Moderate night warming (+2°C) enhances radial growth via faster cell expansion, but daytime(night +4°C) warming weakens benefits. Ring-porous, arbuscular mycorrhizal and isohydric species show heig...

Humans are driving biodiversity change, which also alters community functional traits. However, how changes in the functional traits of the community alter ecosystem functions—especially belowground...

Monitoring forest drought stress requires indicators that capture tree water relations across species and scales. Remote sensing enables large-scale a…

The Arctic Research Consortium of the United States funded programs that aided Indigenous communities and tracked melting sea ice, among dozens of initiatives.

Dreizehn Todesfälle und 905 Mio. Franken Schäden: Das ist die Bilanz der Unwetter 2024, wie die jährliche Auswertung durch die WSL ergab.

The accrual of soil carbon from absorptive fine roots exceeds that of leaf litter in forests despite lower productivity, according to an analysis of field observations from Northern Hemisphere forest sites.

Trees harbor large stores of nonstructural carbohydrates, some of which are quite old (> 10 yr), yet we know little of how these older stores may be used for woody growth. Crucially, the use of old ...

Air pollutants, biodiversity loss, climate stress - the pressures on forests have changed. Long-term measurements are essential to identify the effects at an early stage. The resulting data forms a ba...

Tropical rainforests on low-phosphorus soils are highly biodiverse and productive, playing a crucial role in climate change mitigation. However, the d…

According to ETH Zurich climate researchers, greenhouse gas emissions from major fossil fuel and cement producers are significant contributors to the occurrence and intensity of heat waves. These find...

Die globale Erwärmung macht Hitzewellen wahrscheinlicher und extremer. Massiv dazu beigetragen haben Wissenschaftlern zufolge die Emissionen der fossilen Industrie, namentlich von Firmen wie Saudi Aramco, Gazprom und BP.

Climate change made 213 historical heatwaves reported over 2000–2023 more likely and more intense, to which each of the 180 carbon majors (fossil fuel and cement producers) substantially contributed.

Der renommierte Waldökologe Arthur Gessler übernimmt die Leitung der neuen WSL-Forschungseinheit.

Climate change increasingly exposes Central European forests to drought and heat stress, causing vitality decline and increased mortality of key tree species. How warming alters the size and dynamics of tree root systems is not well known. In a root coring and ingrowth core study in 24 stands, we compared fine root biomass (FRB), necromass, productivity, longevity and morphology in mature stands of European beech, sessile oak, Scots pine, and Douglas fir in two German lowland regions differing by 2 °C in mean annual temperature, which may evidence long-term thermal acclimation. FRB was significantly smaller in the warmer region in beech and Douglas fir, while cumulated fine root surface area was reduced in pine, Douglas fir, and beech, but not in oak. Both root productivity and longevity were reduced in the warmer region in Douglas fir and pine, indicating vulnerability to warming. Beech showed a non-significant productivity reduction, while longevity slightly increased. Oak tended to increase productivity and longevity, indicating highest resilience to warming. Fine root system size was more plastic than root morphology, which differed only slightly between the regions. Using reductions in root longevity and in fine root productivity in the warmer region as criteria, species are ranked for their belowground vulnerability to warming as: Scots pine > Douglas fir > European beech > sessile oak. We conclude that Central Europe’s major timber species differ largely in their belowground vulnerability to warming, with conifers being more sensitive than broad-leaved species.

Late spring frost (LSF) severely impacts tree growth and forest productivity, with global warming potentially altering LSF risk due to asymmetric changes in vegetation onset and frost timing. Howeve...

The rest of the world is not following the US government’s dangerous path, and will stick with the technology that helped the world out of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Due to widespread deforestation and habitat fragmentation, today most of the world's forests lie within 1 km of an edge. Forests near edges are warmer, drier, receive more light, and are more exposed...

Microbiome analyses of living trees show that a single tree can host approximately one trillion bacteria, with microbial communities distinctly partitioned between heartwood and sapwood and with minim...