Braune und vorzeitig abfallende Blätter prägen derzeit vielerorts das Waldbild. Je nach Baumart kann dahinter entweder eine Schutzreaktion gegen Wassermangel oder ein Hinweis auf bereits eingetretene ...

Our results indicate that a decade after tree harvesting, ectomycorrhizal fungal community assembly shifted from stochastic to deterministic environmental filtering, with higher harvest intensity dri...

A widespread dieback of forests due to climate change 56 million years ago has parallels with today.

Talent schemes helped to propel China to the forefront of global science. But the system places undue emphasis on prestigious titles as a means to secure career prospects, putting pressure on young researchers.

Schwere Waldbrände wüten unweit von Bordeaux in Frankreich, aber auch in Spanien und Italien. Ein Klimaforscher, der seit Jahren vor den Folgen der Erderwärmung warnt, kommt den Flammen gefährlich nah...

New study challenges idea that tall trees’ hydraulics make them more vulnerable to dry conditions

In this blog post, author Sofia Etzold – a researcher at the Swiss Federal Research Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape – discusses the research article Decreasing water availabili…

National data archive reveals for the first time how the diversity of butterflies and beetles in Switzerland has changed over 90 years.

Abstract. The terrestrial biosphere plays a critical role in regulating carbon and water fluxes. Rising global temperatures increase atmospheric dryness, which in turn raises atmospheric water demand ...

Concentration of precipitation in large events decreases land water availability, and this effect will further increase with a future warming climate.

Plant phenology tends to track with climate warming, but it could also be sensitive to biotic factors. This study from a temperate forest landscape in Germany shows that a single year of tree response...

Wildfires are among the most pressing environmental challenges of the 21st century, intensified by the accumulation of forest fuels after a century of fire suppression policies. Although fuel-reductio...

Pre-fire fuel conditions emerge as dominant drivers of burn severity for three of the January 2025 Los Angeles wildfires Fuels conditions, burn severity, and their modeled relationships varied ac...

Dr Liangzhi Chen from Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, National Champion for Switzerland, reveals increasing occurrence and severity of multiyear droughts globally, with significant impacts on ve...

Dr Liangzhi Chen from Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, National Champion for Switzerland, reveals increasing occurrence and severity of multiyear droughts globally, with significant impacts on ve...

With government funding in decline, researchers should prioritize data collation and training the next generation of scientists.

The results suggest that the subordinate species achieves higher drought resistance in biomass and soil functions via increased below-ground functioning. The data presented here provide a basis to ex...

Nature Reviews Biodiversity, Published online: 19 March 2026; doi:10.1038/s44358-026-00146-0Attributing biodiversity change to interacting human drivers requires causal frameworks that integrate observational, experimental and mechanistic approaches across scales. In this Perspective, the authors discuss an attribution framework to strengthen causal inference and guide more effective biodiversity management under rapidly changing global conditions.

This study reported widespread declines in resilience after multi-year droughts and showed that biodiversity and climate strongly shape forest resilience after multi-year droughts, but human footprint...

Climate change, particularly the associated increase in extreme events and disturbances, threatens the numerous environmental, social, and economic benefits that forests provide, both locally and glo...

Understanding greenhouse gas fluxes in semi-arid ecosystems is critical for improving our understanding of biogeochemical cycles, particularly in unde…

Nature Reviews Biodiversity, Published online: 02 January 2026; doi:10.1038/s44358-025-00112-2Experiments manipulating tree species diversity and measuring effects on ecosystem function have been important tools for assessing how biodiverse forests can accumulate biomass, store carbon and help to meet climate goals. This Review summarizes key findings from global tree biodiversity experiments.

Experiments manipulating tree species diversity and measuring effects on ecosystem function have been important tools for assessing how biodiverse forests can accumulate biomass, store carbon and help...

Background Soil microbial communities can affect plant nutrient uptake, productivity, and may even confer resistance to global change. Elevated atmospheric CO2 is widely expected to stimulate plant pr...

Northern forests are currently taking up large quantities of carbon due to tree growth. Yet, it is not known how the stocks of soil nutrients have responded to this increase in biomass. Therefore, we...