Dr. Katrin Di Bella Meusburger

Dr. Katrin Di Bella Meusburger

Funzione

Collaboratrice scientifica

 

Suoli forestali e giogeochimica

Biogechimica

  

Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL
Zürcherstrasse 111
8903 Birmensdorf

Sito

WSL Birmensdorf Bi MG C 50

Research Interests

Soil solution and the soil water availability for plants - Soil degradation processes – Stable isotopes and fallout radionuclides as soil, sediment and water tracers - Environmental modelling with remote sensing and GIS - Natural hazards and rainfall erosivity

Projects

  • SNSF, 2025-2029, DeepDrought: Deep soil water a critical tree trait for Drought stress release?
  • GCOS, 2024-2027, SMURF: Soil Moisture Upscaling using Radiative transFer modelling
  • SNSF, 2023-2026, INSIghtForest: IN SItu tracking of water fluxes in Forest ecosystems
  • FOEN, 2025-2023, DRAINS: Drought Risk mAps for the Swiss Forest
  • SNSF, 2019-2023, SoilTain: How much water does Soil reTain for trees?
  • FOEN, 2018-2021, AlpErosion: Soil Erosion risk modelling in Alpine areas

Education

  • 2009 PhD in Geoscience, University of Basel, CH.
  • 2005 MSc in Hydrology, Albert-Ludwigs-University Freiburg, D.

Professional Career

  • Since 11/2017 Senior researcher, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, CH.
  • 01/2012 - 10/2017 Research Associate (Oberassistentin), University of Basel, CH.
  • 11/2010 - 05/2011 Researcher, Joint Research Centre of the European Commission, I.
  • 07/2009 - 12/2011 Post-doctoral investigator, University of Basel, CH.

Teaching & Supervision

  • Supervision and Co-Supervision: 3 PhD-, 11 MSc-, 8 BSc students
  • Since 2024 "Mountain Hydrology", ETHZ, CH.
  • Since 2022 "Bodenresourcen and global change", ETHZ, CH.
  • Guest lecturer in "Stable Isotope Ecology of Terrestrial Ecosystems", "Environmental Measurement Lab", "Mountain Forest Hydrology", ETHZ, CH.
  • 2012-2017 Course coordinator “Ökologische Standortansprache”, University of Basel, CH.
  • 2012-2017 Course coordinator “Einführung in die Hydrologie”, University of Basel, CH.

Projects

FORWARDS aims to develop, test, and implement a European Observatory that will supply timely and detailed information on European forests' vulnerability to climate change impacts, and provide knowledge to guide climate smart forestry

In the years 2021–2025, the forest soil survey of 1993 on the 8 x 8 km will be repeated. This grid does not cover all combinations of soil formation and environmental factors that potentially occur in Switzerland. This project evaluates the most efficient way to close these gaps.

In this project, we investigate causes for the impacts of the extreme summer drought 2018 on the vitality of beech trees in different regions of the Swiss Plateau and Jura.

The repetition of the forest soil inventory provides the basis for representative forest soil monitoring throughout Switzerland. Through the connection to the sampling network of the National Forest Inventory, a variety of possibilities for the use and evaluation of the collected soil data are possible.

TreeWater aims to improve our understanding of whether and how information on water uptake dynamics can be retrieved from the oxygen and hydrogen (i.e. water) isotopes in tree rings.

We will enhance the design of the Swiss NFI plots to accomodate an augmented series of measurements, sampling and analysis needed to respond to pressing research question on status and change of the Swiss forest.

The ExtremeThaw project is working to enhance our understanding of rapid permafrost thaw in Switzerland’s alpine regions, helping to shape effective response strategies.

Establishing an inventory of soil water availability to trees in Swiss forest soils. This is done by means of model-based analysis of the water balances at 16 long-term monitoring sites in Switzerland, representing various geographical locations, soil and vegetation types.

SwissSPOT is a network to monitor soil water down to 2m soil depth at Swiss Long-term Forest Ecosystem Research (LWF) sites.

The emergence of visible tree-stress symptoms caused by the emerald ash borer occurs only several years after its arrival and are hard to tell apart from those caused by soil drought. Here, we investigate the potential of reflectance spectroscopy as an early-warning screening tool.

INSIghtForest will accompany the Cost Action WATSON "WATer isotopeS in the critical zONeproposes" by establishing a unique data set of high frequency in-situ measured water isotopes located in a long-term irrigation experiment Pfynwald in the naturally dry valley of Valais, Switzerland.

RICH-SOIL gains insight into soil C cycling by determining radiocarbon signatures in Swiss soil C pools and fluxes. The project analyses archived samples, national soil inventory, and the LWF (Long-term-Monitoring of Forests Ecosystem) program.

Spatial modelling of drought effects on Swiss forests

The VPDrought Experiment aims to disentangle the effects of air and soil drought on forests. This is the first time worldwide that such an experiment is being conducted in this combination and quality. It is being carried out in the Pfynwald forest on an existing WSL research site.

Nowcast and predict forest condition from TreeNet data with the help of machine learning.

The SMURF project aims to improve soil moisture monitoring, which is crucial for understanding climate and ecosystem dynamics in Swiss forests.

DeepDrought examines how deep root water uptake helps plants mitigate drought, especially as deep soil droughts increase with climate change. Using SVAT models, the project analyzes deep soil water availability and aligns TWD and WUE as drought stress measures to assess plant responses.

Forest-RESIST explores how forests respond to changes in water availability and vapour pressure deficit (VPD). We map underground processes using 4D electrical resistivity imaging, capturing water flow and root uptake. Together with ETHZ, this research is conducted at the Pfynwald research platform.

The project SoilDroughtCH aims to establish a comprehensive Swiss-wide soil drought monitoring system. We will build four new MeteoSwiss soil moisture stations at SwissSPOT sites to link grassland-focused MeteoSwiss stations with forest-focused SwissSPOT stations.

How does soil carbon redistribute across diverse mountain landscapes? SOCscape combine field data, soil analysis, and modeling to uncover the dynamics of carbon fluxes in these complex, geochemically varied environments.

Publications

Gupta S., Zweifel L., Birkholz A., Meusburger K., Leitinger G., Alewell C. (2025) Mapping snow gliding distances: Bridging modelled and field observations. Cold Reg. Sci. Technol. 231, 104402 (13 pp.). doi:10.1016/j.coldregions.2024.104402 Institutional Repository DORA

Lombardo M., Fees A., Udke A., Meusburger K., Van Herwijnen A., Schweizer J., Lehmann P. (2025) Capillary suction across the soil-snow interface as a mechanism for the formation of wet basal layers under gliding snowpacks. J. Glaciol. doi:10.1017/jog.2025.2 Institutional Repository DORA

Shakas A., Hediger R., Gessler A., Singha K., de Pasquale G., D'Odorico P., … Meusburger K. (2025) Does optimality partitioning theory fail for belowground traits? Insights from geophysical imaging of a drought‐release experiment in a Scots Pine forest. New Phytol. 245(2), 546-558. doi:10.1111/nph.20245 Institutional Repository DORA

Bernhard F., Floriancic M.G., Treydte K., Gessler A., Kirchner J.W., Meusburger K. (2024) Tree- and stand-scale variability of xylem water stable isotope signatures in mature beech, oak and spruce. Ecohydrology. 17(2), e2614 (20 pp.). doi:10.1002/eco.2614 Institutional Repository DORA

Ferretti M., Fischer C., Gessler A., Graham C., Meusburger K., Abegg M., … Shackleton R.T. (2024) Advancing forest inventorying and monitoring. Ann. For. Sci. 81(1), 6 (25 pp.). doi:10.1186/s13595-023-01220-9 Institutional Repository DORA

Flury R., Portier J., Rohner B., Baltensweiler A., Di Bella Meusburger K., Scherrer D., … Stadelmann G. (2024) Soil and climate‐dependent ingrowth inference: broadleaves on their slow way to conquer Swiss forests. Ecography. 2024(7), e07174 (14 pp.). doi:10.1111/ecog.07174 Institutional Repository DORA

Gauthey A., Bachofen C., Chin A., Cochard H., Gisler J., Mas E., … Grossiord C. (2024) Twenty years of irrigation acclimation is driven by denser canopies and not by plasticity in twig- and needle-level hydraulics in a Pinus sylvestris forest. J. Exp. Bot. 75(10), 3141-3152. doi:10.1093/jxb/erae066 Institutional Repository DORA

Khodadadi M., Meusburger K., Mirzaei M., Strauss P., Black W.H., Moghaseh E., Alewell C. (2024) Spatial cross-correlation of surface soil physicochemical properties with soil erosion estimated by fallout radionuclides in croplands in a semi-humid region of Iran. Catena. 237, 107836 (14 pp.). doi:10.1016/j.catena.2024.107836 Institutional Repository DORA

Scandellari F., Attou T., Barbeta A., Bernhard F., D'Amato C., Dimitrova-Petrova K., … Sprenger M. (2024) Using stable isotopes to inform water resource management in forested and agricultural ecosystems. J. Environ. Manag. 365, 121381 (15 pp.). doi:10.1016/j.jenvman.2024.121381 Institutional Repository DORA

Vitali V., Schuler P., Holloway‐Phillips M., D'Odorico P., Guidi C., Klesse S., … Saurer M. (2024) Finding balance: tree‐ring isotopes differentiate between acclimation and stress‐induced imbalance in a long‐term irrigation experiment. Glob. Chang. Biol. 30(3), e17237 (20 pp.). doi:10.1111/gcb.17237 Institutional Repository DORA

Guidi C., Lehmann M.M., Meusburger K., Saurer M., Vitali V., Peter M., … Hagedorn F. (2023) Tracing sources and turnover of soil organic matter in a long-term irrigated dry forest using a novel hydrogen isotope approach. Soil Biol. Biochem. 184, 109113 (10 pp.). doi:10.1016/j.soilbio.2023.109113 Institutional Repository DORA

Khodadadi M., Alewell C., Mirzaei M., Ehssan-Malahat E., Asadzadeh F., Strauss P., Meusburger K. (2023) Understanding deforestation impacts on soil erosion rates using 137Cs, 239+240Pu, and 210Pbex and soil physicochemical properties in western Iran. J. Environ. Radioact. 257, 107078 (15 pp.). doi:10.1016/j.jenvrad.2022.107078 Institutional Repository DORA

Meusburger K., Porto P., Kobler Waldis J., Alewell C. (2023) Validating plutonium-239+240 as a novel soil redistribution tracer - a comparison to measured sediment yield. Soil. 9(2), 399-409. doi:10.5194/soil-9-399-2023 Institutional Repository DORA

Verstraeten A., Bruffaerts N., Cristofolini F., Vanguelova E., Neirynck J., Genouw G., … Gottardini E. (2023) Effects of tree pollen on throughfall element fluxes in European forests. Biogeochemistry. 165, 311-325. doi:10.1007/s10533-023-01082-3 Institutional Repository DORA

Waldner P., Hobi M., Stillhard J., Brang P., Hug C., Thimonier A., … Zhu J. (2023) Forschung im Waldreservat am Bettlachstock. Mitt. Nat.forsch. Ges. Kanton Solothurn. (45), 161-179. doi:10.5169/seals-1007786 Institutional Repository DORA

Bose A.K., Rigling A., Gessler A., Hagedorn F., Brunner I., Feichtinger L., … Schaub M. (2022) Lessons learned from a long‐term irrigation experiment in a dry Scots pine forest: impacts on traits and functioning. Ecol. Monogr. 92(2), e1507 (18 pp.). doi:10.1002/ecm.1507 Institutional Repository DORA

Chen C., Huang J.H., Meusburger K., Li K., Fu X., Rinklebe J., … Feng X. (2022) The interplay between atmospheric deposition and soil dynamics of mercury in Swiss and Chinese boreal forests: a comparison study. Environ. Pollut. 307, 119483 (9 pp.). doi:10.1016/j.envpol.2022.119483 Institutional Repository DORA

Frei E.R., Gossner M.M., Vitasse Y., Queloz V., Dubach V., Gessler A., … Wohlgemuth T. (2022) European beech dieback after premature leaf senescence during the 2018 drought in northern Switzerland. Plant Biol. 24(7), 1132-1145. doi:10.1111/plb.13467 Institutional Repository DORA

Gessler A., Bächli L., Freund E.R., Treydte K., Schaub M., Haeni M., … Meusburger K. (2022) Drought reduces water uptake in beech from the drying topsoil, but no compensatory uptake occurs from deeper soil layers. New Phytol. 233(1), 194-206. doi:10.1111/nph.17767 Institutional Repository DORA

Guidi C., Frey B., Brunner I., Meusburger K., Vogel M.E., Chen X., … Hagedorn F. (2022) Soil fauna drives vertical redistribution of soil organic carbon in a long‐term irrigated dry pine forest. Glob. Chang. Biol. 28(9), 3145-3160. doi:10.1111/gcb.16122 Institutional Repository DORA

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