🌴Since my undergraduate time, I wanted to see the tropical alpine biome with its "giant rosette" species. On our #biome project fieldtrip in #Ecuador, I finally met #Espeletia picnophylla spp. angelensis, in El Angel. So happy! Magic!

🌿 While conducting #biome research in the #Maquipucuna Reserve in #Ecuador, our lodge unexpectedly became a perfect vantage point for observing mesmerizing #hummingbirds. ✨🐦

🌧️ If your team members are patiently waiting for 1h in the rain in a tropical #cloudforest, chatting, playing, laughing and happily continue fieldwork with rain-sensitive instruments as soon as the rain stops & finish the day with a “high five”: Now you know, you have a fantastic team! 🫶

Exploring the tropical cloud forests of #Guacamayos. 🔎 Foggy, rain-soaked and mild temperatures: #cloudforests are some of the most species- and endemism-rich biomes on Earth. Despite covering only 0.4% of global land, they host 3,700 #species of birds, mammals, amphibians and tree ferns. 🌧️🌳🌿

🚁🌳 We are collecting #biome data in #Ecuador using three types of #drones: 1️⃣ #LiDAR – to analyze vertical biomass distribution 2️⃣ Multispectral – to assess canopy leaf area 3️⃣ Photo – to capture leaf imagery

🌳 Towering trees (often >50 m), massive buttress roots and woody lianas are typical plant traits of tropical rainforests. 🌧

Where do species find suitable habitats in Switzerland? And how will habitat suitabilities change under future climate scenarios? Here, we have modelled maps for more than 7500 swiss species: doi.org/10.1038/s415...

🌿Fieldwork in the #Yasuni National Park, #Ecuador.🦜 Our researchers are studying the structural and functional properties of #rainforests to better understand and define #biomes.🌳🔎

What a wonderful sunrise at Paso Papallacta (4063 m a.s.l.) before dropping down from the Andes into the Amazon rainforest. We are ready to start working. More soon!

The BIOME team explored the high-altitude city of #Quito (2,850 m) before heading deep into the Amazon rainforest for fieldwork. 🌳🌿

🌎 Our BIOME project team has just begun a 3.5-week research expedition in Ecuador! 🇪🇨 They’ll be conducting fieldwork across diverse landscapes to study how biomes have evolved and how to define them. 🔎🌿🏔️ Stay tuned for field updates! ✨ 👉BIOME project: shorturl.at/RLQPw

🔊 New paper: first integration of population genetics🧬 and dynamic species distribution modeling🌐 using #KISSMig to reconstruct postglacial dynamics of wild black pepper, endemic to India’s Western Ghats. #macroecology #popgen #phylogeography #biogeography 👉 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

This week, I presented my research on #BiomeConservatism at the @cpeg-cpb25.bsky.social in Zürich. 🌍 🌱 The analysis of 161 plant lineages across the globe provides clear evidence for biome conservatism and the mechanisms underlying current #biodiversity patterns and #biome dynamics. 💡

📱🌱 Plant identification apps are booming – but which one is the best? And how reliable are the results? 🤔 Our researchers collected over 5,000 photos of 560 Swiss plant species from 85 habitat types and tested the most popular apps.🔎 Here are the findings: shorturl.at/lD0Cl

@clechartre.bsky.social reimplemented #BIOME4 into a modular, high-performance #Julia version, enabling 1 km vegetation modeling 🌱 and integration of #CHELSA climate datasets. 🌦️ We can now simulate biome patterns across complex terrains ⛰️ and define biome boundaries with greater accuracy. 🎯

🌿 Join Our Team as Postdoctoral Researcher in Regional Climate Downscaling at the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL in Switzerland and lead the development of regional, highresolution climate scenarios for Armenia. @wslresearch.bsky.social @wsl-dme.bsky.social apply.refline.ch/273855/1747/...

The 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘢𝘭 𝘰𝘧 𝘈𝘱𝘱𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘥 𝘌𝘤𝘰𝘭𝘰𝘨𝘺 has released a Special Feature on "𝗧𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗘𝗻𝗲𝗿𝗴𝘆 𝗧𝗿𝗮𝗻𝘀𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻: 𝗘𝗰𝗼𝗹𝗼𝗴𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗹 𝗜𝗺𝗽𝗮𝗰𝘁, 𝗠𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗴𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻", including an insightful editorial by our scientists Silke Bauer & @nezimmermann.bsky.social.🌍⚡🌱 #energytransition #ecology #renewablenergy #greenenergy

🍁🌷🌼Interessiert an Tipps zur KI-basierten Pflanzenbestimmung mit FlorApp/FlorID der neuen Bestimmungstool für die #Flora der #Schweiz?🥀🌳 👉Dann melde dich an am "Festival der Natur"! shorturl.at/1fEEv festivaldernatur.ch #Natur #Biodiversität #FestivalderNatur #PflanzenBestimmen

What an amazing week at #EGU25 in Vienna! 🌍✨ We had a fantastic time connecting with fellow scientists from diverse fields, sharing our research and diving into inspiring discussions.💡 Grateful for the experience and already looking forward to next year! ❤️🚀

What drives the iconic buttress roots in tropical forests—mechanics or nutrients?🌳 At #EGU25, @haozhima.bsky.social presented his research on “The biogeography & functional understanding of buttress roots in tropical forests”. He’s part of our SNSF Advanced Grant project "BIOME.cc"🌎: rb.gy/r8vy1l

🔉Version 2.0 of our #KISSMig #Rstats package for #SpeciesMigration modeling is now live on #CRAN. 🎉 Together with Dominik Landolt we boosted performance by implementing parallel computing—making this simple dynamic #SDM faster than ever. Learn more about KISSMig here 👉 purl.oclc.org/wsl/kissmig

@clechartre.bsky.social held a session on "HP computing for mechanistic prediction of biome distribution" at #EGU25. She presented BIOME4.jl—a hi-res #Julia reimplementation of #BIOME4 to improve performance, modularity & scalability, enabling the simulation of biome dynamics in complex terrains.🌍🖥️

Mountain species are at risk of extinction as global temperatures rise—but how these risks will manifest remains unclear. 🌱🏔️ Bert Wuyts's research sheds light on this by exploring how habitats become fragmented & isolated as populations shift to higher elevations. He presented his results at #EGU25.

Elena Plekhanova gave an excellent talk on "SeCo-Eco: Global multiband seasonal pre-training dataset and self-supervised model for ecological applications" at the #EGU25. 🌍🛰️ 🔗More information & presentation slides are available here: plekhanovaelena.github.io/ssl4eco/

Thrilled to share that we will be participating in the European Geosciences Union General Assembly 2025 #EGU25 in #Vienna — with four sessions led by our scientists!🚀 Don’t miss the chance to join their talks and meet them in person for insightful discussions & future collaborations!💡🌱

Great opportunity, cool topic. Apply, if interested!

Very honored to have contributed a keynote to the 25th Swiss Global Change Day #SGDC25, and very happy to have attended excellent talks and discussions, and having met many interesting persons from many different fields. A great anniversary! @scnat.ch @wsl-dme.bsky.social

Last week, we gathered for a 3-day retreat in the stunning medieval castle of #Burgdorf🏰✨ – an inspiring setting and a fantastic opportunity for deep discussions, strategic planning, vison alignment, team building and lots of fun with hiking and VR game.❤️🥾🎮 Excited for what’s to come!🚀

We are excited to be a part of the Winter School & Symposium 2025: Harnessing #MachineLearning for Breakthroughs in Plant and Environmental Sciences @ethzurich.bsky.social !🤖🌱 Looking forward to inspiring discussions and collaborations!💡🚀 More information & registration: shorturl.at/PqT9c

1/ How often does a major droughts hit the Alps? A deep dive into the data. 🌍 Having free and accessible drought data makes it easy to check how climate change has already impacted a region. Using our global drought dataset envidat.ch#/metadata/gl..., I took a closer look at the Alps. 🧵👇

🌳Why are buttress roots almost exclusively found in tropical rainforests? Is it mechanical suppport or nutrient competition? Dr. Haozhi Ma is delving into these fascinating questions to uncover patterns and evolutionary advantages tied to buttress roots.🌎✨ shorturl.at/TtakH

More frequent, more intense, affecting larger areas: over the last 40 years, mega-droughts have become more severe and are increasingly damaging ecosystems. This is shown by a study led by the WSL and published in @science.org www.wsl.ch/en/news/mega... @dirknkarger.bsky.social 📷 Dirk Karger 🌐

New paper in @science.org ! Where and when did the #multiyear-droughts occur around the world? Have they become more prevailing? We identified over 10,000 such events and found that they have been increasingly occupying the terrestrial land. (1/6) www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.ado4245

Walter Jetz & @dirknkarger.bsky.social presented their work on “Mountain Thermal Belts in a Changing #Climate.”🤓 Using #CHELSA climate data on structuring the elevation belts of global #mountains by thermal belts anchored to the #alpine treeline has led to a new high-resolution (90m) dataset.⛰️🛰️💻

Want to download spatial shapefiles of protected areas for world countries using the World Database on Protected Areas API (WDPA) ? 👉 Here is the #CESAB worldpa #R pkg : frbcesab.github.io/worldpa/ 👉 vignette : frbcesab.github.io/worldpa/arti... Thx Nico Casajus for sharing this 🧙 ! 🧪🌐 🌍🦤#rstat

Thanks a lot for the organization! Inspiring talks and discussions - truly enriching! Scientific insights are key to tackling biodiversity loss and guiding nature conservation planning. Collaboration between science and practice turns knowledge into action for a sustainable future. #biodiversity

>47,000 tree species were recently added to the IUCN Red List, with 35% assessed as threatened. There's still another ~26,000 to assess, ~1/3 of which remain undescribed, but great to see plants getting more #conservation attention🌿🌳🦤🌍 📷 Antarctic Beech (VU), Tullawallal / Lamington NP, QLD, Aus

Invasive alien species are a threat to #nature, nature’s contributions to people, and good quality of life. Read the @ipbes.bsky.social #InvasiveAlienSpecies Report at: www.ipbes.net/ias 🧪🌍

Very honored to be listed by #Clarivate again and since 2014 as #HighlyCited2024 (tinyurl.com/yeym3tn7) in the Cross-Field category. Thanks to all team members, students, collaborators, colleagues! ⛰️🌳🌵🌴🔥💦🛰️ #macroecology #biomes #plants #biodiversity #climatechange #conservation

The evidence is mounting: humans were responsible for the #extinction of large #mammals (+large #birds & #reptiles)-press release on our review on the #megafauna #extinctions & their consequences 🦙🐘🦣🐆https://bit.ly/4fpwMFs 🦣🌿🌍 #ecology #paleobiology #archaeology #rewilding

Samuel Schlaefli vomhat mich zum Thema #Biodiversitätsinitiative in der Schweiz und zu den aktuellen Diskussionen dazu interviewt🌳. Dabei haben wir auch die vielen Parallelen zur langjährigen Klimadebatte besprochen. shorturl.at/BLxMD Treibhauspodcast.ch

Exzellent recherchiert und geschrieben: Fakten werden verdreht, relativiert, die Folgen geleugnet. Dabei ist der schlechte Zustand der Biodiversität wissenschaftlich breit belegt und notwendige Massnahmen zur Verbesserung sind klar! republik.ch/2024/09/05/akt…

Happy to share my impressions from this year’s summer school of the @ExtremesWsl program and @SwissForestLab on «Forests & Extremes – crisis or transition?» in Davos. I was teaching how difficult it is to forecast the impact of #ClimateChangerelated extremes on #biodiversity.

Die @NZZSchweiz hat mir heute unterstellt, Umweltverbände zu kritisieren und die vom @sbv finanzierte (Züger) Studie zu stützen. Beides ist falsch und polemisch. Ich habe dargelegt, Trendwende punkto Biodiversitätsrückgang ist noch nicht erreicht, zusätzliche Flächen sind nötig.

I'm thrilled to announce that the project team of my SNSF Advanced Grant Project on “BIOME EVOLUTION & CLIMATE CHANGE” is complete and the members started their research @WSL_DME, @WSL_research!🚀 More information about the project here: shorturl.at/TtakH

Stunning talk by Philipp Brun from @WSL_DME on #DeepLearning ensemble DNNs using #CitizenScience data to build spatial #AI based multispecies models for analyses and plant #SpeciesIdentification at #WBF24 in #Davos.

Dami Ogundipe from @WSL_DME just gave a great talk at the #WBF2024 in Davos on how to flexibly combine three important aspects of successful #ConservationDesign: Complementarity, Connectivity and Area!

Today, @DirkNKarger from @WSL_DME presented his research at #WBF2024 in #Davos on how biodiversity trends from Natures Futures scenarios differ in feedback to the climate system. Great talk!

This TUE, I participated in a first panel discussion as a member of the advisory group for the framework strategy for adaptation to #climatechange in @kanton_bern. We identified the most important challenges and worked on an effective and impactful #climatestrategy. @WSL_DME