Since 1994, the Swiss long-term forest ecosystem research project has been addressing global change as a driving force on forest biota and ecological processes. On this landmark date experts from the respective research field were invited to the 15th anniversary of the Swiss Long-term Forest Ecosystem Research LWF to reflect on the current state of long-term (forest) ecosystem research and its scientific value. In parallel, the 2009 Summer School of the eight forest research centers of the European NFZ.Forestnet was organized by the Swiss Federal Institute WSL, in close collaboration with the Albert-Ludwig University (ALU) in Freiburg and the INRA in Nancy.
The topic of the 2009 NFZ Summer School was “How to publish and conference - HOWTOPC”. The main objective was to provide insight into scientific writing and publishing and how to conference. The methods and techniques for scientific writing were communicated during various workshops and lectures. The lecturers were scientists and experts in scientific communication. Main emphasis was put on “what is scientific writing” and “how to produce a peer-reviewed paper”. The students gained an in-depth insight in the editorial world and learned how to structure and organize a scientific paper based on the state of the art.
The respective techniques were acquired by 20 students from Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Indonesia and Switzerland during seminars, workshops and through participation in the international LWF Conference on “Long-term ecosystem research: Understanding the present to shape the future”. The final product were five mini-review papers written be five teams with two students per team on one of the five following main topics from the International LWF Conference:
Impacts of air pollution on forest ecosystems
Forest growth and biodiversity
Drought and heat effects on forest ecosystems
Mountain forests in a CO2 enriched world
Natural ecosystems
The teams were free to determine the focus within the given topic of their manuscript. For example; the students may have gone broad and develop a review on the main topic of “Impacts of air pollution on forest ecosystems” or the may have focused on,
This special issue on “Long-term ecosystem research: Understanding the present to shape the future” consists of the following nine mini-review papers summarizing and discussing the latest state of the art on “Impacts of climate change on the establishment, distribution, growth and mortality of Swiss stone pine (