This year the annual conference of the Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences was held on 7th November. The conference is a good chance to meet with other members of the institute and learn about the current science topics of each department. Every year two people from each department give a short presentation and this year Eleonora from our workgroup was one of the speakers representing the Department of Botany. She talked about the functional diversity of mammals. The whole-day event was organised by the Vision and Integration Committee of the Institute of Ecology and Earth Sciences which also includes Aurele and Enrico from our workgroup.