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.

Responses of soil nitrogen and phosphorus cycling to drying and rewetting cycles: A meta-analysis

Abstract: Altered drying-rewetting patterns due to climate change may affect soil nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) cycling in terrestrial ecosystems The responses of soil N and P cycling to drying and rewetting cycles can vary with drying-rewetting patterns, experimental methods, ecosystems, and soil types, thus making a synthesis of these studies necessary for understanding mechanisms and predicting future responses to climate change Here, we compiled data of 1882 observations from 79 studies for a meta-analysis of the responses of soil N and P pools and fluxes to drying and rewetting and how these responses are modified by experimental conditions Results showed that 1) experimental drying increased NH4+, extractable organic nitrogen (EON), and available P in the soil significantly by 22, 27, and 72%, respectively In contrast, soil NO3−, enzymatic activities, microbial biomass, net nitrification, and N2O emissions significantly decreased by 37, 13–21, 21–28, 39, and 93%, respectively 2) Upon rewetting of dried soil, soil EON, extractable organic phosphorus (EOP), net N mineralization, nitrification, phosphatase activity, dissolved organic N leaching, dissolved inorganic P leaching, and N2O emissions significantly increased by 59, 27, 19, 15, 12, 60, 116, and 218%, respectively, while soil NO3− and NO3− leaching significantly decreased by 9 and 74%, respectively Soil microbial N and P as well as enzymatic activities recovered from drought during the rewetting phase The mean effect sizes of drying and rewetting generally increased with drying intensity, which was probably also the main reason for greater effect sizes observed in laboratory than in field experiments Our meta-analysis showed stronger positive responses of available P to drying and rewetting than mineral N, which agreed with greater effect sizes on P than on N leaching This suggests that drying and rewetting induce an imbalance between N and P, which was more pronounced in soils from forests than from agricultural systems Overall, these results imply that the expected increase in the frequency and intensity of droughts potentially decouples the cycling of P and N, with consequences for nutrient leaching and the supply of plants and microorganisms with these nutrients

Changes in sunshine duration are correlated with changes in daily temperature range this century: An analysis of Swiss climatological data

Abstract: Analyses of the relationship between trends in daily temperature range and those of sunshine duration in the Swiss Alps show a strong correlation at lower elevation sites. The decrease in daily temperature range is associated with a corresponding decrease in sunshine duration. At high elevations, however, this relationship is absent. The decrease in daily temperature range observed this century at lower elevation sites is inferred to be a consequence of an increase in low-level cloudiness. Higher elevation sites lie above the low-level cloud layers and the moisture-laden lower atmospheric boundary layer and as a result do not exhibit the same trends.

The Soil Microbiome of GLORIA Mountain Summits in the Swiss Alps.

Abstract: While vegetation has intensively been surveyed on mountain summits, limited knowledge exists about the diversity and community structure of soil biota. Here, we study how climatic variables, vegetation, parent material, soil properties, and slope aspect affect the soil microbiome on ten GLORIA (Global Observation Research Initiative in Alpine environments) mountain summits ranging from the lower alpine to the nival zone in Switzerland. At these summits we sampled soils from all four aspects and examined how the bacterial and fungal communities vary by using Illumina MiSeq sequencing. We found that mountain summit soils contain highly diverse microbial communities with a total of 10,406 bacterial and 6,291 fungal taxa. Bacterial α-diversity increased with increasing soil pH and decreased with increasing elevation, whereas fungal α-diversity did not change significantly. Soil pH was the strongest predictor for microbial β-diversity. Bacterial and fungal community structures exhibited a significant positive relationship with plant communities, indicating that summits with a more distinct plant composition also revealed more distinct microbial communities. The influence of elevation was stronger than aspect on the soil microbiome. Several microbial taxa responded to elevation and soil pH. Chloroflexi and Mucoromycota were significantly more abundant on summits at higher elevations, whereas the relative abundance of Basidiomycota and Agaricomycetes decreased with elevation. Most bacterial OTUs belonging to the phylum Acidobacteria were indicators for siliceous parent material and several OTUs belonging to the phylum Planctomycetes were associated with calcareous soils. The trends for fungi were less clear. Indicator OTUs belonging to the genera Mortierella and Naganishia showed a mixed response to parent material, demonstrating their ubiquitous and opportunistic behaviour in soils. Overall, fungal communities responded weakly to abiotic and biotic factors. In contrast, bacterial communities were strongly influenced by environmental changes suggesting they will be strongly affected by future climate change and associated temperature increase and an upward migration of vegetation. Our results provide the first insights into the soil microbiome of mountain summits in the European Alps that are shaped as a result of highly variable local environmental conditions and may help to predict responses of the soil biota to global climate change.