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Institution

Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research

FacilityBirmensdorf, 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.


Papers
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, a detailed analysis of the measurements in this stream results in an empirical equation in which the sediment load per flood event is expressed as a function of the effective runoff volume (discharges above the threshold for bedload motion) and of the normalized peak discharge.
Abstract: Sediment loads have been measured in six Swiss mountain torrents over several decades. Most of these torrent catchments are situated in the prealpine belt. They have catchment areas of between 0·5 and 1·7km 2. Bedslopes at the measuring sites vary between 5 and 17 per cent, and peak discharges up to 12m 3 s−1 have been recorded. Geophone sensors installed in the Erlenbach stream allow bedload transport activity to be monitored and sediment volumes associated with each flood event to be determined. A detailed analysis of the measurements in this stream results in an empirical equation in which the sediment load per flood event is expressed as a function of the effective runoff volume (discharges above the threshold for bedload motion) and of the normalized peak discharge. For the total of 143 investigated flood events in the Erlenbach stream, the deviation of the predicted from the measured value is within a factor of two for more than two-thirds of all events. A distinction can be made between summer and winter events in analysing the bedload transport events. The summer events, mainly caused by thunderstorms, transport comparatively larger sediment loads than the winter events. For the other investigated streams, the periods of the deposited sediment volume surveys cover in general several flood events. An analysis is performed analogous to that for the Erlenbach stream. The sediment loads show a similar dependency on the two factors effective runoff volume and normalized peak discharge. However, the exponents of these factors in the power law expressions differ from stream to stream. A comparison of the investigated stream shows that some of the variation can be explained by considering the bedslope above the measuring site. The inclusion of a bedslope factor is in agreement with laboratory investigations on bedload transport.  1997 by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Earth surf. process. landforms, 22, 937–951 (1997) No. of figures: 12 No. of tables: 2 No. of refs: 30

132 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: Quercus may benefit from adapting better to drier conditions, while Pinus may increasingly face problems related to drought stress as it depends on summer moisture and has a smaller adaptive capacity due to its long-lived photosynthetic tissue.
Abstract: Question: Lower montane treeline ecotones such as the inner Alpine dry valleys are regarded as sensitive to climate change. In the dry Valais valley (Switzerland) the composition of the widespread, low altitude Pinus forests is shifting towards a mixed deciduous state. The sub-boreal P. sylvestris shows high mortality rates, whereas the deciduous sub-mediterranean Quercus pubescens is spreading. These species may act as early indicators of climate change. We evaluate this hypothesis by focusing on their differences in drought tolerance, which are hardly known, but are likely to be crucial in the current forest shift and also for future forest development. Methods: We used dendroecological methods to detect species-specific patterns in the growth response to drought. The relationship between radial growth of 401 trees from 15 mixed stands and drought was analysed by calculating response functions using yearly tree-ring indices and monthly drought indices. PCA was applied to the response ratios to ...

131 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A robust comparison of the tree growth responses to drought and spring frost across large climatic gradients is provided and provides striking evidence that the growth of some of the most abundant and economically important European tree species will be increasingly limited by climate warming.
Abstract: Extreme climate events (ECEs) such as severe droughts, heat waves, and late spring frosts are rare but exert a paramount role in shaping tree species distributions. The frequency of such ECEs is expected to increase with climate warming, threatening the sustainability of temperate forests. Here, we analysed 2,844 tree‐ring width series of five dominant European tree species from 104 Swiss sites ranging from 400 to 2,200 m a.s.l. for the period 1930–2016. We found that (a) the broadleaved oak and beech are sensitive to late frosts that strongly reduce current year growth; however, tree growth is highly resilient and fully recovers within 2 years; (b) radial growth of the conifers larch and spruce is strongly and enduringly reduced by spring droughts—these species are the least resistant and resilient to droughts; (c) oak, silver fir, and to a lower extent beech, show higher resistance and resilience to spring droughts and seem therefore better adapted to the future climate. Our results allow a robust comparison of the tree growth responses to drought and spring frost across large climatic gradients and provide striking evidence that the growth of some of the most abundant and economically important European tree species will be increasingly limited by climate warming. These results could serve for supporting species selection to maintain the sustainability of forest ecosystem services under the expected increase in ECEs.

131 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is suggested that species origin has functional significance, and that eutrophication will lead to increased exotic dominance in grasslands.
Abstract: Exotic species dominate many communities; however the functional significance of species' biogeographic origin remains highly contentious. This debate is fuelled in part by the lack of globally replicated, systematic data assessing the relationship between species provenance, function and response to perturbations. We examined the abundance of native and exotic plant species at 64 grasslands in 13 countries, and at a subset of the sites we experimentally tested native and exotic species responses to two fundamental drivers of invasion, mineral nutrient supplies and vertebrate herbivory. Exotic species are six times more likely to dominate communities than native species. Furthermore, while experimental nutrient addition increases the cover and richness of exotic species, nutrients decrease native diversity and cover. Native and exotic species also differ in their response to vertebrate consumer exclusion. These results suggest that species origin has functional significance, and that eutrophication will lead to increased exotic dominance in grasslands.

131 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the influence of proximity to motorway exits on urban growth and analyses urban growth along some of the main motorways in Switzerland was assessed based on two data collection campaigns from the Land Use Statistics with a time difference of 12 years.

131 citations


Authors

Showing all 1333 results

NameH-indexPapersCitations
Peter H. Verburg10746434254
Bernhard Schmid10346046419
Christian Körner10337639637
André S. H. Prévôt9051138599
Fortunat Joos8727636951
Niklaus E. Zimmermann8027739364
Robert Huber7831125131
David Frank7818618624
Jan Esper7525419280
James W. Kirchner7323821958
David B. Roy7025026241
Emmanuel Frossard6835615281
Derek Eamus6728517317
Benjamin Poulter6625522519
Ulf Büntgen6531615876
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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers from the Institution in previous years
YearPapers
2023111
2022173
2021395
2020327
2019269
2018281