News
New perspective article on alpine treeline theory published
Christian Körner and Günter Hoch published an article in the Journal of Biogeography that synthesizes the current concept of treeline theory. The authors promote the strict application of a dual niche concept to explain the treeline…
New Book Contribution on Boreal Forest Ecology
A new book that our PPE group contributed to appeared this week (https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-15988-6). The book aims to revise the principles of boreal forest ecosystem management in terms of silviculture, natural…
New paper in STOTEN
A new paper that our group contributed to appeared in the journal Science of the Total Environment (STOTEN) this week (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2023.162167). The paper summarises discussions from the TreeNet 10th anniversary…
Two new PhD students joined the PPE team
With David Steger and Tobias Zhorzel, two new PhD students joined the PPE group in the last weeks. In their research, David and Tobias will investigate the sensitivity and acclimation potential of mature temperate tree species to…
Simon Engeler successfully defended his master's thesis!
We congratulate Simon for successfully defending his master's thesis and for passing his exam on Feb 16th 2023. In his thesis, Simon tested if spruce trees that died in the 2018 drought at our SCC II research site were different from trees…
Congratulations to Ursina Studer for passing her MSc exam!
Ursina's master's thesis investigated the pollen and ovule porduction of several herbacious species along an elevational gradient. From the manual counts of both traits she concluded that they are more conservative than expected, and that…
Niek ten Cate joins the PPE group as the new site manager at the SCC II site
We are pleased to welcome Niek ten Cate as a new member of the PPE group! Niek has joined our group in January 2023 as the new site manager and crane operator at the SCC II forest crane facility. He is a trained arborist, and we are looking…
New paper on tree phenology and microclimate in Agricultural and Forest Meteorology
Cedric Zahnd, Günter Hoch and co-authors published a new study on how vertical microclimatic canopy gradients cause phenological variations within mature tree crowns. Tree crowns are exposed to strong vertical gradients in light,…
PPE Snow Day 2023
Members of the PPE group revived the tradition of an annual group snow day this year! We had great conditions and weather, and are already looking forward to next year.
New paper on snowmaking in a warmer climate in the International Journal of Biometeorology
Maria Vorkauf, Erika Hiltbrunner and co-authors published a new study on the future water demands in the ski resort Andermatt-Sedrun-Disentis. Many ski resorts rely on technical snowmaking to compensate lacking natural snow. In this…
New paper on the consequences of climate change for alpine grasslands
Climate warming is leading to earlier and longer growing seasons worldwide. Many plants sprout earlier in spring and benefit from warmer temperatures in autumn – so, the common opinion. Patrick Möhl, Raphael von Büren and Erika Hiltbrunner…
New paper published on the drought sensitivity of temperate tree species
In the latest issue of plant biology we published a paper on the response of different temperate tree species to the extreme 2018 summer drought. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/plb.13476 The paper highlights for the…
Ansgar Kahmen spoke at the Seniorenuni
On October 24th and 25th Ansgar Kahmen gave a presentation at the Seniorenuni of the University of Basel (https://www.vhsbb.ch/seniorenuni-vortraege). In his talk Ansgar highlighted the impacts of global climate change on terrestrial Swiss…
International workshop to discuss the impact of the 2022 drought on forests
In October 2022 35 experts from five central European countries met in Basel to discuss the impact of repeated severe summer droughts on central European trees and forests. 12 presentations showed very recent observational and experimental…