News
Marie-Louise Schärer successfully defended her PhD thesis
Marie-Louise successfully defended her thesis last Thursday in a packed auditorium in the botany building at the University of Basel. In her thesis Marie-Louise asked why grasslands grow better after a drought compared to non-drought…Open PostDoc position in Physiological plant ecology ad climate change research
We are looking for a postdoctoral researcher who will act as scientific manager for the Swiss Canopy Crane II (SCC II) experimental site in Hölstein BL, https://ppe.duw.unibas.ch/en/sccii/. Two main tasks are associated with the position.…
New paper on CO2 effects on oxygen isotopes in plants published in New Phytologist
This week our latest paper on stable oxygen isotopes in plant materials got published in New Phytologist. The paper describes an experiment where we tested the effects of elevated CO2 on the oxygen isotope composition of leaf water and leaf…
Livio Bätscher is Dr. Livio Bätscher!
Livio successfully defended his PhD-thesis “Pulsed plant evolution in mountain ecosystems: Identifying rate changes of range shift and morphology” in our lecture hall that was filled to the brim on 14 March. It was a great display of four…
New paper on the negative effects of low root temperatures on the water relations of temperate tree species
Yating Li and Günter Hoch published a new study in Plant Cell and Environment that reveals a relationship between the cold sensitivity of root water uptake and the elevational distribution limits of 16 temperate tree species. The water…
The Proceedings of the Bauhin2022 conference are published!
This meeting happened in September 15-16 2022, and was organized by the Herbaria Basel and the Basel Botanical Society (BBG). It attracted about 100 scientists from 14 countries contributing 25 invited and contributed talks and 31 poster…
Jinmei Liu joined the PPE team as a PhD student
Jinmei started her PhD work this week at the University of Basel. In her PhD Jinmei will investigate the effects of elevated CO2 on plant internal nitrogen isotope fractionations. Understanding how elevated CO2 stimulates plant internal…
Three new papers published in tree physiology
In the last few weeks we have published three new papers in Tree Physiology with data from our SCC II experimental forest in Hölstein. Arend et al. report that year to year variability in leaf unfolding and the onset of stem growth in the…
New paper in Nature Geosciences on changes in atmospheric VPD
Together with Kerstin Treydte from WSL we published a tree ring / oxygen isotope study in Nature Geosciences early this year. The study reconstructs changes in the atmospheric vapor pressure deficit over the past 400 years in Europe. We…
Paper on new insights on mechanisms driving post-drought recovery in perennial grasslands
Marie-Louise Schärer, Andreas Lüscher and Ansgar Kahmen published a new paper in New Phytologist. Their study explores the mechanisms underlying the outstanding capacity of perennial grasslands to recover from severe drought stress and to,…
New paper on the effects of recurrent summer droughts and snow manipulation on biomass production in alpine grassland
Patrick Möhl, Maria Vorkauf, Ansgar Kahmen and Erika Hiltbrunner published a new paper in Journal of Ecology. The paper represents a condensed piece of the longer-term research at the Bidmer Plateau at 2500 m asl. Snow manipulations…
Hölstein Research Featured in Knowable Magazine
Katarina Zimmer wrote an article for Knowable Magazine, the digital publication from Annual Reviews, about our and other group’s work on drought and tree mortality. You can access the full article here. …
Swiss Canopy Crane II drought experiment featured in SRF Radio
Work of the PPE group at the Swiss Canopy Crane two is featured in the latest SRF2 Kultur Podcast “Bäume und Klima: Die Suche nach dem Wald der Zukunft”. You can listen to the entire report here: …
Patrick Möhl defended his PhD thesis
Patrick Möhl successfully defended his PhD thesis and was awarded the grade "summe cum laude”!