BACI: 2015-2019

TOWARDS A BIOSPHERE ATMOSPHERE CHANGE INDEX

WSL Eidgenoessische Forschungsanstalt WSL - Landscape Dynamics
Web page: http://www.wsl.ch

The WSL is Swiss Confederation research institute of the ETH Domain employing approximately 500 people with the majority based at the Birmensdorf headquarters. Around 60% of the staff are researchers, 40% of the staff are women, with the WSL also highly committed to education (~75 current PhD students). The WSL’s mission is to conduct research for people and the environment, and accordingly strives for excellence in terrestrial environmental research providing solutions improving the quality of life in a healthy environment. The WSL explores the dynamics of the terrestrial environment, and the use and protection of natural and cultural habitats. The WSL monitors landscapes, forests, biodiversity, and natural hazards and develops sustainable solutions for socially relevant issues together with its partners from science and society. The WSL is home to Europe’s largest center for tree-ring research where the annually-resolved measurements of tree-radial growth, density variation, and isotope composition are a vital long-term record of the impacts of environmental change on forest ecosystems. Research is conducted on all forested continents with the WSL serving as the leading contributor to the International Tree-Ring Databank. Within BACI: The WSL will lead Task 3.4 to develop and harmonize a global network of tree-ring measurements and larger regional scale networks of i) stable carbon and oxygen isotope ratios and ii) monitoring plots for annually-resolved stem biomass reconstruction. Time series and associated uncertainties from these spatially-extensive networks will be assessed in conjunction with other ground-based data streams and integrated into the BACI and EO pathways.