Biodiversity is greatest in the tropics. That fact that it is hot and humid there plays an important role. However, climate alone cannot explain the global biodiversity patterns well. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research have now tackled this old problem from a completely different angle - and identified a new, doubly important reason for high tropical diversity.

On 21 September 2023, the ETH Board elected Anita Risch to the WSL Directorate. The ecologist and private lecturer at ETH Zurich researches the interactions and functions of animals, plants and soil organisms in ecosystems around the world.

Energy transition, climate change, biodiversity and resource scarcity - today's challenges are complex, and the clock is ticking. So joining forces and working together ever more closely is the name of the game these days. This is exactly what the four research institutes of the ETH Domain - Empa, Eawag, WSL and PSI (Paul Scherrer Institute) - are doing. With cooperation platforms and joint projects, the four institutes are positioning themselves even more clearly than before as THE bridge between research and innovative solutions for today's challenges.

Climate change caused by human activity under a high-emissions scenario may halve the area covered by glaciers outside the Antarctic and Greenland ice sheets by the end of the century, reports a study.

In addition to heat and drought, various invasive beetles and other harmful organisms caused problems in the forest in 2022. Many of the observed insects and fungi are new to Switzerland, as the Swiss Forest Protection Competence Center of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research reports in its forest protection overview

In many Swiss forests, and especially in protection forests, there is a lack of tree regeneration. One reason is the impact of red deer, chamois and roe deer, which browse on tree saplings or rub their antlers against young trees. Andrea Doris Kupferschmid of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL explains why this is so and what it means in view of climate change.

Forests renew themselves naturally. There has been very little research into how exactly this happens - until now. Researchers at ETH Zurich and WSL have set themselves the task of solving this puzzle.

WSL biologist Niklaus Zimmermann has been awarded an SNSF Advanced Grant worth 2.8 million Swiss francs. He will use it to analyse biomes and model the challenges that climate change poses for the Earth's vegetation zones.

The Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL is participating in a pan-European project to monitor and evaluate the impact of climate change on forests.

SLF biologists are retracing two expeditions undertaken 20 and 90 years ago. Like their predecessors, they will be recording the plant populations they come across, and analysing how these have changed over recent decades. They expect this to provide new insights into the effects of climate change.