Publications by authors named "Nicolas Bircher"

The success of ponds constructed to restore ecological infrastructure for pond-breeding amphibians and benefit aquatic biodiversity depends on where and how they are built. We studied effects of pond and landscape characteristics, including connectivity, on metapopulation dynamics of 12 amphibian species in Switzerland. To understand the determinants of long-term occupancy (here summarized as incidence), environmental effects on both colonization and persistence should be considered.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

The increasing impacts of climate change on forest ecosystems have triggered multiple model-based impact assessments for the future, which typically focused either on a small number of stand-scale case studies or on large scale analyses (i.e., continental to global).

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Dynamic vegetation models (DVMs) are important tools to understand and predict the functioning and dynamics of terrestrial ecosystems under changing environmental conditions. In these models, uncertainty in the description of demographic processes, in particular tree mortality, is a persistent problem. Current mortality formulations lack realism and are insufficiently constrained by empirical evidence.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Dynamic models are pivotal for projecting forest dynamics in a changing climate, from the local to the global scale. They encapsulate the processes of tree population dynamics with varying resolution. Yet, almost invariably, tree mortality is modeled based on simple, theoretical assumptions that lack a physiological and/or empirical basis.

View Article and Find Full Text PDF

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: fopen(/var/lib/php/sessions/ci_session0rv3vkliktestdlc6mvtnbk6j1pc9jsg): Failed to open stream: No space left on device

Filename: drivers/Session_files_driver.php

Line Number: 177

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: session_start(): Failed to read session data: user (path: /var/lib/php/sessions)

Filename: Session/Session.php

Line Number: 137

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once