Wenna Ding

New interactive global maps of 31 plant traits were prepared by Daniel Lusk, based on plant distribution data from GBIF and sPlot, plant trait data from TRY, and various satellite-based products.
Map viewer: global-traits.projects.earthengine.app/view/global-...
Article: doi.org/10.1038/s414...

Wonderful experience to present my poster on how biomes structure global biodiversity at #TIBS2026 this week in #Aarhus! I had great discussions with a group of creative #Biogeography researchers. Thanks for all that reach out and exchange ideas. See you in #Beijing in 2028!

@wennading.bsky.social from the DME lab presented her great work at #TIBS2026 on the origin of mountain floras in response to biotic assembly, orogeny and climate change. If you are interested, her is the latest paper on the topic: www.science.org/doi/full/10....

Interesting talk by @nezimmermann.bsky.social from our DME lab today at #TIBS2026 on a new conceptual framework on #BiomeBiogeography. This concept is at the core of our #biome project, in which several lab members are involved.

New paper out! 🐦📊

We realease AVONICHE, a global dataset with detailed information on the proportional use of 32 foraging niches, combining dietary categories with the behaviours and substrates used to access resources.

Openly access the paper and data in GEB: doi.org/10.1111/geb....

A new era of bioclimatic extremes in the terrestrial Arctic Long-term climate data suggest that the Arctic is entering a new era of bioclimatic extremes threatening cold ecosystems.

Climate change has already reshaped the bioclimatic space of extreme events in the Arctic 🌐❄️ Arctic biodiversity has entered a new era of bioclimatic extremes w/ more droughts, greater winter-warming 📈 & more rain-on-snow events 💧❄️

shorturl.at/pQsVP

Just published in Science Advances ⬇️

I’ll be presenting my work: Biome.jl, a flexible package for mechanistic biome simulations at poster 1052 today of #TIBS2026, come chat with me!

Elena Plekhanova from @wsl-dme.bsky.social just gave a very interesting talk on how to use #AI in combination with #RemoteSensing to map global #biomes.

#Macroecology #Biodiversity #Mapping
@wslresearch.bsky.social

Independent origins of spicules reconcile paleontological and molecular evidence of sponge evolutionary history Sponges have a cryptic Ediacaran history because ancestral sponges were soft-bodied and had low fossilization potential.

Our latest: Independent origins of spicules reconcile paleontological and molecular evidence of sponge evolutionary history, led by @meleonora-rossi.bsky.social with help from friends @bristolpalaeo.bsky.social including @anariesgo.bsky.social @evopalaeo.bsky.social Davide Pisani and many others

Next week we host the #TIBS2026 #biogeography conference @au.dk, welcoming ~400 biogeographers from around the world🌍Biogeography is vital for understanding the #biosphere & guiding planetary #stewardship. Looking forward to an inspiring week🌤️🌴https://conferences.au.dk/tibs-aarhus-2026 #biodiversity

Hopping Hotspots Shaped the Global Biogeography and
Diversification of Orectolobiform sharks 🦑🧪🐟🦈 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1...

The asynchronous rise of Northern Hemisphere alpine floras reveals general responses of biotic assembly to orogeny and climate change The asynchronous rise of Northern Hemisphere alpine floras was shaped by general responses to orogeny and climate change.

How have mountain building and climate change shaped alpine biodiversity over millions of years? Check out our new study in Science Advances! www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Morphology of extant conifer seed cones.

#Evolution of #conifer seed cones

📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#TansleyReview by @kmatsunaga

@WileyPlantSci #PlantScience

Our latest paper on fish communities in nearly 80 peri-alpine lakes reveals that community assembly through immigration and speciation respond to different dimensions of ecosystem size: area and depth respectively. Check it out here
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/share/BKFKRT...

Job offer: The Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL is part of the ETH Domain. Approximately 600 people work on the sustainable use and protection of the environment and on the handling of natural hazards. The Forest and Soil Ecology research unit, which investigates the effects of environmental changes in forest ecosystems, is looking for a person to join the Ecosystem Ecology group for a fixed-term period of four years, starting January 2026 or by appointment, as a PhD student in plant phenology and ecophysiology You will be responsible for planning and carrying out experiments in the field and under controlled conditions in the SNF funded project “Linking carbon source-sink dynamics to autumn phenology: Predicting tree growth rhythms in temperature and boreal forests”. You will analyse the interaction between carbon balance and phenology by applying various ecophysiological and biochemical methods and large-scale data analyses. You will carry out statistical and mechanistic modelling approaches. Finally, you will be responsible for publishing results in scientific journals. You have a master’s degree in environmental science, or a comparable topic and are interested in applying various methods, from ecophysiology to model applications. You have a proficient command of written and spoken English, are able to work in a structured, efficient and independent manner, and have a high level of team spirit. Furthermore, you have a good level of fitness to carry out field work in remote locations. We offer an international team with exciting research perspectives and strong collaboration with researchers from ETH and international institutions. The position will be based at WSL and you will be enrolled at ETH Zurich.

🍂🌳 #PhDAlert! MSc in #EnvironmentalSciences or a related field and interested in plant #phenology and #ecophysiology? Good level of fitness to carry out field work in remote locations? Our #Ecosystem #Ecology group offers a #PhD position: apply.refline.ch/273855/1789/... #ScienceJobs

Really happy to see chapter 2 of my PhD published today in @methodsinecoevol.bsky.social. DeepDiveR is an R package to assist with deep learning inference of biodiversity change through time 🤿🦊 Thanks to @bethanyjallen.bsky.social & Daniele Silvestro for the collaboration

doi.org/10.1111/2041...

The radiation and geographic expansion of primates through diverse climates | PNAS One of the most influential hypotheses about primate evolution postulates that their origin, radiation, and major dispersals were associated with e...

What a fantastic new paper out today in @pnas.org: www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/... - and what a great resource, summarising the climatic niche of primates and tackling the hypothesis on whether primates evolved in warm tropical forests 😍

Manuel Popp @manupopp.bsky.social‬

📱🌱 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

🌿 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/...

@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. 🎯

A global analysis shows consistent energy–diversity relationships across birds, mammals, amphibians & reptiles, resolving decades of ecological debate. Paper now out in @science.org : www.science.org/doi/10.1126/... 🌍🌐 #ecology #MetabolicTheory

Consistent energy-diversity relationships in terrestrial vertebrates Ecologists have long proposed that environments providing more energy can support more species, yet empirical evidence frequently contradicts this expectation. We argue that such inconsistencies resul...

In ectotherms, temperature-species richness relationships matched predictions of metabolic theory 🧪🌐 www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Go check out our event-based evaluation!
Beyond the global scale patterns of increasing multi-year droughts, there are over 10,000 identified events inventoried with explicit spatiotemporal coverage, from which one could easily extract events of their whatever interest across disciplines and uses.

🌿 What makes plants in tropical ecosystems so unique & remarkably adapted to their environment? 🌸✨
We explored this question during a visit to the Botanical Garden in Zurich, guided by our group member dirknkarger.bsky.social‬ — a fantastic opportunity to observe tropical plant traits up close. 🔎🌱

The stepwise rise of angiosperm‐dominated terrestrial ecosystems Angiosperms are the most diverse and abundant plant taxon today and dominate the majority of Earth's terrestrial ecosystems. They underwent rapid divergence and biogeographic expansion from the early...

Very happy to see this out today! Our review explores the transformative role of angiosperms in shaping terrestrial ecosystems from the Cretaceous to the Cenozoic, detailing five key phases of angiosperm evolution by integrating fossil and molecular evidence. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Bert Wuyts is sharing our latest work on modeling #tipping-points in mountain ecosystems ⛰️ at the #TipESM annual meeting. Do #mountain #ecosystems hit critical tipping points in a warming world — and if so, when? 🌍⚠️ A great chance to exchange ideas. @tipesm.bsky.social ial @wsl-dme.bsky.social

Renske Onstein: A Passion for "Big" Plant Questions Botany One interviews Dr Renske Onstein, a researcher passionate for the evolution of plants and their characteristics on a global scale.

In my latest interview for @botany.one, I present you the work of @renskeonstein.bsky.social, a researcher always looking for the "big picture" of plant evolution and biogeography #Botany #PlantScience #SciComm 🧪🌍

Renske's research is something you don't want to miss! botany.one/2025/03/rens...

The SCION Earth Evolution Model is turning 4 years old this spring. We have celebrated by extending the framework back to ~1 Ga before present

We find some agreement with broad environmental trends from the rock record, but there is still plenty to learn!

www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

A certificate from GEB

That's fantastic news! 🎉 The #paleo community is embracing our recommendations for using #fossil #pollen data in #macroecology studies! 🌿
Check it out 🔗 bit.ly/FOSSILPOL
A joint first author with @suzetteflantua.bsky.social , V. Felde & K. Bhatta!
#GEB #global #ecology #biogeography #palaeoecology

Prof Dame Alison Etheridge: 'In spite of appearances, everyone is insecure and no-one will judge you for asking what feels like a stupid question. Most people in the room probably wanted to ask the same thing but were too embarrassed - asking will win you many friends!'

Prof Erin Saupe: I wish I would have realised sooner that it's OK to be wrong in science, and that admitting you were wrong is a strength, not a weakness. Science should be about testing your assumptions and re-thinking paradigms, not just 'getting things right'.

Prof Daniela Bortoletto: 'That it's okay to say no and set boundaries. You don't need to feel obligated to take on every task, especially those disproportionately assigned to women. Focus on roles that support your scientific and professional growth.'

Prof Tamsin Mather: 'A career is a marathon not a sprint and there will be times things feel better than others or where life has priority. Be patient when things feel tough. Taking time off is so important, not just because work isn't everything, but to stay creative. I've had my best ideas on my bike, kayak, or up a mountain!'

'No one will judge you for asking what feels like a stupid question.'

For #IDWGS2025, the Mathematical, Physical, and Life Sciences Division asked scientists from across the faculty about the advice they wish they had received at the beginning of their careers ⬇️