Dr. Dirk Karger
Funktion
Wissenschaftlicher Mitarbeiter
Kontakt
dirk.karger(at)wslto make life hard for spam bots.ch
+41 44 739 25 48+41 44 739 25 48
Eidg. Forschungsanstalt WSL
Zürcherstrasse 111
8903 Birmensdorf
Standort
Birmensdorf Bi HL E 23
Research Interest
I am a senior researcher at the interface of macroecology, biodiversity research, and climatology. My research focuses on how climate and biodiversity are linked in time and space. A focus of my recent work has been the development of algorithms to downscale climate data to the biologically relevant scales needed for ecological studies. I am currently studying how extreme weather and extreme events, such as megadroughts, affect vegetation and biodiversity. I have also done extensive work on the geography and biodiversity of cloud forest ecosystems in the tropics and the biogeography of tropical islands.
News & Recent Publications

01.05.23: Victor Boussange joins the team
Victor will work on the FeedBaCks project, parameterizing species rarefaction curves using advanced machine learning for application in earth system modelling

14.04.2023: New publication in Ecography
Here we present the chelsa-cmip6 python package that offers simple access to CMIP6 and downscales it to 1km.

15.03.23: Franziska Zilker joins the team
Franziska started as a technical specialist on climate downscaling for CHELSA and related projects

20.02.23: New publication in Climate of the Past
Here we present a global high-resolution (1 km) temperature and precipitation timeseries since the Last Glacial Maximum
Additional information
Publications
Peer reviewed
Hanz, D.M., Cutts, V., Barajas-Barbosa, M.P., Algar, A., Beierkuhnlein, C., Collart, F., Fernández-Palacios, J.M., Field, R., Karger, D.N., Kienle, D.R., Kreft, H., Patiño, J., Schrodt, F., Steinbauer, M.J., Weigelt, P., Irl, S.D.H. (accepted) Effects of climate change on the distribution of plant species and plant traits on the Canary Islands. Diversity and Distributions.
Lososová, Z., Axmanová, I., Chytry, M., Midolo, G., Abdulhak, S., Karger, D.N., Renaud, J., Van Es, J., Vittoz, P., Thuiller, W. (accepted) Seed dispersal distance classes and dispersal modes for the European flora. Global Ecology and Biogeography.
Karger, D.N., Lange, S., Hari, C., Reyer, C.O.P., Conrad, O., Zimmermann, N.E., Frieler, K. (accepted) CHELSA-W5E5: Daily 1 km meteorological forcing data for climate impact studies. Earth System Science Data. https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-2022-367
Karger, D.N.,Chauvier, Y., Zimmermann, N.E. (2023) chelsa-cmip6 1.0: A python package to create high resolution bioclimatic variables based on CHELSA V2.1 and CMIP6 data Ecography. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.06535
Karger, D.N., Nobis, M.P., Normand, S., Graham, C.H., Zimmermann, N. (2023) CHELSA-TraCE21k – High resolution (1 km) downscaled transient temperature and precipitation data since the Last Glacial Maximum. Climate of the Past. https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-2021-30
Engel, T., Bruelheide, H., Hoss, D., Sabatini, F.M., Altmann, J., Arfin-Khan, M.A.S., Aubin, I., Bergmeier, E., Černý, T., Chytrý, M., Dainese, M., Dengler, J., Dolezal, J., Field, R., Fischer, F.M., Huygens, D., Jandt, U., Jansen, F., Jentsch, A., Karger, D.N., Kattge, J., Lenoir, J., Lens, F., Loos, J., Niinemets, Ü., Overbeck, G.E., Ozinga, W.A., Penuelas, J., Peyre, G., Phillips, O., Reich, P.B., Römermann, C., Sandel, B., Schmidt, M., Schrodt, F., Velez-Martin, E., Viole, C., Pillar, V. (accepted) Traits of dominant plant species drive primary productivity in grasslands globally. Global Ecology and Biogeography.
Pedersen, J.B., Assmann, J.J., Normand, S., Karger, D.N., Riede, F. (accepted) Climate niche modelling reveals the fate of pioneering Late Pleistocene populations in northern Europe. Current Anthropology.
Lubomír Tichý, L., Axmanová, I., Dengler, J., Guarino, R., Jansen, F., Midolo, G., Nobis, M.P., Van Meerbeeko, K., Aćić, S., Attorre, F., Bergmeier, E., Biurrun, I., Bonari, G., Bruelheide, H., Campos, J.A., Čarni, A., Chiarucci, A., Ćuk, M., Ćušterevska, R., Didukh, Y., Dítě, D., Dítě, Z., Fanelli, G., Garbolino, E., Gavilán, R.G., Gégout, J.-C., Graf, U., Güler, B., Hájek, M., Hennekens, S.M., Jandt, U., Jašková, A., Jimennez-Alfaro, B., Julve, P., Kambach, S., Karger, D.N., Karrer, G., Kavgacı, A., Knollová, I., Kuzemko, A., Küzmič, F., Landucci, F., Lengyel, A., Lenoir, J., Marcenò, C., Moeslund, J.E., Novák, P., Fernández-Pascual, E., Pérez-Haase, A., Peterka, T., Pielech, R., Pignatti, A., Rašomavičius, V., Rūsiņa, S., Saatkamp, A., Šilc, U., Škvorc, Ž., Theurillat, J.-P., Wohlgemuth, T., Chytrý, M. (accepted) Ellenberg-type indicator values for European vascular plant species. Journal of Vegetation Science. https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.13168
Kambach, S., Sabatini, F.M., Attorre, F., Biurrun, I., Boenisch, G., Bonari, G., Čarni, A. Carranzua, M.L., Chiarucci, A., Chytrý, M., Dengler, J., Garbolino, E., Golub., V., Güler, B., Jandt, U., Jansen, J., Jaskova, A., Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Karger, D.N., Kattger, J., Knollová, I., Lebedeva, M., Midolo, G., Moeslund, J.E., Pielech, R., Rašomavičius, V., Rusina, S., Šibík, J., Stančić, Z., Stanisci, Z., Svenning, J.-C., Zimmermann, N.E., Bruelheide, H. (2023) Habitat-specificity of climate-trait relationships Nature Communications. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-023-36240-6
Brun, P., Zimmermann, N.E., Hari, C., Pellisier, L., Karger, D.N. (2022) Global climate-related predictors at kilometre resolution for the past and future Earth System Science Data. 14, 5573–5603https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-14-5573-2022
Dauphin, B., Rellstab, C., Wüest, R.O., Karger, D.N., Holderegger, R., Gugerli, F., Manel, S. (2022) Re-thinking the environment in landscape genomics. Trends in Ecology and Evolution. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tree.2022.10.010
Cai, L., Kreft, H., Taylor, A., Denelle, P., Schrader, J., Essl, F., van Kleunen, M., Pergl, J., Pyšek, P., Stein, A., Winter, M., Barcelona, J.F., Fuentes, N., Iderjit, Karger, D.N., Kartesz, J., Kuprijanov, A., Nishino, M., Nickrent, D., Nowak, A., Patzelt, A., Pelser, P.B., Singh, P., Wieringa, J.J., Weigelt, P. (2022) Global models and predictions of plant diversity based on advanced machine learning technique. New Phytologist. https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.18533
Midolo, G., Herben, T., Axmanová, I., Marcenò, C., Pätsch, R., Bruelheide, H., Karger, D.N., Aćić, S., Bergamini, A., Bergmeier, E., Biurrun, I., Bonari, G., Čarni, A., Chiarucci, A., De Sanctis, M., Demina, O., Dengler, J., Dziuba, T., Fanelli, G. Garbolino, E., Giusso del Galdo, G., Goral, F., Güler, B., Hinojos-Mendoza, G., Jansen, F., Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Lengyel, A., Lenoir, J., Pérez-Haase, A., Pielech, R., Prokhorov, V., Rašomavičius, V., Ruprecht, E., Rusina, S., Šilc, U., Škvorc, Ž., Stancic, Z., Tatarenko, I., and Chytrý, M. (2022) Disturbance indicator values for European plants. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 32, 24-34https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13603
Oehri, J., Schaepman-Strub, G., Kim, J.-S., Grysko, R., Kropp, H., Grünberg, I., Zemlianskii, V., Sonnentag, O., Euskirchen, E.S., Chacko, M.R., Muscari, G., Blanken, P.D., Dean, J.F., di Sarra, A., Harding, R.J., Sobota, I., Kutzbach, L., Plekhanova, E., Riihelä, A., Boike, J., Miller, N.B., Beringer, J., López-Blanco, E., Stoy, P.C., Sullivan, R.C., Kejna, M., Parmentier, F.-J.W., Gamon, J.A., Mastepanov, M., Wille, D., Jackowicz-Korczynski, M., Karger, D.N., Quinton, W.L., Putkonen, J., van As, D., Christensen, T.R., Hakuba, M.Z., Stone, R.S., Metzger, S., Vandecrux, B., Frost, G.V., Wild, M., Hansen, B., Meloni, D., Domine, F., te Beest, M., Sachs, T., Kalhori, A., Rocha, A.V., Williamson, S.N., Morris, S., Atchley, A.L., Essery, R., Runkle, B.R.K., Holl, D., Riihimaki, L.D., Iwata, H., Schuur, E.A.G., Cox, C., Grachev, A.A., McFadden, J.P., Fausto, R.S., Goeckede, M., Ueyama, M., Pirk, N., de Boer, G., Bret-Harte, M.S., Leppäranta, M., Steffen, K., Friborg, T., Ohmura, A., Edgar, C.W., Olofsson, J., Chambers, S.D. (2022) Vegetation Type is an Important Predictor of the Arctic Summer Land Surface Energy Budget. Nature Communications. 13, 6379 https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34049-3
Garcés-Pastor, S., Coissac, E., Lavergne, S., Schwörer, C., Theurillat, J.-P., Heintzman, P.D., Wangensteen, O.S., Tinner, W., Rey, F., Heer, M., Rutzer, A., Walsh, K., Lammers, Y., Brown, A.G., Goslar, T., Rijal, D.P., Karger, D.N., Pellissier, L., PhyloAlps Consortium, Heiri, O.,Greve Alsos, I. (2022) High resolution ancient sedimentary DNA shows that alpine plant diversity is associated with human land use and climate change. Nature Communications. 13, 6559https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-022-34010-4
Alsos, I.G., Rijal, D.P., Ehrich, D., Karger, D.N., Yoccoz, N.G., Heintzman, P.D., Brown, A.G., Lammers, Y., Pellissier, L., Alm, T., Bråthen, K.A., Coissac, E., Føreid Merkel, M.K., Alberti, A., Denoeud, F., Bakke, J., PhyloNorway consortium (2022) Postglacial species arrival and diversity buildup of northern ecosystems took millennia. Science Advances. 8, eabo7434https://doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abo7434
Brambilla, M., Rubolini, D., Appukuttan, O., Gianpiero, C., Karger, D.N., Kmecl, P., Mihelič, T., Sattler, T., Seaman, B., Teufelbauer, N., Wahl, J., Celada, C. (2022) Identifying climate refugia for high-elevation Alpine birds under current climate warming predictions. Global Change Biology. 28, 4276-4291https://doi.org/10.1111/gcb.16187
Lyu, L., Leugger, F., Hagen, O., Fobb, F., Boschman, L., Strijk, J., Albouy, C., Karger, D.N., Brun, P., Wang, Z., Zimmermann, N.E., Pellissier, L. (2022) An integrated high-resolution mapping shows congruent biodiversity patterns of Fagales and Pinales. New Phytologist. 235, 759-772https://doi.org/10.1111/nph.18158
Leugger, F., Broquet, T., Karger, D.N., Rioux, D., Buzan, E., Corlatti, L., Crestanello, B., Curt-Grand-Gaudin, N., Hauffe, H.C., Rolečkova, B., Šprem, N., Tissot, N., Tissot, S., Yannic, G., Pellissier, L. (2022) Dispersal ability and habitat suitability dynamics predict the genomic structure of the Northern chamois across the Alps. Journal of Biogeography. 49, 1848-1861https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14363
A. Townsend Peterson, A., Aiello-Lammens, M.E., Anderson, R.P., Cobos, M.E., Diniz-Filho, J.A.F., Escobar, L.E., Feng, X., Franklin, J., Gadelha, L.M.R.Jr., Ingenloff, K., Jarvie, S., Jiménez, L., Karger, D.N., Kass, J.M., Kearney, M.R., Loyola, R., Machado-Stredel, F., Martínez-Meyer, E., Merow, C., Mondelli, M.L., Ribeiro Mortara, S., Muscarella, R., Myers, C.E., Naimi, B., Noesgaard, D., Ondo, I., Osorio-Olvera, L., Owens, H.L., Pearson, R., Pinilla-Buitrago, G.E., Sánchez-Tapia, A., Saupe, E.E., Thuiller, W., Varela, S., Warren, D.L., Wieczorek, J., Yates, K., Zhu, G., Zuquim, G., Zurell, D. (2022) ENM2020: A free online course and set of resources on modelling species niches and distributions, Biodiversity Informatics. 17, 1-9 https://doi.org/10.17161/bi.v17i.15016
Taylor, A., Zotz, G., Weigelt, P., Cai, L., Karger, D.N. & Kreft, H. (2022) Vascular epiphytes contribute disproportionately to global centres of plant diversity. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 31, 62-74https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13411
Karger, D.N., Wilson, A.M., Mahony, C., Zimmermann, N.E., Jetz, W. (2021) Global daily 1km land surface precipitation based on cloud cover-informed downscaling. Scientific Data. 8, 307https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-021-01084-6
Iosifescu Enescu, I., de Espona, L., Haas-Artho, D., Kurup Bucholz, R., Hanimann, D., Rüetschi, M., Karger, D.N., Plattner, G.-P., Hägeli, M., Ginzler, C., Zimmermann, N.E., Pellissier, L. (2021) Cloud Optimized Raster Encoding (CORE): A Web-Native Streamable Format for Large Environmental Time Series. Geomatics. 1, 369-382https://doi.org/10.3390/geomatics1030021
Luza, A.L., Graham, C.H., Hartz, S.M., Karger, D.N. (2021) Functional redundancy of non-volant small mammals increases in human-modified habitats. Journal of Biogeography. 48, 2967-2980https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14264
Gooriah, L., Blowes, S., Saguois, A., Schrader, J., Karger, D.N., Kreft, H., Chase, J. (2021) Synthesis reveals that island species-area relationships emerge from processes beyond passive sampling. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 30, 2119-2131https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13361
Sabatini, F.M., Lenoir, J., Hattab, T., Arnst, E.A., Chytrý, M., Dengler, J., De Ruffray, P., Hennekens, S.M., Jandt, U., Jansen, F., Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Kattge, J., Levesley, A., Pillar, V.D., Purschke, O., Sandel, B., Sultana, F., Aavik, T., Aćić, S., Acosta, A.T.R., Agrillo, E., Alvarez, M., Apostolova, I., Arfin Khan, M.A.S., Arroyo, L., Attorre, F., Aubin, I., Banerjee, A., Bauters, M., Bergeron,Y., Bergmeier, E., Biurrun, I., Bjorkman, A.D., Bonari, G., Bondareva, V., Brunet, J., Čarni, A., Casella, L., Cayuela, L., Černý, T., Chepinoga, V., Csiky, J., Ćušterevska, R., De Bie, E., Luis de Gasper, A., De Sanctis, M., Dimopoulos, P., Dolezal, J., Dziuba, T., Abd El-Rouf Mousa El-Sheikh, M., Enquist, B., Ewald, J., Fazayeli, F., Field, R., Finckh, M., Gachet, S., Galán-de-Mera, A., Garbolino, E., Gholizadeh, H., Giorgis, M., Golub, V., Greve Alsos, I., Grytnes, J.-A., Guerin, G.R., Gutiérrez, A.G., Haider, S., Hatim, M.Z., Hérault, B., Mendoza, G.H., Hölzel, N., Homeier, J., Hubau, W., Indreica, A., Janssen, J.A.M., Jedrzejek, B., 78, Jentsch, A., Jürgens, N., Kącki, Z., Kapfer, J., Karger, D.N., Kavgacı, A., Kearsley, E., Kessler, M., Khanina, L., Killeen, T., Korolyuk, A., Kreft, H., Kühl, H.S., Kuzemko, A., Landucci, F., Lengyel, A., Lens, F., Lingner, S.V., Liu, H., Lysenko, T., Mahecha1, M.D., Marcenò, C., Martynenko, V., Moeslund, J.E., Mendoza, A.M., Mucina, L., Müller, J.V., Munzinger, J., Naqinezhad, A., Noroozi, J., Nowak, A., Onyshchenko, V., Overbeck, G.E., Pärtel, M., Pauchard, A., Peet, R.K., Peñuelas, J., Pérez-Haase, A., Peterka, T., Petřík, P., Peyre, G., Phillips, O.L., Prokhorov, V., Rašomavičius, V., Revermann, R., Rivas-Torres, G., Rodwell, J.S., Ruprecht, E., Rūsiņa, S., Samimi, C., Schmidt, M., Schrodt, F., Shan, H., Shirokikh, P., Šibík, J., Šilc, U., Sklenář, P., Škvorc, Ž., Sparrow, B., Sperandii, M.G., Stančić, Z., Svenning, J.-C., Tang, Z., Tang, C.Q., Tsiripidis, I., Vanselow, K.A., Vásquez Martínez, R., Vassilev, K., Vélez-Martin, E., Venanzoni, R., Vibrans, A.C., Violle, C., Virtanen, R., von Wehrden, H., Wagner, V., Walker, D.A., Waller, D., Wang, H.-F., Wesche, K., Whitfeld, T.J.S., Willner, W., Wiser, S.K., Wohlgemuth, T., Yamalov, S., Zobel, M., Bruelheide, H. (2021) sPlotOpen – An environmentally-balanced, open-access, global dataset of vegetation plots. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 30, 1740-1764https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13346
Laughlin, D., Mommer, L., Sabatini, F., Bruelheide, H., Kuyper, T., McCormack, M., Bergmann, J., Freschet, G., Guerrero-Ramirez, N., Iversen, C., Kattge, J., Meier, I., Poorter, H., Roumet, C., Semchenko, M., Sweeney, C., Valverde-Barrantes, O., van der Plas, F., van Ruijven, J., York, L., Aubin, I., Burge, O., Byun, C., Custerevska, R., Dengler, J., Forey, E., Guerin, G., Hérault, B., Jackson, R., Karger, D.N., Lenoir, J., Lysenko, T., Meir, P., Niinemets, Ü., Ozinga, W., Penuelas, J., Reich, P., Schmidt, M., Schrodt, F., Velázquez, E., Weigelt, A. (2021) Root traits explain plant species distributions along climatic gradients yet challenge the nature of ecological trade-offs. Nature - Ecology and Evolution. 5, 1123-1134https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01471-7
Bose, A., Scherrer, D., Camarero, J.J., Ziche, D., Babst, F., Bigler, C., Bolte, A., Dorado-Liñán, I., Etzold, S., Fonti, P., Forrester, D.I., Gavinet, J., Gazol, A., González de Andrés, E., Karger, D.N., Lebourgeois, F., Levesque, M., Martínez-Sancho, E., Menzel, A., Neuwirth, B., Nicolas, M., Sanders, T., Scharnweber, T., Schroeder, J., Zweifel, R., Gessler, A., Rigling, A. (2021) Climate sensitivity and drought seasonality determine post-drought growth recovery of Quercus petraea and Quercus robur in Europe. Science of the Total Environment. 784, 147222https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2021.147222
Karger, D.N., Kessler, M., Lehnert, M., Jetz, W. (2021) Limited protection and ongoing loss of tropical cloud forest biodiversity and ecosystems worldwide. Nature - Ecology and Evolution. 5, 854-862https://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41559-021-01450-y
König, C., Wüest, R.O., Graham, C.H., Karger, D.N., Sattler, T., Zimmermann, N.E., Zurell, D. (2021) Scale dependency of joint species distribution models challenges interpretation of biotic interactions. Journal of Biogeography. 48, 1541-1551https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14106
Cai, Q., Welk, E., Ji, C., Fang, W., Sabatini, F.M., Zhu, J., Tang, Z., Attorre, F., Antonio Campos, J., Čarni, A., Chytrý, M., Çoban, S., Dengler, J., Dolezal, J., Field, R., Frink, J.P., Gholizadeh, H., Indreica, A., Jandt, U., Karger, D.N., Lenoir, J., Peet, R.K., Pielech, R., De Sanctis, M., Schrodt, F., Svenning, J.-C., Tang, C.Q., Tsiripidis, I., Willner, W., Fang, J., Bruelheide, H. (2021) The relationship between niche breadth and range size of beech (Fagus) species worldwide. Journal of Biogeography. 48, 1240-1253 https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.14074
Aros-Mualin, D., Noben, S., Karger, D.N., Carvajal-Hernández, C.I., Salazar, L., Hernández-Rojas, A., Kluge, J., Lehnert, M., Quandt, D., Kessler, M. (2021) Functional diversity in ferns is driven by species richness rather than by environmental constraints. Frontiers in Plant Science. 11, 615723https://doi.org/10.3389/fpls.2020.615723
Salces-Castellano, A., Stankowski, S., Arribas, P., Patiño, J., Karger, D.N., Butli, R., Emerson, B. (2021) Long-term cloud forest response to climate warming revealed by insect speciation history. Evolution. 75, 231-244https://doi.org/10.1111/evo.14111
Chauvier, Y., Thuiller, W., Brun, P., Lavergne, S., Descombes, P., Karger, D.N., Renaud, J.; Zimmermann, N.E. (2021) Influence of climate, soil and land cover on plant species distribution in the European Alps. Ecological Monographs. 91, e01433https://doi.org/10.1002/ecm.1433
Dauphin, B., Rellstab, C., Schmid, M., Zoller, S., Karger, D.N., Brodbeck, S., Guillaume, F., Gugerli, F. (2020) Genomic vulnerability to rapid climate warming in a tree species with a long generation time. Global Change Biology. 27, 1181-1195http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/gcb.15469
Descombes, P., Walthert, L., Baltensweiler, A., Meuli, R., Karger, D.N., Ginzler, C., Zurell, D., Zimmermann, N.E. (2020) Spatial modelling of ecological indicator values at high resolution improves predictions of plant distributions in complex landscapes. Ecography. 43, 1448-1463https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.05117
Lethonen, S., Poczai, P., Sablok. G., Hyvönen, J., Karger, D.N., Flores, J. (2020) Exploring the phylogeny of marattialean ferns. Cladistics. 36, 569-593https://doi.org/10.1111/cla.12419
Zhang, Z., Capinha, C., Karger, D.N., Turon, X., MacIsaac, H., Zhan, A. (2020) Impacts of climate change on geographical distributions of invasive ascidians. Marine Environmental Research. 159, 104993https://doi.org/10.1016/j.marenvres.2020.104993
Peyre, G. Lenoir, J., Karger, D.N., Gomez, M., Gonzales, A., Guisan, A. (2020) The fate of páramo plant assemblages in the sky islands of the northern Andes. Journal of Vegetation Science. 31, 967-980https://doi.org/10.1111/jvs.12898
Yannic, G., Hagen, O., Leugger, F, Karger, D.N., Pellissier, L. (2020) Harnessing paleo-environmental modeling and genetic data to predict intraspecific genetic structure. Evolutionary Applications. 13, 1526-1542https://doi.org/10.1111/eva.12986
Grünig, M., Mazzi, D., Calanca, P., Karger, D.N., Pellissier, L. (2020) Crop and forest pest metawebs shift towards increased linkage and suitability. Communications Biology. 3, 233https://doi.org/10.1038/s42003-020-0962-9
Guerra, C.G., Rosa, I.M.D., Eisenhauer, N, Valentini, E., Wolf, F., Filipponi, F., Karger, D.N., Nguyenxuan, A., Mathieu, J., Lavelle, P., Pereira, H. (2020) Global vulnerability of soil ecosystems to erosion. Landscape Ecology. 35, 823-842https://doi.org/10.1007/s10980-020-00984-z
Taxböck, L., Karger, D.N., Kessler, M., Cantonati, M. (2020) Diatom species richness increases with elevation and habitat complexity in Swiss near-natural springs along elevational gradients. Water. 12, 449https://doi.org/10.3390/w12020449
Karger, D.N.,Kattge, J., Kleyer, M., Kraft, N.J.B., Larue-Kontic, A-A.C., Lázaro, A., Lechleitner, M., Loughnan, D., Minden, V., Niinements, Ü., Overbeck, G.E., Parachnowitsch, A.L., Perfectti, F., Pillar, V.D., Schellenberger Costa, D., Sletvold, N., Stang, M., Alves-dos-Santos, I., Streit, H., Wright, J., Zych, M. Junker, R.J. (2020) Global gradients in intraspecific variation in vegetative and floral traits are partially associated with climate and species richness Global Ecology and Biogeography. 29, 992-1007https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.13077
Wei, C., Karger, D.N., Wilson A.M. (2020) Spatial Detection of Alpine Treeline Ecotones in the Western United States. Remote Sensing of Environment. 240, 111672https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2020.111672
Karger, D.N., Schmatz, D., Detttling, D., Zimmermann, N.E. (2020) High resolution monthly precipitation and temperature timeseries for the period 2006-2100. Scientific Data. 7, 248https://doi.org/10.1038/s41597-020-00587-y
Weigand, A, Abrahamczyk, S., Aubin,I., Bita-Nicolae, C., Bruelheide, H., Carvajal-Hernández, C., Cicuzza, D., Nascimento da Costa, L.E., Csiky, J., Dengler, J., de Gasper, A.L., Guerin, G.R., Haider, S., Hernandez, A.R., Jandt, U., Reyes-Chávez, J., Karger, D.N., Kay Khine, P., Kluge, J., Krömer, T., Lehnert, M., Lenoir, J., Moulatlet, G.M., Aros Mualin, D., Noben, S., Olivares, I., Quintanilla, L.G., Reich, P.B., Salazar, L., Silva-Mijangos, L., Tuomisto, H., Weigelt, P., Zuquim, G., Kreft, H. & Kessler, M. (2020) Global fern and lycophyte richness explained: How regional and local factros shape plot richness. Journal of Biogeography. 47, 59-71https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13782
Randin, C., Ashcroft, M., Bolliger, J., Cavender-Bares, J., Coops, N., Dullinger, S., Dirnboeck, T., Eckert, S., Ellis, E., Giuliani, G., Guisan, A., Jetz, W., Joost, S., Karger, D.N., Lembrechts, J., Lenoir, J., Luoto, M.-, Morin, X., Price, B., Rocchini, D., Schaepman, M., Verburg, P., Wilson, A.M., Woodcock, P., Yoccoz, N. (2020) Monitoring biodiversity in the Anthropocene using remote sensing in species distribution modelsRemote Sensing of Environment. 239, 111626https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rse.2019.111626
Beck, H., Wood, E.F., McVicar, T., Zambrano-Bigiarini, M., Alvarez-Garreton, C., Baez-Villanueva, O., Sheffield, J., Karger, D.N. (2020) Bias correction of global high-resolution precipitation climatologies using streamflow observations from 9372 catchments. Journal of Climate. 33, 1299-1315 https://doi.org/10.1175/JCLI-D-19-0332.1
Karger, D.N., Wüest, R.O., König, C., Sarmento-Cabral, J., Weigelt, P., Zimmermann, N.E., Linder, H.P. (2020) Disentangling the drivers of local species richness using probabilistic species pools. Journal of Biogeography. 47, 879-889https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13763
Salces-Castellano, Antonia, Patiño, J., Alvares, N., Andújar, C., Arribas, P., Braojos-Ruiz, J.J., del Arco-Aquilar, M., Carcía-Olivares, V., Karger, D.N., López, H., Manolopoulou, I., Oromí, P., Pérez-Delgado, A.J., Peterman, W.E., Rijsdijk, K.F., Emerson, B.C. (2020). Climate drives community-wide divergence within species over a limited spatial scale: Evidence from an oceanic island. Ecology Letters. 23, 305-315https://doi.org/10.1111/ele.13433
Wüest, R.O., Zimmermann, N.E., Zurell, D., Alexander, J., Fritz, S.A., Hof, C., Kreft, H., Normand, S., Sarmento Cabral, J., Szekely, E., Thuiller., W., Wikelski, M., Karger. D.N. (2020) Macroecology in the age of big data – where to go from here? Journal of Biogeography. 47, 1-12https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13633
Wüest, R.O., Boucher, F.C., Bouchenak-Khelladi, Y., Karger, D.N., Linder, H.P. (2019) Dissecting biodiversity in a global hotspot: uneven dynamics of immigration and diversification within the Cape Floristic Region of South Africa. Journal of Biogeography. 46, 193-1947 https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13625
Thuiller, W., Guéguen, M., Renaud, J., Karger, D.N., Zimmermann, N.E. (2019) Uncertainty in ensembles of global biodiversity scenarios. Nature Communications. 10, 1146https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-019-09519-w
Khine, P.K., Kluge, J., Kessler, M., Miehe, G., Karger, D.N. (2019) Latitude-independent, continent-wide consistency in climate-richness relationships in Asian ferns and lycophytes, Journal of Biogeography. 46, 981-991https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.13558
Karger, D.N., Kessler, M., Conrad, O., Weigelt, P., Kreft, H., König, C., Zimmermann, N.E. (2019) Why treelines are lower on islands - climatic and biotic effects hold the answer. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 28, 839-850https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12897
Bruelheide, H., Dengler, J., Purschke, O., Lenoir, J., Jiménez-Alfaro, B., Hennekens, S.M., Botta-Dukát, Z., Chytrý, M., Field, R., Jansen, F., Kattge, J., Pillar, V.D., Schrodt, F., Mahecha, M.D., Peet, R.K., Sandel, B., van Bodegom, P., Altman, J., Alvarez Davila, E., Arfin Khan, M.A.S., Attorre, F., Aubin, I., Baraloto, C., Barroso, J.G., Bauters, M., Bergmeier, E., Biurrun, I., Bjorkman, A.D., Blonder, B., Čarni, A., Cayuela, L., Černý, T., Cornelissen, J.H.C., Craven, D., Dainese, M., Derroire, G., De Sanctis, M., Díaz, S., Doležal, J., Farfan-Rios, W., Feldpausch, T.R., Fenton, N.J., Garnier, E., Guerin, G.R., Gutiérrez, A.G., Haider, S., Hattab, T., Henry, G., Hérault, B., Higuchi, P., Hölzel, N., Homeier, J., Jentsch, A., Jürgens, N., Kącki, Z., Karger, D.N., Kessler, M., Kleyer, M., Knollová, I., Korolyuk, A.Y., Kühn, I., Laughlin, D.C., Lens, F., Loos, J., Louault, F., Lyubenova, M.I., Malhi, Y., Marcenò, C., Mencuccini, M., Müller, J.V., Munzinger, J., Myers-Smith, I.H., Neill, D.A., Niinemets, Ü., Orwin, K.H., Ozinga, W.A., Penuelas, J., Pérez-Haase, A., Petřík, P., Phillips, O.L., Pärtel, M., Reich, P.B., Römermann, C., Rodrigues, A.V., Sabatini, F.M., Sardans, J., Schmidt, M., Seidler, G., Silva Espejo, J.E., Silveira, M., Smyth, A., Sporbert, M., Svenning, J.-C., Tang, Z., Thomas, R., Tsiripidis, I., Vassilev, K., Violle, C., Virtanen, R., Weiher, E., Welk, E., Wesche, K., Winter, M., Wirth, C., Jandt, U. (2018) Global trait environment relationships. Nature - Ecology and Evolution. 1906-1917, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41559-018-0699-8
Bjorkman, A.D., Myers-Smith, I., Elmendorf, S., Normand, S., Rüger, N., Beck, P.S.A., Blach-Overgaard, A., Blok, D., Cornelissen, J.H.C, Forbes, B.C., Georges, D., Goetz, S., Guay, K., Henry, G.H.R., HilleRisLambers, J., Hollister, R., Karger, D.N., Kattge, J., Prevéy, J.S., Rixen, C., Schaepman-Strub, G., Thomas, H., Vellend, M., Wilmking, M., Wipf, S., Carbognani, M., Hermanutz, L., Levesque, E., Molau, U., Petraglia, A., Soudzilovskaia, N.A., Spasojevic, M., Tomaselli, M., Vowles, T., Alatalo, J., Alexander, H., Anadon-Rosell, A., Angers-Blondin, S., Beest, M.T., Berner, L., Björk, R.G., Buchwal, A., Buras, A., Christie, K., Collier, L.S., Cooper, E.J., Dullinger, S., Elberling, B.O., Eskelinen, A., Frei, E.R., Garcia, M.I., Grau, O., Grogan, P., Hallinger, M., Harper, K., Heijmans, M., Hudson, J., Hülber, K., Iversen, C.M., Jaroszynska, F., Johnstone, J., Jorgensen, R.H., Kaarlejärvi, E., Klady, R., Kuleza, S., Kulonen, A., Lamarque, L.J., Lantz, T., Lavalle, A., Little, C.J., Speed, J.D.M., Michelsen, A., Milbau, A., Nabe-Nielsen, J., Nielsen, S.S., Ninot, J.M., Oberbauer, S., Olofsson, J., Onipchenko, F.G., Rumpf, S.B., Semenchuk, P., Shetti, R., Street, L., Suding, K., Tape, K., Trant, A., Treier, U., Tremblay, J.-P., Tremblay, M., Venn, S., Weijers, S., Zamin, T., Boulanger-Lapointe, N., Gould, W.A., Hik, D., Hofgaard, A., Jonsdottir, I.S., Jorgenson, J., Klein, J., Magnusson, B., Tweedie, C., Wookey, P.A., Bahn, M., Blonder, B., van Bodegom, P., Bond-Lamberty, B., Campetella, G., Cerabolini, B.E.L., Chapin F.S.III, Cornwell, W., Craine, J., Dainese, M., de Vries, F.T., Diaz, S., Enquist, B.J., Green, W., Manning, P., Milla, R., Niinemets, Ü., Onoda, Y., Ordonez, J., Ozinga, W.A., Penuelas, J., Poorter, H., Poschlod, P., Reich, P., Sandel, B., Schamp, B., Sheremetev, S., Weiher, E. (2018) Plant functional trait change across a warming tundra biome. Nature. 562, 57–62, https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-018-0563-7
Olivares, I., Karger, D.N., Kessler, M. (2018) Accessing Species Saturation: Conceptual and Methodological Challenges. Biological Reviews. 93, 1874-1890 https://doi.org/10.1111/brv.12424
Klinge, M., Dulamsuren, C., Erasmi, S., Degener, J., Karger, D.N., Hauck, M. (2018) Climate effects on the vitality of boreal forests at the treeline in different ecozones of Mongolia.Biogeosciences. 15, 1319-1333https://doi.org/10.5194/bg-2017-220
Chen, C.W., Rothfels, C., Mustapeng, A., Gubilil, M., Karger, D.N., Kessler, M., Huang, Y. (2018) End of an enigma: Aenigmopteris belongs in Tectaria (Tectariaceae: Polipodiopsida). Journal of Plant Research. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10265-017-0966-9
Karger, D.N., Conrad, O., Böhner, J., Kawohl, T., Kreft, H., Soria-Auza, R.W., Zimmermann, N.E., Linder, P., Kessler, M. (2017). Climatologies at high resolution for the Earth land surface areas. Scientific Data. 4 170122. https://doi.org/10.1038/sdata.2017.122
Schneider, H., Liu, H., Chang, Y., Ohlsen, D., Perrie, L., Shepherd, L., Kessler, M., Karger, D.N., Hennequin, S., Marquardt, J., Russerl, S., Ansell, S., Lu, N.T., Kamau, P. , Pineiro, J.L., Regaldo, L., Heinrichs, J., Ebihara, A., Smith, A.R., Gibby, M. (2017) Neo- and Paleopolyploidy contribute to the species diversity of Asplenium - the most species rich genus of ferns. Journal of Systematics and Evolution. . 55, 353-364https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12271
Lehtonen, S., Silvestro, D., Karger, D.N., Scotese, C., Tuomisto, H., Kessler, M., Peña, C., Wahlberg, N., Antonelli, A. (2017) Environmentally driven extinction and opportunistic origination explain fern diversification patterns.Scientific Reports. 4831https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-05263-7
De la Harpe, M., Paris, M., Karger, D.N., Rolland, J. Kessler, M., Salamin, N., Lexer, C., (2017) Molecular ecology studies of species radiations: current research gaps, opportunities, and challenges.Molecular Ecology. 26, 2608-2622https://doi.org/10.1111/mec.14110
Abrahamczyk, S., Kessler, M., Hanley, D., Karger, D.N., Müller, M.P.J., Knauer, A.C., Keller, F., Schwerdtfeger; M., Humphreys, A.M. (2017) Pollinator adaptation and the evolution of floral nectar sugar composition.Journal of Evolutionary Biology. 30, 112-127https://doi.org/10.1111/jeb.12991
Karger, D.N. (2016) Recent advances in probabilistic species pool delineations. Frontiers of Biogeography. 8, e300545https://doi.org/10.21425/F5FBG30545
Kessler, M., Karger, D.N., Kluge, J. (2016). Elevational diversity patterns as an example for evolutionary and ecological dynamics in ferns and lycophytes. Journal of Systematics and Evolution. 54, 617-625https://doi.org/10.1111/jse.12218
Karger, D.N., Cord, A.F., Kessler, M., Kreft, H., Kühn, I., Pompe, S., Sandel, B., Sarmento Cabral, J., Smith, A.B., Svenning, J.-C., Tuomisto, H., Weigelt, P., Wesche, K. (2016) Delineating probabilistic species pools in ecology and biogeography. Global Ecology and Biogeography. 25, 489-501https://doi.org/10.1111/geb.12422
Weigelt, P., Kissling, D.W., Kisel, Y., Fritz, S.A., Karger, D.N., Kessler, M., Lehtonen, S., Svenning, J.-S., Kreft, H. (2015) Global Patterns and Drivers of Phylogenetic Structure in Island Floras, Scientific Reports. 5, 12213https://doi.org/10.1038/srep12213
Lehnert, M., Coritico, F., Darnaedi, D., Hidayat, A., Kluge, J., Karger, D.N., Kessler, M. (2015) Validation of a New Combination in the Genus Alsophila (Cyatheaceae-Polypodiopsida) Systematic Botany. 40, 386-386https://doi.org/10.1600/036364415X688394
Karger, D.N., Tuomisto, H., Amoroso, V.B., Darnaedi, D., Hidayat, A., Abrahamczyk, S., Kluge, J., Lehnert, M., Kessler, M. (2015) The importance of species pool size for community composition. Ecography. 38, 1243-1253https://doi.org/10.1111/ecog.01322
Mathieu, G., Vergara-Rodrigues, D., Krömer, T., Karger, D.N. (2015) Peperomia (Piperaceae) novelties from Veracruz State, Mexico. Phytotaxa. 205, 268-276https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.205.4.6
Karger, D.N., Weigelt, P., Amoroso, V.B., Darnaedi, D., Hidayat, A., Kreft, H., Kessler, M. (2014) Island biogeography from regional to local scales: evidence for a spatially scaled echo pattern of fern diversity in the Southeast Asian archipelago. Journal of Biogeography. 41, 250-260https://doi.org/10.1111/jbi.12209
Lehnert, M., Coritico, F., Darnaedi, D., Hidayat, A., Kluge, J., Karger, D.N., Kessler, M. (2013) Taxonomic and ecological notes on the Alsophila hornei complex (Cyatheaceae-Polypodiopsida), with the description of the new species A. phlebodes from New Guinea. Systematic Botany. 38, 875-886https://doi.org/10.1600/036364413X674788
Karger, D.N., Abrahamczyk, S., Kessler, M. (2013) Abundance and species richness of hawkmoths (Lepidoptera: Sphingidae) in the fragmented landscape of Santa Cruz (Bolivia). Ecología en Bolivia. 48, 46-51https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-90801
Karger, D.N., Lehtonen, S., Amoroso, V.B., Kessler, M. (2012), A new species of Lindsaea (Lindsaeaceae, Polypodiopsida) from Mt. Hamiguitan, Mindanao, Philippines.Phytotaxa. 56, 15-20https://doi.org/10.11646/phytotaxa.56.1.4
Karger, D.N., Kluge, J., Abrahamczyk, S., Salazar, L., Homeier, J., Amoroso, V.B., Lehnert, M., Kessler, M. (2012) Bryophyte cover on trees as proxy for relative air humidity in the tropics.Ecological Indicators. 20, 277-281https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolind.2012.02.026
Karger, D.N., Kluge, J., Krömer, T., Hemp, A., Lehnert, M., Kessler, M. (2011) The effect of area on local and regional elevational patterns of species richness. Journal of Biogeography. 38, 1177-1185https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1365-2699.2010.02468.x
Will, B., Krömer, T., Kessler, M., Karger, D.N. & H.E. Luther. (2009). Three new species and two new records of Greigia Regel (Bromeliaceae) from Bolivia.Selbyana. 30, 91-100https://jstor.org/stable/41760352
Book chapter
Kessler, M., Krömer, T., Kluge, J., Karger, D.N., Acebey, A., Hemp, A., Herzog, S.K., and Lehnert, M.(2009) Elevational gradients of species richness derived from local field surveys versus 'mining' of archive data. In: Eva M Spehn & Christian Körner (eds.)Data mining for global trends in mountain biodiversity. CRC Press/Taylor and Francis, Boca Ratonhttps://doi.org/10.1201/9781420083705
Karger, D.N., Kluge, J. & Kessler, M. (2016). Comparing species richness patterns of epiphytic and terrestrial ferns along elevational and latitudinal gradients. in Zotz. G. (ed.) Plants on Plants - The Biology of Vascular Epiphytes. Springer, Berlinhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-39237-0
Datasets
Brun, P., Zimmermann, N.E., Hari, C., Pellisier, L., Karger, D.N. (2022). CHELSA-BIOCLIM+ A novel set of global climate-related predictors at kilometre-resolution. EnviDat. doi:https://doi.org/10.16904/envidat.332.
Karger, D.N., Lange, S., Hari, C., Reyer, C. P. O., Zimmermann, N.E. (2021): CHELSA-W5E5 v1.0: W5E5 v1.0 downscaled with CHELSA v2.0. ISIMIP Repository. https://dx.doi.org/10.48364/ISIMIP.836809
Karger D.N., Conrad, O., Böhner, J., Kawohl, T., Kreft, H., Soria-Auza, R.W., Zimmermann, N.E,, Linder, H.P., Kessler, M. (2021) Climatologies at high resolution for the earth’s land surface areas, Version 2.1. EnviDat. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.16904/envidat.228.v2.1
Karger, D.N., Dabaghchian, B., Lange, S., Thuiller, W., Zimmermann, N.E., Graham, C.H. (2020). High resolution climate data for Europe. EnviDat.https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.16904/envidat.150
Karger, D.N., Nobis, M.P., Normand, S., Graham, C.H., Zimmermann, N.E. (2020) CHELSA-TraCE21k: Downscaled transient temperature and precipitation data since the last glacial maximum. EnviDat. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.16904/envidat.211.
Descombes, P., Walthert, L., Baltensweiler, A., Meuli, R.G., Karger, D.N., Ginzler, C., Zurell, D., Zimmermann, N.E. (2020). Spatial modelling of ecological indicator values. EnviDat. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.16904/envidat.153.
Karger, D.N., Schmatz, D., Dettling, G., Zimmermann, N.E. (2019). High resolution monthly precipitation and temperature timeseries for the period 2006-2100. EnviDat.https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.16904/envidat.124
Karger, D.N., Zimmermann, N.E. (2018). CHELSAcruts - High resolution temperature and precipitation timeseries for the 20th century and beyond. EnviDat. doi: https://dx.doi.org/10.16904/envidat.159.
Karger D.N., Conrad, O., Böhner, J., Kawohl, T., Kreft, H., Soria-Auza, R.W., Zimmermann, N.E,, Linder, H.P., Kessler, M.. Data from: Climatologies at high resolution for the earth’s land surface areas. Dryad Digital Repository.https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.5061/dryad.kd1d4
Karger, D.N., Conrad, O., Böhner, J., Kawohl, T., Kreft, H., Soria-Auza, R.W., Zimmermann, N.E., Linder, P., Kessler, M. (2016) CHELSA climatologies at high resolution for the earth's land surface areas (Version 1.1). World Data Center for Climate.http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1594/WDCC/CHELSA_v1_1
Karger, D.N., Conrad, O., Böhner, J., Kawohl, T., Kreft, H., Soria-Auza, R.W., Zimmermann, N.E., Linder, P., Kessler, M. (2016) CHELSA climatologies at high resolution for the earth's land surface areas (Version 1.0). World Data Center for Climate.http://dx.doi.org/doi:10.1594/WDCC/CHELSA_v1
Preprint
Siegfried, T., Mujahid, A.U.H., Marti, S.B., Molnar, P., Karger, D.N., Yakovlev, A. (submitted) Assessing Future Hydrological Impacts of Climate Change on High-Mountain Central Asia: Insights from a Stochastic Soil Moisture Water Balance Model Hydrology and Earth System Sciences https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-520
Frieler, K., Volkholz, J., Lange, S., Schewe, J., Mengel, M., del Rocío Rivas López, M., Otto, C., Reyer, C.P.O., Karger, D.N., Malle, J.T., Treu, S., Menz, C., Blanchard, J.L., Harrison, C.S., Petrik, C.M., Eddy, T.D., Ortega-Cisneros, K., Novaglio, C., Rousseau, Y., Watson, R.A., Stock, C., Liu, X., Heneghan, R., Tittensor, D., Maury, O., Büchner, M., Vogt, T., Wang, T., Sun, F., Sauer, I.J., Koch, J., Vanderkelen, I., Jägermeyr, J., Müller, C., Klar, J., del Valle, I.D.V., Lasslop, G., Chadburn, S., Burke, E., Gallego-Sala, A., Smith, N., Chang, J., Hantson, S., Burton, C., Gädeke, A., Li, F., Gosling, S.N., Müller Schmied, H., Hattermann, F., Wang, J., Yao, F., Hickler, T., Marcé, R., Pierson, D., Thiery, W., Mercado-Bettín, D., Forrest, M., Bechtold, M. (submitted) Scenario set-up and forcing data for impact model evaluation and impact attribution within the third round of the Inter-Sectoral Model Intercomparison Project (ISIMIP3a) Geoscientific Model Development https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-281
van Tiel, N., Lyu, L., Fopp, F., van den Hoogen, J., Karger, D.N., Zimmermann, N.E., Crowther, T.W., Pellissier, L. (preprint) Mapping tree species for restoration potential resilient to climate change. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.06.04.447113
Karger, D.N., Saladin, B., Wüest-Karparti, R.O., Graham, C.H., Zurell, D., Mo, L., Zimmermann, N.E. (preprint). Interannual climate variability data improves niche estimates in species distribution models. bioRxiv. https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.08.30.458152
CV
Scientific Positions
since 2021 | Senior Researcher, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland |
2017-2021 | Scientific Staff Member, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland |
2016-2018 | Visiting researcher, Center for Biodiversity and Global Change, Yale University, New Haven, CT, USA |
2015-2017 | Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland |
2013-2015 | Postdoctoral researcher, Department of Biology, University of Turku, Turku, Finland |
2009-2013 | Ph.D. position, Department of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland |
Education
27.05.2013 | Dr. sc. nat. (Ph.D.) , University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland |
09.09.2009 | Diplom (Msc.), University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany |
2005-2009 | Studies in Biology , University of Goettingen, Goettingen, Germany |
Talks
Talks at international conferences
Karger, D.N.,The current fate of the world’s cloud forests.World Biodiversity Forum, 26th June – 1st July 2022, Davos, Switzerland.
Karger, D.N.,Limited protection and ongoing loss of tropical cloud forest biodiversity and ecosystems worldwide.10th Biennial conference of the International Biogeography Society, 1st – 7th June 2022, Vancouver, Canada.
Karger, D.N. High-resolution climate forcing data. Cross-sectoral ISIMIP and PROCLIAS Workshop 2022, 16th – 19th May 2022, Potsdam, Germany.
Karger, D.N. More than species number games – connecting biodiversity and earth system models using species area relationships. Climate Science for Ecological Forecasting, 11th – 12th May 2022, London, United Kingdom.
Karger, D.N. Challenges and prospects on the road to 1km ISIMIP3b daily climate data Cross-sectoral. ISIMIP and PROCLIAS online Workshop 11th – 15th January 2021, virtual meeting.
Karger, D.N., Conrad, O., Böhner, J., Zimmermann, N.E., Modelling precipitation and temperature at 1km resolution globally. 38th annual meeting of the Climate Working Group (Arbeitskreis Klima), 25th – 27th October 2019, Jesteburg, Germany.
Karger, D.N., Conrad, O., Kessler, M., Weigelt, P., Kreft, H., Zimmermann, N.E. Why treelines are lower on islands – climatic and biogeographic effects hold the answer. 9th Biennial Conference of the International Biogeography Society, 8th – 12th January 2019, Malaga, Spain.
Karger, D.N., Nobis, M., Normand, S., Zimmermann, N.,E. New very high resolution climate time series for the last 21000 years. Conference on past plant diversity changes, 1st – 5th October 2018, Rabat, Morocco.
Karger, D.N., Conrad, O., Kessler, M., Weigelt, P., Kreft, H., Zimmermann, N.E. Why treelines are lower on islands – insights from new high resolution climate data. Ecology Across Borders: Joint Annual Meeting of the British Ecological Society and the German Ecological Society, 11th – 14th December 2017, Ghent, Belgium.
Karger, D.N., Zimmermann, N.E., Jetz, W., Kreft, H., Linder, H.P., Weigelt, P., Wüest, R.O., Böhner, J., Conrad, O., Kawohl, T., Mo, L., Guerra, C., Kessler, M., The use of new high resolution recent climate change data in biogeography. 8th Biennial Conference of the International Biogeography Society, 9th – 13th January 2017, Tuczon, AZ, USA.
Karger, D.N., Kessler, M., Kluge, J., Tanaka, T., Kuo, L.Y., Chang, Y.H., Lehtonen, S., Tuomisto, H. Global evolution of elevational gradients of fern species richness. Annual Conference of the Society for Tropical Ecology (Gesellschaft für Tropenökologie, gtö), Tropical Diversity, Ecology, and Landuse, 23rd – 26th February 2016, Göttingen, Germany.
Karger, D.N., Kessler, M., Kluge, J., Tanaka, T., Kuo, L.Y., Chang, Y.H., Lehtonen, S., Tuomisto, H. Patterns of speciation along elevational gradients of fern communities in Asia. Next Generation Pteridology. An International Conference on Lycophyte & Fern Research, 1st – 5th June 2015, Smithsonian Institution and United States Botanic Garden, Washington DC, USA.
Karger, D.N., Cord, A.F., Kessler, M., Kreft, H., Kühn, I., Pompe, S., Sandel, B., Sarmento Cabral, J., Smith, A.B., Svenning, J.-C., Tuomisto, H., Weigelt, P., Wesche, K. Unifying species pools in ecology and biogeography. The International Biogeography Society 7th Biennial Conference, January 8th – 12th January 2015, Bayreuth, Germany.
Karger, D.N., Kessler, M., Kluge, J., Tanaka, T., Kuo, L.Y., Chang, Y.H., Lehtonen, S., Tuomisto, H. Comparing elevational and latitudinal gradients of fern diversity: From New Guinea to Hokkaido. The 2014 International meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation, 20th – 24th July 2014, Cairns, Australia.
Karger, D.N., Tuomisto, H., Amoroso, V.B., Darnaedi, D., Hidayat, A., Kluge, J., Abrahamczyk, S., Lehnert, M., Kessler, M. Disentangling species pool effects from environmental drivers of community composition. Biology 2013, 7th – 8th February, Basel, Switzerland.
Karger, D.N., Amoroso, V.B., Darnaedi, D., Hidayat, A., Kluge, J., Abrahamczyk, S., Lehnert, M., Kessler, M. Biogeographical and ecological drivers of beta diversity across scale. Popbio 2012. 25th Annual Conference of the Plant Population Biology Section of the Ecological Society of Germany, Switzerland and Austria, 17th – 19th May 2012, Zurich, Switzerland. (best PhD-presentation)
Karger, D.N., Amoroso, V.B., Darnaedi, D., Hidayat, A., Kluge, J., Kessler, M. Patterns of Fern Diversity in the Southeast Asian Archipelago. International Biogeographical Society “Advances in Biogeography: Early Career Conference”, 23rd – 25th September 2011, Oxford, United Kingdom.
Karger, D.N., Amoroso, V.B., Darnaedi, D., Hidayat, A., Kessler, M. Patterns of Fern Diversity in the Southeast Asian Archipelago. The Annual Conference of the Society for Tropical Ecology (gtö) on the "Status and Future of Tropical Biodiversity", 21st – 24th February 2011, Frankfurt, Germany.
Invided speaker
Impacts of climate change on biodiversity from the cloud forests to the tundra. 20th October 2022, CNRS, Laboratoire d'Ecologie Alpine (LECA), France
Provision and application of the CHELSA climate downscaling model at the kilometer scale. 10th February 2022, German Weather Service (DWD), Germany.
Quantifying climate impact on mountain ecosystems. 19th January 2022, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv), Germany.
How bioclimatic modelling can help understanding biotic communities. 17th July 2019, Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Gardens, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Peoples Republic of China.
The use of new high resolution climate data for macroecological research. 19th January 2017. Center for Biodiversity and Climate Change, Yale University, USA.
The use of new high resolution climate data for macroecological research. 12th December 2016, University of Vienna, Austria.
CHELSA – Climatologies at high resolution for the Earth’s land surface areas. 9th February 2016. Geographical Colloquium, Institute for Geography, Philipp's University Marburg, Germany.
Advances in combining macroecology and community ecology. 6th November 2015. Botanical Colloquium, Nees Insitute for Plant Biogeography, University of Bonn, Germany.
Biodiversity across scales: What ferns tell us about alpha-, beta-, and gamma-diversity, 10th October 2012, DEG – Seminar, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Switzerland.
Patterns of Biodiversity, Plenary speaker, 26th Annual BIOTA Convention and Scientific Sessions, 3rd December 2011, Central Mindanao University, Musuan, the Philippines.
Patterns of Biodiversity: A Seminar on Ecology, 15th December 2010, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, the Philippines.
Organized conferences and workshops
CHELSA-ISIMIP Workshop 7th June 2022, Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research, Potsdam, Germany. Main Organizer 20 on site 30 remote participants
Macro2018 – The Annual Meeting of the Specialist Group on Macroecology of the Ecological Society of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. 10th – 13th April 2018, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Birmensdorf, Switzerland. Main Organizer 120 participants
sREGPOOL - Biodiversity across spatial scales - the regional species pool link, German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research (iDiv) Halle-Jena-Leipzig, 2nd – 6th November 2013, Leipzig, Germany. Main Organizer (with J.-C. Svenning). 12 participants
Funding
Total amount: 1’918’464.25 CHF (includes funding to all partners)
Amount to lab: 495'881 CHF
Competitive funding
2022-2024 | FlorID - a user-friendly tool to identify Swiss plants , WSL Internal innovative projects, 60'000 CHF |
2022-2024 | Advantages of downscaling climate to high resolution for climate change impact studies , Swiss National Science Foundation SNF, 157’380 CHF |
2021-2024 | EMERGE: Extreme droughts in mountain regions: consequences for blue-green water fluxes , WSL-Extremes - Strategic WSL initiative, 713’392 CHF |
2020-2022 | COMECO: Combining machine learning, ecological modelling and plant morphological characteristics to develop a tool for identifying plants of Switzerland , Swiss Data Science Center, 411’740 CHF |
2019-2020 | ClimEX: Climate Modelling of Extreme Events , WSL Internal innovative projects, 59’280 CHF |
2017-2020 | Speedmind: Improving species biodiversity analyses and citizen science feedback through mining data, Swiss Data Science Center, 446’400 CHF |
2013-2015 | A multiscale assessment of beta diversity along the latitudinal gradient of species diversity, Swiss National Science Foundation SNF, 92’000 CHF |
2013 | sREGPOOL – Biodiversity across spatial scales - the regional species pool link, iDiv (German Center for Integrative Biodiv. Res.), 12’836 € |
Non-competitive funding
2013 | Climatologies at high resolution for the Earth’s land surface areas, Cross funding from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Change Impact Studies, and the The Arctic University of Norway, 18’985.25 CHF |
Teaching
2020-2021 | Introduction to Scientific High Performance Computing All levels, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Switzerland https://www.wsl.ch/en/about-wsl/events/details/intro-scientific-high-performance-computing-i.html Objectives of the course: Participants are introduced to the concept of parallelized high-performance computing using a Linux based cluster computer. The course covers a basic introduction to command line Linux based operating systems, the slurm batch job submission system, scaling of computational demand (CPU, memory, time), configuring CPU demand for parallel computation, configurations of memory demand, usage of modules and singularity containers, GPU computations, and large data/storage. Responsibilities: Course lead: Setup of the course, Conceptual development, Planning, logistics. |
2020 | Massive Open Online Course: ENM2020 Environmental Niche Modelling All levels, Online only https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8N9qHcCPyk Objectives of the course: The Ecological Niche Modelling 2020 course is a jointly-taught, open-access course designed to provide a broad introduction to the use of niche modelling and distribution modelling tools in the broader field of distributional ecology. Responsibilities: Preparation and provision of the lecture on climate data. |
2017-2018 | Spatial Modelling: From Climate & Land Use Change to Biodiversity Conservation 701-1679-00L Msc. level, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich ETH, Switzerland Objectives of the course: Students are introduced the concept of the ecological niche and biodiversity theories, as well as an overview of the knowledge on expected biodiversity response to global changes and conservation planning methods. These are taught using statistical methods such as generalized linear models, generalized additive models, classification and regression trees, machine learning methods, basic GIS, and programming elements in the statistical environment R. Responsibilities: Design a research project to be conducted by students, mentoring a small group of students (2-3) in this research project, teaching students how to write a research report and helping them develop research ideas, administering examinations and grading these; course size ~ 25 students. |
2017-2018 | Spatial Modelling: From Climate & Land Use Change to Biodiversity Conservation 701-1679-00L Msc. level, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich ETH, Switzerland Objectives of the course: Students are introduced the concept of the ecological niche and biodiversity theories, as well as an overview of the knowledge on expected biodiversity response to global changes and conservation planning methods. These are taught using statistical methods such as generalized linear models, generalized additive models, classification and regression trees, machine learning methods, basic GIS, and programming elements in the statistical environment R. Responsibilities: Design a research project to be conducted by students, mentoring a small group of students (2-3) in this research project, teaching students how to write a research report and helping them develop research ideas, administering examinations and grading these; course size ~ 25 students. |
2016 | Evolution and biodiversity II: Vertebrates and plants (4 ETSC) BIO121 Bsc. level, University of Zurich, Switzerland Objectives of the course: The morphological and biological properties of the main groups of vertebrates and land plants are presented in lectures and practical courses. The evolutionary history (macroevolution) of the groups is discussed with respect to the patterns of morphological and ontogenetic evolution, as well as extinct and current vertebrate and plant communities. Responsibilities: Designing and presenting the lecture on ferns and lycophytes, conducting the practical training of students on the morphology, evolution, systematics, and ecology of ferns and lycophytes; course size ~ 120 students. |
2014 | Island biogeographic field course - Canary Islands excursion (6 ETSC) BIO238 Msc. level,University of Zurich, Switzerland. https://www.zi.uzh.ch/dam/jcr:ef1b9c93-c91d-43dc-801c-38d38b116af4/FS14_Lehrveranstaltungen.pdf Objectives of the course: Students should learn the different ecological and biogeographical features of an island ecosystem. Main focus is given on the different ecosystems and their biodiversity occurring on Tenerife Island. Students will learn how to plan and conduct an island biogeographical research project and will conduct fieldwork during the excursion. Responsibilities: Conducting lectures on island biogeography in preparation for the excursion, designing an island biogeographical research project, mentoring a group of 3 students in conducting the project, giving lectures on statistical analysis, helping students in writing research reports, grading reports and administering examinations; course size ~ 12 students. |
2011-2016 | Botanical half day excursions (1 ETSC) BIO 237 Msc. level,University of Zurich, Switzerland. Objectives of the course:The botanical excursions promote the knowledge of the diversity of native flowering plants. They are open to students of biology and other fields of study. The excursions not only teach the names of the plants, but also explain the characteristics of the species and show ecological and biological relationships. Responsibilities: Preparation of the field excursions, selecting locations and plant species, organizing logistics, teaching students from various academic fields in the ecology and systematics of mosses, ferns, and flowering plants; course size ~15 students. |
2011-2016 | Flora of Switzerland: Diversity of Flowering Plants (6 ETSC) BIO304 Msc. level,University of Zurich, Switzerland. Objectives of the course:Students learn the diversity of native flowering plants for different habitats in Switzerland and evaluate them with regard to their diversity patterns. They learn how to determine and document plants using different methods and how to interpret the vegetation formation. This course consists of field work, lectures, and independent exercises. Responsibilities: Preparation of course material, helping students with the identification of plant specimens using botanical literature, helping them during fieldwork and with plant morphological character identification; course size ~ 20 students. |
2011 | Biogeography and Biodiversity (6 ETSC) BIO227 Msc. level,University of Zurich, Switzerland. Objectives of the course:In this course, students deal with questions such as "why are there more species here than elsewhere?" or "why does a species have a certain distribution?". For this, they work in small groups to design research projects on the basis of recent scientific publications. In this way, students acquire skills in planning experiments (experimental design, statistical requirements, etc.) and scientific writing. Responsibilities: Presenting parts of the lecture, mentoring a small group of students (2-3) on developing research projects, teaching students how to write a research grant application and helping them with developing research ideas; course size ~12 students. |
2010 | 2-week Botanical Field Excursion in the Philippines Ph.D. level, University of Zurich, Switzerland. Objectives of the course:Students should learn the different ecological and biogeographical features of an archipelagic island ecosystem. Main focus was given to the different ecosystems and their biodiversity such as: a lowland rainforest, mangrove forests, ultramafic forests, succession after volcanic eruptions (Pinatubo), and a mountain cloud forest. Responsibilities: Conceptual development, logistical planning, coordination, financial management, international relations, reservation of accommodations, leading the field excursions, preparation of course material; course size ~ 30 students. |
2008-2009 | Basic practical course in Botany (6 ECTS), B.Bio.103 BSc. level, University of Göttingen, Germany. https://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/518753.html Objectives of the course:Students acquire a basic knowledge of the structure and evolution of plants (algae, mosses, ferns, seed plants) and fungi, the morphology and anatomy of higher plants, as well as an overview of the plant kingdom. They should develop the ability to produce, analyze, interpret, and present light microscopic preparations of plant cells, tissues, and organs. Responsibilities: Preparation of microscopic specimen for the course, helping students identify plant morphological characters, helping them with microscopic work; course size ~ 40 students. |
2008-2009 | Structure and diversity of plants, (6 ECTS), B.Bio.210 BSc. level, University of Göttingen, Germany. https://www.uni-goettingen.de/de/523019.html Objectives of the course:Students acquire basic knowledge of the systematics, evolution, ecology, structure, and diversity of central European higher plants. They acquire these skills in systematic classification using drawing and analysis of morphological characteristics and practice the use of plant floras and identification keys. Using field excursions, students are also provided with an overview of the most important native plant species in their natural habitat. Responsibilities: Preparation of plant material for the course, helping students identify plant specimens using botanical literature with a focus on relevant morphological characters; course size ~ 40 students. |