In our latest paper in PNAS, we ask: How can scientific progress be accelerated to meet the urgent challenges of the Anthropocene? We point to significant barriers in forecasting & prediction efforts for the biosphere 🧵👇 🧪🌎🦋 1/n www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
#ScienceTwitter #Ecology #Anthropocene
Such a surprise and great honour! It's a team effort. I am grateful to be able to work with many brilliant minds in @wslresearch.bsky.social and beyond — especially my mentor @dirknkarger.bsky.social , @arthurobuntspecht.bsky.social and Philipp Brun!
www.frontiersplanetprize.org/news/thought...
WSL researcher Liangzhi Chen has compiled a global inventory of multi-year, large-scale droughts. For this work, he has now been named the Swiss national winner of the Frontiers Planet Prize 2026. Congratulations! www.wsl.ch/en/news/wsl-...
@liangzhi-chen.bsky.social from @wslresearch.bsky.social is the Swiss National Champion for the Frontiers Planet prize. Congratulations, well deserved! #Megadroughts, #mitigation_strategies www.frontiersplanetprize.org/news/thought...
A black-and-white studio portrait photograph of Emma Lucy Braun, the pioneering American botanist and plant ecologist widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists in the study of eastern North American forests. Shown from the shoulders up against a soft, neutral gradient background, Braun appears in her later years with a calm, intelligent gaze directed straight at the viewer. Her white hair is neatly styled and swept back from her face, and she wears delicate round wire-rimmed glasses. A gentle, knowing half-smile softens her expression, conveying quiet authority, warmth, and scholarly poise. She is dressed in a light-colored, pleated blouse with a gathered neckline and a prominent dark floral brooch pinned at the center of her chest; the visible sleeve features subtle decorative patterning. The tight, centered composition focuses entirely on her face and upper torso, creating an intimate and dignified mood that emphasizes intellect and dignity over ornamentation.
Botanist/plant ecologist E. Lucy Braun is one of the most influential ecologists in North American history.
+ First woman President, Ecological Society of America, 1950
+ Helped establish plant ecology as a rigorous academic discipline
She was born #OTD in 1889. #WomenInSTEM #conservation #ecosky
Breaking: New study using observational constraints projects that the Atlantic Ocean circulation #AMOC will weaken ~50% by 2100, even for medium emissions and without Greenland melting. 🌊
More realistic models means stronger weakening - not entirely unexpected.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Fig. 1 Schematic overviews of the sulfur assimilation pathway, the abscisic acid signaling pathway, and the regulatory function of the cysteine synthase complex.
#TansleyInsight: Novel roles of sulfur metabolism in stress-controlled stomata aperture regulation
Sheng-Kai Sun, Rüdiger Hell & Markus Wirtz
👇
📖 nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#LatestIssue #PlantScience
We are hiring! Interested in doing a PhD and excited about forest management, ecosystem services, simulation modeling and beta diversity? Come work with us @edfm-tum.bsky.social at @tum.de, full job ad here: cloud.edfm.ls.tum.de/index.php/s/...
Very happy to see this lab paper out in @newphyt.bsky.social - we identified genomic traits & environmental drivers of ectomycorrhizal fungal mycelium exploration in the soil and on roots.
Thanks to all our co-authors and to @tommansfield.bsky.social
doi.org/10.1111/nph....
🍄 New in @NewPhytologist: Our paper shows that ectomycorrhizal fungi "exploration types" aren't just morphological labels—they reflect distinct genomes & ecological niches.
doi.org/10.1111/nph.71157
#Mycorrhiza #Fungi #ForestEcology #Genomics
Mountainbike im Schnee
Happy Easter from the Black Forest
New preprint synthesising 103 studies on tree species identification from aerial imagery identifies core gaps. Highlights need for cross-biome standardised curation, multimodal fusion, automated workflows, and advanced model architectures for scalable species mapping. eartharxiv.org/repository/v...
Happy to share our latest work in collaboration with the lab of @pengbo10.bsky.social. Here, we describe that a formin protein mediates the polarity switch from root hair to infection thread growth during symbiotic interactions.
www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...
Biodiversity and climate strongly shape forest resilience after multi-year droughts, but after accounting for the human footprint, biodiversity’s contribution is consistently and strongly negative 🧪 www.nature.com/articles/s41...
The future of Europe’s forest disturbance regimes– a thread.
Tl, dr: Disturbances from wildfire, bark beetles & wind will continue to increase in the coming decades. Under unabated climate change disturbances could more than double by 2100.
New paper out in @science.org doi.org/10.1126/scie...
Summer School "Forests for the Future: Strategies for Carbon Sequestration"
16–21 August 2026; Congressi Stefano Franscini at Monte Verità, Ascona, Switzerland
Deadline: 30 April 2026
Applications can be submitted to: swissforestlab_summerschool@wsl.ch
swissforestlab.wsl.ch/en/veranstal...
Paper out!🌳🐾Vital role of human footprint in altering forest resilience after disturbances.
Forest resilience anomalies after extreme droughts relate to species richness positively or negatively, but when human pressure is included, its interaction with species richness diminishes forest resilience.
Finally out in @natmicrobiol.nature.com: Prediction of eukaryotic cellular complexity in Asgard archaea using structural modelling. Great work by @stephkoe.bsky.social @kassipan.bsky.social @jvhooff.bsky.social
www.nature.com/articles/s41...
Our new research shows that megadroughts negatively impact #forest #resilience. Managed forests had lower resilience than undisturbed forests, especially in boreal regions. This underscores the importance of mitigating human pressure for maintaining forest resilience. www.nature.com/articles/s41...
🚨Finally out!🚨 'The distribution of mycorrhizal fungi on tree barks correlates with the host preference of the tropical epiphytic #orchid Bulbophyllum variegatum on La Réunion island' in Fungal Biology by Rémi Petrolli, @drdavidlroberts.bsky.social & many others doi.org/10.1016/j.fu...
Our new study highlights the importance of #biodiversity #conservation across scales in #drylands and provides insights for designing aridity-specific biodiversity conservation policies.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
(🧵8/8) ...to advance mechanism-based forest management strategies for climate adaptation and climate change mitigation.
(🧵7/8) The collaboration is anchored by the leadership of the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL and ETH Zurich, bringing together expertise from institutions across Switzerland, Germany, Israel, and the United States...
(🧵6/8) Recognizing the complexity of climate-smart forest management challenges, the team expanded to include specialists from theoretical ecology, data science, modeling, biodiversity, and forest operations.
(🧵5/8) ...Henrik Hartmann (Julius Kühn-Institute, Germany), and Nate McDowell (Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, USA). Arthur played a pivotal role in connecting ecophysiologists with forestry-focused researchers including Alessandra Bottero, Harald Bugmann, and Andreas Rigling.
🌱 The authors behind the paper 🌱
(🧵4/8) The authors of this #TansleyReview represent an interdisciplinary collaboration that originated from an initial idea conceived several years ago by Arthur Gessler (WSL/ETH Zurich, Switzerland)...
(🧵3/8) ...can help forests survive and thrive in hotter, drier conditions. The findings provide insights into climate-smart forestry practices for our changing world.
(🧵2/8) Forests face increasing threats from heat and drought caused by climate change. This #TansleyReview examines how different forest management techniques, such as choosing the right tree species, controlling forest density, and managing nutrients...
Fig. 2 Conceptual model of the expected role of dryland mechanisms along a climatic gradient from cool and moist towards hot and dry conditions (x-axis), and their relevance for climate-smart forestry (CSF, y
✨ Paper spotlight ✨
(🧵1/8) Shaping Future Forests: How can ecophysiology support climate-smart forest management?
nph.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
#PlantScience
