Rodolphe Schlaepfer | EPFL Graph Search

Examples of international experience:

Research project in Indonesia (Impact of forest exploitation on the ecological quality of rivers)
Research project in Columbia (Impacts of petroleum exploitation on rivers and landscapes)
Teaching at the University of Antananarivo (Sustainable management of natiral resources)
Other countries: Canada, Sweden, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Switzerland, France, UK

Scientific education:

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (Forestry),
University Laval Quebec (Forest inventory and Statistics),
University of Edinburgh (Statistics, Biometry),
Oregon State University (Landscape ecology, Forest ecology).

Professional career:

Statstician at Ciba-Geigy Basel(1969-1975),
Professor for Statistics and Physics at the Swiss Engineering School for Agriculture Zollikofen (1975-1982),
Professor for Forest Management and Forest Biometry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (1982-1987),
Director general of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research in Birmensorf and Professor for Forest Sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology in Zürich (1987-1996),
Professor for Ecosystem Management at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technolgy Lausanne (1997-2005)
From 2005: Honory Professsor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne

Examples of international experience:

Research project in Indonesia (Impact of forest exploitation on the ecological quality of rivers)
Research project in Columbia (Impacts of petroleum exploitation on rivers and landscapes)
Teaching at the University of Antananarivo (Sustainable management of natiral resources)
Other countries: Canada, Sweden, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Switzerland, France, UK

Scientific education:

Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zürich (Forestry),
University Laval Quebec (Forest inventory and Statistics),
University of Edinburgh (Statistics, Biometry),
Oregon State University (Landscape ecology, Forest ecology).

Professional career:

Statstician at Ciba-Geigy Basel(1969-1975),
Professor for Statistics and Physics at the Swiss Engineering School for Agriculture Zollikofen (1975-1982),
Professor for Forest Management and Forest Biometry at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zürich (1982-1987),
Director general of the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research in Birmensorf and Professor for Forest Sciences at the Swiss Federal Institute for Technology in Zürich (1987-1996),
Professor for Ecosystem Management at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technolgy Lausanne (1997-2005)
From 2005: Honory Professsor at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne

Composition and superposition of alluvial deposits drive macro-biological soil engineering and organic matter dynamics in floodplains

Claire Guenat, Renée-Claire Le Bayon, Rodolphe Schlaepfer, Andreas Cedric Schomburg, Pascal Turberg

Soil structure formation in alluvial soils is a fundamental process in near-natural floodplains. A stable soil structure is essential for many ecosystem services and helps to prevent river bank erosion. Plants and earthworms are successful soil engineering organisms that improve the soil structural stability through the incorporation of mineral and organic matter into soil aggregates. However, the heterogeneous succession of different textured mineral and buried organic matter layers could impede the development of a stable soil structure. Our study aims at improving the current understanding of soil structure formation and organic matter dynamics in near natural alluvial soils. We investigate the effects of soil engineering organisms, the composition, and the superimposition of different alluvial deposits on the structuration patterns, the aggregate stability, and organic matter dynamics in in vitro soil columns, representing sediment deposition processes in alluvial soils. Two successions of three different deposits, silt-buried litter-sand, and the inverse, were set up in mesocosms and allocated to four different treatments, i.e. plants, earthworms, plants + earthworms, and a control. X-ray computed tomography was used to identify structuration patterns generated by ecosystem engineers, i.e. plant root galleries and earthworm tunnels. Organic matter dynamics in macro-aggregates were investigated by Rock-Eval pyrolysis. Plant roots only extended in the top layers, whereas earthworms preferentially selected the buried litter and the silt layers. Soil structural stability measured via water stable aggregates (%WSA) increased in the presence of plants and in aggregates recovered from the buried litter layer. Organic matter dynamics were controlled by a complex interplay between the type of engineer, the composition (silt, sand, buried litter) and the succession of the deposits in the mesocosm. Our results indicate that the progress and efficiency of soil structure formation in alluvial soils strongly depends on the textural sequences of alluvial deposits.

2019

Asymmetric effects of cooler and warmer winters on beech phenology last beyond spring

Alexandre Buttler, María Paula Sanginés De Cárcer, Rodolphe Schlaepfer, Constant Signarbieux, Ester Toledano Díaz, Yann Vitasse

In temperate trees, the timings of plant growth onset and cessation affect biogeochemical cycles, water, and energy balance. Currently, phenological studies largely focus on specific phenophases and on their responses to warming. How differently spring phenology responds to the warming and cooling, and affects the subsequent phases, has not been yet investigated in trees. Here, we exposed saplings of Fagus sylvatica L. to warmer and cooler climate during the winter 2013-2014 by conducting a reciprocal transplant experiment between two elevations (1,340 vs. 371m a.s.l., ca. 6 degrees C difference) in the Swiss Jura mountains. To test the legacy effects of earlier or later budburst on the budset timing, saplings were moved back to their original elevation shortly after the occurrence of budburst in spring 2014. One degree decrease in air temperature in winter/spring resulted in a delay of 10.9 days in budburst dates, whereas one degree of warming advanced the date by 8.8 days. Interestingly, we also found an asymmetric effect of the warmer winter vs. cooler winter on the budset timing in late summer. Budset of saplings that experienced a cooler winter was delayed by 31days compared to the control, whereas it was delayed by only 10 days in saplings that experienced a warmer winter. Budburst timing in 2015 was not significantly impacted by the artificial advance or delay of the budburst timing in 2014, indicating that the legacy effects of the different phenophases might be reset during each winter. Adapting phenological models to the whole annual phenological cycle, and considering the different response to cooling and warming, would improve predictions of tree phenology under future climate warming conditions.

Wiley2017

Earthworms as ecosystem engineers : a review

Géraldine Michèle Bullinger, Claire Guenat, Renée-Claire Le Bayon, Rodolphe Schlaepfer, Andreas Cedric Schomburg, Pascal Turberg

The concept of ecosystem engineering has emerged decades ago and highlights the direct or indirect modulation of available resources by organisms through their biological activities. Ecosystem engineers create biogenic structures (aggregates, burrows) that may serve as habitats for other species than themselves. This chapter aims at overviewing the key role played by earthworms as ecosystem engineers through their bioturbation activities involving soil mixing as well as their influence on the decomposition and mineralization of litter by breaking down organic matter, and their influence on the gas and water exchange or nutrient transfer in the soil. Focus is made on the engineering processes and especially the formation of biogenic structures in relation to soil structure (burrows, casts) in the framework of soil function interactions, particularly in the drilosphere. Special attention is paid to soil aggregates’ fabric and new tools that may help to discriminate their origin. Finally, management and ecosystem engineer’s future challenges will be highlighted regarding soil ecosystem services in the context of ecosystem restoration.

Nova Science Publishers, Inc.2017