ISOCYCLE Marie Curie Team

Marie Curie Teams are independent young investigator research teams funded through a Marie Curie Excellence Grant of the European commission to support scientists at an early stage of their career (see ETH life news).

Context

Understanding the processes that control carbon and water flow through terrestrial ecosystems is essential both to estimate the current capacity of terrestrial ecosystems to absorb carbon from the atmosphere and to predict the ecosystems response under a changing climate. The Marie Curie Team Isocycle aimed to improve our understanding of these processes and to elucidate how environmental changes and climatic extreme events alter carbon and water flows and their interaction.

Methodologically, observational field work was combined with manipulative drought experiments as well as process-based ecosystem modeling. The regional focus was on forest ecosystems in Switzerland.

Approach

The key method employed was a recently developed quantum cascade laser spectrometer that allowed continuous measurements of stable carbon and oxygen isotopes in carbon dioxide in the field and in the laboratory.