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.

Estimating millennial‐scale rates of dust incorporation into eroding hillslope regolith using cosmogenic nuclides and immobile weathering tracers

Abstract: [1] Dust fluxes are of wide interest because of the effects of dust on climate, oceanic primary productivity, terrestrial biogeochemical cycles, and regolith composition. Estimating long-term dust deposition rates, however, can be difficult, especially in steep, eroding terrain. Here we present a geochemical mass balance method for estimating long-term average rates of dust incorporation into regolith on steadily eroding hillslopes. This method requires measurements of the local regolith production rate and the concentrations of two immobile elements in the regolith, its parent rock, and dust. Dust incorporation rates inferred with this method are averaged over the long timescale of regolith residence on the hillslope (typically 103–105 years), and thus may serve as long-term averages against which modern-day dust fluxes may be compared. We apply this model to 17 field sites in the South Fork of the Salmon River in the Idaho Batholith, where rock and regolith compositions imply that mafic-rich material has been added to the otherwise granitic regolith. We suggest that the most likely source of this mafic material is dust sourced from the same glacial outburst flood sediments that generated the Palouse loess on the Columbia Plateau, and we use the published composition of these sediments to infer dust incorporation rates of 3–13 t km−2 yr−1 at these sites, comparable to modern-day dust fluxes elsewhere in the western United States.

The total dispersal kernel: A review and future directions

Abstract: The distribution and abundance of plants across the world depends in part on their ability to move, which is commonly characterized by a dispersal kernel. For seeds, the total dispersal kernel (TDK) describes the combined influence of all primary, secondary and higher-order dispersal vectors on the overall dispersal kernel for a plant individual, population, species or community. Understanding the role of each vector within the TDK, and their combined influence on the TDK, is critically important for being able to predict plant responses to a changing biotic or abiotic environment. In addition, fully characterizing the TDK by including all vectors may affect predictions of population spread. Here, we review existing research on the TDK and discuss advances in empirical, conceptual modelling and statistical approaches that will facilitate broader application. The concept is simple, but few examples of well-characterized TDKs exist. We find that significant empirical challenges exist, as many studies do not account for all dispersal vectors (e.g. gravity, higher-order dispersal vectors), inadequately measure or estimate long-distance dispersal resulting from multiple vectors and/or neglect spatial heterogeneity and context dependence. Existing mathematical and conceptual modelling approaches and statistical methods allow fitting individual dispersal kernels and combining them to form a TDK; these will perform best if robust prior information is available. We recommend a modelling cycle to parameterize TDKs, where empirical data inform models, which in turn inform additional data collection. Finally, we recommend that the TDK concept be extended to account for not only where seeds land, but also how that location affects the likelihood of establishing and producing a reproductive adult, i.e. the total effective dispersal kernel.

The recent landscape history of Limpach valley, Switzerland: considering three empirical hypotheses on driving forces of landscape change

Abstract: Understanding global landscape dynamics is a core challenge for the newly emerged field of land change science. Such an understanding requires insights into general pattern of landscape changes and the related driving forces. Many case studies of landscape change exist, but only few attempts have been made, to synthesize the results and to search for general pattern. We suggest that applying hypotheses on driving forces of landscape change derived from one case study in another region as a promising way to advance towards a more integrative view on landscape dynamics. Based on the conclusions drawn in a case study conducted in Godmanchester (Quebec, Canada; Domon and Bouchard 2007), we formulated three hypotheses and discussed them in a case study on landscape change in the Limpach valley, Switzerland. We confirm the importance of geomorphological characteristics for landscape development (hypothesis 1) and our analysis also supports the second hypothesis, which states that changes in demand for certain resources result in landscape change. However, we suggest replacing the term resources by the more encompassing concept of goods and services. The third hypothesis, which states that technological transformations stand at the beginning of landscape change, also was confirmed. Technologies have to be affordable, socially accepted, and corresponding to a demand, to be implemented on a large scale. This will cause a technological transformation, which then—depending on the specifics of the technology applied—becomes relevant for landscape development. We conclude with three reworded hypotheses on driving forces of landscape change and we hope that they will be tested and further developed in other case studies.