recordings to describe nature in a completely new way. Sound becomes an indicator of an ecosystem. "Einstein" shows the opportunities opened up by ecoacoustics.

Einstein, SRF | 21.11.2019

Pine dieback in Valais - researchers wrap the trees in plastic.

The pine forests in Valais are under threat. In some regions, up to 40 percent of the trees have died in the last two years. This is because it has been particularly hot and dry. This reduces the protection that the affected forests offer against rockfall and avalanches.

Switzerland News, SRF | 14.9.2017

Publications

WSL publications

Scientific publications

Further publications

In order to cite studies and data from Pfynwald appropriately, please note the following information in the acknowledgements:

“Evaluations are based on data from the long-term experimental research platform Pfynwald, which is part of the Swiss Forest Lab and the eLTER research infrastructures. We are in particular grateful to X who provided the Z data and the Pfynwald core team for their support.”