1. Mauntschas mire - Does the magnitude and rate of 20th Century climate change exceed the natural variability of European climate over the last millennium?

This is the key question of the EU project Millennium, which we study on the mire Mauntschas in Upper Engadine (SE Switzerland; 1818 m a.s.l.).

2. Spruce project - Searching for the origin of the so-called Bödmerenwald-spruce, a geographically limited Picea population with outstanding high genetic diversity in the north-central Swiss Alps ?

In an earlier project we found a genetically outstanding spruce population in the north-central Swiss Alps. In the present project we aim to determine the geographical limits of this population, by means of analysis of modern DNA of living spruce trees, and if possible also of ancient DNA of spruce fossils preserved in peat and other deposits. This information, together with pollen data, should reveal the origin of this genetically diverse spruce population.