Institution
Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research
Facility•Birmensdorf, Switzerland•
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.
Topics: Climate change, Soil water, Geology, Biodiversity, Environmental science
Papers published on a yearly basis
Papers
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TL;DR: In this article, structural alterations of the photobiont and mycobionts of lichens have been related to CO2-gas exchange during experiments involving water vapour uptake and desiccation of liquid-water-saturated thalli.
Abstract: Structural alterations of the photobiont and mycobiont cells of lichens have been related to CO2-gas exchange during experiments involving water vapour uptake and desiccation of liquid-water-saturated thalli. Increasing water vapour uptake of air dry lichens led to a gradual unfolding of the photobiont cells in Lobaria pulmonaria, Pseudevernia furfuracea, Ramalina maciformis and Teloschistes lacunosus as studied by low-temperature scanning electron microscopy. The data indicated that globular, probably turgid, cells and also slightly infolded or even heavily collapsed cells contributed to positive net photosynthesis, which was reached after water vapour uptake by the four species studied. During desiccation of fully water-saturated thalli of L. pulmonaria, extrathalline water films gradually evaporated before maximum values of CO2-gas exchange were measured and before photobiont cells started to shrivel. In contrast, in P. furfuracea the CO2-gas exchange maximum was reached when a considerable percentage of photobiont cells had already collapsed and while other parts of the thalli were still covered with liquid water. Further desiccation led to cavitation of the cortical cells in both species, this occurring at water contents at which net photosynthesis was still positive.
84 citations
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Queensland University of Technology1, Université de Montréal2, University of Minnesota3, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research4, Trinity College, Dublin5, Smithsonian Environmental Research Center6, University of Guelph7, Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation8, Lancaster University9, La Trobe University10, Martin Luther University of Halle-Wittenberg11, Utrecht University12, Leipzig University13, Duke University14, Utah State University15, University of Toronto16, University of Washington17, Iowa State University18, University of Manchester19, Colorado State University20, University of Lisbon21, University of California, San Diego22, University of Jena23, United States Department of Agriculture24, Mammal Research Institute25, University of California, Los Angeles26, Northern Arizona University27, Monash University28, National Scientific and Technical Research Council29
TL;DR: It is found that specific leaf area—a commonly measured morphological trait inferring shifts between plant growth strategies—did not respond to up to four years of soil nutrient additions, and leaf nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium concentrations increased in response to the addition of each respective soil nutrient.
Abstract: Leaf traits are frequently measured in ecology to provide a 'common currency' for predicting how anthropogenic pressures impact ecosystem function. Here, we test whether leaf traits consistently respond to experimental treatments across 27 globally distributed grassland sites across 4 continents. We find that specific leaf area (leaf area per unit mass)-a commonly measured morphological trait inferring shifts between plant growth strategies-did not respond to up to four years of soil nutrient additions. Leaf nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium concentrations increased in response to the addition of each respective soil nutrient. We found few significant changes in leaf traits when vertebrate herbivores were excluded in the short-term. Leaf nitrogen and potassium concentrations were positively correlated with species turnover, suggesting that interspecific trait variation was a significant predictor of leaf nitrogen and potassium, but not of leaf phosphorus concentration. Climatic conditions and pretreatment soil nutrient levels also accounted for significant amounts of variation in the leaf traits measured. Overall, we find that leaf morphological traits, such as specific leaf area, are not appropriate indicators of plant response to anthropogenic perturbations in grasslands.
84 citations
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Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research1, ETH Zurich2, University of Montpellier3, University of Ulm4, Royal Museum for Central Africa5, Vrije Universiteit Brussel6, University of Helsinki7, National University of Río Negro8, University of Victoria9, University of Milan10, Spanish National Research Council11, Laval University12, University of Ljubljana13, United States Geological Survey14, Institut national de la recherche agronomique15, Center for International Forestry Research16, Dresden University of Technology17, United States Forest Service18, University of Arkansas19, Max Planck Society20, Transilvania University of Brașov21, Desert Botanical Garden22, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague23, Humboldt State University24, Siberian Federal University25, Sukachev Institute of Forest26, National University of Comahue27, Weizmann Institute of Science28, Pablo de Olavide University29, Mediterranean University30, University of Debrecen31, Natural Resources Canada32, University of Innsbruck33, American Hotel & Lodging Educational Institute34, University of Valladolid35, University of Colorado Boulder36, Northern Arizona University37, University of Novi Sad38, National Scientific and Technical Research Council39, University of Alberta40, University of Minnesota41, Autonomous University of Barcelona42
TL;DR: This analysis provides a robust method for estimating early-warning signals of tree mortality based on annual growth data and finds a gradual increase in inter-annual growth variability and a decrease in growth synchrony in the last ∼20 years before mortality of gymnosperms, irrespective of the cause of mortality.
Abstract: Tree mortality is a key driver of forest dynamics and its occurrence is projected to increase in the future due to climate change. Despite recent advances in our understanding of the physiological mechanisms leading to death, we still lack robust indicators of mortality risk that could be applied at the individual tree scale. Here, we build on a previous contribution exploring the differences in growth level between trees that died and survived a given mortality event to assess whether changes in temporal autocorrelation, variance, and synchrony in time-series of annual radial growth data can be used as early warning signals of mortality risk. Taking advantage of a unique global ring-width database of 3065 dead trees and 4389 living trees growing together at 198 sites (belonging to 36 gymnosperm and angiosperm species), we analyzed temporal changes in autocorrelation, variance, and synchrony before tree death (diachronic analysis), and also compared these metrics between trees that died and trees that survived a given mortality event (synchronic analysis). Changes in autocorrelation were a poor indicator of mortality risk. However, we found a gradual increase in inter- annual growth variability and a decrease in growth synchrony in the last similar to 20 years before mortality of gymnosperms, irrespective of the cause of mortality. These changes could be associated with drought-induced alterations in carbon economy and allocation patterns. In angiosperms, we did not find any consistent changes in any metric. Such lack of any signal might be explained by the relatively high capacity of angiosperms to recover after a stress-induced growth decline. Our analysis provides a robust method for estimating early-warning signals of tree mortality based on annual growth data. In addition to the frequently reported decrease in growth rates, an increase in inter-annual growth variability and a decrease in growth synchrony may be powerful predictors of gymnosperm mortality risk, but not necessarily so for angiosperms.
83 citations
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TL;DR: In this article, the authors compared the mean annual differences between the seasonal glaciological and volumetric mass balances obtained by standard glaciological methods including an uncertainty assessment considering all related previous studies.
Abstract: Seasonal glaciological mass balances have been measured on Storglaciwithout interruption since 1945/46. In addition, aerial surveys have been carried out on a decadal basis since the beginning of the observation pro- gram. Early studies had used the resulting aerial photographs to produce topographic glacier maps with which the in-situ observations could be verified. However, these maps as well as the derived volume changes are subject to errors which resulted in major differences between the derived volumet- ric and the glaciological mass balance. As a consequence, the original photographs were re-processed using uniform photogrammetric methods, which resulted in new volumetric mass balances for 1959-69, 1969-80, 1980-90, and 1990- 99. We compared these new volumetric mass balances with mass balances obtained by standard glaciological methods including an uncertainty assessment considering all related previous studies. The absolute differences between volumet- ric and the glaciological mass balances are 0.8 m w.e. for the period of 1959-69 and 0.3 m w.e. or less for the other survey periods. These deviations are slightly reduced when consid- ering corrections for systematic uncertainties due to differ- ences in survey dates, reference areas, and internal ablation, whereas internal accumulation systematically increases the mismatch. However, the mean annual differences between glaciological and volumetric mass balance are less than the uncertainty of the in-situ stake reading and stochastic error bars of both data series overlap. Hence, no adjustment of the glaciological data series to the volumetric one is required.
83 citations
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TL;DR: The authors applied statistical postprocessing to ensemble forecasts of near-surface temperature, 24-hour precipitation totals, and near surface wind speed from the global model of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) to evaluate the evolution of the difference in skill between the raw ensemble and the postprocessed forecasts.
Abstract: This study applies statistical postprocessing to ensemble forecasts of near-surface temperature, 24 h precipitation totals, and near-surface wind speed from the global model of the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF). The main objective is to evaluate the evolution of the difference in skill between the raw ensemble and the postprocessed forecasts. Reliability and sharpness, and hence skill, of the former is expected to improve over time. Thus, the gain by postprocessing is expected to decrease. Based on ECMWF forecasts from January 2002 to March 2014 and corresponding observations from globally distributed stations, we generate postprocessed forecasts by ensemble model output statistics (EMOS) for each station and variable. Given the higher average skill of the postprocessed forecasts, we analyze the evolution of the difference in skill between raw ensemble and EMOS. This skill gap remains almost constant over time indicating that postprocessing will keep adding skill in the foreseeable future.
83 citations
Authors
Showing all 1333 results
Name | H-index | Papers | Citations |
---|---|---|---|
Peter H. Verburg | 107 | 464 | 34254 |
Bernhard Schmid | 103 | 460 | 46419 |
Christian Körner | 103 | 376 | 39637 |
André S. H. Prévôt | 90 | 511 | 38599 |
Fortunat Joos | 87 | 276 | 36951 |
Niklaus E. Zimmermann | 80 | 277 | 39364 |
Robert Huber | 78 | 311 | 25131 |
David Frank | 78 | 186 | 18624 |
Jan Esper | 75 | 254 | 19280 |
James W. Kirchner | 73 | 238 | 21958 |
David B. Roy | 70 | 250 | 26241 |
Emmanuel Frossard | 68 | 356 | 15281 |
Derek Eamus | 67 | 285 | 17317 |
Benjamin Poulter | 66 | 255 | 22519 |
Ulf Büntgen | 65 | 316 | 15876 |