Publications de Christoph Bachofen

Non-native Douglas fir seedlings outcompete native Norway spruce, silver fir and Scots pine under dry and nutrient-poor conditions

Climate change is expected to significantly alter forest ecosystems, reducing the suitability of the key economic tree species Norway spruce (Picea abies) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica) in low- and mid-elevation forests of Central Europe. As these sp ...

2025

Beyond land surface temperature: Identifying areas of daytime thermal discomfort in cities by combining remote sensing and field measurements

Christoph Bachofen

Satellite images of land surface temperatures (LST) are commonly used to identify areas within cities most prone to diurnal thermal discomfort, but they may not reflect the experiences of pedestrians. Here, we developed predictive statistical models for Ph ...

2025

High transpirational cooling by urban trees despite extreme summer heatwaves

Charlotte Grossiord, Christoph Bachofen

Urban trees cool their environment by shading and transpiration (latent heat, LE), thereby alleviating urban heat. LE may be critically reduced during heatwaves, when trees reduce stomatal conductance (gS) to prevent hydraulic dysfunctions. Recent observat ...

2025

Prolonged warming and drought reduce canopy‐level net carbon uptake in beech and oak saplings despite photosynthetic and respiratory acclimation

Laura Mekarni, Charlotte Grossiord, Eugénie Isabelle Mas, Christoph Bachofen, Margaux Clara Lou Didion-Gency, Janisse Deluigi

Tree net carbon (C) uptake may decrease under global warming, as higher temperatures constrain photosynthesis while simultaneously increasing respiration. Thermal acclimation might mitigate this negative effect, but its capacity to do so under concurrent s ...

Wiley2025

Wachstum und Trockenstress: physiologische Charakterisierung von Schweizer Waldbäumen

Christoph Bachofen

Das Monitoring-Netzwerk TreeNet untersucht mit automatischen Sensoren an Baumstämmen (Punktdendro- metern) den Wasserhaushalt und das Wachstum von Waldbäumen an rund 70 Standorten in der Schweiz (inkl. 13 LWF-Standorten). Alle zehn Minuten werden an über 5 ...

Swiss Forestry Society2025

Twenty years of irrigation acclimation is driven by denser canopies and not by plasticity in twig- and needle-level hydraulics in a Pinus sylvestris forest

Charlotte Grossiord, Eugénie Isabelle Mas, Christoph Bachofen, Alex Tunas Corzon, Hervé Cochard, Alice Jacqueline Frédérique Gauthey

Climate change is predicted to increase atmospheric vapor pressure deficit, exacerbating soil drought, and thus enhancing tree evaporative demand and mortality. Yet, few studies have addressed the longer-term drought acclimation strategy of trees, particul ...

Oxford Univ Press2024

Tree water uptake patterns across the globe

Charlotte Grossiord, Christoph Bachofen

Plant water uptake from the soil is a crucial element of the global hydrological cycle and essential for vegetation drought resilience. Yet, knowledge of how the distribution of water uptake depth (WUD) varies across species, climates, and seasons is scarc ...

Wiley2024

Invasive palms have more efficient and prolonged CO2 assimilation compared to native sub-Mediterranean vegetation

Marco Conedera, Thibaut Michel Georges Juillard, Charlotte Grossiord, Christoph Bachofen, Janisse Deluigi

In sub-Mediterranean ecosystems, shade-tolerant broadleaf evergreens, especially the invasive Trachycarpus fortunei, are spreading uncontrollably in the forest understorey, impeding the regeneration of the native deciduous woody vegetation. Most invasive s ...

Elsevier2024

Soil warming alters tree water use and canopy stomatal conductance in a mixed subtropical forest

Charlotte Grossiord, Christoph Bachofen

As air temperature and vapor pressure deficit (VPD) increase continuously, forests are losing more water through evapotranspiration, with large consequences for local and global hydrological cycles. In regions with high vegetation cover, soil warming can b ...

Elsevier2024

Extracting flowering phenology from grassland species mixtures using time-lapse cameras

Christoph Bachofen

Understanding the impacts of climate change on plant phenology is crucial for predicting ecosystem responses. However, accurately tracking the flowering phenology of individual plant species in grassland species mixtures is challenging, hindering our abili ...

Elsevier Science Inc2023

Absence of canopy temperature variation despite stomatal adjustment in Pinus sylvestris under multidecadal soil moisture manipulation

Charlotte Grossiord, Eugénie Isabelle Mas, Christoph Bachofen, Alex Tunas Corzon, Alice Jacqueline Frédérique Gauthey, Janisse Deluigi

center dot Global warming and droughts push forests closer to their thermal limits, altering tree carbon uptake and growth. To prevent critical overheating, trees can adjust their thermotolerance (T-crit), temperature and photosynthetic optima (T-opt and A ...

WILEY2023

Stand structure of Central European forests matters more than climate for transpiration sensitivity to VPD

Charlotte Grossiord, Christoph Bachofen

2023

Warming may extend tree growing seasons and compensate for reduced carbon uptake during dry periods

Yann Vitasse, Charlotte Grossiord, Eugénie Isabelle Mas, Christoph Bachofen, Margaux Clara Lou Didion-Gency

Warming and drought alter plant phenology, photosynthesis and growth with important consequences for the global carbon cycle and the earth’s climate. Yet, few studies have attempted to tease apart their effects on tree phenology, particularly leaf senes ...

2022

Accounting for foliar gradients in Vc(max) and J(max) improves estimates of net CO2 exchange of forests

Christoph Bachofen

Vertical gradients in the canopy represent a major challenge for scaling from foliar photosynthesis to ecosystem-level CO2 fluxes. We tested whether accounting for independent gradients of carboxylation capacity (Vc(max)) and photosynthetic electron transp ...

ELSEVIER2022

Using PhenoCams to track crop phenology and explain the effects of different cropping systems on yield

Christoph Bachofen, Yujie Liu

CONTEXT: Crop phenology integrates information of how environmental drivers and management practices affect plant performance and crop yield. However, little is known about the impact of cropping systems (CS) on crop phenology and how this relates to diffe ...

ELSEVIER SCI LTD2022

The effect of temperature changes and K supply on the reproduction and growth of Bolboschoenus planiculmis

Christoph Bachofen

Aims Climate warming and agricultural non-point source pollution both resulting from anthropogenic activities have been projected to affect plant reproduction and growth in wetlands worldwide. In order to predict and mitigate impacts of these anthropogenic ...

OXFORD UNIV PRESS2021

Interactive effects of tree species mixture and climate on foliar and woody trait variation in in a widely distributed deciduous tree

Charlotte Grossiord, Christoph Bachofen

2021

Phenotypic plasticity versus ecotypic differentiation under recurrent summer drought in two drought-tolerant pine species

Christoph Bachofen

Despite worldwide reports of high tree mortality, growing evidence indicates that many tree species are well adapted to survive repeated dry spells. The drought resilience of trees is related to their phenotypic plasticity and ecotypic differentiation. Whe ...

WILEY2021

Contrasting Leaf Trait Responses of Conifer and Broadleaved Seedlings to Altered Resource Availability Are Linked to Resource Strategies

Yan Li Zhang, Christoph Bachofen

(1) Understanding tree seedling responses to water, nutrient, and light availability is crucial to precisely predict potential shifts in composition and structure of forest communities under future climatic conditions. (2) We exposed seedlings of widesprea ...

2020