Florian Altermatt
@florianaltermatt
Full Professor of Aquatic Ecology University Zurich & @eawag.bsky.social | Kuratorium Forum Biodiversity | Founding Director | all & beyond #biodiversity, #eDNA & #AquaticEcology | Like=interesting www.altermattlab.ch
Postdoc Position 2️⃣: Alien Species detection using eDNA (2 years position, 100%) This position is about #establishing and developing #analytical #pipelines to analyse and survey #invasive alien #species using existing #eDNA datasets. ➡️ All details: apply.refline.ch/673277/1364/... 🎯
Postdoc position 1️⃣: Spatial #genomics of aquatic #invertebrates (3 years position, 100%). This position is about establishing & analysing genomic diversity of aquatic keystone species (aquatic insects, amphipods) in a spatially explicit approach. ➡️ All details: apply.refline.ch/673277/1363/... 🎯
#Cross-#ecosystem #biodiversity action is systemically #overlooked in biodiversity #policy and treaties⚖️: conbio.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.... 🌐 🌍 🎯 🦐 🍃 #IPBES #BiodiversityPolicy #GBF #KunmingMontreal 🧵1/8
#Postdoc #position (3 years) in spatial #genomics of aquatic #invertebrates opening up in my group. 🧬 🦐 🥼 🧑💻 ❗ More info: apply.refline.ch/673277/1363/... The project aims to establish & analyse #genomic #diversity of aquatic invertebrates (EPT & Amphipods) in a spatially explicit approach. 🌍 🌐 📈
Interested in #SpeciesDistributionModelling? Then this is of interest to you: The N-SDM software has been reengineered with extended features for nested #species #distribution modelling. #SDM Just out in Ecography Journal: nsojournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... #AntoineAdde et al. 🌍🌐
A year ago we published our perspective "Utilizing aquatic #environmental #DNA 🧬 to address #global 🌍 🌐 #biodiversity 🦐 🐟 🦠 targets 🎯 " in Nature Reviews Biodiversity: www.nature.com/articles/s44... 1/10🧵
Highly interesting & relevant lecture on "Taking the Pulse of the #Earth" by Johan Rockström & Millie Chapman. Yes, #planetary 🌍🌐situation is grim and humanity must act to avoid catastrophic outcomes by all means. We are at the brink of leaving the holocene safe space. 1/2 #CoalitionOfTheWilling
Open #PhD #position on “Projecting the #human #impact on #biodiversity” (fully funded 4 years position) in my group @University Zurich & @eawag.bsky.social 🌐 🌍 📈 🦀 🐟 🌳 All #details & application instructions 🎯: apply.refline.ch/673277/1356/... ❗Thx for spreading the word / apply now!
➡️ We found that the effects of disturbance depended on local resource availability and meta-ecosystem subsidy flow in our experiment. Irrespective of subsidy flow, high-resource ecosystems were unaffected by disturbance, resulting in overall higher community biomass of protist communities.
❓ Disturbances can negatively affect multiple levels of biological organization, yet it has remained poorly understood how landscape heterogeneity & resource flows mediate effects of disturbance. 🧪 We assessed how disturbance intensity affects biomass & community dynamics in connected ecosystems.
8/8 Work led by #YanZhang @UZH @eawag.bsky.social , with many co-authors and data contributors across 40+ institutions. @mattleray.bsky.social @merinrejichacko.bsky.social @leeselab.bsky.social @wslresearch.bsky.social @loicpellissier.bsky.social & many more 🇨🇭 🇩🇪 🇫🇷 🇨🇳 🇧🇷 🇺🇲 🇬🇧 🇦🇺 🇹🇭 🇪🇸 🇯🇵 🇳🇴 🇦🇹
6/8 🔹#Year of sampling had a positive effect on taxonomic congruence. This is promising❗ It indicates that technological advances and data-base completeness have improved our assessment ability!
3/8🔹 The meta-analysis of 58 riverine fish eDNA metabarcoding studies 🐡 🐟 🐠 🧬 covered 1818 sampling sites worldwide and evaluated the robustness of eDNA-derived biodiversity patterns.
2/8 We conducted an integrated reanalysis of #global riverine #fish eDNA datasets, showing both #robustness and #congruence of biodiversity conclusions, just published in #MolecularEcology. see paper ➡️ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
Improving #species #abundance information from #river #eDNA metabarcoding data: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... 🐜 🧬 📈 🌐🌍
Save the date! 2nd #Zurich #Biodiversity #Career day 2.11.2026: www.biodiversitaet.uzh.ch/de/career_da... 🎯 🔬 🦠 👩🎓 🧬 🐟 📈 🍃 🦐 🤝
Highly independent 2-Year #Postdoctoral #Fellowship in the field of #aquatic #science and #technology 🌍 🔬 🧬 🐟 🚰 🚹 🌊 🛰️ 🥼 at Eawag @eawag.bsky.social Apply now: apply.refline.ch/673277/1335/...
3/4 We assessed if #eDNA can capture the temporal changes of #Ephemeroptera, #Plecoptera, #Trichoptera, and #Diptera. We found pronounced, cyclic phenological trends in most groups: the communities diverged from spring to summer and then in fall gradually returned closer to the spring state.
2/4 ➡️ #Aquatic #insects are ecologically highly relevant in riverine systems & used in monitoring programs 📈 to assess ecological states. ➡️ Commonly, monitoring is conducted at 1–2 timepoints/y, despite known phenology of aquatic insect strongly affecting species presence/detection across seasons.
Tracking the #phenology ⏰ of #riverine #insect 🦟 🐜 communities using #eDNA 🧬🌐🌍. Out now by Eva Cereghetti et al. onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... a🧵/1/4
Utilizing aquatic #eDNA 🧬 to address global 🌍🌐 #biodiversity targets 🎯 Our #article @natrevbiodiv.nature.com is now freely available (upon registration) till Feb 16th: ➡️ www.nature.com/articles/s44... part of special collection 📚 on the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework #GBF 🌍 🦐 🐟 🧬
↔️ These subsidies are highly seasonally structured, yet their phenologies ⏰ are shifting with climate change 📈 . We experimentally demonstrated how order of arrival and exposition duration of different leaf species 🍂 🍃 affect decomposition by amphipods 🦐 as a key aquatic ecosystem function.
Shifting leaf fall #phenology disrupts #ecosystem #function. Out now @currentbiology.bsky.social: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti... ➡️ Leaf litter fall 🍂 and processing in temperate streams is one of the most pervasive resource subsidies and ecosystem functions globally 🌍 .
A quiet start to the Holidays🎄: a bit of #birding with my son around Lake Pfäffikon. Kingfisher, kestrel, merganser 🐦⬛🦉🦆🦅🪶. No particular spectacular observation, yet wonderful foggy scenery. Spending time in nature nearby is among the best things one can do—pure happiness and relaxation.
Out now by Zhang et al: Hyperspectral imagery 🛰️, LiDAR point clouds 🛩️, and #eDNA 🧬 to assess land-water linkage of #biodiversity across #aquatic functional feeding groups.🐟🪰🦠🔬🌐🌍 zslpublications.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/... @eawag.bsky.social #UZH
What a gem! the Death's Head #Hawkmoth. 💀🦋Excited each time I find one!
5/6 Species richness, functional, and genetic sequence diversity exhibited stronger negative responses to human activities in larger catchments. In contrast, phylogenetic diversity showed the strongest negative effects in smaller catchments. Full story: 🗞️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...