News
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…
Research activities at the Swiss Canopy Crane II site features in the latest edition of UniNova
The current issue of the University of Basel science magazine UniNova has published today a foto series on our activities at the Swiss Canopy Crate II research site in Hölstein, BL. Check out the nice fotos featuring our work at the site. …
Serafin Streiff wins Swiss Systematics Society best Master's thesis award!
The Swiss Systematics Society grants an annual award to the best Swiss Master's thesis in systematics (across all organismal disciplines). Serafin Streiff has won this prestigious award for his work entitled “Herbarium phylogenomics,…
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Graduation day at the PPE group!
Today we can celebrate three alumni from our group: Lia Zehnder and Anina Wacker successfully passed their master exam. Jochem Baan defended his PhD thesis and was awarded a “summa cm laude”. Congratulations to all three new PPE alumn!
Congratulations to Karin Odermatt for successfully defending her master’s thesis!
In her master’s project, Karin investigated recovery mechanisms of extensively managed forage grasslands after summer drought. Her findings provide essential context on the importance of soil nutrient dynamics in grassland resilience to…