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Florian Altermatt

@florianaltermatt.bsky.social

4.3K followers 1K following 270 posts

Full Professor of Aquatic Ecology University Zurich & @eawag.bsky.social | Kuratorium Forum Biodiversity | Founding Director https://biodiversitaet.uzh.ch/en.html | all & beyond #biodiversity, #eDNA & #AquaticEcology | Like=interesting www.altermattlab.ch .. more

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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · Mar 26

Our study ‘The #global #human impact on #biodiversity’ is out in @nature.com: www.nature.com/articles/s41...

🌍🌐🐟🌿🪲

Unprecedented synthesis of >2000 studies led by @francoiskeck.bsky.social shows humans are not only shrinking species numbers—but reshaping entire communities across the planet.
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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · 5d

What a gem! the Death's Head #Hawkmoth. 💀🦋Excited each time I find one!

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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · 12d

6/6 Thanks to #YanZhang for leading analysis, & @leeselab.bsky.social, @loicpellissier.bsky.social, @wenyuanzhang.com, @tschenekar.bsky.social, @robinschuetz.bsky.social, @kamilhupalo.bsky.social, @mattleray.bsky.social and many more for contributing @eawag.bsky.social @bes-aquaticgroup.bsky.social

Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · 12d

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...

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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · 12d

4/6 ➡️ 2nd #paper quantified #species #richness, functional #redundancy, #phylogenetic #diversity, and genetic sequence diversity, and related them to drainage characteristics and human activities📉 .

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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · 12d

3/6 Contrastingly, congruence of species identity varied more extensively. Restricting taxonomic assignment to basin-specific species pools improved accuracy, as did year of sampling 📈 , reflecting improved reference database coverage over time.

Full story: 🗞️ www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1...

Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · 12d

2/6 ➡️ 1st #paper evaluated robustness of eDNA-derived biodiversity patterns, using original results & re-analysis w/ common bioinformatic workflow.

Species richness estimates were overall consistent with original analyses, despite high variability in bioinformatic approaches in original studies.

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Reposted by Florian Leese, Julie L. Lockwood

Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · 12d

In massive #collaborative #effort, we assembled published & unpublished #fish 🐟 #eDNA 🧬 metabarcoding datasets, covering ~2000 sampling sites/>100 river systems globally. 🐟 🐠 🐡 🌐 🌍

Now results out in 2 #parallel #preprints @biorxiv-ecology.bsky.social

#aquatic #biodiversity #meta-analysis
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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · 19d

thanks for your interest, but credits should go especially to @merinrejichacko.bsky.social

Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · 20d

Auch im Spätsommer/Frühherbst lohnt sich das Tössstockgebiet für botanische Wanderungen (das Gute liegt so nah...): Gefranster Enzian, Frühlingsenzian, Deutscher Enzian, Scheuchzers Glockenblume, Stängellose Kratzdistel, Wiesen-Augentrost u.v.m. #Schnebelhorn #TopOfZurich

Reposted by Florian Altermatt

ETH Zurich @ethz.ch · 22d

"What makes food healthy?" Assistant Professor Patrick Rühs talks in an interview with ETH Zurich’s #Globe magazine about plant-based diets, food processing – and why blue corn tortillas are his favourite dish.

Read more:

Plant-based foods for a healthy future

Patrick Rühs reveals why processed foods are crucial to global nutrition – and why blue corn tortillas are his favourite dish.

ethz.ch

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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · 26d

it's Saga pedo, one of the #largest and #rarest #insects of #Europe. tip to toe its close to 15 cm. almost exclusively females that reproduce parthenogenetically.

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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · 26d

yes indeed, but not just any grasshopper!

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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · 27d

My Sunday #riddle! (instead of crossword puzzle)

Can you spot it? 🐛 🪲 🐜 🪳

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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · 29d

Big congratulations congrats to @kperrelet.bsky.social for an excellent thesis and defense! Very well done.

Kilian Perrelet @kperrelet.bsky.social · 29d

Last week, I defended my PhD thesis! 🎉

4 years diving into blue-green infrastructure, biodiversity, food webs, eDNA, and above all, amazing collaboration between engineers and ecologists 🏣🌱🐞🧬

Big thanks to @laurenmcook.bsky.social, Marco Moretti, and @florianaltermatt.bsky.social!

Reposted by Florian Altermatt

Kilian Perrelet @kperrelet.bsky.social · 29d

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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · Sep 9

happy to be speaking about "Utilising aquatic environmental DNA to address local to global biodiversity targets"

@eawag.bsky.social

Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · Sep 9

Upcoming at #UN #ScienceSummit in NY/online (24.9.2025):
Harnessing Environmental DNA: Advancing #SDGs and the Global #Biodiversity Framework. 🧬🛰️🐟🌍🌐
sciencesummitnyc.org/science-summ...
#eDNA #Biomonitoring #Biodiversity #GBF

REGISTER HERE: event.sciencesummitnyc.org/list-of-sess...

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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · Sep 6

What a joy to find 4 🐛🐛🐛🐛 of the spurge hawk-moth in our garden! We just have a few m2, yet keep it diverse, with native plants and extensive maintenance (and no pesticides nor short cut lawn). Starts to pay off😊 #BiodiversityRocks

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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · Sep 4

@eawag.bsky.social @rosiecblackman.bsky.social @berndhae.bsky.social #ReinhardFurrer #MaslinOsathanunkul #JeanineBranthscnen #ChristinaDiMuri @lynseyrharper.bsky.social #PascalNiklaus @loicpellissier.bsky.social #MichaelSchaepman #ShuoZong @bes-aquaticgroup.bsky.social @sednasociety.bsky.social

Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · Sep 4

4/4 Integrating spatial range & magnitude of LULC effects is needed to predict fish species richness, and allows to showcase future gains/losses across the river network as a scalable basis for biodiversity conservation, needed for highly diverse yet data-deficient (sub-)tropical riverine habitats.

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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · Sep 4

3/4 We estimated a spatial range of #LULC effects extending up to about 20 km upstream ↗️ from sampling sites, and explained nearly 60% of the variance in the observed species richness, associated with cropland🌾, forest🌳, and urban 🏙️ area LULC categories.

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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · Sep 4

2/4 In a truly interdisciplinary effort led by #HengZhang , we compiled fish #biodiversity 🐠 🐟 🐡 data using 🧬 #eDNA across 160,000-km2 river catchment in Thailand 🇹🇭 characterized by high biodiversity yet intense anthropogenic alterations & attributed fish diversity to terrestrial LULC 🏭 🌾 🌳 🏙️.

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Reposted by Doerthe Tetzlaff

Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · Sep 4

Happy to see this published:
#Terrestrial #land #cover shapes #fish 🐠 🐟 🐡 #diversity in a major subtropical #river catchment.

www.nature.com/articles/s42...

#eDNA 🧬 #RS 🛰️ 🌐 🌍 @commsbio.nature.com

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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · Sep 3

@eawag.bsky.social @romanalther.bsky.social

Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · Sep 3

5/5 This identifies karstic ecosystems as targets for conservation programmes & indicates they could have been possible refugia of #Pleistocene persistence. Being epicentres of genetic diversity, their protection is eminent in context of contemporary climatic changes.

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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · Sep 3

4/5 We found a significantly higher diversity in karstic aquifers and a correlation between the genetic diversity of a species and the proportion of its distribution in the karst.

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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · Sep 3

3/5 Led by #MarjorieCouton, we use a unique and spatially highly resolved data set containing a representative collection of thousands of #Niphargus amphipod individuals across Switzerland and analysed the genetic structure of ~1300 individuals of five species within their contemporary distribution.

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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · Sep 3

2/5 #Genetic #diversity 🧬 is key to the long-term maintenance and adaptability of species to changing environments, yet has been only insufficiently studied for groundwater organisms.

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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · Sep 3

The importance of #karstic #aquifers for the past and future #survival of #groundwater #amphipod #biodiversity: out now @consbiog.bsky.social‬ onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 🧬 🦐 🏔️

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Florian Altermatt @florianaltermatt.bsky.social · Sep 2

Supported by @uzhalumni.bsky.social & w/ researchers from #UZH & @eawag.bsky.social incl. @tiannapeller.bsky.social @romanalther.bsky.social
@rosiecblackman.bsky.social @kirschdo.bsky.social @ceciliabarouillet.bsky.social @ericcapo12.bsky.social
+ many others