Projects ¶

Ecophysiology of green wall vegetation under contrasting environmental conditions.

This project focuses on deadwood dynamics in forests across multiple spatial scales, making use of a long-term set of forest inventory and species diversity data across Switzerland covering the most important central European forest types from lowland to high-elevation forests.

Preserving or extending green spaces are commonly accepted approached to increase biodiversity and human wellbeing in urban areas. To develop circular models for repurposing urban space for biodiversity, a paradigm shift in urban planning is needed.

We aim to empirically disentangle atmospheric vs. soil drought impacts on intra- and inter-annual wood formation and mechanistically model drought constraints on intra- and inter-annual growth dynamics.

We study how artificial night light spectral composition ("light color") affects tree phenology, phytochemistry, and tree-insect interactions in European beech and pedunculate oak. Our findings will help optimizing lighting parameters and contribute to more sustainable outdoor lighting solutions.

High-resolution vegetation monitoring is key for climate and green transition studies. Single sensors fall short, but data fusion with deep learning offers promise. imvEOm treats sensor data as a multimodal "video" to extract spatio-temporal features for monitoring Austria's vegetation.

Biodiversity promotion is challenged by narrowed perspectives and lacking exchange between natural resource users. We develop methods to enable a common biodiversity vision and to devel-op integrated measures at the regional level.

A biodiversity dashboard for the Swiss flora, a web application that tailors outputs of such cutting-edge models directly to the needs of a broad user group.

Our project explores the climate resilience of five major tree species across the Alps, Pyrenees, and Carpathians by combining tree rings, isotope analysis, and sapling experiments. The results will guide forest managers in selecting species that can thrive in tomorrow's climate.

DRYMET examines the potential risks posed by heavy metal release due to extensive soil drying and intense precipitation in the southern Alps. Using lab and field scale techniques, this project aims to quantify the risk of lead, copper, and nickel release into drinking water resources.