Publications related to Patch dynamics

Spatiotemporal Dynamics of Flow and Hydrochemistry in Drainage Networks

Despite their high ecological value, non-perennial streams have received less attention than their perennial counterparts. This doctoral thesis addresses this disparity by advancing knowledge on the dynamics of the drainage density and hydrologic processes ...

EPFL2024

Hydromorphological assessment of sediment augmentation measures in gravel-bed rivers

Christian Mörtl

In the riverine environment, the riverscape, sediment and flow regime are essential drivers for natural habitat dynamics. Today, most water courses in Europe are regulated, and their natural dynamics are impaired. Flood releases coupled with the artificial ...

EPFL2023

On the probabilistic nature of the species-area relation

Andrea Rinaldo, Andrea Giometto, Jonathan Giezendanner, Silvia Zaoli, Amos Maritan

The Species-Area Relation (SAR), which describes the increase in the number of species S with increasing area A, is under intense scrutiny in contemporary ecology, in particular to probe its reliability in predicting the number of species going extinct as ...

2019

A case-study evaluating river rehabilitation alternatives and habitat heterogeneity using the hydromorphological index of diversity

Anton Schleiss, Walter Gostner

Concurrent rehabilitation alternatives were evaluated for a 1900 m reach of the River Etsch in northern Italy using a recently developed Hydro Morphological Index of Diversity (HMID) model. HMID is a new tool enabling quantitative assessments of river rest ...

2019

Responses of permanent grasslands to drought during the plant growing season: combining agronomic, functional and ecophysiological approaches

Amarante Vitra

Extreme summer drought events are predicted to increase in intensity and frequency within the current century. The resulting water scarcity could dramatically impact human activities related to agriculture, due to the strong relationship between precipitat ...

EPFL2019

The Architecture of the Metacity: Land Use Change, Patch Dynamics and Urban Form in Chiang Mai, Thailand

Martina Barcelloni Corte

This essay analyzes the spatial and temporal dynamics which have emerged from the rapid development of Chiang Mai, Thailand over the last four decades. Modern urbanization since the 1980s in the previously remote Chiang Mai-Lamphun Valley has coincided wit ...

Cogitatio Press2017

Integrating models across temporal and spatial scales to simulate landscape patterns and dynamics in mountain pasture-woodlands

Alexander Ludwig Johannes Peringer

Context Pasture-woodlands are semi-natural landscapes that result from the combined influences of climate, management, and intrinsic vegetation dynamics. These landscapes are sensitive to future changes in land use and climate, but our ability to predict t ...

Springer2017

Geomorphic controls on elevational gradients of species richness

Andrea Rinaldo, Enrico Bertuzzo, Lorenzo Mari, Francesco Carrara, Florian Altermatt

Elevational gradients of biodiversity have been widely investigated, and yet a clear interpretation of the biotic and abiotic factors that determine how species richness varies with elevation is still elusive. In mountainous landscapes, habitats at differe ...

Natl Acad Sciences2016

L'espace public à Bogotá : entre les enjeux de la mobilité et la fragmentation urbaine

Yafiza Zorro Maldonado

There is a link between phenomena covered by the umbrella term «urban mobility» and the wealth of social and spatial dynamics active in de-structuring the city as a coherent spatial model, a process known as «urban fragmentation». It is therefore reasonabl ...

EPFL2015

Complex Interaction of Dendritic Connectivity and Hierarchical Patch Size on Biodiversity in River-Like Landscapes

Andrea Rinaldo, Andrea Giometto, Francesco Carrara, Florian Altermatt

Habitat fragmentation and land use changes are causing major biodiversity losses. Connectivity of the landscape or environmental conditions alone can shape biodiversity patterns. In nature, however, local habitat characteristics are often intrinsically lin ...

Univ Chicago Press2014

SEHR-ECHO v1.0: a Spatially Explicit Hydrologic Response model for ecohydrologic applications

Andrea Rinaldo, Enrico Bertuzzo, Bettina Schaefli, Ludovico Nicotina, Cédric Imfeld, Pierfrancesco Da Ronco

This paper presents the Spatially Explicit Hydrologic Response (SEHR) model developed at the Laboratory of Ecohydrology of the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne for the simulation of hydrological processes at the catchment scale. The key concept of ...

2014

Alien plant species distribution in the European Alps: influence of species' climatic requirements

Luca Bragazza

The paper provides the first estimate of the role of abiotic and anthropogenic variables driving both alien plant species richness and composition covering the whole region of the European Alps. To establish and spread in a new area, alien plants must be a ...

Springer Verlag2014

Climate or migration: what limited European beech post-glacial colonization?

Basil Andrew Stansfield Davis

AimDespite the recent improvements made in species distribution models (SDMs), assessing species' ability to migrate fast enough to track their climate optimum remains a challenge. This study achieves this goal and demonstrates the reliability of a process ...

Wiley-Blackwell2013

GAPPARD: a computationally efficient method of approximating gap-scale disturbance in vegetation models

Jed Oliver Kaplan

Models of vegetation dynamics that are designed for application at spatial scales larger than individual forest gaps suffer from several limitations. Typically, either a population average approximation is used that results in unrealistic tree allometry an ...

Copernicus Gesellschaft Mbh2013

Past and future landscape dynamics in pasture-woodlands of the Swiss Jura Mountains under climate change

Alexandre Buttler, François Gillet, Thomas Spiegelberger, Joël Chételat, Alexander Ludwig Johannes Peringer

Silvopastoral systems are traditional components of the landscape in the Swiss Jura Mountains, and are promising approaches for the sustainable management of mountain areas worldwide. Due to complex vegetation dynamics, pasture-woodlands are very vulnerabl ...

Resilience Alliance2013

Dendritic connectivity controls biodiversity patterns in experimental metacommunities

Andrea Rinaldo, Francesco Carrara, Florian Altermatt

Biological communities often occur in spatially structured habitats where connectivity directly affects dispersal and metacommunity processes. Recent theoretical work suggests that dispersal constrained by the connectivity of specific habitat structures, s ...

National Academy of Sciences2012

Analysis of carbon and nitrogen dynamics in riparian soils: Model development

David Andrew Barry, Alessandro Brovelli, Jordi Batlle-Aguilar

The quality of riparian soils and their ability to buffer contaminant releases to aquifers and streams are connected intimately to moisture content and nutrient dynamics, in particular of carbon (C) and nitrogen (N). A multi-compartment model – named the R ...

Elsevier2012

Establishment patterns in a secondary tree line ecotone

Alexander Ludwig Johannes Peringer

On semi-open pre-alpine fen pastures Alder encroachment creates a dynamic mosaic of grassland and woodland, which is rich in ecotones from fen to Carr. The structural diversity in colonisation patterns of Alder on fens suggests a dependency on multiple env ...

2011

Ecohydrological Footprints : Quantitative Response of Ecosystems to Changes in their Hydrological Drivers

Samir Suweis

Ecohydrological footprints are defined as the response of ecosystem functions or services to changes in their hydrologic drivers. In this thesis, several diverse footprints are addressed: noise-driven effects on storage-discharge relations and catchment st ...

EPFL2011

Modelling natural disturbances in forest ecosystems: a review

François Gillet

Natural disturbances play a key role in ecosystem dynamics and are important factors for sustainable forest ecosystem management. Quantitative models are frequently employed to tackle the complexities associated with disturbance processes. Here we review t ...

Elsevier2011