Forest

The media uproar over wolf attacks on livestock in Switzerland and a bear attack in Italy show how charged the issue of large carnivores and humans coexisting in Europe is. ETH Zurich researcher Paula Mayer has now created a participatory model to help facilitate human-bear coexistence using the example of the Apennine brown bear.

The invasive fungal disease ash dieback has already affected 90% of ash trees in Central Europe. In addition, an invasive beetle threatens the trees. But there is now good news: trees that are resistant to the fungus are also better able to withstand the beetle, as a trial led by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL shows.

Increasing summer heat and drought are affecting European forests – some years, trees brown prematurely and some even start to die back. Researchers from ETH Zurich and the WSL are showing how exceptional weather conditions over several years are turning forests brown.

UN International Day of Forests on 21 March is the perfect opportunity to showcase some of the important forest research being done at EPFL. For instance, one recent study found that the changes in relative humidity caused by higher temperatures are having a significant impact on trees.

Trees absorb tiny metal particles from the air and soil and deposit them in their tissues. This has been shown by an experiment conducted by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL. These findings open up possibilities for detecting environmental pollution or even remedying it in the future.

In the extremely dry summer of 2018, beech leaves discoloured in many places as early as July. Now, studies by the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL show that up to 10% of these trees died - a multiple of the natural mortality rate. The summer of 2022 is likely to have further affected beech trees in dry locations.