Julien L Bota

🌍🌿Review results are in! More than 900 accepted abstracts (orals & posters) will be presented in 78 different sessions at #WBF2026 in ☀️Davos. Thank you!
👉Acceptance notification will reach you on 3 February
👉Early bird registration is open, including an awesome choice of excursions - take your pick‼️

Welcome to BES2025! 💫 

Today, we are so excited to welcome ecologists from 58 countries, encouraging innovative research and practice in ecology. 

We have exciting talks and sessions ahead in the next days from agriculture, human's place in nature, AI to green finance and much more.

So happy to be back at the BES this year for #BES2025! I had a lot of nice discussions today already, and I'll be looking forward to the poster session this evening! Feel free to pass by poster nr: A-4.95 if you want to discuss species coexistence and higher-order interactions! 🌱🌿🌱

The @bugnet.bsky.social Delegation from @slfdavos.bsky.social very much enjoyed the first day of #BES2025 in Edinburgh! Don’t miss our posters on herbivore interactions under current and future climate that we will present in the community ecology poster sessions today and tomorrow.

...and @bota-jb.bsky.social took care that everything worked smoothly, and did amazing drone images of our experiments! Thank you all, you are the best! 🥰

Today we definitely ended the field season of our @bugnet.bsky.social experimental sites in @slfdavos.bsky.social. What a year - with such a great team of students this was one of my best field seasons ever! Thanks @bota-jb.bsky.social, Carole, Ida, Carla, Sevi, Flo and Irene for the great summer!

The Bug‐Network (BugNet): A Global Experimental Network Testing the Effects of Invertebrate Herbivores and Fungal Pathogens on Plant Communities and Ecosystem Function in Open Ecosystems The Bug-Network (BugNet) is a novel global collaborative research network that implements standardized consumer-reduction experiments in herbaceous- or shrub-dominated ecosystems to assess the impact...

Our first paper from the Bug-Network (BugNet) is out! 🎉

BugNet is a global network studying how invertebrate herbivores and fungal pathogens shape plant diversity & ecosystem functioning worldwide. The paper reports on the methods of the experimental part:

📄 onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/...

Jahrelange Vorbereitungen zur Pflanzung von 92'000 Bäumen: Warum dies gemacht wurde kannst du morgen Samstag, 13.9.2025 am Tag der offenen Forschungsfläche Stillberg in Davos erleben. Im Video: Aufnahmen von #SLF und #WSL aus den Jahren zwischen 1968 bis 1987.

Infos: www.slf.ch/de/veranstal...

50 years of treeline- and ecological research at our @slfdavos.bsky.social research site at Stillberg in Davos. Great fun to present some findings together with @annekempel.bsky.social to a super interested audience and some junior scientists.

Was ich gern früher gewusst hätte: Persönliche Zwischenevaluation seit meinem Ruf und #IchBinHanna-Beginn Sechs Einsichten einer wissenschaftspolitisch (hyper-)aktiven Juniorprofessorin ohne Tenure Track kurz vor ihrer Zwischenevaluation!

Was hab ich eigentlich gelernt in meinen bisherigen Jahren als Juniorprofessorin, & was hätte ich gern früher gewusst? 6 Einsichten einer wissenschaftspolitisch (hyper-)aktiven Juniorprofessorin ohne TT kurz vor ihrer Zwischenevaluation: letzte Woche @hhu.de, heute in #ArbeitInDerWiss! #IchBinHanna

Danke für diesen treffenden Blogpost und das Teilen deiner Erfahrungen, @amreibahr.bsky.social.

Despite these limitations, our study supports the idea that microbes support prey-break down in Nepenthes like in other pitcher plant genera, e. g. Cephalotus or Sarracenia and we hope to provide a starting point for investigating this further. 7/7

⚠ Limitations of our study include:
- no information on direct effects of the UV treatment on the microbial community
- short experimental period insufficient to detect potential effects on plant-growth
- No assessment of macro-inquiline influence on nutrient dynamics. 6/7

❕Our key finding: plants with non-sterilised fluids showed a quicker and improved photosynthetic response to prey capture than those with sterilised fluids. This suggests that microbes contribute to the breakdown of prey which could be crucial under high competition for nutrients with inquilines 5/7

Sketch illustrating the methodology of the study.

To investigate the role of the microbes in the plant’s prey digestion, we excluded macro-inquilines, provided prey to the pitchers, and sterilised the digestive fluid daily using UV light over a two-month period. We then compared the physiological responses of plants with and without microbes. 4/7

Info graphic depicting microbes and enzymes present in the digestive fluid

Despite the fluid’s acidity and enzymatic activity, a range of organisms – including arthropods, rotifers, and microbes – live inside the pitchers. These so-called inquilines may compete with the plant, aid digestion, N-enrich the fluid, or have no effect at all. 3/7

Photos of the habitats of Nepenthes hemsleyana

N. hemsleyana pitchers

Nepenthes hemsleyana grows in nutrient-poor soils and acquires nutrients by capturing arthropods and collecting faeces from bats that roost inside its pitchers. It then secretes digestive enzymes into the fluid to break down prey and access nutrients. 2/7

UV treatment of the digestive fluid of Nepenthes hemsleyana pitcher plants affects their digestive process, possibly via reducing microbial inquilines - Oecologia Interactions with microbes are ubiquitous, and many of them are essential for the survival and success of plants. In Nepenthes pitcher plants, they occur as part of a diverse community of organisms, s...

Do microbes contribute to prey digestion in Nepenthes pitcher plants? We investigated this through a field experiment on Borneo by sterilising the digestive fluid of N. hemsleyana. We found that plants with microbes benefit quicker from captured prey. A thread👇 🌱🧪 🌏 link.springer.com/article/10.1...

Our paper on unifying theory around biodiversity–consumer relationships (pathogens & herbivores) is now out in TREE!

I hope it helps those navigating the forest of theories & hypotheses in this space to see more clearly 🤓

Check out @fletcher-h.bsky.social great summary of the paper here 👇

Trump: Angriff auf die Wissenschaftsfreiheit US-Präsident Trump hat die Forschungslandschaft in den USA in wenigen Wochen auf den Kopf gestellt. Ein Angriff auf die Wissenschaftsfreiheit.

Unter dem Motto #standupforscience tragen Forscherinnen und Forscher den Protest gegen Trumps Kahlschlag in der Wissenschaft auf die Straße. Zu den Hintergründen hat mein Kollege @cweingart.bsky.social recherchiert. Teil 1: www.deutschlandfunk.de/die-professo...

No one should have to work under such conditions and go through these traumatising experiences. The consequences are in many cases very severe on a personal level but also deprive academia of brilliant and talented minds. This must stop now and a change of work culture is overdue. #IchBinHanna 3/3

I know of cases of abuse of power, bullying and even sexual harassment that led to friends giving up their PhD or having to restart at another institution. Although they were reported, none of these cases led to consequences for the perpetrators (even though they were not the first complaints). 2/3

It is a real shame that many German research institutions systematically abandon young scientists. This is not limited to the Max Planck Institutes, but is a widespread problem in German academia. 1/3

Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science!

#WomenInScience #WomenInStem #FrauenInderWissenschaft #FrauenInMINT #MintFrauen #InternationalDayofWomenandGirlsinScience

Blueberry pie season could be in jeopardy this year! 😳 🫐 Why so? Read here 👇

Save the date: 50 Jahre Forschungsfläche #Stillberg, Davos
13. September 2025
1975 pflanzten #WSL und #SLF am Stillberg 92'000 Bäume, um den #Schutzwald zu erforschen. Zum Jubiläum öffnen wir unsere Forschungsfläche für alle!
Infos: www.slf.ch/stillberg50
📷️ E. Dimitrov / W. Schönenberger / C. Rixen

#Forschung an die Öffentlichkeit bringen – als Medienverantwortliche/r am SLF in #Davos! Und dies in einem alpinen Umfeld rund um #Schnee, #Naturgefahren und den #Gebirgsraum.
Jetzt bewerben: apply.refline.ch/273855/1699/...

#SLF #SLFDavos #CERC #Medien #Media

📷️ R. Oester

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YouTube video by WSL-Institut für Schnee- und Lawinenforschung SLF Plants and their predators in climate change: Julien Bota explains the BugNet experiments in Davos

How do herbivores and fungal pathogens shape plant communities in a changing climate? Learn how we’re investing this experimentally on our @bugnet.bsky.social field sites in Davos. 🌱 🌐 youtu.be/3zJhOJqYkcg?... @slfdavos.bsky.social