This course provides the ecological systems` knowledge needed to question applied solutions to current environmental issues. Our central aim is to balance participants' respect for complexity with a sense of possibility by providing examples from the vast solution space offered by ecological systems, such as e.g. green infrastructure to manage water.

This course introduces plant ecology. Through lectures, exercises and excursions, students will gain a broad vision of the cutting edge topics that are being researched and studied at the Department of Environmental Systems Science at ETH and WSL. This will be the base for a future dialog between the field of landscape architecture and the field of sciences.

Tree and stand growth are key processes for forest management and key indicators of tree performance and stand productivity. Understanding of the physiological processes that steer germination, growth and mortality of trees is crucial. Moreover, knowledge on the impact of abiotic and biotic factors is central for the understanding of forest dynamics on various spatiotemporal scales.

This course provides an overview about the applicability of stable isotopes (carbon 13C, nitrogen 15N, oxygen 18O and hydrogen 2H) to process-oriented ecological research. Topics focus on stable isotopes as indicators for the origin of pools and fluxes, partitioning of composite fluxes as well as to trace and integrate processes. In addition, students carry out a small project during lab sessions.

This summer school highlights various aspects of forest resilience, the provisioning of ecosystem services under changing environmental and socioeconomic boundary conditions, and the interactions between society and ecology. It is aimed primarily for PhD students to bring themselves up to date with the latest research, to share their research and to network with peers from all around the world.