Spatial Genetics Lab

UZH: PhD position – Drought Tolerance of European beech We invite applications for a 4-year PhD position working on drought tolerance of European beech using a variety of methodological approaches from remote sensing to genomics and metabolomics.

🌳Interested in using genomics, metabolomics and/or remote sensing to study the drought tolerance of a majestic tree species? Apply for the PhD position in my group! Deadline: 8 December 2025. 🌳 @spatialgenetics.bsky.social jobs.uzh.ch/job-vacancie...

A new small beech biodiversity experiment is starting today @Irchel :-)
190 4-year old beech saplings growing in two contrasting genetic diversity levels.
Although it was very muddy and snowy at times, we are happy to finally have the little trees in the ground.
@sofiavanmoorsel.bsky.social

@sofiavanmoorsel.bsky.social at the Basque Center of Climate Change (BC3) in Bilbao (ES) presenting our research on Intraspecific Variation in Drought Responses in European Beech 🌍🌳

Remote Sensing of Alpine Forests Excursion at the EGEA Annual Congress 2025

How can students use drones to map mountains? Find the latest News entry by @helfenstein.earth on
www.geo.uzh.ch/en/units/sg/...

For this work, Daria was awarded the Swiss Forum for International Agricultural Research (SFIAR) award 2024! sfiar.ch/award-ceremony

Thanks @upscale-h2020.bsky.social for collaboration and support!

Thanks @elife.bsky.social for an excellent peer review process!

How can we protect crop yields sustainably?🌽 "Push-pull" systems are one promising model. Daria and co-authors synthesized knowledge on how #push-pull protects maize against the invasive fall armyworm and test the disputed role of the leguminous intercrop Desmodium. elifesciences.org/reviewed-pre...

Observed the ARES mission today from the ground in La Massane, France. 🛩️🌳 Calibration measurements are done and more really cool ground data to be collected in the next days here! @spatialgenetics.bsky.social

Join us at @eseb2025.bsky.social! We aim to unite researchers working on tree genomics in natural and experimental populations and on strategies for monitoring forest genetic diversity! @spatialgenetics.bsky.social @domcoqetc.bsky.social Submit your abstract here: eseb2025.com/call-for-abs...

Leveraging remote sensing to distinguish closely related beech species in assisted gene flow scenarios European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) forests are suffering under increasingly severe and frequent drought. Closely related beech species from Bulgaria,…

New paper from our group! We used remote sensing to identify subtle seasonal differences between closely related beech species and developed models that accurately distinguish them at assisted gene flow sites.

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

Identifying seed families with high mixture performance in a subtropical forest biodiversity experiment Afforestation projects using species mixtures are expected to better support ecosystem services than monoculture plantations. While grassland studies have shown natural selection favoring high-perfo...

Our findings suggest that the growth and associated ecosystem services of species-rich mixtures in afforestation projects can be optimized by artificially selecting seed families with high mixture performance in biodiversity experiments.
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Beech forest - Germany

I am pleased to co-organize the "Beech Genomes for the Future" workshop on April 4th at the University of Zürich! 🌳

Are you working on or interested in beech genomics? Take a look and join us for this one-day workshop!

swissforestlab.wsl.ch/en/events-an...

Thematic workshop 2025

We're organizing a thematic workshop on "Beech genomes for the future". Registration and abstract submission can be done via this link: swissforestlab.wsl.ch/en/events-an.... We hope to interact with many people interested in finding a way to keep this forest species around!

Happy to share our latest work towards monitoring functional diversity using #Sentinel-2 time series at @esa.int's #BIOSPACE25 conference in Frascati, Italy. Visit our poster and talk to our team from @spatialgenetics.bsky.social and @wslresearch.bsky.social! 😊

Unmute biodiversity risks of free trade? The EFTA–Mercosur Agreement (Swiss) case study - Environmental Sciences Europe Sustainability and environmental impact assessments of trade and investment agreements need to address biodiversity more effectively. To showcase this, we examined a report, commissioned by Switzerlan...

Sustainability and environmental impact assessments of trade and investment agreements need to address biodiversity more effectively! enveurope.springeropen.com/articles/10....

🚀 The Genes from Space team recently hosted a workshop in Bern with over 100 participants (!!) joining to learn about our new monitoring tool. It enables users to use space-based Earth observation data to assess habitat suitability and estimate key genetic diversity metrics worldwide🌍

Satellite Observations Reveal a Positive Relationship Between Trait‐Based Diversity and Drought Response in Temperate Forests The relationship between functional diversity (richness, evenness) and drought response (resistance, recovery, resilience) during the severe 2018 drought in Switzerland was analyzed using satellite-d...

🌍🌳 Using Sentinel 2- data, we showed that Swiss forests with higher functional diversity resist & recover better from drought! A step toward scaling BEF insights to real-world forests! Check out our new publication in GCB by @helfenstein.earth et al. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Leaf Spectroscopy Reveals Drought Response Variation in Fagus sylvatica Saplings From Across the Species' Range Leaf reflectance measurements effectively track drought-induced trait changes in beech saplings in a non-destructive way Beech saplings from the Iberian Peninsula show greater drought resistance ...

A couple of years ago, I switched fields a bit by starting to work with European beech. The more I get to know this tree species, the more I appreciate and love it. Now, the first paper – written together with MSc student Dave Kurath – is out! agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10....

I am excited that our symposium "Adaptation to environmental changes in trees through the lens of common gardens and genomics" has been accepted to be included at the @eseb.bsky.social conference in August in Barcelona. Be ready to submit your abstracts!

Weltbekannter Klimaforscher muss die ETH Zürich nach Vorwürfen verlassen Gegen den Professor haben acht Personen Vorwürfe erhoben. Er bestreitet jedes Fehlverhalten. Nach Berichten dieser Redaktion ordnete die ETH eine Untersuchung an und handelt nun.

So this happened. Somebody is not getting tenure @ethzurich.bsky.social. It took a lot of people with a lot of courage and strength to make this happen. Thinking of them today!
www.tagesanzeiger.ch/klimaforsche...

Push–Pull Intercropping Increases the Antiherbivore Benzoxazinoid Glycoside Content in Maize Leaf Tissue Push–pull technology refers to a promising mixed cropping practice for sustainable agricultural intensification, which uses properties of intercrop and border crop species to defend a focal crop again...

New paper from our group! We found that maize plants from push-push fields had a higher relative abundance of metabolites toxic to insect herbivores. This suggests that maize plants growing with companion plants are "stronger" than maize plants growing alone.
pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/...

Hey everyone! Just a quick re-introduction of the Spatial Genetics group at the University of Zurich. We're committed to leave the other page behind us and start a new social media chapter here! Nice to meet you all :-)

2 open PhD positions about unravelling plant-insect communication for sustainable agroecosystems in Switzerland! informationecology.github.io/openpositions/

Is the staggeringly profitable business of scientific publishing bad for science?
www.theguardian.com/science/2017...

A must-read for today: direct.mit.edu/qss/article/... #publishing #academicpublishing #whatascam

#ASAPbio

Hello Science Bluesky! We just moved here from the other page and are looking forward to engaging with everyone here. We are the Spatial Genetics lab at the University of Zurich and work on plant ecological chemistry, genomics, remote sensing, biodiversity and much more! 🍂🌱🪴🌳🛩️🌍🛰️