ABOUT US

Dendrolab.ch – the Swiss Tree-Ring Lab is one of the major tree-ring labs in Europe and the largest facility worldwide working on the reconstruction of past geomorphic process activity. Dendrolab.ch was founded by Prof. Dr. Markus Stoffel in July 2000. The lab belongs to the Climate Change Impacts and Risks in the Anthropocene (C-CIA) chair and is hosted at the Department of Earth Sciences, University of Geneva.

The success story of Dendrolab.ch started with fundamental and applied research on a wide array of geomorphic and geological processes, but now also includes research on paleoclimatology, ecology, glaciology and hydrology. The team is working in most mountain regions of the World including the European Alps, Spanish Central System, Carpathians, Mexican Volcanic Belt, Patagonian Andes, Himalayas, Tien Shan, Far East Siberia (Kamchatka Peninsula), Rocky Mountains and the Arctic.

Our Objectives

Develop time-series of past geomorphic, environmental and hydro-climatic changes, including extremes, using state-of-the-art approaches.

Perform fundamental research and high-impact publications as well as advisory opinions for international and regional authorities and development agencies.

Educate motivated MSc and postgraduate students in the fields of excellence of Dendrolab.ch.

OUR TOOLS

Tree-ring analyses

We use four conventional Lintab tables and a Epson hi-res scanner to measure ring widths of trees and shrubs. In addition, we employ dendrometers on tree stems and shrubs to monitor their growth.

Wood anatomy

We are equipped with Leica and Fisher Scientific rotational core microtomes, and employ a Leica embedding center and tissue processor to stabilize fragile wood samples. Pictures of thin sections are taken with a hi-res Zeiss Axio Imager Z1m and analyzed with ROXAS.

Modeling

In addition to mass-wasting process modeling (incl. model calibration and verification), we also use structural equation modeling in dendroclimatology and ecology.

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