Forest and Soil Ecology

The Research Unit explores the functional significance of forest diversity with respect to the ecology of managed and unmanaged forests. In order to assess the future development of forests in Switzerland and other temperate and mountainous regions, the Unit pursues a threefold research agenda:

  1. it performs basic research on forest diversity and its influence i) on forest dynamics, i.e. successional processes including tree growth, mortality and regeneration, and ii) on ecosystem goods and services;
  2. it studies the disturbance agents such as storms, avalanches, fires and insects with respect to their occurrences and their impact on forest dynamics, as well as the importance of forest diversity to resist disturbance;
  3. it investigates the impact of management operations on forest structure and development to improve sustainable forest management.

Based on the research outcomes, the Unit develops recommendations for best practice to sustain or improve forest products and services such as production of timber and other forest goods (e.g. mushrooms), catchment value, water quality, protection against natural hazards and pests, conservation and recreation. The infrastructure of the Research Unit includes extensive networks of forest study plots and laboratories for insects and fungi analysis.

The Unit has partners both within WSL and the wider scientific community. Stakeholders are mainly the forest services, forest owners and federal agencies.
 

Topics

Projects

Research Groups and Staff

Forest and Soil Ecology

Thomas Wohlgemuth

Member of Directors Board; Senior Scientist, interim Head of Research Unit

Jörg Luster

Senior Scientist

Elisabet Martinez Sancho

Visiting scientist

Andreas Rigling

Visiting scientist

Ulrich Wasem

Temporary employee

Soil Biogeochemistry

Frank Hagedorn

Group leader

Andrea Benech

Master student

Luca Bianchi

PhD student guest

Philipp de Jong

PhD student

Ika Djukic

Visiting scientist

Jasmin Fetzer

Visiting scientist

Michael Leonardo Galli

Temporary employee

Konstantin Gavazov

Visiting scientist

Claudia Guidi

Scientific staff member

Tatiana Hirsiger

Technical staff member

Marco Lehmann

Scientific staff member

Mathias Mayer

Visiting scientist

Margaux Moreno Duborgel

Visiting scientist

Patrizia Palermo

Technical staff member

Kathrin Salinger

Technical staff member

Patrick Schleppi

Scientific staff member

Jürg Schmid

Temporary employee

Simone Schmid

Temporary employee

Rienk Smittenberg

Scientific staff member

Tanja Stutz

Technical staff member

Anne Thimonier Rickenmann

Scientific staff member

Annegret Udke

PhD student

Peter Waldner

Scientific staff member

Joachim Zhu

Technical specialist

Soil Functions and Soil Protection

Katrin Di Bella Meusburger

Group leader

Arun Bose

Scientific staff member

Daniel Christen

Technical staff member

Andreas Dietzel

Postdoc

Louis John Graup

Postdoc

Prachi Joshi

Scientific staff member

Roger Köchli

Technical staff member

Peter Lüscher

Visiting scientist

Sonia Meller

Visiting scientist

Christoph Mullis

Technical specialist

Behzad Rahimi

Technical specialist

Dennis Günther Ried

PhD student

Marco Walser

Technical staff member

Lorenz Walthert

Scientific staff member

Stephan Zimmermann

Visiting scientist

Dendrosciences

Georg von Arx

Group leader

Marçal Argelich Ninot

Temporary employee

Mattias Barigazzi

Technical staff member

Jesper Björklund

Visiting scientist

Antoine Cabon

Scientific staff member

Paolo Cherubini

Senior Scientist

Patrick Fonti

Senior Scientist

Kai Frey

Trainee

Holger Gärtner

Scientific staff member

Lisa Marie Yvette Jourdain

PhD student

Maurin Karzig

Master student

Stefan Klesse

Scientific staff member

Camille Marande

PhD student guest

Elisabet Martinez Sancho

Visiting scientist

Rahel Maria Müller

Bachelor student

Mara Nägelin

Scientific staff member

Daniel Nievergelt

Technical staff member

Emanuela Patriarca

PhD student guest

Nicola Antonio Santacroce

Temporary employee

Loïc Schneider

Technical staff member

Lenka Slámová-Matéju

Visiting scientist

Nadja-Tamara Studer

Technical staff member

Kerstin Treydte

Senior Scientist

Anne Verstege

Technical staff member

Wenjin Wang

Postdoc

Functional Plant Ecology

Christoph Bachofen

Scientific staff member

Maxwell Bergström

PhD student guest

Giovanni Bortolami

Visiting scientist

Rita Bütler Sauvain

Knowledge transfer

Alexandre Buttler

Visiting scientist

Janisse Deluigi

PhD student guest

Charlotte Grossiord

Joint Professorship

Cross Jacob Heintzelman

PhD student guest

Thibaut Juillard

PhD student guest

Alyssa Kullberg

Postdoc

Sandra Levin Zürcher

Administrative staff member

Arianna Milano

Visiting scientist

Remy Xavier Perret

Master student

Helena Vallicrosa Pou

Postdoc

LWF I

Christoph Mullis

Technical specialist

LWF II

Maria Schmitt Oehler

Visiting scientist

Ecophysiology

Marcus Schaub

Group leader

William Aeberhard

Visiting scientist

Isabelle Arnold

Visiting scientist

David Jonas Basler

Postdoc

Carlo di Bello

PhD student

Sophia Etzold

Scientific staff member

Jonas Gisler

Technical staff member

Madeleine S. Goerg-Günthardt

Visiting scientist

Rudolf Häsler

Visiting scientist

Dominik Andrin Hummel

Technical specialist

Maihe Li

Senior Scientist

Marcus Maeder

Visiting scientist

Capucine Agathe Marion

PhD student guest

Eliot Perrin

Master student

Richard Peters

Visiting scientist

Volodymyr Trotsiuk

Data Scientist

Pierre Vollenweider

Scientific staff member

Yanli Zhang

PhD student

Roman Zweifel

Scientific staff member

Ecosystem Ecology

Arthur Gessler

Group leader

Mark Anthony

Visiting scientist

Tito Arosio

Postdoc

Mirela Beloiu Schwenke

Visiting scientist

Julia Born

Project Manager

Arun Bose

Scientific staff member

Alessandra Bottero

Scientific staff member

Alexia-Maria Cercel

Trainee

Justine Charlet de Sauvage

Visiting scientist

Liangzhi Chen

Postdoc

Olga Churakova

Visiting scientist

Valentin Comte

Visiting scientist

Maaike De Boer

Visiting scientist

Nicolas De Girardi

Temporary employee

Haoyu Diao

Postdoc

Luca Ferrari

Visiting scientist

Elham Freund

Scientific staff member

Matthias Haeni

IT specialist

Christian Hug

Technical staff member

Stefan Hunziker

Scientific staff member

Stefan Klesse

Scientific staff member

Frank Krumm

Scientific staff member

Marco Lehmann

Scientific staff member

Jelle Lever

Postdoc

Martin Ley

Administrative specialist

Mirko Lukovic

Scientific staff member

Yunpeng Luo

Scientific staff member

Regine Maier

Administrative specialist

Vincent Masserey

PhD student guest

Yaqiong Mu

PhD student guest

Tatiana Nazarova

Temporary employee

Lea Nyffenegger

Guest

Eugénie Paul-Limoges

Scientific staff member

Simone Maria Pieber

Scientific staff member

Alfred Potzinger

Fieldworker / Deputy Project Manager

Martine Rebetez

Senior Scientist

Matthias Saurer

Scientific staff member

Léonard Schneider

Visiting scientist

Pascal Schneider

PhD student

Raphael Siegrist

Temporary employee

Rolf Siegwolf

Visiting scientist

Lynsay Spafford

Guest

Flurin Sutter

GIS specialist

Volodymyr Trotsiuk

Data Scientist

Valentina Vitali

Visiting scientist

Yann Vitasse

Scientific staff member

Manuel Walde

Visiting scientist

Micah Wilhelm

Scientific assistant

Zhaofei Wu

Visiting scientist

Zhongyu Xia

PhD student guest

Yongzhi Yu

PhD student

Artin Zarsav

PhD student

Jan Ziegler

Technical specialist

rog. SwissForestLab

Yann Vitasse

Scientific staff member