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A team from GIUZ and the Swiss Ornithological Institute studied how migratory birds cross the Swiss Alps for the first time using year-round radar measurements: migration intensities, flight altitudes, speeds and directions were monitored. It turned out that migratory birds use the Alpine valleys and adjacent passes as passages. This has important implications for their protection, as valleys and pass crossings are also potential sites for wind turbines.
Rock glaciers are a mixture of debris and ice that are permanently frozen on the inside all year round. They slowly creep downhill, and since the 1990s they have been creeping faster and faster. This makes them a reliable climate indicator, as a recent international study involving the GIUZ has shown.
Even if greenhouse gas emissions were to cease altogether, the volume of ice in the European Alps would fall by 34% by 2050. If the trend observed over the last 20 years continues at the same rate, however, almost half the volume of ice will be lost as has been demonstrated by a new international study, co-authored by GIUZ scientists.
2023 was the hottest year on record worldwide. The past few years have also been marked by several extreme heatwaves, leading to massive health risks and increased mortality. Adaptation is now at the top of the global political climate agenda, on a par with mitigation. To make forward-looking, evidence-based decisions, we need to adopt an integrative perspective in research, argues a recent paper published in The Lancet Planetary Health. The authors outline six building blocks needed as part of a more integrated research framework.
River networks are striking features engraved into the surface of the Earth, shaped by uplift and erosion. It is still unclear which erosional mechanisms created these distinctive geometric signatures on Earth. A new paper shows the contribution of groundwater to shaping river network branching angles.
You don’t know? That’s maybe because you have not visited all twenty of them (yet)? Fortunately, you might not need to use your precious free time to empirically determine your favourite park. A recent publication might offer a more efficient way, by providing you with some guidance from the crowd: A team of researchers from the Department of Geography created profiles of Swiss parks with user generated content for you to find the one you like.
Scientists from the universities of Zurich, Lausanne and Bern have developed an unprecedented simulation which, in just 80 seconds, shows the evolution of glaciers in the Alps over the last 120,000 years. This complex computer model is the fruit of intensive collaboration between climatologists, glaciologists, and geologists.
Subsoils are the largest storehouses for carbon, as well as one of the most important sources of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Global warming is accelerating the decomposition of soil humus. It is also affecting the waxy and woody compounds which help plants store carbon in their leaves and roots and were previously thought to be stable. These are the findings of a study conducted by researchers from the Department of Geography in the Sierra Nevada National Forest.
Microorganisms play a key role in soil carbon storage, as shown by an international collaborative study involving researchers from the Department of Geography. Microbial carbon use efficiency is at least four times more influential than other biological or environmental factors when it comes to global soil carbon storage and distribution. The results have implications for improving soil health and mitigating climate change.
The impact of our research is often measured in the number of publications or related indices. The impact on policies and practitioners is more difficult to assess and less recognized in academia. With this initiative, we aimed to strengthen the societal relevance of our research by fostering different pathways of science-policy-interfaces.
