Effects of structural and physiological forest attributes on biodiversity, multi-trophic interactions and ecosystem functions across vertical forest layers

At Mount Lägern near Zurich, we are investigating the biocoenoses and the food network between ground vegetation and tree crowns, thereby contributing to a better understanding of the three-dimensional relationship between forest structure, biodiversity and ecosystem functions. The film is also available on YouTube, we are showing it here on Vimeo without advertising.

Today, modern remote sensing techniques make it possible to record the structural and physiological properties of forests at high resolution and in three dimensions. This opens up new opportunities to study the relationship between forest stands and biodiversity in greater depth. However, this requires that biodiversity is recorded across all vegetation layers, namely the ground vegetation, the shrub layer and the canopy layer. This is done in this research project, which analyzes the relationship between structural and physiological forest characteristics, species richness, and food webs in a mixed deciduous forest in Switzerland. In particular, it investigates how biodiversity within and between vegetation layers depends on structural and physiological forest features and how multitrophic interactions influence ecosystem functions.

In a first phase, structural and physiological forest characteristics will be described with airborne and terrestrial remote sensing methods and 10 functionally and phylogenetically distinct species groups and their interaction networks will be recorded across the three vegetation layers. In a second phase, independent remote sensing data will be used to model forest biodiversity and specific ecosystem functions for an entire canton. These predictions will then be validated with an independent dataset from a biodiversity monitoring program.