Biodiversity

Computer scientist David Dao develops intelligent algorithms that use satellite and drone images of rainforests to predict where the next sites of deforestation will be. He will be presenting his research at the climate conference in Madrid today, and will start a pilot project in Chile in January.

ETH Zurich researchers are reexamining the causes of soil erosion around the world – and have found that countries themselves have a surprisingly strong influence on their soil. This country effect was previously undetected.

Amphipods are among the most important invertebrate organisms in water. They have central ecological functions, for example as food for fish or in the degradation of leaves. Nevertheless, surprisingly little is known about these animals, which are between a few millimetres and a few centimetres in size. And despite very different requirements, the species are hardly differentiated in water monitoring.

When animals migrate into an ecosystem, the ecosystem turns into a temporary land of milk and honey for predators. But novel findings from a recent study on local fish migration patterns in northern Europe indicate that even when animals migrate out of an ecosystem, their absence has an effect on food webs.