Macroecology workgroup at the University of Tartu

[img_assist|nid=705|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=173]
We are happy to welcome a new member to our workgroup! Eleonora started her PhD studies in September. She is supervised by Carlos, and her doctoral studies focus on the functional spectrum of different taxonomic groups and how the spectrum changes following species extinctions.












--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 2020 Autumn gathering

[img_assist|nid=704|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=410|height=200]
With several members of our workgroup and our collaborators from the landscape biodiversity workgroup we decided to visit Meelis one september afternoon. During the lovely gathering we discussed our summer fieldworks and experiments and shared our plans for the next academic year.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 2020 Greenhouse experiment

[img_assist|nid=699|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=200|height=267]

This summer our PhD student Slendy conducted a greenhouse experiment growing ~50 grassland plant species in different soil moisture levels and measuring their aboveground and belowground traits. The experiment ran for two months and included, for example, planting ~3500 tiny seedlings, washing 500 root samples, and measuring 1500 leaves. Slendy had help from her supervisors Carlos and Riin as well as from other members of the Macroecology workgroup and Landscape Biodiversity workgroup. The experiment is part of Slendy's PhD project to explore how plant communities with different levels of functional redundancy are assembled at different resource availability levels.















--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July 2020 Floristics field course in Tartu

[img_assist|nid=697|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=200|height=267]
The floristics field course was held in Tartu and surrounding areas this summer. The course was thought in two groups and supervised by several members of our department. From our workgroup, Ene, Nele, Kersti and Riin were supervising. During the course, the students learned to identify 30 moss and 200 vascular plant species. This year, we also invited our foreign PhD students (including Slendy and Bruno from our workgroup) to participate in the course and learn some Estonian plants.


















--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 2020 Writing retreat in Laelatu

[img_assist|nid=692|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=173]
Although we had to skip our traditional workgroup trip to Laelatu this year, then we managed to have a 5-day writing retreat with a smaller group of people. Carlos, Aurele, Guille, Sabrina and Riin are working together to study the global functional diversity of different organisms, and Laelatu was a great place to finalise some analyses and start writing a new paper. Of course, we also had some time to enjoy the amazing nature in Laelatu.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 2020 Virtual spring seminar

[img_assist|nid=691|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=146]On 6th May we held our spring seminar together with the Landscape Biodiversity workgroup. When in previous years our spring seminar has taken place in Laelatu in western Estonia, where we also get to enjoy some spring nature, then this year we had to meet virtually. But this didn't stop us from discussing some exciting scientific ideas! This time our seminar topic was '(Almost) impossible ideas in ecology' and we had six presentations describing ideas how to use new methodology (deep learning) and increasing amount of ecological data to better predict the effects of global change on ecological communities, and how to improve our ability to protect and restore nature in the future.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 2020 New web application for estimating landscape biodiversity support in Estonia

[img_assist|nid=690|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=261|height=215]
Meelis and Aveliina (Landscape biodiversity workgroup) have led the development of a new web-based application to estimate how well landscapes support biodiversity. The easy to use application Rohemeeter (currently in Estonian only) allows users to explore terrestrial areas in Estonia - by choosing a location, the application calculates the current situation of biodiversity support in a 500 m radius, lists protected species and gives suggestions for protecting or restoring biodiversity. The application uses ~70 map layers, including current and historical habitat and species distribution maps as well as maps describing environmental or landscape characteristics.






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 2020 New paper about time lags in observed and dark diversity

[img_assist|nid=689|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=287]
We are happy to announce that our PhD student Diego just published his first paper from his doctoral studies in Global Change Biology! Together with Carlos and Meelis they propose that considering temporal dynamics in both observed and dark diversity - set of absent but suitable species - is an important tool to better understand how global change affects biodiversity at local scales. With dark diversity, it is possible to decompose species gains and losses into two space-related dimensions: one associated with local dynamics (species moving between observed and dark diversity - local gain and loss) and another related to site‐specific species pool (species moving between dark diversity and region - pool gain and loss). As those gains and losses might happen with some time delay (i.e. extinction debt and colonization credit), the decomposition of species gains and losses creates "windows of opportunities" to either prevent regional extinctions, foreseen local colonization and invasions or enhance restoration activities. Considering temporal lags and species gains and losses in observed and dark diversity, provides a novel tool to examine biodiversity change in the Anthropocene. Also check out Diego's Twitter thread about the paper with some amazing visual aids.

Trindade, DPF, Carmona, CP, Pärtel, M. (2020). Temporal lags in observed and dark diversity in the Anthropocene. Glob Change Biol. https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15093

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 2020 Working from home

[img_assist|nid=688|title=Aurèle has some help in his home office|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=200|height=257]
We are lucky that macroecological research can be done from home offices very successfully (although we had to postpone some of our greenhouse experiments and lab works). We hope everybody is healthy and staying at home whenever possible!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 2020 Meelis and Aurèle participated at the Macro2020 conference

[img_assist|nid=686|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=145]
Macro2020 is the 14th annual meeting of the specialist group Macroecology of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria, and Switzerland (GfÖ) and was held in Konstanz, Germany on 2nd-5th March. It was a small and cosy meeting with ~50 people. Aurèle presented his work on the global functional spectra of plants and vertebrates and Meelis talked about the first results of our global network DarkDivNet.









--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 2020 Welcome Ji-Zhong Wan

[img_assist|nid=682|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=195|height=260]
We are happy to welcome Ji-Zhong Wan from China to our workgroup! Ji-Zhong will be with us for the next two years as a post-doctoral researcher. His research will focus on distribution modelling and systematic conservation planning for biodiversity.





















--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 2020 Diego visited the University of South-Bohemia in Czech Republic

[img_assist|nid=680|title=|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=195|height=260]
PhD student Diego spent the last autumn semester (October-January) in the University of South-Bohemia in Czechia participating in the Quantitative Ecology Module. The module is a set of courses designed to give Master and PhD students a knowledge of ecological theory and modern computational methods (using CANOCO, R), but it is also a great opportunity to meet students and researchers from Czechia and elsewhere from the world.





















--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 2020 Open Doors Day in the University of Tartu

[img_assist|nid=679|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=146]
In the end of January, University of Tartu held a Open Doors Day for 9th grade students. From each department PhD students were introducing their curriculums through fun experiments and observations. Kersti and Madli also participated in the event - Kersti as one of the organisers and Madli was showing how to use computer simulations in ecological research.






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 2019 DarkDivNet conference

[img_assist|nid=678|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=195]We held our first ever DarkDivNet conference on 20-23 November with ~70 participants from all over the world. Two days were filled with interesting plenary and ordinary talks as well as poster presentations covering the dark and hidden diversity of plants and fungi. Several current or previous members of our workgroup also presented their recent findings. On the last day of the conference we explored some of our DarkDivNet sites in southern Estonia and visited the Tartu observatory.












--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 2019 EcolChange PhD conference

[img_assist|nid=677|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=400|height=159]
Our workgroup is part of the Centre of Excellence EcolChange and on 12th November many of us participated in the EcolChange PhD conference. This time, the conference was organised by PhD students and was targeted mainly for doctoral students and junior researchers. There was a general introduction by the heads of the centre (including Meelis) highlighting the activities of 2018/2019 academic year. This was followed by some great workshops on Big Data (organised by Madli), science communication and global change.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 2019 Visiting student from Italy

[img_assist|nid=676|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=139|height=200]
Eleonora Beccari is visiting our workgroup from October to December in the Erasmus programme. She is a Master student from Italy (University of Trieste) and in Tartu she is working with Carlos. Her project aims to estimate to what extent spectral diversity (obtained from air-borne remote-sensed images) is correlated with functional and taxonomical diversity in Italian costal dune ecosystem. Specifically, she tries to test whether spectral diversity could be a good proxy of functional diversity for dune ecosystem and which mechanistic traits are more correlated with spectral diversity and spectral diversity index. Welcome, Eleonora!









--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 2019 Welcome Bruno

[img_assist|nid=672|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=200|height=200]
We are happy to welcome Bruno Paganeli from Brazil to our workgroup. Bruno started his PhD studies in November focusing on the invasability of natural and anthropogenic ecosystems using the DarkDivNet data. His supervisor is Meelis Pärtel.















--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 2019 Autumn seminar

[img_assist|nid=671|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=146]
On 29th-30th October we had our autumn seminar together with the Landscape Biodiversity workgroup. It was already the 25th science retreat for our workgroup and this time we gathered in Võru in the beautiful hotel Tamula. The first day was filled with many great presentations focused on applied projects in macroecology and landscape biodiversity. We were happy to have our former researcher Robert Szava-Kovats as a guest presenter. Robert is currently working in the Estonian Marine Institute and he introduced us some of the cool applied projects from their institute. The next day we had a nice walk around Võru and enjoyed the first snow of the season.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 2019 Welcome Slendy

[img_assist|nid=666|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=260|height=195]
We are happy to welcome Slendy Rodriguez from Colombia to our workgroup. She started her PhD studies this autumn focusing on the functional diversity of plant communities. Specifically, she will compare the functional structure and community assembly of plant communities with different levels of functional redundancy and resource availability. Her supervisor is Carlos Carmona.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 2019 Visitors in the macroecology workgroup

[img_assist|nid=663|title=Zoe sampling insect herbivores|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=183]
Over the summer we had many students visiting our workgroup to collaborate with our researchers and do some fieldwork. From April to August PhD students Maribel Vasquez (from Chile) and Roy Gonzáles (from Colombia) were visiting Carlos and worked on different functional diversity topics. In July and August, PhD student Zoe Xirocostas from Australia was collaborating with Meelis and Riin for her exciting PhD project, where she studies whether invasive plant species in Australia have different herbivores and pollinators than in their native habitats in Europe. From July to September, Bachelor student Giulia Guizzo from Italy is doing an Erasmus traineeship in our workgroup and is gaining useful experience in different field and lab work methods.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 2019 Floristics field course

[img_assist|nid=665|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=200|height=267]
This summer 58 Bachelor level students successfully completed the field course in Floristics. The course was thought in three groups and supervised by several members of our department. From our workgroup, Ene, Nele, Miina, Kersti and Riin supervised at least one of the groups. During Floristics field course, the students learned to identify 30 moss species and 200 vascular plant species. From this year, the Floristics field course is offered for first year students - therefore the students will be more successful in later studies when they can already recognize many plant species in the wild.

One of the field course groups was also visited by Erle Veber, the director of a new series about the Estonian's National University 100th anniversary ('Rahvusülikooli sajand'). She filmed for an episode about teaching in the university and followed students and supervisors with a camera on a botanical field trip, documented how to mount herbarium specimens and interviewed them about the importance of botanical knowledge. The series will be screened this autumn in ERR (in Estonian only).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July 2019 Island Biogeography conference in Réunion

[img_assist|nid=664|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=177]
Madli participated at the third Island Biology conference which took place in Saint-Denis in the marvellous island of Réunion. The event brought together scientists from all over the world, fascinated by island ecology, evolution and conservation. Madli gave a talk on a topic that is part of her PhD thesis: an agent-based simulation model which emulates the geological history and biogeography of hotspot archipelagos.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July 2019 IAVS 2019 meeting in Bremen

[img_assist|nid=662|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=195]Meelis and Riin represented our workgroup at the annual International Association for Vegetation Science (IAVS) symposium. The conference was held between 14-18 July in Bremen, Germay. The whole week was filled with interesting talks and poster presentations as well as with excursions to heathlands or wetlands near Bremen. Meelis organised a special session 'Macroecological vegetation science: large grain patterns and processes of plant diversity' and Riin presented new findings about the macroecology of nitrogen-fixing plants.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July 2019 Goodbye Robert

[img_assist|nid=337|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=197|height=161]We are sad to say goodbye to Robert Szava-Kovats who started a new position at the Estonian Marine Institute. Robert was a researcher in the macroecology workgroup since its beginning. During these years, he worked on a wide range of topics including dark diversity, species richness patterns and spatial scale. Robert used his expertise in statistics to always kindly help anybody struggling with statistical analyses, and he was our resident English proofreader. All the PhD students will remember his excellent lectures on public speaking and scientific writing. We wish you all the best on your new job, Robert, and hope to see you again soon!






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July 2019 DarkDivNet fieldwork in Estonia

[img_assist|nid=658|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=150|height=200]Many sites all over the world are already sampled for DarkDivNet and now we have also included the first Estonian sampling site. Between 25th June - 23rd July, Meelis, Carlos, Kersti, Ülle, Ene and Riin (with much welcomed help from other workgroup members) sampled six permanent plots and 90 co-occurrence plots in southern Estonia. They also sampled for the add-on study SOIL DarkDivNet.















--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 2019 Meelis gave a plenary talk at the Community Ecology conference

[img_assist|nid=657|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=173]The 2nd International Conference on Community Ecology took place 4-6 June in Bologna, Italy. Meelis was invited as a plenary speaker and he gave an interesting talk on dark diversity (Dark diversity of ecological communities: theory and applications).












--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 2019 Carbon addition experiment

[img_assist|nid=656|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=211]Our department has a long-term experiment looking at the effects of fertilisation and carbon addition on grassland species diversity. It has already been running for 17 years! Kersti, Madli and Riin (together with Kersti Püssa from the Plant Ecology Lab) went out to the meadow to update the permanent markings and add sugar to the carbon addition plots.















--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 2019 Workgroup spring seminar

[img_assist|nid=655|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=195]On 2nd-3rd May, we had our spring seminar together with the Landscape biodiversity workgroup in western Estonia. The seminar was about methods in ecology and we heard many interesting talks about modelling, genomics and ecosystem services assessments. We were happy to have Raul Vicente Zafra, professor of data science at our university, as a guest speaker. He introduced the methods of machine learning and deep learning and how to apply them in ecological science. We also had some time to walk on the species-rich wooded meadow in Laelatu and contribute to the citizen science project sampling cowslip heterostyly for genetic diversity.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 2019 Ülle, Riin and Madli participated in a theoretical biology spring school

[img_assist|nid=654|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=260|height=195]Estonian Naturalist Society held their 45th Theoretical Biology spring school on 26th-29th April in southern Estonia. This year's topic was biogeography and there were presentations about the distribution of animals, plants, fungi and lichens. Ülle talked about plant biogeography, Riin gave a talk about the biogeography of plant traits and Madli introduced how to use computer simuations in island biogeography models.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 2019 New paper about community assembly on tropical islands

[img_assist|nid=652|title=|desc=|link=url|url=https://twitter.com/BioGeoMacro/status/1121304957947457537|align=left|width=260|height=137]Meelis was a coauthor on a paper led by the Biodiversity, Macroecology and Biogeography group at the University of Göttingen, Germany. They developed a new method to calculate species pools for woody species on small islands in Indonesia and applied the dark diversity concept to explore island community assembly.

Schrader, J., Köning, C., Moeljoni, S., Pärtel, M. & Kreft, H. (2019). Requirements of plant species are linked to area and determine species pool and richness on small islands. Journal of Vegetation Science doi:10.1111/jvs.12758

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 2019 New paper about seed dispersal distances

[img_assist|nid=653|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=260|height=196]Riin was a coauthor on a new publication about the latitudinal gradient in seed dispersal distances. They collected available georeferenced data about seed dispersal distances in the literature and found that species near the equator tend to disperse their seeds further than plants in the temperate region. The study is a collaboration between previous colleagues at the University of New South Wales (Australia).

Chen, S., Tamme, R., Thomson, F. J. & Moles, A. T. (2019). Seeds tend to disperse further in the tropics. Ecology Letters 22:954-961

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 2019 Registration for DarkDivNet2019 workshop is now open

[img_assist|nid=650|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=145]DarkDivNet2019 workshop will be held on 20-23 November in Tartu. November, with its gloomy weather, is an ideal time to discuss dark diversity topics. There will be many interesting talks by invited speakers, and we plan talks and posters by the participants as well. All DarkDivNet members and others interested in dark diversity are welcome. The workshop is free to participate, but travel and accommodation costs are not included. DarkDivNet2019 workshop is held in collaboration with the Centre of Excellence EcolChange and sponsored by the Doctoral School of Earth Sciences and Ecology.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Aprill 2019 Field course in Tenerife

[img_assist|nid=651|title=Guimari vulcanic semi-desert|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=146]Doctoral School of Earth Sciences and Ecology organised a course "Laws of the altitudinal zones of vegetation: Evolution, ecology and human impact" in Tenerife. From our workgroup Ene, Ülle and Aveliina were supervising the course, and Iris and Elisabeth participated. The aim of the course was to introduce doctoral students biodiversity patterns in mountainous region and to increase knowledge and understanding of the processes that shape vegetation and the adaptation of plants to different environmental conditions. The nature of the island is very diverse and it is possible to see a rapid change of communities and vegetation in a short distances, which is why Tenerife was the perfect place for this course. In addition, fieldwork was carried out for the DarkDivNet project.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 2019 Estonia is looking for cowslips!

[img_assist|nid=647|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=173]Scientists from University of Tartu and Estonian Fond for Nature invite this spring to join an exciting civil science initiative – Estonia is looking for cowslips! There is no need for prior knowledge to participate. Observers need to check hundred individuals in one habitat and mark in the webpage whether the cowslip flowers are S-type or L-type. This well-known spring flower is a special plant, because the gene type of the flower can be distinguished by just looking with eyes. With nationwide data, gathered with the help of volunteers, scientists can evaluate the condition of Estonian nature and the status of species and habitats.

The official webpage will be open in the middle of April www.nurmenukk.ee

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

March 2019 Meelis introduced the secrets of biodiversity to high school students

[img_assist|nid=645|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=260|height=146]Between 9th-10th March, Tartu hosted the final round of the Estonian Biology Olympiad for high school students. Meelis Pärtel gave an interesting talk about the secrects of biodiversity ("Elurikkuse saladuste jälil") to all the participants. He introduced the recent scientific findings by our workgroup and colleagues as well as talked about the unanswered questions in biodiversity studies that need to be resolved by the future generations.









--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

March 2019 New workgroup in the department of botany

[img_assist|nid=644|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=275|height=183]Landscape Biodiversity workgroup, led by Dr. Tsipe Aavik and Dr. Aveliina Helm, has branched out from the Macroecology workgroup. New workgroup focuses on the relations of humans and natural environment and tries to find the best solutions to protect and restore biological diversity. An important part of work will be done in semi-natural grassland communities where they study the influence of land use to both genetic and species diversity and related ecosystem services.

Landscape biodiversity workgroup continues active collaboration with their colleagues from the Macroecology workgroup and Plant Ecology workgroup of the University of Tartu.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 2019 Open Doors Day of the University of Tartu

[img_assist|nid=632|title=|desc=|link=none|align=right|width=260|height=146]
27th of February took place the open doors day of Tartu university, where future students could participate in different scientific workshops. Kersti, Madli and Iris introduced our workgroup by showing ecological computer simulations, and by explaining the essence and importance of landscape genetics.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 2019 DarkDivNet newsletter

[img_assist|nid=631|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=158]DarkDivNet published recently a Newsletter for all current and potential participants. Newsletter gives an overview about the progress of DarkDivNet, encourage more people to participate (especially from less covered regions), introduces a web tool and an add-on study SOIL-DarkDivNet, and announces that in November 2019 there will be a first DarkDivNet workshop in Tartu, Estonia.

DarkDivNet is looking for a PhD student, project will start from September 2019! Please contact with Prof. Meelis Pärtel (meelis.partel@ut.ee)
You are also welcome to contact with Prof. Pärtel to discuss postdoc options.

Further news about DarkDivNet will be posted in the twitter account of the macroecology workgroup at the University of Tartu: https://twitter.com/MacroecologyUT

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 2019 International conference of biogeography in Spain

[img_assist|nid=625|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=195]January 8-12, 2019 Meelis and Robert participated at the “International Biogeography Society (IBS) 9th Biennial Conference in Malaga, Spain. Robert gave a talk about how to estimate site favourability for present and absent plant species in Europe using a favourability index. He found high favourability in northern latitudes, driven by absent species. Meelis presented progress of DarkDivNet global research network.
IBS conference gives a great opportunity to meet Biogeographers from around the world and catch up on the latest research.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 2018 New paper about the importance of belowground diversity

[img_assist|nid=623|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=195]In collaboration with our colleagues from the Plant Ecology group, Maarja Öpik and Martti Vasar, and Scott Wilson from the University of Regina, Canada, Sabrina published an article about the importance of belowground plant richness measured by roots for a comprehensive estimation of total plant species richness in different vegetation types. The authors combined a molecular next-generation sequencing approach and vegetation surveys to demonstrate that aboveground but also belowground plant richness alone was a poor estimator of total plant richness within and across contrasting vegetation types along an elevation gradient. This highlights the need to account for both above- and belowground plant richness to estimate potential changes in plant communities in a changing environment.

Träger, S, Öpik, M, Vasar, M, Wilson, SD (2018). Belowground plant parts are crucial for comprehensively estimating total plant richness in herbaceous and woody habitats, Ecology, doi: 10.1002/ecy.2575

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 2018 Lisanna received a PhD degree!

[img_assist|nid=622|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=173]On 12th of December, Lisanna Schmidt successfully defended her thesis “Phenotypic and genetic differentiation in the hybridizing species pair Carex flava and C. viridula in geographically different regions“ and was awarded the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Botany and Mycology. Lisanna was supervised by Tatjana Oja, and the official opponent during the defence was Professor Paul Ashton from Edge Hill University, UK.

Congratulations, Dr. Schmidt!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 2018 Marianne won 1st prize in Estonian National Contest for University Students

[img_assist|nid=621|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=150|height=200]Our workgroup master student Marianne Kaldra won 1st prize (960 eur) for her bachelor thesis „Heterostyly of Primula veris in fragmented populations“ in Estonian National Contest for University Students. Marianne’s supervisor was researcher Tsipe Aavik.

Congratulations!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
December 2018 Expedition to volcanic Réunion island

[img_assist|nid=620|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=126]18th of Nov – 1st of Dec Meelis, Ülle, Aurele, Madli, Miina, Elisabeth and Diego participated at the scientific expedition to Réunion island. Despite the good preparation everything did not go as expected due to "yellow jackets".

The expedition was organised by the Doctoral School of Earth Sciences and Ecology. Its purpose was to give opportunity to different Estonian universities doctoral student to explore the nature of Reunion island and collect valuable scientific data and samples. Unexpectedly, most of the roads were blocked, gas stations and local university closed because of the protests against the gas price rise and general poverty on the island. Therefore, our young scientists could move around mostly by foot and on a limited area around their guest house. But thanks to locals help and quick reorganization of students plans almost everybody still managed to make their fieldwork.

Read more about their adventures from Heureka, Novaator and Õhtuleht

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 2018 Aveliina was given a media friend prize called "Ökul"

[img_assist|nid=619|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=146]21st of November Estonian Research Council organised a science communication conference in Tartu. Conference topic was this year 'Science in social media - between entertainment and noise?'. In addition to presentations and round table discussions there were given several prizes related to science popularization. The Estonian Association of Science Journalists acknowledged Aveliina Helm as being very active in social and 'classical' media this year.

Congratulations Aveliina!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 2018 New paper studies how lifeless volcanic islands are populated by different plant and animal species

[img_assist|nid=618|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=146]Madli Jõks and Meelis Pärtel used a computer simulation for studying the plant communities on the Hawaiian Islands, Galapagos Islands, Canary Islands, Cape Verde and the Azores. The simulation imitated the arrival of plants on the islands, their spread in the archipelago, competition between species, their evolution and extinction. In particular, the study looked at what factors influence the biodiversity and species’ composition of island plants, whether the size of the island and the number of varied habitats on the island are important, and what role the location of the island in the archipelago plays. Computer simulations offer opportunities for research that cannot be done in nature, e.g., relocate islands within the archipelago. By changing the virtual maps of archipelagos, the simulations imitated realistic and less realistic conditions in which the biological diversity might have developed over millions of years. At the end of the simulation, the results were compared with the reality. From the results, it can be concluded that the diversity of the habitats has been a more important designer of island biodiversity than was previously assumed. In addition, the location of the island in the archipelago plays a significant role, especially with elongated archipelagos.

Jõks, M. & Pärtel, M. 2018. Plant diversity in Oceanic archipelagos: realistic patterns emulated by an agent‐based computer simulation. Ecography

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
November 2018 Workgroup autumn seminar

[img_assist|nid=617|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=97]Our workgroup autumn seminar was held on 1-2nd of November in Carl Schmidti Maja, Põltsamaa. The topic was this time 'grant applications' as many of us are planning to apply a research grant in spring. We had nice constructive discussions, which hopefully lead to successful project applications. Next morning we had guided excursion in the museum of Põltsamaa to get to know a bit the exciting history of this city.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 2018 Dark Diversity Network

[img_assist|nid=608|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=187]Together with the Plant Ecology Lab and several collaborators from abroad we have initiated the Dark Diversity Network (DarkDivNet). DarkDivNet is a coordinated global sampling network to explore the dark diversity of plant communities and compare this between habitats and regions. We have asked ecologists all over the world to join in the project and sample a study area using the exact same methodology – so far, we have over 90 global study sites planned!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 2018 New article about plants dispersal in fragmented landscape

[img_assist|nid=616|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=146]In collaboration with our Swedish colleagues Jan Plue and Sara Cousins, Tsipe was a co-author in an article about domestic animals enhancing plant dispersal among isolated grasslands in Stockholm archipelago, Sweden. They used landscape genetic approaches to demonstrate that the genetic diversity and gene flow of the grassland perennial Campanula rotundifolia was higher in grasslands connected by grazing livestock. Populations in grasslands, which were no longer part of grazing networks, exhibited lower genetic diversity and were genetically more isolated from each other. The authors suggest that domestic livestock within rotational grazing networks function as important mobile corridors for the dispersal of grassland plants among spatially isolated grassland patches and is a useful tool for creating and managing landscapes for higher species and genetic diversity.

Plue, J., Aavik, T. & Cousins, S.A.O. (2018) Grazing networks promote plant functional connectivity among isolated grassland communities. Diversity and Distributions, doi: 10.1111/ddi.12842.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
October 2018 Laelatu autumn academy

[img_assist|nid=615|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=173]13-14th of October the department of botany organised already second time the event called ’Laelatu academy’. The aim was to discuss whether continuous cover forestry can be realistic solution for species-rich and sustainable forest management in Estonia. Kaido Kama, Rainer Kuuba, Raul Rosenvald and Eerik Leibak were invited to share their knowledge and experience on this field. There were alltogether more then 30 people, mostly secondary school students and 1-2. year bachelor students. From our workgroup Meelis, Liis and Ene helped to organise and participated actively.

More pictures can be found here!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 2018 Sabrina received a Mobilitas Pluss post-doc grant

[img_assist|nid=529|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=180|height=180]Sabrina Träger received the Mobilitas Pluss postdoctoral research grant from the Estonian Research Council for her project "The effect of landscape configuration on the functional connectivity of Primula veris - a landscape genomic approach". Sabrina finished her PhD in 2016 in Canada and has already been working in our workgroup since 2017. She will start her new project in September, analyzing the effect of landscape elements on the genetic diversity of Primula veris.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 2018 Restoration ecology conference in Iceland

[img_assist|nid=614|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=195]Sabrina and Liis participated at the SER Europe 11th biannual conference, Restoration in the Era of Climate Change held in Reykjavík, Iceland 9-13 September 2018. Liis introduced the Estonian large-scale alvar grassland restoration project ’Life to Alvars’. Sabrina gave a talk titled ’Landscape genetics as a perspective tool for guiding grassland restoration: a case study from Estonia’. Conference had great keynote speakers and days full of exciting presentations. In addition they had a chance to get to know Icland surprising nature and weather a bit.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 2018 New PhD student

[img_assist|nid=609|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=150|height=193]New doctoral student, Iris Reinula, has joined our workgroup. One of the aims of her doctoral thesis is to find out if genetic diversity reacts to landscape change with a time lag. In addition she will try to detect loci with adaptive relevance and the response of adaptive (under natural selection) genetic diversity to landscape change and study if and how much do spatially isolated plant populations exchange diaspores and pollen that ensures genetic diversity of populations. Her supervisor is researcher Tsipe Aavik.

Welcome!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 2018 New paper about Neolithic plant invasions hypothesis

[img_assist|nid=612|title=Potential pathways of invasion|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=195]Meelis is a co-author in an article which aimed to clarify how trait differences, evolutionary context both present and past, and human-based perturbations (defined as disruptions to natural disturbance regimes) may combine to influence the invasion process in contemporary anthropogenic landscapes. They do not provide an extensive review of temperate grassland invasion as this topic has been examined numerous times, instead they highlight studies that have tested some of the ‘Neolithic Plant Invasion Hypothesis’ (NPIH) derived predictions.

MacDougall, A. S., McCune, J. L., Eriksson, O., Cousins, S. A. O., Pärtel, M., Firn, J., & Hierro, J. L. (2018). The Neolithic Plant Invasion Hypothesis: the role of preadaptation and disturbance in grassland invasion. New Phytologist, 220(1), 94-103.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 2018 Meelis opposed a doctoral thesis in Belgium

[img_assist|nid=600|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=121]31st of August Meelis was invited to be a member of defense committee of Yongjie Liu doctoral thesis at the University of Antwerpen. The title of thesis was ‘Effects of three-dimensional soil heterogeneity on the structure and functioning of plant communities in experimental mesocosms’.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
August 2018 GLOBE Estonia educational expedition

[img_assist|nid=599|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=195]Ene was one of the supervisors of GLOBE Estonia educational expedition 2018, Educational program GLOBE (Global Learning and Observations to Benefit Environment) is promoting scientific thinking and scientific worldview and stands for environmental awareness.

GLOBE Estonia expedition 2018 was held 13-16th of August in Jõulumäe Sports and Recreation Centre, Pärnu county. More than hundred schoolchildren (age 13-16), supervised by PhD students and scientists of University of Tartu, explored the soil, water bodies (chemical composition of water and biota), peat layer in the paludified coastal grassland, forest vegetation, carbon cycle in the local forest and weather. The results and conclusions were presented and discussed during the last day. The event was opened by the representer of the U.S Embassy of Estonia, important visitors were Jennifer Bourgeault (coordinator of the GLOBE in U.S.) and Terje Tuisk (Estonian Scientific Agency). The creativity and high scientific level of young people gave a special value and shine to the whole GLOBE Estonia 2018 expedition.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
July 2018 Vegetation scientists from all over the world gathered in Montana, USA

[img_assist|nid=598|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=129]22-27th of July many our current and former lab members participated at the IAVS 61st Annual Symposium at Montana State University in Bozeman. Meelis and Carlos organised a special session ‘Species pools across scales: an integrative perspective’, where also our former post-doc Jody Price made a presentation. Jon Bennett was talking about functional traits, Inga Hiiesalu about mycorrhiza and Triin Reitalu about vegetation history. The primary theme of the meeting was "Natural Ecosystems as Benchmarks for Vegetation Science".

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 2018 Congress of Conservation Biology

[img_assist|nid=596|title=There isn't much time left to save the remaining biodiversity|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=195]12th - 15th of June 2018 took place 5th European Congress of Conservation Biology in Jyväskylä, Finland. The theme of ECCB 2018 was planetary wellbeing – a concept that captures the wellbeing of people as well as the integrity and sustainability of Earth's ecosystems. From our workgroup Aveliina gave a talk about her work in IPBES. Liis introduced the Estonian alvar grassland restoration project ‘Life to Alvars’. Carlos was invited to carry out workshop ‘From fungi to flies: broadening the use of functional traits in conservation’. Ignacio and Elisabeth had poster presentations about ecosystem services of semi-natural grasslands. In general the conference was well organised and the topics presented and discussed were very actual and important. All plenary speakers had strong and charismatic presentations.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
June 2018 Liina also received a doctoral degree

[img_assist|nid=595|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=173]Two weeks later, on the 8th of June, Liina Saar also successfully defended her thesis “Dynamics of grassland plant diversity in changing landscapes“ and was awarded with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Botany and Mycology. Liina was supervised by senior researcher Aveliina Helm and prof. Meelis Pärtel, and the official opponent during the defense was prof. Robin Pakeman from the James Hutton Institut, UK.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mai 2018 Kersti received a doctoral degree

[img_assist|nid=594|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=173]On the 28th of May, Kersti Riibak successfully defended her thesis “Importance of dispersal limitation in determining dark diversity of plants across spatial scales“ and was awarded with the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Botany and Mycology. Kersti was supervised by prof. Meelis Pärtel, and the official opponent during the defense was senior researcher Borja Jiménez-Alfaro from University of Oviedo, Spain.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mai 2018 Laelatu spring academy

[img_assist|nid=593|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=173]26-27th of May the department of botany organised for the first time event called ’Laelatu spring academy’. The aim of the event was to bring together more experienced people from the field of plant science and 1-2. year bachelor students and secondary school students to discuss how plant sciences can help to solve 21th century environmental issues. From our workgroup Meelis, Aveliina, Liis and Ene helped to organise and participated actively.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 2018 Aveliina was chosen as the laureate of the Estonian Nature Conservation Mark

[img_assist|nid=592|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=107]Ecologist Aveliina Helm was chosen as the silver mark laureate of the Estonian nature conservation. The nature protection mark highlights people whose services are recognized in the study of nature, in the dissemination of natural sciences and in the development of nature conservation, both nationally and internationally.

Congratulations, Aveliina!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 2018 Workgroup spring seminar

[img_assist|nid=591|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=173]Our workgroup spring seminar was held on 10-11th of May at Laelatu field station. This time the seminar was focused on the macroecology of interactions. In addition to presentations by our workgroup members, we had three guest presenters - Maarja Öpik (senior researcher in plant ecology), Tiit Teder (senior researcher in entomology) ja Krista Takkis (post-doc at the University of Life Sciences). We had high diversity of exciting presentations - global patterns of plants, fungi and fish, climate change effect on pollinators, species-genetic diversity correlations, interaction debt etc. Next morning we visited Salevere broad-leaved forest and Tuhu bog, which were full of colorful spring flowers.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
May 2018 Meelis gave a talk at an agricultural seminar

[img_assist|nid=590|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=173]In March, the agricultural company Väderstad organised a seminar, where they introduced the latest news of the company, but also prof. Meelis Pärtel from University of Tartu and Evelin Loit from University of Life Sciences were invited. Meelis gave a presentation about globally changing environment and climate and how it affects farmers and vice versa. Evelin spoke about the cereal breeding.

Read more from here (in Estonian).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 2018 XIII Estonian ecology conference

[img_assist|nid=585|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=147]20th of April took place thirteenth Estonian ecology conference 'Ecological science in a changing world', in Tartu. From our workgroup Aveliina gave a talk titled ’Estonian grasslands – to whom and for what?’. All presentations were informative and exciting, covering wide array of ecological studies in Estonia. Conference was organised by Estonian Ecological Society and Centre of Excellence of EcolChange.

Read also science news portal Novaator (in Estonian)

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
April 2018 Macroecology conference in Switzerland

[img_assist|nid=584|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=164]From 10-13th of April Meelis and Aurèle participated at the annual meeting of macroecologists hosted by the Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL in Birmendorf. The theme of the conference was 'Macroecolgy in the age of big data'. Aurèle presented his study about the global co-variation of diversity in plants and mycorrhizal fungi and Meelis presented the study he made together with Argo Ronk (his former PhD student) about the plant diversity patterns in Europe. During this conference, they had very interesting talks with a lot of researchers, updating their knowledge on the development of new methods and approches thanks to excellent keynotes and exciting presentations. They recommend this conference to everybody interested in macroecology and big data to meet the top researchers in this field.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 2018 Global assessment of biodiversity status is now public

[img_assist|nid=582|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=195]On 23rd of March the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services published a global assessment about the status of biodiversity and what are the main threats and opportunities for biodiversity and how can we adjust our policies and institutions for a more sustainable future. This region-based assessment was written by more than 550 leading experts, from over 100 countries. Aveliina helped to compile the assessment of Europe and Central Asia region.

Read more from here!

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
March 2018 Soil seedbank experiment

[img_assist|nid=583|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=195]In the beginning of March Liis and Elisabeth sowed over 150 samples of soil seedbank in our Oa street greenhouse. Samples were collected last summer from the areas of restoration project ’Life to alvars’, to see whether there is any viable seeds of characteristic grassland species in the soil, especially on the sites which are strongly overgrown with junipers and pines. Restoration of species-rich grassland community would be faster if there are still viable seeds present in the soil.












--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 2018 Annual Meeting for Conservation Genetics in Vienna

[img_assist|nid=581|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=150|height=200]From 26-28 February 2018 Sabrina and Iris, a master student of Tsipe, represented our workgroup at the 3rd Annual Meeting for Conservation Genetics in Vienna, Austria, presenting their first results of effects of habitat loss and fragmentation on genetic diversity of Primula veris in Estonian alvar grasslands. The Natural History Museum of Vienna as venue for this meeting stimulated inspiring discussions and exchange of ambitions to bring research and conservation practices closer together.












--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 2018 Nordic Oikos conference in Trondheim

[img_assist|nid=580|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=259|height=188]Aveliina, Liis and Liina participated at the Nordic Oikos conference 2018, held in Trondheim, Norway, 19-22 February. Aveliina gave a presentation titled ’Extinction debt of arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi on declining grasslands’. She was also invited to share her ideas in a panel debate “The importance of ecological science in society “– Or: How can ecology and ecologists make a difference? Liis made a poster presentation about the disappearance of good dispersers from European grasslands. Liina had also poster about winners and losers in European grasslands.
The theme of the conference was “The importance of ecological science in society”, with a solid focus on the need for fundamental ecological science. There were excellent keynote speakers and days full of exciting presentations.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

February 2018 Sabrina participated in a bioinformatics winter school in Switzerland

[img_assist|nid=579|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=196]Between 11-17 February Sabrina participated in the winter school "Bioinformatics for Adaptation Genomics" (BAG) in Weggis, Switzerland, hosted by ETH Zurich. She returned to Tartu with invaluable know-how on bioinformatics-related topics, such as genetic analyses using restriction-site associated DNA (RADseq) and RNA sequencing, whole genome sequencing and methods for dealing with low quality sequencing data. Among 30 participants from 11 countries all over the world, Sabrina got a chance to get a hands-on experience with bioinformatics analysis of real-life data and to discuss relevant topics with leading experts in the field.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

February 2018 Science communication workshop in Tallinn University

[img_assist|nid=577|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=195]15th of February Aveliina, Tsipe, Liis and Elisabeth participated in science communication workshop, led by science communication lector Arko Olesk from Tallinn University and researcher Asko Lõhmus from Tartu University. Communication with media is highly needed, but not an easy task for scientists, it requires certain knowledge, self-confidence and practice. One of the first advice from this workshop was that scientists should have clear message, which they publish in a right time and place, and for the right audience.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 2018 Nature quiz for high school students

[img_assist|nid=578|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=173]On February 7, Tallinn 32nd Secondary School held a traditional nature quiz, which was dedicated to plants this time. The guest members of the jury were Ülle Reier and Kai Vellak from the Department of Botany and Ester Valdvee from the Estonian Orchid Protection Club. As always, the fourth member was the school's physics teacher Aarne Silas. The event was organized by biology teacher Krista Kiisler and 12b class students. Seven teams of five members from the elementary level and eleven from the secondary level took part of the competition. Each member of the jury introduced its activities and presented five illustrated questions in its field. The quiz was well organized and very entertaining thanks to the event's managers and practical physics tasks. Winners and photos of the event can be seen here.



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
February 2018 Conservation Week in Novaator

[img_assist|nid=576|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=163]In the beginning of February science news portal Novaator had a conservation week. During this week following articles-opinions about nature protection were published with the help of Tsipe, Aveliina and Mart Meriste:
Want to protect nature? - Become a conservation biologist! (in Estonian)
The price of nature's contributions: how much you would pay for pollination? (in Estonian)
Six new spider species were found from endangered alvar grasslands (in Estonian)

Also a photo story about beautiful alvar grasslands and video how Estonian only arachnologist identifies spiders (in Estonian).



--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 2018 Expedition to Réunion island

[img_assist|nid=573|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=260|height=173]Meelis and Aurèle together with colleagues from geology department Leho Ainsaar and Tõnu Meidla, and our doctoral school project manager Kristel Taits travelled on the Réunion island to prepare the next PhD expedition, which takes place in November 2018. During one week, they visited the island to analyze the scientific and logistical feasibility of the expedition. In a friendly atmosphere, they had interesting scientific and cultural talks with Dominique Strasberg and Claudine Ah-Peng from the Réunion University helping them to organize and make the expedition a true success.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 2018 Meeting with nature conservation practitioners

[img_assist|nid=575|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=right|width=260|height=195]On 23 of January, employees of the nature protection departments of the Ministry of the Environment, the Environmental Board and the National Forest Management Center, and scientists from the University of Tartu gathered in Tallinn to map out the research needed in nature conservation. From our workgroup, Tsipe and Aveliina participated in this workshop. A number of urgent issues were found, which needs to be solved based on scientific research. The event was organized by Asko Lõhmus, the leading researcher at the University of Tartu, whose main activity already for years has been protecting the ecological integrity of nature and developing science-based nature conservation.






--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
January 2018 Visitor from the University of Helsinki

[img_assist|nid=574|title=|desc=|link=popup|align=left|width=150|height=201]18 of January Etsuko Nonaka from Metapopulation Research Centre, University of Helsinki, visited our workgroup to discuss possible collaboration plans related to landscape genetics with Tsipe. Etsuko is an ecologist, who uses mathematical and computational tools to investigate questions in population ecology, community ecology, evolutionary biology and spatial ecology.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Older news are in the archive!

The Macroecology workgroup at the University of Tartu in Estonia is led by Professor Meelis Pärtel and we focus on the biological diversity of plants. READ MORE about our workgroup and have a look at the Macroecology workgroup MAP of past and future meetings and field work sites!

Follow also our Twitter account.

And check out our sister workgroup Landscape Biodiversity Group.

NEWS

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 2020 Welcome Eleonora