News

Previous news can be found below.

Welcome, Samuel Schmutz!

15.04.2013   A warm welcome to Samuel Schmutz as a new scientific assistant in the Forest Ecology Group! Samuel Schmutz studied Environmental Sciences at ETH Zurich and graduated in 2013 with a master thesis entitled "Analysis of a tree species shift from spruce to fir and beech in the natural forest reserve Leihubelwald".

Welcome, Carmen Rovina!

02.04.2013   We welcome Carmen Rovina as a new scientific assistant at the Forest Ecology group! Carmen Rovina studied Environmental Sciences at ETH Zurich and graduated in 2013 with a master thesis entitled "Macro- and micromorphological reactions of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) on varying water availability in a irrigation experiment in Pfynwald (VS)".

New research by the Forest Ecology group in Global Change Biology!

13.03.2013   New research by the Forest Ecology group suggests that even a 2°C increase in average global temperature can results in detrimental impacts on some essential ecosystem services (ES) in the European Alps. Employing novel regional climate scenarios that include a 2°C warmer world the group used simulation models to examine the projected impact of climate change on a range of forest ecosystem services. The results indicate that the impact of climate change will vary in space and depending on the specific ES. Some forest ES, such as rockfall protection and timber production, are projected to be sensitive to even moderate climate change while other ES, such as carbon storage, are projected to be relatively resilient.

Please see Global Change Biology for all the details.

Research from Forest Ecology group in the focus of ETH Life

Please see ETH Life for the article.

Back from South America

04.03.2013   We welcome back Alvaro Gutierrez, who was doing a long field campaign in southern South America. His field work was part of his Marie-Curie project and was focused in collecting empirical information on traits of tree species of temperate rainforests.

Welcome, Rebecca Snell!

04.02.2013  We welcome Dr. Rebecca Snell as a new PostDoc at the Forest Ecology Group! Rebecca Snell has a BSc in Biology and Computer Science (Queen’s University, Canada), an MSc in Plant Ecology (University of Calgary, Canada) and recently completed her PhD in Forestry at the University of Toronto, Canada. For her PhD thesis, she introduced seed dispersal limitations into a dynamic vegetation model to simulate plant migration in response to climate change.  

Successful PhD defense of Christian Temperli

07.12.2012 The Chair of Forest Ecology congratulates Christian Temperli on his successful PhD defense!

Welcome, Marco Vanoni!

02.12.2012   We are happy to welcome Marco Vanoni as a new PhD student at the Forest Ecology Group! Marco Vanoni studied Environmental Sciences at ETH Zurich and completed his studies in 2012 with a master thesis entitled "Climatic influences on the growth variability of silver fir and Norway spruce along the silver fir distribution gradient".

Welcome, Maxime Cailleret!

03.09.2012 We welcome Dr. Maxime Cailleret as a new PostDoc at the Forest Ecology Group! Maxime Cailleret studied Forest Ecology at University of Bordeaux. He conducted his PhD degree at the French National Institute for Agronomic Research in Avignon (INRA, France) where he focused on the impacts of climate change on tree growth and mortality.

Welcome, Dominic Michel!

03.09.2012 We welcome Dominic Michel at the Forest Ecology Group again as programmer and information scientist.

Successful PhD defense by Brigitte Rohner

02.08.2012 The Chair of Forest Ecology cordially congratulates Brigitte Rohner on her successful PhD defense!

First results of MOUNTLAND project

11.07.2012 A Special Issue of the practice-oriented journal "Agrarforschung Schweiz" has been published, containing key results of the first phase of the MOUNTLAND project [pdf]. The Chair for Forest Ecology is a partner in this project. Further Special Issues and Features are planned in the Schweizerische Zeitschrift für Forstwesen and  in the ISI journal Ecology and Society.

Interview with Harald Bugmann

10.07.2012 Interview with Harald Bugmann about the Swiss forest policy 2020 in the Info-Bulletin 2/2012 of the Bürgergemeinden und Waldeigentümer Verband Kanton Solothurn BWSo. Interview (in German) available as pdf.

Welcome, Marco Mina!

02.04.2012 We welcome Marco Mina as a new PhD student in the Forest Ecology Group. Marco Mina studied forestry sciences at the University of Padua and completed his studies in 2010 with a master thesis entitled “Forest policy and institutions in P.R.C.”

Successful PhD defense by Livia Rasche

20.12.2011  The Chair of Forest Ecology congratulates Livia Rasche on her successful PhD defense.

Welcome, Nicolas Bircher!

10.10.2011 We welcome Nicolas Bircher as a new PhD student at the Forest Ecology Group. Nicolas Bircher studied environmental sciences at ETH Zurich and completed his studies in 2011 with a master thesis entitled "Silvicultural measures for the conservation of the Capercaillie in the special forest reserve of Amden ".

Welcome, Vicky Schmid!

1.10.2011 We welcome Victoria Schmid as a new software engineer at the Forest Ecology Group. Vicki Schmid studied Computer Science at the School of Applied Science in Basel with focus on computer graphics and image processing. She wrote her diploma thesis in the field of geoinformatics. After her studies she worked as a software engineer on several projects in the fields of virtual reality and 3d-graphics, user interfaces including touch-UIs, and databases.

Welcome, Veronique Ringwald!

1.6.2011 We welcome Veronique Ringwald as a new scientific assistant at the Forest Ecology Group. Veronique Ringwald studied forest science at the Albert-Ludwigs-University in Freiburg i Br., Germany, and completed her studies with the diploma thesis “Growth analysis on native species of the Mata Atlântica in southern Brazil – Dendrochronological studies about growth periodicity.”
The last 2 years she worked as a trainee at the WSL, Birmensdorf, and as a project collaborator at the Forstliche Versuchs- und Forschungsanstalt Baden-Württemberg (FVA).
Since the first of June she works as a scientific assistant in the tree-ring lab, where she is involved mainly in field and laboratory work with reference to tree-rings. In addition, she takes care of the tree-ring laboratory and the workshop (including maintenance of equipment and material as well as introduction of students in laboratory methods).

Welcome, Alvaro G. Gutierrez!

1.4.2011 We welcome Dr.  Alvaro G. Gutierrez as a new postdoc at the Forest Ecology Group. Alvaro Gutierrez is a forest ecologist, who conducted his PhD-project at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research (UFZ-Leipzig, Germany) and received his doctoral degree from the Technical University of Munich. His research focused on forest dynamics and global change, particularly on temperate rainforests of southern Chile. Since April 1st Alvaro Gutierrez is working as a postdoc on stand dynamics and forest succession modeling. He will develop applications of FORCLIM for temperate rainforests of southern Chile and the Pacific Northwest of North America.

Welcome, Andreas Rudow!

29.11.2010 We welcome Andreas Rudow as a new Research Associate at the Forest Ecology Group. Andreas Rudow studied Forest Sciencies at ETH Zurich. Since 1995 he works in combined research, implementation and knowledge transfer projects on tree biodiversity, phytosociology and forest management at the ETH. E.g. projects of the program on Promotion of Rare Tree Species (SEBA) and projects on the Promotion of Sweet Chestnut (partially as independent and guest at ETH). Besides, in 2010 he started to develop an e-learning tool to support dendrology education in Environmental Sciences at ETH. Starting from 2011 he will hold the lectures “Introduction into Dendrology” and “Identification of Woody Plants in Winter”.

Successful PhD defense by Thomas Zumbrunnen

25.6.2010  The Chair of Forest Ecology congratulates Thomas Zumbrunnen, who worked at WSL, on his successful PhD defense.

Welcome, Angelika Siegfried!

1.5.2010 We welcome Angelika Siegfried as new scientific assistant at the Forest Ecology Group. Angelika Siegfried studied environmental sciences at ETH Zurich and completed her studies in 2010 with a master thesis entitled "Landschaftsmonitoring in der UNESCO Biosphäre Entlebuch".

Welcome, Jan Wunder!

1.5.2010 We welcome Dr. Jan Wunder as a new Research Associate (Oberassistent) at the Forest Ecology Group. Jan Wunder spent the last two years as postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Auckland, New Zealand and the Columbia University, New York, where he contributed to a more reliable tree-ring based reconstruction of the El Niño – Southern Oscillation phenomenon. He achieved this by studying the tree physiology of New Zealand kauri using high-resolution growth sensors, analysing growth patterns of kauri and boosting the sample depth of the kauri master chronology. During his PhD-project at ETH Zurich he explored tree mortality processes by analysing tree-ring and forest inventory data from  Central and Eastern Europe.

Welcome, Corina Manusch, Marc Weiss and Xavier Morin!

4.1.2010 We welcome Corina Manusch at the forest ecology group as a new PhD student. Corina Manusch studied Geoinformatics at the Friedrich Schiller University in Jena and completed her studies with the master thesis entitled "Konzeption und Umsetzung eines Moduls zur Simulation des Wachstums von Feldfrüchten für die Implementierung in Umweltsystemen".

We also welcome Marc Weiss as a new scientific assistant at the chair of forest ecology. Marc Weiss studied Environmental sciences at ETH Zurich. The title of his master thesis is "Simulating historical locations of wetlands in Switzerland".

As a new postdoc we welcome Dr. Xavier Morin at the forest ecology research group. Xavier Morin did his PhD in ecology and evolution at the University of Montpellier II. The Title of his PhD thesis is "Biogeography of North American and European tree species: determinism and evolution under climate change". He spent the last years as a postdoc at the McGill University in Montreal and at CEFE in Montpellier, where he worked on processes driving tree species distributions using both modelling and experimental approaches.

Successful PhD defense by Patrick Weibel

30.10.2009 The Chair of Forest Ecology congratulates Patrick Weibel on his successful PhD defense.

Welcome, Golo Stadelmann!

15.10.2009  We welcome Golo Stadelmann at the forest ecology research group as a new PhD student. Golo Stadelmann studied environmental sciences at ETH Zurich and completed his studies with the master thesis entitled "Modellierung der Waldentwicklung an der Rigi-Nordlehne zur Analyse der Schutzwirkung von Wald gegen Murgang".

Welcome, Antoni Trasobares!

1.9.2009  We welcome Dr. Antoni Trasobares at the forest ecology research group as a new PostDoc. Antoni Trasobares is from Barcelona and holds a doctor in Forestry. He is specialised in forest planning and the development of growth and yield models.

Successful PhD defense by Anne Kress

25.7.2009  The Chair of Forest Ecology congratulates Anne Kress, who worked at the PSI, on her successful PhD defense.

Successful PhD defense by Barbara Schlup

29.6.2009  The Chair of Forest Ecology congratulates Barbara Schlup, who worked at WSL, on her successful PhD defense.

Welcome, Flavia Sollazzo!

18.5.2009  We welcome Flavia Sollazzo at the forest ecology research group as a new Trainee. Flavia Sollazzo studied Management of Forest Systems at the University of Florence and completed her studies with the master thesis entitled "Man, forest and agriculture: relationships between projects and local knowledge, settlements and landscape. The case of Fontem in Cameroon".

Successful PhD defenses by Caroline Heiri and Markus Didion

18.5.2009 and 20.5.2009, respectively The Chair of Forest Ecology congratulates Caroline Heiri and Markus Didion on their successful PhD defenses.

Successful PhD defense by Jacqueline Bolli

11.05.09  The Chair of Forest Ecology congratulates Jacqueline Bolli, who worked at WSL, on her successful PhD defense.

Conference: European Geosciences Union "General Assembly 2009", Vienna, 19.-24. April 2009

05.05.09  The "EGU General Assembly 2009" was again a great success. 9088 scientists from all over the world were brought into one meeting covering all disciplines of the Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences. The programe included 12977 oral and poster presentations during the week and was completed by an interesting exhibition from industry and publishing as well as a high number of side meetings.

From the forest ecology group Annett Wolf, Sebastian Leuzinger and Hanspeter Portner presented recent results of their research:

• Wolf A., Bugmann H. Species-specific responses to drought have strong long-term consequences at the ecosystem scale [Abstract]
• Leuzinger S., Körner C. Rainfall distribution is the main driver of runoff under future CO2-concentration in a temperate deciduous forest [Abstract]
• Portner H., Wolf A., Bugmann H. Temperature response functions introduce high uncertainty in modeled carbon stocks in cold temperature regimes [Abstract] [Poster]

Welcome, Brigitte Rohner!

01.01.09  We welcome Brigitte Rohner at the forest ecology research group as a new Ph.D. student. Brigitte Rohner studied environmental sciences at ETH Zurich and wrote her master thesis entitled "Trockenheitseffekte auf Wachstum und Mortalität der Waldföhren im Pfynwald, Wallis" at the forest ecology research group.

Welcome, Livia Rasche and Christian Temperli!

01.12.08  We welcome Livia Rasche at the forest ecology research group as a new Ph.D. student. Livia Rasche studied Geoecology at the Eberhard-Karls-Universität Tübingen and wrote her diploma thesis entitled "Die Laubgehölze der immergrünen Lorbeerwälder auf Teneriffa unter blattmorphologischer und kutikularanalytischer Sicht und ihre Beziehung zu neogenen Laubwäldern Europas" at Museum für Naturkunde Stuttgart.
The objective of Livia Rasches Ph.D. project is to simulate the future development of selected forest stands under varying scenarios of management and climatic change, with the aim of identifying suitable adaptation strategies. For this work it will be necessary to implement a forest management submodel in the ForClim model.

We also welcome Christian Temperli at the forest ecology research group as a trainee. Christian Temperli studied environmental sciences at ETH Zurich and wrote his diploma thesis entitled "Vegetation dynamics after forest fire in comparison to the pre-fire state".

Welcome, Martina Hobi!

17.11.08  We welcome Martina Hobi at the forest ecology research group as a new scientific assistant. Martina Hobi studied environmental sciences at ETH Zurich and wrote her master thesis entitled "Wachstumsreaktionen von Buche, Waldföhre und  Schwarzföhre auf einen Waldbrand" at the forest ecology research group.

3rd ALTER-Net Summer School „Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services” 2-14 September 2008, Peyresq, Alpes de Haute-Provence, France

17.09.08  Markus Didion of the Forest Ecology took part as one of 32 international participants at the 3rd ALTER-Net Summer School on „Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services” (Wolfgang Cramer, Uta Fritsch, Rik Leemans, Sabine Lütkemeier, Dagmar Schröter and Allan Watt. Training future experts in “biodiversity and ecosystem services”: a progress report. Reg Environ Change (2008) 8:125–134) in the remote village of Peyresq, Alpes de Haute-Provence, France.
The 2008 Summer School attracted more than 20 international experts who presented talks relevant to the Summer School’s topic “Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services”, including:

• Biodiversity in Europe - state of the art; Monitoring and assessment;
• Critical ecosystem properties to sustain ecosystem services,
• Resilience of social and natural systems,
• Ecological and socio-economic modeling,
• Linking biodiversity research with policy and the public.

The ALTER-Net mission is to integrate biodiversity research and to build a network of ecosystem experts around Europe and beyond. This year’s summer school allowed 32 graduate Students from more than 10 countries to profit from close interactions with experts, tutored working groups on a case study, field excursions, and options for networking.

Conference "Adaptation of Forests and Forest Management to Changing Climate with Emphasis on Forest Health: A Review of Science, Policies, and Practices"

05.09.08  The “International Union of Forest Research Organizations” (IUFRO), the “Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences” (SLU) and the “Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations” (FAO) organised the International Conference on Forest Adaptation, which took place from 25.-28. of August 2008 in Umeå, Sweden. The objective of this conference was to examine how climatic change might influence forests ecosystems.  Scientist discussed how forests have changed over the previous decades, and what positive and negative changes should be expected in the future. The focus was on questions about the possible adaptation of forest management, about the risks and chances of climatic changes and about the gaps in our knowledge considering these changes. Based on the conference proceedings a report was drafted that summarises the main message the scientist want to convey to the public, policy makers and fellow scientists.

From the Forest Ecology Group, Annett Wolf and Patrick Weibel participated in this conference and presented new results:

• Wolf A., Bugmann H. Impact of Future Droughts on Forested Mountain Catchments: Carbon Storage and Hydrology [Abstract]
• Weibel P., Reineking B., Conedera M., Bugmann H. On the generality of forest fire models – a Swiss case study [Abstract] [Poster]

Welcome, Dominic Michel!

01.09.08  We welcome Dominic Michel at the forest ecology research group as a new programmer and information scientist.

IUFRO conference “Biodiversity in Forest Ecosystems and Landscapes”, Kamloops, BC, August 5-8, 2008

01.09.08  The city of Kamloops situated in British Columbias’s dry interior lodgepole pine zone which is under severe threat from the current mountain pine beetle epidemic provided an appropriate setting to discuss current research on various aspects of forest diversity in forest landscapes such as biodiversity monitoring, ecosystem functioning, and conservation.  About 100 international participants enjoyed a very well organized conference with three days of excellent talks and a field day into the surrounding ponderosa pine and interior Douglas fir ecosystems.
Harald Bugmann and Markus Didion from the Forest Ecology group attended the conference and presented current research:

• Bugmann, H., Heiri C., Didion, M. The future of tree diversity in Swiss forests: effects of management legacies and climatic change
• Heiri, C., Wolf, A., and Bugmann H. Direction and speed of natural beech forest dynamics: A matter of scale? (Talk given by H. Bugmann in proxy for C. Heiri who had to cancel her attendance due to an accident; we wish her a speedy convalescence) [Abstract]
• Didion, M., Kupferschmid, A.D., and Bugmann H. Effects of ungulate browsing on forest composition and function. [Abstract]

Welcome, Sebastian Leuzinger!

01.07.08  We welcome Dr. Sebastian Leuzinger, who arrived from University of Basel to join the forest ecology research group as a postdoc. Sebastian Leuzinger works on a BAFU-commissioned project until the end of 2008 and then joins the EU FP7 project "ACQWA".

Welcome, Ché Elkin!

01.06.08  We welcome Dr. Ché Elkin who arrieved from the University of Queensland in Brisbane (Australia) to join the forest ecology research group as a postdoc.

European Conference on Ecological Modelling

06.12.07  Contributions to the 6th European Conference on Ecological Modelling, 27-30 November 2007, Triest, Italy: T. Münkemüller (Hutchinson revisited: Over-compensatory density regulation facilitates species coexistence on a single resource) and M. Didion (A simple approach for improving the representation of light conditions in forest succession models) represented the professorship with presentations of their current research projects. The conference provided a broad and attractive overview of current research on model development and application presented by more than 350 international attendees. In a series of symposia relating to the modelling of aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems attendees presented their research projects. The symposia provided the environment for discussion of the presented state of the art of the current science.

Increase of Swiss forest area

26.11.07  The first results of the 3rd Swiss National Forest Inventory (NFI) have been published by FOEN and WSL. These results are of high interest to our group.
Since 1995, the forest area of Switzerland has increased annually by slightly more than the area of Lake Thun. Most of the increase occurred in the central and southern Alps, where mountain pastures and unproductive areas are becoming reforested. In central Switzerland and the Jura mountains, forest area has remained more or less constant. Average standing volume has increased to 359 m3/ha. The share of coniferous trees decreased moderately in favour of deciduous trees.

Additional results and information on the NFI project of FOEN and WSL (in German/French/Italian) can be found here.

Conference “Natural hazards and natural disturbances in mountain forests” 2007

17.10.07  From September 18 to 21, the international conference on „Natural hazards and natural disturbances in mountain forests – Challenges and opportunities for silviculture” took place in Trento (Northern Italy). The conference was organized by the team of Prof. Renzo Motta from University of Turin and Dr. Peter Brang of WSL. Prof. H. Bugmann was gave a plenary presentation on „Natural disturbances, anthropogenic climatic change and the sustainable management of mountain protection forests“. Four members of the forest ecology group gave talks in parallel sessions:

• L. Fahse: How to best combat bark beetle infestations – a modelling study in the National Park Bavarian Forest, Germany.
• A.D. Kupferschmid & H. Bugmann: Are ungulates a disturbance factor in mountain forests? Answers from an individual-based tree regeneration model.
• B. Reineking et al.: Climate-change induced shifts of wildfire regimes in temperate mountain forests: possible effects on forest structure and diversity.
• T. Zumbrunnen et al.: Fire regime changes during the past 100 years in a continental valley of the Swiss Alps (Valais).

Furthermore, P. Weibel et al. presented a poster on „Under which environmental conditions do forests burn? Ignition cause matters“.

Annual Conference of the Ecological Society 2007

04.10.07  At this years conference T. Münkemüller (Over-compensation promotes species coexistence), M. Didion (Sensitivity analysis of a forest succession model to changes in tree regeneration processes) and Dr. B. Reineking (Long-term invasion dynamics in temperate mountain forests under climate change – a simulation perspective) represented the professorship with presentations of their current research projects. The conference provided a broad and attractive overview of current ecological research presented by more than 600 international attendees. The topics of the symposia ranged from biodiversity and ecosystem functions to chemical ecology of land and water. The symposia provided the environment for discussion of the presented state of the art of the current science.

Latsis Symposium 2007

25.09.07  On September 17th to 19th, the LATSIS-Symposium „Research Frontiers
in Environment and Sustainability” took place at ETH Zurich. Prof. Bugmann was invited to give a presentation on the “Long-term dynamics of forest ecosystems under environmental change”.
Additionally, the forest ecology group presented three posters (abstracts) at the meeting:

• Heiri et al.: Direction and speed of natural beech forest dynamics: A matter of scale,
• Weibel et al.: Under which environmental conditions do forests burn? Ignition cause matters, and
• Wolf & Bugmann: Modelling the Effect of Land Use Changes in Mountain Catchments - Carbon and Water Cycle Feedbacks.

We congratulate Caroline Heiri on winning the Poster Awards within the topic “Sustainable Land Use“.

NCCR Climate Summer School 2007

24.08.07  From 26 - 31 August 2007 the 6th International NCCR Climate Summer School "Land Surface -  Atmosphere Interactions in a Changing Climate" takes place at Grindelwald, Switzerland. The NCCR Climate is Switzerland's Centre of Excellence in Climate and Climate Impact Reserach. It carries out cutting edge research and promotes education in four fully integrated areas:

• Long-term climate variability and change
• Climate predictability, forecasts and projections
• Climate impacts on ecosystems
• Climate risks for economy and society

Prof. Harald Bugmann and Dr. Annett Wolf participate at the NCCR Climate Summer School 2007 as lecturers.

Link to NCCR Climate
Link to the NCCR Climate Summer School 2007

Successful PhD defense by Jan Wunder

27.04.07  The Chair of Forest Ecology congratulates Jan Wunder on his successful PhD defense.

New SNF-Professorship Paleoecology and vegetation dynamics

28.02.07  The Swiss National Science Foundation has awarded PD Dr. Willy Tinner from University of Bern with an SNF Professorship. This new group will be associated with the professorship of Forest Ecology at ETH Zurich. The aim of the new professorship is to develop an improved understanding of vegetation dynamics in the Mediterranean region during the Holocene based on a combination of paleoecological methods and dynamic vegetation models.
In the near future, a web site describing the new professorship "Paleoecology and vegetation dynamics" will be set up.

New forest reserve in the Research Forest of Sedrun

22.01.07  An attractive object has been added to the Research Forest of ETH in Sedrun. The Prau Nausch forest, which covers an area of 60 ha south of the village of Sedrun, has been given the status of a strict forest reserve; that is, in its perimeter no forest management will take place in the future any more. With the signatures of the local community as the forest owner, the canton of Grisons and the NGO pro natura, the contract entered into force as of 1st January 2007. The reserve shall provide habitat for rare plants and animals, and it shall also provide insights for the general population and forest researchers on the natural dynamics of mountain forests. For more information click here (in German only).

Two new classes starting in the summer semester 2007

12.01.07  For the major forest and landscape management, there will be in the master course of the D-UWIS two new, optional classes that start in the summer semester 2007.
In the class dendroecology, the basics and methods of ecological tree-ring research will be presented and hands-on skills will be practiced. More information on the class dendroecology.
In the field course mountain forest ecology, which will take place from 16 to 22 June 2007 in Davos Sertig, current research projects in the field of mountain forest ecology will be presented and small research projects will be prepared and conducted in teams. More information on the field course in mountain forest ecology.

Successful start of the Major in Forest and Landscape Management

23.10.06  In the winter semester 06/07, the new Master curricula are starting in the Department of Environmental Sciences of ETH. Thirteen students are enrolled in the Major programme "Forest and Landscape Management". In this major, students acquire knowledge and skills on the functioning and the management of forest ecosystems and landscapes in five modules: know-how on ecological processes, ecosystem management, collective behavior & decision-making, and methods is complemented by project-oriented work in a seminar and an interdisciplinary project. In addition, a wide variety of elective courses is available to students. The Study Guide for the program can be found here.

Fourth data assessement in the forest reserve of „Scatlé“

15.7.06  Beginning July 13th a group of three people from the forest ecology group will start the fourth data assessement in the spruce forest reserve in Brigels. “Scatlé” is known as one of the few “virgin forests” of Switzerland and Pollen analytical research has shown that direct human influence has been very scarce since at least the 13th century. The whole assessement will take about three month.

New Curriculum "Forest and Landscape Management" at ETH Zurich

10.7.06  This summer, the first Bachelor students will accomplish their studies of Environmental Sciences at ETH Zurich. Some of them will continue their education with an internship outside ETH, which is a required component of the Master Curriculum, whereas others will continue with Master courses in the Major "Forest and Landscape Management". The Bachelor specialization "Forests and Landscapes" has been received quite well with the students: a large proportion of Bachelor students chose this specialization.

More information on the new Forest and Landscape Curriculum can be found here (in German only, sorry).

New book release

15.3.06  "Global Change and Mountain Regions. An Overview of Current Knowledge".