Biology

At temperatures above 30°C, water loss through transpiration increases in trees, while CO₂ uptake decreases – even when there is enough CO₂ in the atmosphere. Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL were able to show this in a study conducted using a new high-tech facility. This finding is important for understanding how trees adapt to climate change and the associated rise in temperatures.

An EPFL scientist along with colleagues from universities across Europe have completed the first-ever quantitative study of the changes that soil organic matter from forests can cause in high-altitude and high-latitude lakes once it’s dissolved in the water.

When the BBC commissioned two reptilian robots from the EPFL BioRob lab for a documentary on the African wilderness in 2016, the researchers could not have predicted how testing the devices in uncontrolled environments would change their approach to robotic design.

Ecological communities in rivers and lakes are responding to climate change in a similar way to communities on land. This is shown by the first comprehensive comparison of freshwater and terrestrial ecosystems around the globe, co-led by Eawag and WSL. When temperatures rise, warm-loving species are the main beneficiaries. One surprising exception may be the plankton.