Leonie Schönbeck

My current research as a Postdoc at SLU focuses on the effects of future drought and higher temperatures on Swedish forests. Specifically, I want to study the variation of drought and heat tolerance within tree species, to see how resilient the species might be to future climate change. For this, I will study tree species along climatic gradients and assess their drought and temperature tolerance, and their capacity to acclimate to new (e.g. drier or warmer) conditions. 

I obtained my PhD in 2019 at the University of Basel, Switzerland, and the Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape research (WSL). My research focused on the effects of drought on carbon and nutrient dynamics in Scots pine. I conducted fieldwork in a naturally dry Scots pine forest in the Southwest of Switzerland, where drought-induced mortality has increased over the last decades. For 20 years, an irrigation experiment has been carried out there, allowing for the assessment of long-term responses to (extreme) drought. The second part of my PhD consisted of a semi-controlled experiment in 16 open-top chambers, where we looked at the interaction between different levels of drought and nutrient addition, to see how fertilization could mitigate or aggravate mild or extreme drought stress. My PhD work got me fascinated about combining small-scale measurements and larger scale ecosystem dynamics, which I am striving for in my research projects. 

After my PhD, I did postdoctoral work at WSL Switzerland, EPFL Switzerland and University of California, Riverside. At EPFL, my research focused on the increasingly popular question of how vapor pressure deficit (VPD), influenced by air temperature and humidity, affects tree functioning in terms of carbon and water transport. We showed here how increased VPD can damage tree hydraulic systems in the absence of soil drought, indicating that both soil and air drought are important factors to consider when forecasting ecosystem responses to climate change. In California, I took the extremely drought-tolerance Californian chaparral species as a model for how the European mediterranean ecosystems might look like in the future. I studied the leaf structural and biochemical characteristics of these species during the dry summer months. 

Before my PhD, I studied biology and forest and nature conservation at Wageningen University in the Netherlands. My master thesis was focused on how drought affects secondary succession in dry tropical forests in Chiapas, Mexico. 

2023

Peer reviewed research articles

Schönbeck LC, Arteaga M, Mirza H, Coleman M, Mitchell D, Huang X, Ortiz H, Santiago LS. (2023) Plant physiological indicators for optimizing conservation outcomes. Conservation Physiology DOI: 10.1093/conphys/coad073

Nazarova T, Kather M, Hunziker S, Hartmann M, Brunner I, Schaub M, Rigling A, Hug C, Schönbeck LC, Bose A, Kammerer B, Gessler A. (2023) The metabolic fingerprint of Scots pine – root and needle metabolites show different patterns in dying trees. In review

Le Roncé I, Dardevet E, Venner S, Schönbeck LC, Gessler A, Chuine I, Limousin J-M. (2023) Reproduction alternation in trees: testing the resource depletion hypothesis using experimental fruit removal in Quercus ilex. Tree Physiology DOI: 10.1093/treephys/tpad025 

Popular science articles

Ballikaya P, Brunner I, Cocozza C, Grolimund D, Kägi R, Murazzi ME, Schaub M, Schönbeck LC, Sinnet B, Cherubini P. (2023) Nanoparticles are everywhere, even inside trees. Chimia 77(4). DOI: 10.2533/chimia.2023.256 

2022

Peer reviewed research articles

Wang X, Schönbeck LC, Gessler A, Yang Y, Rigling A, Yu D, He P, Li M-H. (2022) The effects of previous summer drought and fertilization on winter non-structural carbon reserves and spring leaf development of downy oak saplings. Frontiers in Plant Science 13: 5410. DOI: 10.3389/fpls.2022.1035191

Ballikaya P, Brunner I, Cocozza C, Grolimund D, Kägi R, Murazzi ME, Schaub M, Schönbeck LC, Sinnet B, Cherubini P. (2022) First evidence of nanoparticle uptake through leaves and roots in beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) and pine (Pinus sylvestris L.). Tree Physiology. DOI: 10.1093/treephys/tpac117

Schönbeck LC, Santiago LS. (2022) Time will tell: Towards high resolution temporal tree-ring isotope analyses. Tree Physiology 42(12): 2401-2403. DOI: 10.1093/treephys/tpac121

Schönbeck LC, Schuler P, Lehmann MM, Mas E, Mekarni L, Pivovaroff A, Turberg P, Grossiord C. (2022) Increasing temperature and vapor pressure deficit lead to hydraulic damages in the absence of soil drought. Plant, Cell and Environment 45:3275-3289. DOI: 10.1111/pce.14425

Schönbeck L, Grossiord C, Gessler A, Gisler J, Meusburger K, d’Odorico P, Rigling A, Salmon Y, Stocker B, Zweifel R, Schaub M. (2022) Photosynthetic acclimation and sensitivity to short- and long-term environmental changes in a drought prone forest. Journal of Experimental Botany 73(8): 2576-2588. DOI: 10.1093/jxb/erac033

2021

Peer reviewed research articles

Bose AK, Rigling A, Gessler A, Hagedorn F, Brunner I, Feichtinger L, Bigler C, Egli S, Etzold S, Gossner MM, Lévesque M, Meusburger K, Peter M, Saurer M, Scherrer D, Schönbeck L, Vogel ME, von Arx G, Wermelinger B, Wohlgemuth T, Zweifel R, Schaub M. (2021) Response patterns of ecosystem traits and functioning to long-term drought-release experiment in a mature dry Scots pine forest. Ecological Monographs 92(2): e1507. DOI: 10.1002/ecm.1507

D’Odorico P, Schönbeck L, Vitali V, Meusburger K, Schaub M, Ginzler C, Zweifel R, Velasco V, Gisler J, Gessler A, Ensminger I. (2021) Drone-based physiological index reveals long-term acclimation and drought stress responses in trees. Plant, Cell and Environment 44(11): 3552-3570. DOI: 10.1111/pce.14177

Ouyang S, Gessler A, Saurer M, Hagedorn F, Gao D-C, Wang X-Y, Schaub M, Li M-H, Shen W-J, Schönbeck L. (2021) Root carbon and nutrient homeostasis determines downy oak survival and recovery from drought. Tree physiology 41(8): 1400-1412. DOI: 10.1093/treephys/tpab019

Schönbeck L, Li M-H, Schaub M, Rigling A, Hoch G, Kahmen A, Gessler A. (2021) Soil nutrient availability alters tree carbon allocation dynamics during drought. Tree physiology 41(5): 697-707. DOI: 10.1093/treephys/tpaa139

2020

Peer reviewed research articles

Joseph J, Decai G, Luster J, Li M-H, Peter M, Bloch C, Rissanen KA, Hoch G, Schaub M, Schönbeck L, Thomas F, Werner W, Backes B, Poll C, Hartmann H, Ruehr N, Werner R, Gleixner G, Hug C, Lehmann M, Wohlgemuth T, Rigling A, Häni M, Saurer M, Hagedorn F, Gessler A. (2020) Rhizosphere activity in an old-growth forest reacts rapidly to changes in soil moisture and shapes whole-tree carbon allocation. PNAS 117(40): 24885-24892. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2014084117

Peters R, Miranda JC, Schönbeck L, Nievergelt D, Fonti M, Saurer M, Stritih A, Fonti P, Wermelinger B, Lehmann M. (2020) Physiological monitoring of the 2018 larch budmoth outbreak: preference for leaf recovery and carbon storage over stem wood formation in Larix decidua. Tree physiology 40(12): 1697-1711. DOI: 10.1093/treephys/tpaa087

Zweifel R, Etzold S, Sterck F, Gessler A, Anfodillo T, Mencuccini M, von Arx G, Lazzarin M, Haeni M, Feichtinger L, Meusburger K, Knuesel S, Walthert L, Salmon Y, Bose AK, Schönbeck L, Hug C, De Girardi N, Giuggiola A, Schaub M, Rigling A. (2020). Determinants of legacy effects in pine trees‐implications from an irrigation‐stop experiment. New Phytologist 227(4): 1081-1096. DOI: 10.1111/nph.16582

Lehmann MM, Goldsmith GR, Mirande-Ney C, Weigt RB, Schönbeck L, Kahmen A, Gessler A, Siegwolf RTW, Saurer M. (2020). The 18O-signal transfer from water vapour to leaf water and assimilates varies among plant species and growth forms. Plant, Cell and Environment 43(2): 510-523. DOI: 10.1111/pce.13682

Schönbeck L, Gessler A, Schaub M, Rigling A, Hoch G, Kahmen A, Li M-H. (2020). Soil nutrients and lowered source:sink ratio mitigate effects of mild but not of extreme drought in trees. Environmental and Experimental Botany 169: 103905. DOI: 10.1016/j.envexpbot.2019.103905

2019

Schönbeck L. Drought effects on carbon and nutrient dynamics in Scots pine: homeostasis, thresholds and tipping points. Doctoral thesis. University of Basel (2019). DOI: 10.5451/unibas-007175123

2018

Peer reviewed research articles

Grossiord C, Gessler A, Reed SC, Borrego I, Collins AD, Dickman LT, Ryan M, Schönbeck L, Sevanto S, Vilagrosa A, McDowell, NG. (2018). Reductions in tree performance during hotter droughts are mitigated by shifts in nitrogen cycling. Plant, Cell & Environment 41(11): 2627–2637. DOI: 10.1111/pce.13389

Gessler A, Cailleret M, Joseph J, Schönbeck L, Schaub M, Lehmann M, Treydte K, Rigling A, Timofeeva G, Saurer M. (2018). Drought induced tree mortality - a tree-ring isotope based conceptual model to assess mechanisms and predispositions. New Phytologist, 219(2): 485–490. DOI: 10.1111/nph.15154

Schönbeck L, Gessler A, Hoch G, McDowell NG, Rigling A, Schaub M, Li M-H. (2018). Homeostatic levels of nonstructural carbohydrates after 13 yr of drought and irrigation in Pinus sylvestris. New Phytologist, 219(4): 1314-1324. DOI: 10.1111/nph.15224

Li M-H, Yong J, Wang A, Li X, Wanze Z, Yan C-F, Du Z, Shi Z, Lei J, Schönbeck L, He P, Yu, F-H, Wang X. (2018). Active summer carbon storage for winter persistence in trees at the cold alpine treeline. Tree Physiology, 38(9): 1345-1355. DOI: 10.1093/treephys/tpy020

2015

Peer reviewed research articles

Schönbeck L, Lohbeck M, Bongers F, Ramos MM, Sterck F. (2015). How do light and water acquisition strategies affect species selection during secondary succession in moist tropical forests? Forests, 6(6): 2047-2065. DOI: 10.3390/f6062047

For more information on my current and past projects, see www.leonieschonbeck.com