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: It is recommended that future research efforts focus stronger on the causal understanding of why tree species classification approaches work under certain conditions or – maybe even more important - why they do not work in other cases as this might require more complex field acquisitions than those typically used in the reviewed studies.
575 citations
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TL;DR: In this paper, an analysis of tree-ring and climate data from the forest-tundra zone, in combination with a mechanistic model of treering growth, is presented to argue that an increasing trend of winter precipitation over the past century in many subarctic regions led to delayed snow melt in these permafrost environments.
Abstract: The causes of a reduced sensitivity of high-latitude tree growth to variations in summer temperature for recent decades1,2, compared to earlier this century, are unknown. This sensitivity change is problematic, in that relationships between tree-ring properties and temperature are widely used for reconstructing past climate. Here we report an analysis of tree-ring and climate data from the forest–tundra zone, in combination with a mechanistic model of tree-ring growth, to argue that an increasing trend of winter precipitation over the past century in many subarctic regions3,4,5 led to delayed snow melt in these permafrost environments. As a result, the initiation of cambial activity (necessary for the formation of wood cells) has been delayed relative to the pre-1960 period in the Siberian subarctic. Since the early 1960s, less of the growth season has been during what had previously been the period of maximal growth sensitivity to temperature. This shift results not only in slower growth, but also in a reduced correlation between growth and temperature. Our results suggest that changes in winter precipitation should be considered in seeking explanations for observed changes in the timing of the ‘spring greening’ of high-latitude forests6, and should be taken into account in the study of the role of the Siberian subarctic forest in the global carbon cycle.
567 citations
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Dartmouth College1, Uppsala University2, Nagaoka University of Technology3, University of Copenhagen4, Heidelberg University5, Natural Resources Canada6, Oregon State University7, Centre national de la recherche scientifique8, Korean Ocean Research and Development Institute9, Swansea University10, University of Bern11, British Antarctic Survey12, University of Kansas13, National Institute of Polar Research14, University of Iceland15, Stockholm University16, Vrije Universiteit Brussel17, University of Colorado Boulder18, Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research19, University of Washington20, Arctic and Antarctic Research Institute21, Desert Research Institute22, Hokkaido University23, University of Grenoble24, University of California, San Diego25, Université libre de Bruxelles26, Utrecht University27, Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research28, Max Planck Society29, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research30, ETH Zurich31, United Arab Emirates University32, Paul Scherrer Institute33, École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne34, University of East Anglia35, Geological Survey of Canada36
TL;DR: In this paper, the North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling (NEEM) ice core was extracted from folded Greenland ice using globally homogeneous parameters known from dated Greenland and Antarctic ice-core records.
Abstract: Efforts to extract a Greenland ice core with a complete record of the Eemian interglacial (130,000 to 115,000 years ago) have until now been unsuccessful. The response of the Greenland ice sheet to the warmer-than-present climate of the Eemian has thus remained unclear. Here we present the new North Greenland Eemian Ice Drilling ('NEEM') ice core and show only a modest ice-sheet response to the strong warming in the early Eemian. We reconstructed the Eemian record from folded ice using globally homogeneous parameters known from dated Greenland and Antarctic ice-core records. On the basis of water stable isotopes, NEEM surface temperatures after the onset of the Eemian (126,000 years ago) peaked at 8 +/- 4 degrees Celsius above the mean of the past millennium, followed by a gradual cooling that was probably driven by the decreasing summer insolation. Between 128,000 and 122,000 years ago, the thickness of the northwest Greenland ice sheet decreased by 400 +/- 250 metres, reaching surface elevations 122,000 years ago of 130 +/- 300 metres lower than the present. Extensive surface melt occurred at the NEEM site during the Eemian, a phenomenon witnessed when melt layers formed again at NEEM during the exceptional heat of July 2012. With additional warming, surface melt might become more common in the future.
546 citations
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Yale University1, University of Helsinki2, Imperial College London3, University of La Frontera4, Food and Agriculture Organization5, University of Kent6, Operation Wallacea7, Centre national de la recherche scientifique8, Landcare Research9, Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research10, Wageningen University and Research Centre11, University of Hamburg12, Masaryk University13, Oeschger Centre for Climate Change Research14, University of Bayreuth15, University of Göttingen16, Lancaster University17, Peking University18
TL;DR: This map reveals that the global number of trees is approximately 3.04 trillion, an order of magnitude higher than the previous estimate, and the globalNumber of trees has fallen by approximately 46% since the start of human civilization.
Abstract: The global extent and distribution of forest trees is central to our understanding of the terrestrial biosphere. We provide the first spatially continuous map of forest tree density at a global scale. This map reveals that the global number of trees is approximately 3.04 trillion, an order of magnitude higher than the previous estimate. Of these trees, approximately 1.39 trillion exist in tropical and subtropical forests, with 0.74 trillion in boreal regions and 0.61 trillion in temperate regions. Biome-level trends in tree density demonstrate the importance of climate and topography in controlling local tree densities at finer scales, as well as the overwhelming effect of humans across most of the world. Based on our projected tree densities, we estimate that over 15 billion trees are cut down each year, and the global number of trees has fallen by approximately 46% since the start of human civilization.
542 citations
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TL;DR: This article used tree-ring data to reconstruct the mean summer (April-August) temperature of northern Fennoscandia for each year from AD 500 to the present, and showed that any summer warming induced by greenhouse gases may not be detectable in this region until after 2030.
Abstract: Tree-ring data have been used to reconstruct the mean summer (April-August) temperature of northern Fennoscandia for each year from AD 500 to the present. Summer temperatures have fluctuated markedly on annual, decadal and century timescales. There is little evidence for the existence of a Medieval Warm Epoch, and the Little Ice Age seems to be confined to the relatively short period between 1570 and 1650. This challenges the popular idea that these events were the major climate excursions of the first millennium, occurring synchronously throughout Europe in all seasons. An analysis of past warming trends suggests that any summer warming induced by greenhouse gases may not be detectable in this region until after 2030.
538 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 |