Swiss Federal Institute for Forest, Snow and Landscape Research WSL
Function
Technical staff member
Unit
Group
Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL
Zürcherstrasse 111
8903 Birmensdorf
Site
WSL Birmensdorf Bi HL E 30
As macroecologist I am interested in ecological processes that take place at large scales without necessarily being intuitively perceivable. I am fascinated by funtamental theoretical questions, such as the reasons for the striking differences in the diversity of species and life forms, abut also by timely topics such as impact of climate change and extreme events on biological processes. I enjoy working with large data sets and attempting to integrate novel statistical tools and models into my analyses. I primarly work with plants, in particular alpine species, but from my PhD project I am also familiar with marine organsims, especially with phyto- and zooplankton.
| 2021-today | Technical staff member at WSL |
| 2020-2021 | Postdoc on automated detection of plant species from images at WSL (Project COMECO) |
| 2017-2020 | Postdoc on biodiversity of the alpine flora at WSL (Project OriginAlps) |
| 2016-2017 | Postdoc on zooplankton carbon export at the Centre for Ocean Life, DTU Aqua in Charlottenlund (Denmark) |
| 2013-2017 | PhD in marine biology; Thesis title : “Plankton biogeography - an exploration of patterns, drivers, functions, and predictability” at the Centre for Ocean Life, DTU Aqua in Charlottenlund (Denmark) |
| 2011-2013 | Master in in Environmental Sciences at ETH Zürich; Major in Biogeochemistry and Pollutant Dynamics; Minor in Soil Protection and Land Use; Master thesis on the distribution of phytoplankton in the global ocean |
| 2007-2010 | Bachelor in Environmental Sciences at ETH Zürich |
| 38 | Ding, W., R. Ree, M. May, P. Brun, O. Hagen, D. N. Karger, A. Skeels, L. Pellissier, Y. Xing, and N. E. Zimmermann. In press. The asynchronous rise of Northern Hemisphere alpine floras reveals general responses of biotic assembly to orogeny and climate change. Science Advances |
| 37 | Popp, M., N. E. Zimmermann, and P. Brun. 2025. Evaluating the use of automated plant identification tools in biodiversity monitoring—a case study in Switzerland. Ecological Informatics 103316, doi: 10.1016/j.ecoinf.2025.103316 |
| 36 | Yuan, Z., G. Yang, W. Ding, P. Brun, A. Skeels, L. Pellissier, and N. E. Zimmermann. 2025. The geography of connectivity shapes plant endemism hotspots. Ecography, doi: 10.1002/ecog.07514 |
| 35 | Plekhanova, E., D. Robert, J. Dollinger, E. Arens, P. Brun, J. D. Wegner, N. E. Zimmermann. 2025. SSL4Eco: A Global Seasonal Dataset for Geospatial Foundation Models in Ecology. arXiv, doi: arXiv:2504.18256 |
| 34 | Brun, P., L. C. de Witte, M. R. Popp, D. Zurell, D. N. Karger, P. Descombes, R. de Lutio, J. D. Wegner, C. Bornand, S. Eggenberg, T. Olevski, and N. E. Zimmermann. 2025. FlorID – a nationwide identification service for plants from photos and habitat information. Environmental Modelling & Software 106402, doi: 10.1016/j.envsoft.2025.106402 |
| 33 | Chen L., P. Brun, P. Buri, S. Fatichi, A. Gessler, M. J. McCarthy, F. Pellicciotti, B. D. Stocker, and D. N. Karger. 2025. Global increase in the occurrence and impact of multiyear droughts. Science 387:278-284, doi: 10.1126/science.ado4245 |
| 32 | Gessler A., M. Wilhelm, P. Brun, N. E. Zimmermann, and A. Rigling. 2024. Zurück in die Zukunft - Ein neuer Blick auf die Perspektiven für die Buche nach 20 Jahren Forschung und weiter fortschreitendem Klimawandel. Allgemeine Forst und Jagdzeitung 193:206-224, doi: 10.23765/afjz000101 |
| 31 | Adde A., N. Külling, P.-L. Rey, P. Brun, O. Broennimann, A. Lehmann, B. Petitpierre, N. E. Zimmermann, L. Pellissier, F. Altermatt, and A. Guisan. 2024. Projecting Untruncated Climate Change Effects on Species’ Climate Suitability: Insights from an Alpine Country. Global Change Biology 30:17557, doi: 10.1111/gcb.17557 |
| 30 | Zurell, D., N. E. Zimmermann, and P. Brun. 2024. The niche through time: Considering phenology and demographic stages in plant distribution models. Journal of Ecology 112:1926-1939, doi: 10.1111/1365-2745.14361 |
| 29 | Dollinger, J., P. Brun, V. Sainte Fare Garnot, and J. D. Wegner. 2024. SAT-SINR: HIGH-RESOLUTION SPECIES DISTRIBUTION MODELS THROUGH SATELLITE IMAGERY. ISPRS Ann. Photogramm. Remote Sens. Spatial Inf. Sci. X-2-2024, doi: 10.5194/isprs-annals-X-2-2024-41-2024 |
| 28 | Zou, Y., C. Zohner, C. Averill, H. Ma, J. Merder, M. Berdugo, L. Bialic-Murphy, L. Mo, P. Brun, N. E. Zimmermann, J. Liang, S. de-Miguel. G.-J. Nabuurs, P. B. Reich, Ü. Niinemets, J. Dahlgren, G. Kändler, S. Ratcliffe, P. Ruiz-Benito, M. Zavala, GFBi Consortium, and T. W. Crowther. 2024. Positive feedbacks and alternative stable states in forest leaf types. Nature Communications 15:4658, doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-48676-5 |
| 27 | van Thiel, N., F. Fopp, P. Brun, J. van den Hoogen, D. N. Karger, C. M. Casadei, D. Tuia, N. E. Zimmermann, T. W. Crowther, and L. Pellissier. 2024. Regional uniqueness of tree species composition and response to forest loss and climate change. Nature Communications 15:4375, doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-48276-3 |
| 26 | Brun, P., D. N. Karger, D. Zurell, P. Descombes, L. C. de Witte, R. de Lutio, J. D. Wegner, and N. E. Zimmermann. 2024. Multispecies deep learning using citizen science data produces more informative plant community models. Nature Communications 15:4421, doi: 10.1038/s41467-024-48559-9 |
| 25 | Zemlianskii, V., P. Brun, N. E. Zimmermann, K. Ermokhina, O. Khitun, N. Koroleva, and G. Schaepman-Strub. 2024. Current and past climate co-shape community-level plant species richness in the Western Siberian Arctic. Ecology and Evolution 14:e11140, doi: 10.1002/ece3.11140 |
| 24 | Dechamps, G., G. Poggiato, P. Brun, C. Galiez, and W. Thuiller. 2023. Predict first–assemble later versus assemble first–predict later: Revisiting the dilemma for functional biogeography. Methods in Ecology and Evolution 14:2680-2696, doi: 10.1111/2041-210X.14203 |
| 23 | Adde, A., P.-L. Rey, P. Brun, N. Külling, F. Fopp, F. Altermatt, O. Broennimann, A. Lehmann, B. Petitpierre, N. E. Zimmermann, L. Pellissier, and A. Guisan. 2023. N-SDM: a high-performance computing pipeline for Nested Species Distribution Modelling Ecography doi: 10.1111/ecog.06540 |
| 22 | Rodriguez Torres, R., R. Almeda, J. Xu, N. Hartmann, S. Rist, P. Brun, and T. Nielsen. 2023. The behavior of planktonic copepods minimizes the entry of microplastics in marine food webs Environmental Science & Technology 57:179-189, doi: 10.1021/acs.est.2c04660 |
| 21 | Kyathanahally, S., T. Hardeman, M. Reyes, E. Merz, T. Bulas, P. Brun, F. Pomati, and M. Baity-Jesi. 2022. Ensembles of Vision Transformers as a New Paradigm for Automated Classification in Ecology. Scientific reports 12:18590, doi: 10.1038/s41598-022-21910-0 |
| 20 | Meusburger, K., V. Trotsiuk, P. Schmidt-Walter, A. Baltensweiler, P. Brun, F. Bernhard, M. Gharun, R. Habel, F. Hagedorn, R. Köchli, A. Psomas, H. Puhlmann, A. Thimonier, P. Waldner, S. Zimmermann, and L. Walthert. 2022. Soil-plant interactions modulated water availability of Swiss forests during the 2015 and 2018 droughts. Global Change Biology , doi: 10.1111/gcb.16332 |
| 19 | Brun, P., N. E. Zimmermann, C. Hari, L. Pellissier, and D. N. Karger. 2022. Global climate-related predictors at kilometer resolution for the past and future. Earth Syst. Sci. Data 56:6455-6465, doi: 10.5194/essd-14-5573-2022 |
| 18 | Xu, J., R. Rodriguez Torres, S. Rist, T. Nielsen, N. Hartmann, P. Brun, D. Li, and R. Almeda. 2022. Unpalatable plastic: efficient taste-discrimination of microplastics in planktonic copepods Environmental Science & Technology 56:6455-6465, doi: 10.1021/acs.est.2c00322 |
| 17 | Lyu, L., F. Leugger, O. Hagen, F. Fopp, L. M. Boschman, J. S. Srijk, C. Albouy, D. N. Karger, P. Brun, Z. Wang, N. E. Zimmermann, and L. Pellissier. 2022. An integrated high‐resolution mapping shows congruent biodiversity patterns of Fagales and Pinales New Phytologist 235:759-772, doi: 10.1111/nph.18158 |
| 16 | Brun, P., C. Violle, D. Mouillot, N. Mouquet, B. J. Enquist, F. Munoz, T. Münkemüller, A. Ostling, N. E. Zimmermann, and W. Thuiller. 2022. Plant community impact on productivity: trait diversity or key(stone) species effects? Ecology Letters 24:913-925, doi: 10.1111/ele.13968 |
| 15 | de Lutio, R., Y. She, S. D'Aronco, S. Russo, P. Brun, J. D. Wegner, and K. Schindler. 2021. Digital taxonomist: Identifying plant species in community scientists’ photographs. ISPRS Journal of Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing 182:112-121, doi: 10.1016/j.isprsjprs.2021.10.002 |
| 14 | Chauvier, Y., N. E. Zimmermann, G. Poggiato, D. Bystrova, P. Brun, and W. Thuiller. 2021. Novel methods to correct for observer and sampling bias in presence-only species distribution models. Global Ecology and Biogeography 30:2312-2325, doi: 10.1111/geb.13383 |
| 13 | Polanco, A. F., F. Fopp, C. Albouy, P. Brun, L. Boschman, and L. Pellissier. 2020. Marine fish diversity in Tropical America associated with both past and present environmental conditions. Journal of Biogeography 47:2597-2610, doi: 10.1111/jbi.13985 |
| 12 | Visser, A. W., P. Brun, S. Chakraborty, T. S. Dencker, P. D. van Denderen, R. van Gemert, H. van Someren Gréve, I. Heilmann, M. W. Holm, S. H. Jónasdóttir, K. M. Kenitz, T. Kiørboe, M. Lindegren, P. Mariani, L. T. Nielsen, M. Pancic, M. R. Payne, L. Pécuchet, N. A. Schnedler-Meyer, U. H. Thygesen, A. Törnroos and Andersen K. H. 2020. Seasonal strategies in the world’s oceans. Progress in Oceanography 189:102466, doi:10.1016/j.pocean.2020.102466 |
| 11 | Brun, P., A. Psomas, C. Ginzler, W. Thuiller, M. Zappa, and N. E. Zimmermann. 2020. Large-scale early-wilting response of Central European forests to the 2018 extreme drought. Global Change Biology 26:7021-7035, doi: 10.1111/gcb.15360 |
| 10 | Chauvier, Y., W. Thuiller, P. Brun, S. Lavergne, P. Descombes, D. N. Karger, J. Renaud, and N. E. Zimmermann. 2020. Influence of climate, soil, and land cover on plant species distribution in the European Alps. Ecological Monographs, doi: 10.1002/ecm.1433 |
| 9 | Brun, P., W. Thuiller, Y. Chauvier, L. Pellissier, R. O. Wüest, Z. Wang, and N. E. Zimmermann. 2020. Model complexity affects species distribution projections under climate change. Journal of Biogeography 47:130-142, doi: 10.1111/jbi.13734 |
| 8 | Brun, P., N. E. Zimmermann, C. H. Graham, S. Lavergne, L. Pellissier, T. Münkemüller, and W. Thuiller. 2019. The productivity-biodiversity relationship varies across diversity dimensions. Nature Communications 10:5691, doi: 10.1038/s41467-019-13678-1 |
| 7 | Brun, P., K. Stamieszkin, A. W. Visser, P. Licandro, M. R. Payne, and T. Kiørboe. 2019. Climate change has altered zooplankton-fuelled carbon export in the North Atlantic. Nature Ecology & Evolution 3:416-423, doi:10.1038/s41559-018-0780-3 |
| 6 | Holm, M. W., T. Kiørboe, P. Brun, P. Licandro, R. Almeda, and B. W. Hansen. 2017. Resting eggs in free living marine and estuarine copepods. Journal of Plankton Research, 1–14, doi:10.1093/plankt/fbx062 |
| 5 | Brun, P., M. R. Payne, and T. Kiørboe. 2017. A trait database for marine copepods. Earth System Science Data 9:99-113, doi:10.5194/essd-9-99-2017 |
| 4 | Brun, P., M. R. Payne, and T. Kiørboe. 2016. Trait biogeography of marine copepods - an analysis across scales. Ecology Letters 19:1403–1413, doi:10.1111/ele.12688 |
| 3 | Brun, P., T. Kiørboe, P. Licandro, and M. R. Payne. 2016. The predictive skill of species distribution models for plankton in a changing climate. Global Change Biology 22:3170–3181, doi:10.1111/gcb.13274 |
| 2 | Brun, P., T. Kiørboe, and M. R. Payne. 2015. Measuring evolutionary adaptation of phytoplankton with local field observations. PNAS 201513353, doi:10.1073/pnas.1513353112 |
| 1 | Brun, P., M. Vogt, M. R. Payne, N. Gruber, C. J. O’Brien, E. T. Buitenhuis, C. Le Quéré, K. Leblanc, and Y.-W. Luo. 2015. Ecological niches of open ocean phytoplankton taxa. Limnology and Oceanography 60:1020–1038, doi:10.1002/lno.10074 |
