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.

Olive tree-ring problematic dating: a comparative analysis on Santorini (Greece)

Abstract: Olive trees are a classic component of Mediterranean environments and some of them are known historically to be very old. In order to evaluate the possibility to use olive tree-rings for dendrochronology, we examined by various methods the reliability of olive tree-rings identification. Dendrochronological analyses of olive trees growing on the Aegean island Santorini (Greece) show that the determination of the number of tree-rings is impossible because of intra-annual wood density fluctuations, variability in tree-ring boundary structure, and restriction of its cambial activity to shifting sectors of the circumference, causing the tree-ring sequences along radii of the same cross section to differ.

Understanding trait interactions and their impacts on growth in Scots pine branches across Europe

Abstract: Summary 1. Plants exhibit a wide variety in traits at different organizational levels. Intraspecific and interspecific studies have potential to demonstrate functional relationships and trade-offs amongst traits, with potential consequences for growth. However, the distinction between the correlative and functional nature of trait covariation presents a challenge because traits interact in complex ways. 2. We present an intraspecific study on Scots pine branches and use functional multi-trait concepts to organize and understand trait interactions and their impacts on growth. Branch-level traits were assessed for 97 branches from 12 Scots pine sites across Europe. 3. To test alternative hypotheses on cause–effect relationships between anatomical traits, hydraulic traits and branch growth, we measured for each branch: the tracheid hydraulic diameter, double cell wall thickness, cell lumen span area, wood density, cavitation vulnerability, wood-specific hydraulic conductivity, the leaf area to sapwood area ratio and branch growth. We used mixed linear effect models and path models to show how anatomical traits determine hydraulic traits and, in turn, how those traits influence growth. 4. Tracheid hydraulic diameter was the best predictor of cavitation vulnerability (R 2 =0 AE09 explained by path model) and specific conductivity (R 2 =0 AE19) amongst anatomical traits. Leaf area to sapwood area ratio had the strongest direct effect on branch growth (R 2 =0 AE19) and was positively associated with the tracheid hydraulic diameter (R 2 =0 AE22). A number of bivariate correlations between traits could be explained by these functional relationships amongst traits. 5. The plasticity in tracheid hydraulic diameter (10.0–15.1 lm) and leaf area to sapwood area ratio (600–6051 cm 2 cm )2 ) and the maintenance of a minimum leaf water potential (between )2 and )2AE5 MPa) appear to drive the anatomical and hydraulic traits of Scots pine across Europe. These properties are major drivers of the functional trait network underlying the growth variation amongst pine branches and thus possibly contribute to the ecological success of pines at a local and continental scale.

Morphological, hydrological, biogeochemical and ecological changes and challenges in river restoration – the Thur River case study

Abstract: River restoration can enhance river dynamics, environmental heterogeneity and biodiversity, but the underlying processes governing the dynamic changes need to be understood to ensure that restoration projects meet their goals, and adverse effects are prevented. In particular, we need to comprehend how hydromorphological variability quantitatively relates to ecosystem functioning and services, biodiversity as well as ground- and surface water quality in restored river corridors. This involves (i) physical processes and structural properties, determining erosion and sedimentation, as well as solute and heat transport behavior in surface water and within the subsurface; (ii) biogeochemical processes and characteristics, including the turnover of nutrients and natural water constituents; and (iii) ecological processes and indicators related to biodiversity and ecological functioning. All these aspects are interlinked, requiring an interdisciplinary investigation approach. Here, we present an overview of the recently completed RECORD (REstored CORridor Dynamics) project in which we combined physical, chemical, and biological observations with modeling at a restored river corridor of the perialpine Thur River in Switzerland. Our results show that river restoration, beyond inducing morphologic changes that reshape the river bed and banks, triggered complex spatial patterns of bank infiltration, and affected habitat type, biotic communities and biogeochemical processes. We adopted an interdisciplinary approach of monitoring the continuing changes due to restoration measures to address the following questions: How stable is the morphological variability established by restoration? Does morphological variability guarantee an improvement in biodiversity? How does morphological variability affect biogeochemical transformations in the river corridor? What are some potential adverse effects of river restoration? How is river restoration influenced by catchment-scale hydraulics and which feedbacks exist on the large scale? Beyond summarizing the major results of individual studies within the project, we show that these overarching questions could only be addressed in an interdisciplinary framework.

Individual-level trait diversity predicts phytoplankton community properties better than species richness or evenness

Abstract: Understanding how microbial diversity influences ecosystem properties is of paramount importance. Cellular traits—which determine responses to the abiotic and biotic environment—may help us rigorously link them. However, our capacity to measure traits in natural communities has thus far been limited. Here we compared the predictive power of trait richness (trait space coverage), evenness (regularity in trait distribution) and divergence (prevalence of extreme phenotypes) derived from individual-based measurements with two species-level metrics (taxonomic richness and evenness) when modelling the productivity of natural phytoplankton communities. Using phytoplankton data obtained from 28 lakes sampled at different spatial and temporal scales, we found that the diversity in individual-level morphophysiological traits strongly improved our ability to predict community resource-use and biomass yield. Trait evenness—the regularity in distribution of individual cells/colonies within the trait space—was the strongest predictor, exhibiting a robust negative relationship across scales. Our study suggests that quantifying individual microbial phenotypes in trait space may help us understand how to link physiology to ecosystem-scale processes. Elucidating the mechanisms scaling individual-level trait variation to microbial community dynamics could there improve our ability to forecast changes in ecosystem properties across environmental gradients.

Isotopic evidence for oligotrophication of terrestrial ecosystems

Abstract: Human societies depend on an Earth system that operates within a constrained range of nutrient availability, yet the recent trajectory of terrestrial nitrogen (N) availability is uncertain. Examining patterns of foliar N concentrations and isotope ratios (delta N-15) from more than 43,000 samples acquired over 37 years, here we show that foliar N concentration declined by 9% and foliar delta N-15 declined by 0.6-1.6 parts per thousand. Examining patterns across different climate spaces, foliar delta N-15 declined across the entire range of mean annual temperature and mean annual precipitation tested. These results suggest declines in N supply relative to plant demand at the global scale. In all, there are now multiple lines of evidence of declining N availability in many unfertilized terrestrial ecosystems, including declines in delta N-15 of tree rings and leaves from herbarium samples over the past 75-150 years. These patterns are consistent with the proposed consequences of elevated atmospheric carbon dioxide and longer growing seasons. These declines will limit future terrestrial carbon uptake and increase nutritional stress for herbivores.