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.

Provenance-specific growth responses to drought and air warming in three European oak species (Quercus robur, Q. petraea and Q. pubescens)

Abstract: Provenance-specific growth responses to experimentally applied drought and air warming were studied in saplings of three European oak species: Quercus robur, Quercus petraea and Quercus pubescens. Four provenances of each species were grown in large open-top chambers and subjected to four climates: control, periodic drought, air warming or their combination in 3 subsequent years. Overall growth responses were found among species and provenances, with drought reducing shoot height growth and stem diameter growth and air warming stimulating shoot height growth but reducing stem diameter growth and root length growth. Differential growth responses in shoots, stems and roots resulted in altered allometric growth relations. Root length growth to shoot height growth increased in response to drought but decreased in response to air warming. Stem diameter growth to shoot height growth decreased in response to air warming. The growth responses in shoots and stems were highly variable among provenances indicating provenance-specific sensitivity to drought and air warming, but this response variability did not reflect local adaptation to climate conditions of provenance origin. Shoot height growth was found to be more sensitive to drought in provenances from northern latitudes than in provenances from southern latitudes, suggesting that genetic factors related to the postglacial immigration history of European oaks might have interfered with selective pressure at provenance origins.

Effects of dead wood volume and connectivity on saproxylic insect species diversity

Abstract: I hypothesized that for saproxylic insects, a habitat is fragmented when spatial connectivity of dead wood pieces (coarse woody debris) is low. In a two-year study, I investigated the influence of volume and connectivity of pieces of dead wood on species richness and species composition of saproxylic Diptera and Coleoptera in a mixed beech-spruce forest reserve in Switzerland. Saproxylic insects are dependent during some part of their life cycle on dead wood, wood-inhabiting fungi, or on the presence of other saproxylic species. Volume and spatial distribution of dead wood pieces were recorded on scales ranging from 50–200 m around the plots where the insects were collected. Relationships between dead wood connectivity and species richness existed only on the 150 m scale. Plots with high dead wood connectivity had more species than plots with clumped distributions of dead wood pieces. Different species of saproxylic Diptera and Coleoptera were caught in plots with high versus low dead wood connect...

The database of the PREDICTS (Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems) project

Abstract: The PREDICTS project—Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems (www.predicts.org.uk)—has collated from published studies a large, reasonably representative database of comparable samples of biodiversity from multiple sites that differ in the nature or intensity of human impacts relating to land use. We have used this evidence base to develop global and regional statistical models of how local biodiversity responds to these measures. We describe and make freely available this 2016 release of the database, containing more than 3.2 million records sampled at over 26,000 locations and representing over 47,000 species. We outline how the database can help in answering a range of questions in ecology and conservation biology. To our knowledge, this is the largest and most geographically and taxonomically representative database of spatial comparisons of biodiversity that has been collated to date; it will be useful to researchers and international efforts wishing to model and understand the global status of biodiversity.