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ECBB 2024 - Long-term studies in animal behaviour
European Conference on Behavioural Biology July 16th – 19th 2024, Campus Irchel, Zurich, Switzerland
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World Biodiversity Forum 2024
The third World Biodiversity Forum (WBF), organized by UZH, took place in Davos from 16 to 21 June. In this interview, UZH earth system scientists Maria J. Santos and Gabriela Schaepman-Strub explain how biodiversity and climate change influence each other and what needs to be done to overcome the climate and biodiversity crisis. (Picture: Ethan Welty)
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“UZH is a leader in evolutionary biology research”
The URPP Evolution in Action program at UZH investigates how organisms and pathogens evolve and adapt to their environment, showcasing the university's research excellence in evolutionary biology by revealing genetic processes of speciation. Kentaro Shimizu points to the plant Cardamine amara, a precursor of the newly discovered species Cardamine insueta. (Picture: Hiroto Kawabata)
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Biodiversity Master's starts for the first time in fall
Last fall, UZH introduced the new "Biodiversity" study program in German-speaking countries. After a successful Bachelor's start with over 140 students, the Master's program will begin for the first time this fall semester.
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The Kalahari Biodiversity Project
The Kalahari Biodiversity Project, now encompassing 72 km², employs a dense network of 150 camera traps and novel soil invertebrate trapping methods to study vertebrate and invertebrate interactions across varied land uses, unraveling the complex relationships between species, land use, and climate change, offering crucial insights for biodiversity conservation and ecosystem management.
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African Wild Dog Project
Working with the Botswana Predator Conservation Trust, we analyse birth and death rates, group structures, and track the movements of both resident packs and dispersing sub-adults. This comprehensive approach provides insights into their habitat preferences, success in establishing new territories, and the interplay between local and regional population dynamics.
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UZH’s Ecology places 5th in the Shanghai Ranking
The Ecology research at the University of Zurich is now ranked fifth worldwide, according to the 2023 Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU).
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Groundwater Biodiversity
First Swiss-wide assessment of groundwater biodiversity (here: two groundwater amphipods, Niphargus puteanus and Niphargus auerbachi) using citizen-science approaches reaveals hidden diversity and several species new to science.
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Secrets of meerkat communication
This autumn, our researchers conducted a comprehensive study at Zurich Zoo on the behaviour of meerkats in the Lewa Savannah. They recorded sounds, played them back and carried out precise observations. The resulting findings, accompanied by three videos, are presented here.
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Fishing for DNA
Fishing for DNA to measure biodiversity. Like detectives searching for DNA at the scene of a crime, scientists can extract environmental DNA (eDNA) from water collected in rivers to estimate the biodiversity of their fish population. This is an accurate, informative and more ethical method than electrofishing.
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Urnerboden, the birthplace of new species in Switzerland
Our researchers from the group Shimizu and Shimizu-Inatsugi studied a new type of plant called Cardamine insueta, which formed as a mix of two other plants in a Swiss village over the last 150 years.
