Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research

About: Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research is a facility organization based out in Birmensdorf, Switzerland. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Climate change & Soil water. The organization has 1256 authors who have published 3222 publications receiving 161639 citations. The organization is also known as: WSL.

Linking social capacities and risk communication in Europe: a gap between theory and practice?

Abstract: Although both improved risk communication and the building of social capacities have been advocated as vital ways to increase societies’ resilience towards natural hazards across the world, the literature has rarely examined the ways in which these two concepts may integrate in theory and practice. This paper is an attempt to address this gap in a European context. It begins with a conceptual discussion that unites the literature on risk communication with the literature on social capacity building. We then use the insights from this discussion as a basis to conduct a review of 60 risk communication practices from across Europe. This review indicates a gap between theory and practice because, whilst the literature highlights the importance of integrated and coordinated communication campaigns featuring both a one-way transfer and a two-way dialogue between the public, stakeholders and decision-makers, the majority of the communication practices reviewed here appear to be relatively disparate initiatives that rely on one-way forms of communication. On the basis of these findings, we conclude by making some recommendations for the way in which such practices could be improved in order to be more supportive of social capacities across Europe.

Tree-ring reconstructions of precipitation and streamflow for north-western Turkey

Abstract: We describe tree-ring reconstructions of spring (May-June) precipitation and spring-summer (May-August) streamflow for north-western Turkey, both beginning in AD 1650. These are among the first such reconstructions for the region, and the streamflow reconstruction is among the first of its kind for Turkey and the entire Middle East. The reconstructions, which both emphasize high-frequency variations, account for 34 and 53% of their respective instrumental variance. Comparison to precipitation and runoff data provides some means of verification for the instrumental streamflow record, which is very short (30 years). Drought and flood events in the reconstructions are compared to historical archives and other tree-ring reconstructions for Turkey. The results reveal common climatic extremes over much of the country. Many of these events have had profound impacts on the peoples of Turkey over the past several centuries. Copyright © 2007 Royal Meteorological Society

Stoichiometric N:P flexibility and mycorrhizal symbiosis favour plant resistance against drought

Abstract: 1. Drought induces changes in the nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycle but most plant species have limited flexibility to take up nutrients under such variable or unbalanced N and P availability. Both the degree of flexibility in plant N:P ratio and of root symbiosis with arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi might control plant resistance to drought-induced changes in nutrient availability, but this has not been directly tested. 2. Here, we examined the role of plant N:P stoichiometric status and mycorrhizal symbiosis in the drought-resistance of dominant and subordinate species in a semi-natural grassland. 3. We reduced water availability using rainout shelters (control vs. drought) and measured how plant biomass responded for the dominant and subordinate species. We then selected a dominant (Paspalum dilatatum) and a subordinate species (Cynodon dactylon), for which we investigated the N:P stoichiometric status, mycorrhizal root colonization and water-use efficiency. 4. The biomass of all dominant plant species, but not subordinate species, decreased under drought. Drought increased soil available nitrogen, and thus increased soil N:P ratio, due to decreasing plant N uptake. The dominant P. dilatatum showed a high degree of plant N:P homeostasis and a considerable reduction in biomass under drought. At the opposite, the more flexible subordinate species C. dactylon increased its N uptake and water-use efficiency, apparently due to stronger symbiosis with mycorrhizae, and maintained its biomass. 5. Synthesis. We conclude that the maintenance of N:P homeostasis in dominant species, possibly because of a large root nutrient foraging capacity, becomes inefficient when water stress limits N mobility in the soil. By contrast, we demonstrate that higher stoichiometric N:P flexibility coupled with stronger mutualistic association with mycorrhizae allow subordinate species to better withstand drought perturbations. Using a stoichiometric approach in a field experiment, our study provides for the first time clear and novel understandings of the mechanisms involved in drought-resistance within the plant-mycorrhizae-soil system.