News
Maya Bosshard successfully defended her MSc!
In her work “Comparing historic and contemporary flowering phenology of plants in northwest Switzerland in the light of climate change from 1860 to today”, she compiled historic phenological data from a very detailed manuscript of Franz…
Seven years of snow manipulation at Furka Pass
This year, we performed the snow manipulations at our alpine research site for the 7th time. In this long-term experiment close to the Furka Pass, we investigate how alpine grassland is affected by climate change. Warmer spring temperatures…
New SNF project funded
The Swiss National Science Foundation funded one of our recent grant applications which will bring two new PhD students to the group. The funded project will focus on the acclimation potential of temperate European tree species to…
2022 botany field trip to La Palma
After a two year covid break we are finally able to take our students abroad again to study the spectacular flora of the Canary Islands. This year’s trip with 18 students took us to the island of La Palma. The diversity of plant life that…
National Geographic Magazine features Swiss Canopy Crane II
The May 2022 issue of National Geographic is dedicated to the future forests in a changing climate. The issue describes how climate change is affecting forests across the planet and how research addresses this growing problem. Our research…
PPE Group hosts workshop on hydrogen isotopes in plant organic compounds
On April 8, the PPE group hosted a workshop to discuss progress and challenges in analyzing hydrogen isotope values from plant organic compounds and interpreting the resulting data in the context of hydroclimatic changes in the environment…
New publication in Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment
Marie-Louise Schärer, Ansgar Kahmen & coauthors published a new study on whether organic farming influences ecohydrological properties and water relations of soils and crops compared to conventional farming. Long-term effects of organic…
New paper on post-drought tree damage in New Phytologist
In a study published with colleagues from the Universität Würzburg, PPE group members Matthias Arend, Cedric Zahnd, Guenter Hoch, and Ansgar Kahmen explored the physiological mechanisms behind the widespread occurrence of canopy decline in…/ Doctorate/PhD
2 open PhD positions at the Physiological Plant Ecology Group
The Physiological Plant Ecology group of the University of Basel investigates the ecophysiological processes in plants that determine the fluxes of water, nitrogen, and carbon in natural and agricultural ecosystems. The goals of our…
A new paper published on low root temperature effects on water and carbon transport in trees
Wenna Wang and Günter Hoch published a new study on low temperature limits of temperate tree species in Tree Physiology. The effects of low root temperatures on xylem conductance, photosynthetic C assimilation and phloem C transport were…
Congratulations to Rafael Pulfer for passing his master exam!
Rafael Pulfer successfully defended his MSc! In his work “Systematics and floral evolution of Dracula orchids”, he used a next generation sequencing technique to create a new species-level phylogeny based on whole chloroplast genomes. He…
New work on the impact of the historic 2018 heatwave published in Nature Communications
Richard L. Peters worked on a study within the DenDrought2018 initiative, an international team of researchers, to understand the impact of the 2018 heatwave on trees growing across Central and Atlantic Europe. Results of their joint effort…
PPE work highlighted in Nature Plants “Year in Review”
Matthias Arend's paper on the rapid hydraulic collapse of Picea abies trees during the 2018 extreme drought that we recently published in PNAS (https://www.pnas.org/content/118/16/e2025251118) was now highlighted with 23 other papers by…
Congratulations to Eva Morgner for successfully defending her master's thesis
In her master's project Eva examined the impact of elevated CO2 on plant isotopic systems. Her work provides important context for understanding plant physiological responses to environmental change. Eva defended her thesis on December…