Subprojects
VegCHange is divided into six Work Packages (WPs), which interact intensively with each other.
Work Package 1 (WP 1) (Jürgen Dengler & Stefan Eggenberg) covers project coordination and stakeholder involvement at national/international level. The aim here is to ensure coordination between the sub-projects, cooperation with other projects in NRP 82 and public relations work (website, press, etc.). At the same time, meetings with national and international stakeholders are organised once a year.
Work Package 2 (WP 2) (Jürgen Dengler, Stefan Widmer & Michael Jutzi) deals with databases and the information platform. The two main tasks are to create and make available a national vegetation database for Switzerland and to maintain and further develop an interactive information platform on plant diversity and vegetation in Switzerland. In future, this will also include a section with specific visualisations/analyses for the pilot canton of Graubünden.
Work Package 3 (WP 3) (Stefan Widmer). This postdoctoral project focuses primarily on changes in vascular plant diversity in Switzerland. Three main publications are planned: (a) biodiversity trends in vascular plants based on individual location data in the InfoFlora database, (b) trends in vegetation composition based on the vegetation database to be established, (c) quantification of the drivers underlying the changes observed.
Work Package 4 (WP 4) (Marjalena Seipp). This doctoral project focuses primarily on changes in bryophyte diversity in Switzerland. Three main publications are planned: (a) Comparative analysis of changes in moss and vascular plant flora between 2001 and 2025 based on BDM-Z9 data, (b) Biodiversity trends of mosses based on individual find point data in the SwissBryophytes database, (c) Repeat surveys of a subset of the approx. 30-year-old NISM moss permanent plots (100 m²).
Work Package 5 (WP 5) (Marylaure de la Harpe & Matteo Gentilini). In the pilot canton of Grisons, we are organising intensive interaction between VegCHange researchers and regional stakeholders in biodiversity conservation. This serves to (a) prepare the results from the ongoing research work in VegCHange in such a way that they are easily usable for nature conservation practitioners, (b) formulate additional analysis tasks for the researchers from a practical perspective, and (c) actively involve citizen scientists in the canton in data generation.
Work Package 6 (WP 6) (Jürgen Dengler), the platform for additional projects, offers exciting research ideas in the VegCHange context to young scientists from Germany and abroad. At the same time, the aim is to mobilise additional funding for the further opportunities arising from VegCHange.