Walter Oberhuber
Research Group Dendroecology and Tree physiology
Research group leader
Room number 319
“My main scientific interest is on impact of climate factors on tree and shrub growth at boundaries of their existence in the Alpine region, i.e., at the alpine treeline and in dry inner alpine valleys. The methodological spectrum includes the analysis of tree ring time series, stem radius changes (dendrometer data) and histological data (wood anatomy). I teach courses on treeline ecology, dendroecology and physiology of tree growth, and supervise bachelor, master and PhD-students in these topics.”
Projects
- Growth response of green alder to climate at treeline, FWF, 2021–2025
- Influence of drought stress on growth of pine (FAIR forest station, Mieming)
- Effects of abiotic and biotic factors on inter-annual and intra-annual tree growth
Selected Publications
- Salomón R, R Peters, R Zweifel, ... W Oberhuber, et al. (2022) The 2018 European heatwave led to stem dehydration but not to consistent growth reductions in forests. Nature Communications 13:28; DOI:10.1038/s41467-021-27579-9
- Oberhuber W, A Landolt-Weibold, DM Schröter (2021) Triggering bimodal radial stem growth in Pinus sylvestris by blocking phloem transport. Frontiers Plant Science 12:674438. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2021.674438
- Lucía DeSoto, M Cailleret, F Sterck, … W Oberhuber et al. (2020) Low growth resilience to drought is related to future mortality risk in trees. Nature Communications 11:545; DOI:10.1038/s41467-020-14300
- Oberhuber W, M Sehrt, F Kitz (2020) Hygroscopic properties of thin dead outer bark layers strongly influence stem diameter variations on short and long time scales in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris). Agricultural Forest Meteorology, 290, 108026; DOI: 10.1016/j.agrformet.2020.108026
- Cuny HE, CBK Rathgeber, D Frank, … W Oberhuber et al. (2015) Woody biomass production lags stem-girth increase by over one month in coniferous forests. Nature Plants 1, 15160 (2015); DOI: 10.1038/nplants.2015.160
Additional research achievements
Community services:
Reviewer for international journals and funding organisations
Awards:
„Highly Cited Author“ nach Baas J, KW Boyack, JPA Ioannidis (2021) “Updated science-wide author databases of standardized citation indicators”
Teaching
- Ecology of the alpine treeline
- Tree growth and environment (Dendroecology)
- Physiology of tree growth