Updates
- February 19th 2026: I was invited by Radio Télévision Suisse to speak on the science program CQFD about our latest research published in Global Change Biology paper.
- January 17th, 2026: Co-authored paper leaded by Arthur Gessler is accepted by the New Phytologist: Shaping future forests: how can ecophysiology support climate-smart forest management?
- January 7th 2026: Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL published news on our Global Change Biology paper entitled: "Forests under climate stress – Why trees are growing less despite an early start"
- December 14th 2025: Participated the TreeNet meeting at the University of Basel and presented: "Tree growth under tension: Atmospheric demand, soil water supply, and the physiological bottleneck".
- September 10th 2025: Participated the Ecosystem Ecology meeting at the Davos, Switzerland.
- June 8th, 2025: Lead authored paper is accepted by the Global Change Biology : Decreasing stem growth in common European tree species despite earlier growth onset.
- June 1st, 2025: Co-authored paper leaded by Xia Wu is accepted by the Plant and Soil : "Effects of understory vegetation and climate change on forest litter decomposition: implications for plant and soil management"
- April 28th, 2025: Co-authored paper leaded by Liehua Tie is accepted by the Global Ecology and Biogeography : "The effects, patterns, and predictors of phosphorus addition on terrestrial litter decomposition"
- March 2-7 2025: Participated the "Zhydro" Hydrology-Ecophysiology conference at the Monte Verita, Switzerland and presented three posters (two co-authored and 1 as lead author.
- February 14th, 2025: Participated the Science Day of Swiss Forest Lab at the University of Basel and presented a poster "40-year trend in soil water balance in Switzerland and its link to forest vegetation responses".
- September 10 - November 8, 2024: Martín Alcalá Pajares PhD student from University of Quebec spent two months here at WSL, Switzerland. We worked together to better understand the radial growth and intrinsic water-use efficiency of Jack pine under post-thinned stand conditions in Eskers land of Quebec, Canada.
- April 1st, 2024: Co-authored paper leaded by Liehua Tie is accepted by the Plant and Soil : Phosphorus limitation of Pinus massoniana reforestation increases with stand development: Evidence from plant, leaf litter, and soil.
- March 31st, 2024: Co-authored paper leaded by Xiaoqian Zhou is accepted by the Science of the Total Environment : Species-specific responses of C and N allocation to N addition: evidence from dual 13C and 15N labeling in three tree species.
- March 28th, 2024: Lead authored paper is accepted by the Forest Ecology and Management : Tamm Review: Drought-induced Scots pine mortality – trends, contributing factors, and mechanisms.
- March 26th, 2024: Lead authored paper is accepted by the Science of the Total Environment : Revealing legacy effects of extreme droughts ontree growth of oaks across the Northern Hemisphere.
- March 17th, 2024: Paper leaded by Stefan Hunziker is accepted by the Tree Physiology : The metabolic fingerprint of Scots pine – rootand needle metabolites show different patterns in dying trees.
- January 11, 2024: Special Issue editorial is published by the Forest Ecology and Management : Forest management options in modulating trees’ survival, growth, and reproduction strategies under environmental stress.
- November 23, 2023: Coauthored paper leader by Arthur Gessler is accepted by the New Phytologist: Finding the balance between open access to forest data while safeguarding the integrity of National Forest Inventory-derived information.
- March 5th, 2024: Started a new project at the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL.
- April 14th, 2023: Paper leaded by Ao Wang is accepted by Frontiers in Plant Science: Water status and macronutrient concentrations, but not carbon status, of Viscum album ssp. album are determined by its hosts: a study across nine mistletoe-host pairs in central Switzerland.
- April 10th, 2023: Paper leaded by Liehua Tie is accepted by the journal Science of The Total Environment: N and P combined addition accelerates the release of litter C, N, and most metal nutrients in a N-rich subtropical forest.
- March 10-11, Visited the Forest Ecology and Forest Management Group of the Wageningen University the Netherlands.
- February 26th, 2023, Book chapter: leaded by Miguel Girona is now published online: Innovative Silviculture to Achieve Sustainable Forest Management in Boreal Forests: Lessons from Two Large-Scale Experiments.
- February 7th, 2023: Paper leaded by Roman Zweifel is accepted by the jorunal Science of The Total Environment: Networking the forest infrastructure towards near real-time monitoring – A white paper.
- December 9th, 2022: The Auburn University offered me the Ecophysiology Assistant Professor position, but had to decline for family reason.
- November 18, 2022: Lead authored paper Complex regeneration responses of eight tree species to partial harvest in mixedwood forests of northeastern North America is accepted by the Forest Ecology and Management.
- October 4, 2022: "What makes a Scots pine tree sensitive to climate and how does it die during or after a drought?" was presented at the Research Unit meeting of the research unit Forest Dynamics, WSL.
- August 22-27, 2022: Visited Epigenetics labs of Dr. Igor Yakovlev at NIBIO, Norway.
- August 8, 2022: Together with Dr. Miranda Redmond (University of California, Berkley) and Dr. Mathieu Levesque (ETH Zurich) we are hosting a speacial issue with the journal Forest Ecology and Management. The topic is Forest management options in modulating trees’ survival, growth, and reproduction strategies under environmental stress.
- June 27-28, 2022: "Trees are growing earlier as Switzerland warms" was presented at the TreeNet 10-year anniversary conference, University of Basel, Switzerland.
- June 19, 2022: Canadian Journal of Forest Research awarded the "Outstanding reviewer" for my work in 2021.
- February 14, 2022: "Lessons learned from a long-term irrigation experiment in a dry Scots pine forest: Impacts on traits and functioning" was presented at the Pfynwald workshop, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL.
- January 25, 2022: Paper leaded by Claudia Guidi Soil fauna drives vertical redistribution of soil organic carbon in a long‐term irrigated dry pine forest is accepted by the Global Change Biology.
- November 29, 2021: Lead authored paper Did the 2018 megadrought change the partitioning of growth between tree sizes and species? A Swiss case-study is accepted by the Plant Biology.
- November 8, 2021: Paper leaded by Sophia Etzold Number of growth days and not length of the growth period determines radial stem growth of temperate trees is accepted by the Ecology Letters.
- October 22, 2021: Paper leaded by David Candel-Perez of Universidad de Valladolid on Forest structure drives the expected growth of Pinus nigra along its latitudinal gradient under warming climate is accepted by the journal Forest Ecology and Management.
- September 22, 2021: "The development of tree growth in Switzerland since 2012 based on TreeNet data" was presented at the ICOS-Switzerland meeting at the ETH Zurich.
- August 24, 2021: Paper leaded by Manuel Esteban Lucas-Borja of Universidad de Castila La-Mancha on Assessing tree drought resistance and climate growth relationship under different tree age-classes in a Pinus nigra Arn. ssp. salzmannii forest is accepted by the journal Forests.
- June 21, 2021: "Did the 2018 megadrought change the partitioning of growth between tree sizes and species? A Swiss case-study" was presented at the FOREMA Quarterly Colloquiy, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL.
- June 5, 2021: Paper leaded by Alessandra Bottero of Swiss Federal Reserach Institute WSL on Growth resilience of managed silver fir and Norway spruce mixed forests in central Europe – contrasting responses to mild and severe droughts is accepted by the journal Global Change Biology.
- April 23, 2021: Started a new role: External Graduate Faculty for the University of Maine, USA.
- April 9, 2021: Lead authored paper on "Climate sensitivity and drought seasonality determine post-drought growth recovery of Quercus petraea and Quercus robur in Europe" is published in the Science of the Total Environment.
- February 24, 2021: Presented "Basing forest management decisions on quantitative understanding of forest ecosystems " at the Southern Swedish Forest Research Center, Sweden.
- January 13, 2021: Lead authored paper on Effect magnitudes of operational-scale partial harvesting on residual tree growth and mortality of ten major tree species in Maine USA is accepted by the journal Forest Ecology and Management.
- September 18, 2020: Presented "Memory of environmental conditions across generations affects the acclimation potential of Scots pine tree species" at the Thompson River University, Canada.
- September 17, 2020: Presented "Meta-analysis reveals that releasing a Scots pine forest from water stress by irrigation can shift the boundary condition to a new dynamic-equilibrium" at the Swiss Federal Research Institute, WSL.
- August 25, 2020: Presented "Climate sensitivity and drought seasonality determine post-drought growth recovery of Quercus petraea and Quercus robur in Europe" at the Swiss Federal Research Institute, WSL.
- May 1, 2020: Lead authored paper on tree growth resilience to extreme droughts is published in Global Change Biology: Growth and resilience responses of Scots pine to extreme droughts across Europe depend on pre-drought growth conditions. Global Change Biology.
- April 24, 2020: Lead authored paper examining forest regeneration responses to operational-scale partial harvesting across all forest types of Maine, USA is published in the Canadian Journal of Forest Research.
- April 7, 2020: Paper leaded by Roman Zweifel of Swiss Federal Reserach Institute WSL on Determinants of legacy effects in pine trees – implications from an irrigation‐stop experiment is published in the journal New Phytologist.
- March 30, 2020: My interview with European Union on Adapting forests to the realities of climate change is published online.
- January 21, 2020: Lead authored paper Memory of environmental conditions across generations affects the acclimation potential of Scots pine is published in the journal Plant, Cell & Environment.
- June 17-22, 2019: Will teach BSc-level Mountain Forest Ecosystem field class of ETH Zurich at Davos Switzerland.
- June 5-7, 2019: Participated the USYS, ETH Zurich meeting in Davos Switzerland, and presented "The potential role of transgenerational epigenetic effects for the acclimation of Pinus sylvestris L. to drought" .
- May 3, 2019: Joined the editorial team of Forestry, An International Journal of Forest Research. I will coordinate the theme "Adaptive Forest Management".
- April 10-12, 2019: Participated the EGU general assembly 2019 and presented in the session Interdisciplinary Tree Ring Research: Growth responses of Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) to extreme droughts: How do they vary across a 2800 km latitudinal gradient in Europe?
- February 26, 2019: A coauthored paper leaded by Dr. Sophia Etzold of Swiss Federal Research Institute by Frontiers in Plant Science: One Century of Forest Monitoring Data in Switzerland Reveals Species- and Site-Specific Trends of Climate-Induced Tree Mortality.
- January 29, 2019: Prsented "The potential role of transgenerational epigenetic effects for the acclimation of Pinus sylvestris L. to drought" at Swiss Federal Reserach Institute WSL.
- December 10-12, 2018: Participated the Functional Ecology Conference in Nancy France, and presented "Potential role of transgenerational epigenetic effects in acclimation to environmental changes".
- A coauthored paper leaded by Prof. Suzanne Brais of University of Quebec is accepted by Canadian Journal of Forest Research: Stem- and stand-level growth and mortality following partial cutting in eastern boreal poplar – white spruce stands.
- November 21, 2018: Will participate the Science day of Swiss Forest Lab in Birmensdorf, Switzerland.
- August 19-24, 2018, participated the CARSEQ (Carbon Sequestration) summer school at Davos, Switzerland.
- June 21, 2018: Lead authored paper accepted in the Forest Ecology and Management: Tree-level growth and mortality responses following commercial thinning of four major softwood species in North America.
- April 28-May 2, 2018: Visiting the University of British Columbia.
- March 11-13, 2018: Will participate a meeting in Berlin, Germany on tree growth as a function of extreme events (i.e., droughts).
- March 7-11, 2018: Will participate the CIMAS conference at Granada, Spain on forest growth in mountains of Sierra Nevada.
- February 8, 2018: Certified as the "Outstanding Reviewer of 2017" by the journal of Forest Ecology and Management.
- January 27, 2018: The results of my paper on temporal changes of hardwood forest composition of northeastern USA over the past three decades is covered in the media.
- January 18, 2018: Two MSc positions are available (not fully funded): 1) Testing seed germination success and seedling biomass growth performance , and 2) Testing seedling physiological performances (photosynthesis and gas exchange) as a function of soil and seed legacies, micro-climate, and irrigation treatments.
- December 12, 2017: Lead authored paper accepted in the Annals of Forest Science: Density reduction in loblolly pine (Pinus taeda L.) stands to increase tree C assimilation: an approach with the dual δ13C and δ18O isotope signatures in needles.
- December 4, 2017: Lead authored paper accepted in the Forest Ecology and Management: Does commercial thinning improve stand-level growth of the three most commercially important softwood forest types in North America?
- November 23, 2017: Forest Ecology and Management included me in the Editorial Board of the journal.
- July 28, 2017: Lead authored paper is accepted in the journal New Forests (Title: Influence of browsing damage and overstory cover on regeneration of American beech and sugar maple nine years following understory herbicide release in central Maine).
- Received the Marie-Curie fellowship from EU, will start a researcher position at WSL & ETH Zurich from November 2017.
- March 14, 2017: Lead authored paper is accepted in the Journal of Applied Ecology: A three decade assessment of climate-associated changes in forest composition across the north-eastern USA.
- February 28, 2017: Lead authored paper is accepted in the Forest Ecology and Management: Occurrence, pattern of change, and factors associated with American beech dominance in stands of the northeastern USA forest.
- Received 97,445$ (USA) as lead PI on "Assessing the future short- and long-term wood supply in Maine: Evaluating the role of potentially critical factors and evolving products". The project is funded by US Dept of Agriculture.
