Dr. Dirk Karger

Scientific Positions

Education

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.

• Macroecology and Biodiversity
  Understanding and modelling of biodiversity in mountain ecosystems globally
• Climate impacts
  Impacts of climate on biodiversity, hydrology, and vegetation
• Climate downscaling
  Development of climate downscaling algorithms and high resolution climate data products

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

2020-2021

Introduction to Scientific High Performance Computing

All levels, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Switzerland

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

http://www.vvz.ethz.ch/Vorlesungsverzeichnis/lerneinheit.view?lang=de&semkez=2018W&lerneinheitId=123468&

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

http://www.vvz.ethz.ch/Vorlesungsverzeichnis/lerneinheit.view?lang=de&semkez=2018W&lerneinheitId=123468&

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

https://studentservices.uzh.ch/uzh/anonym/vvz/index.html?sap-language=DE&sap-ui-language=DE#/details/2016/004/SM/50773442

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.

https://studentservices.uzh.ch/uzh/anonym/vvz/index.html?sap-language=DE&sap-ui-language=DE#/details/2019/003/SM/50035360

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.

https://studentservices.uzh.ch/uzh/anonym/vvz/index.html?sap-language=DE&sap-ui-language=DE#/details/2016/004/SM/50433962

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.

https://studentservices.uzh.ch/uzh/anonym/vvz/index.html?sap-language=DE&sap-ui-language=DE#/details/2020/003/SM/50476563

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.

Talks at international conferences

• Karger, D.N.,The current fate of the world’s cloud forests.World Biodiversity Forum, 26^th June – 1^st 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, 1^st – 7^th June 2022, Vancouver, Canada.
• Karger, D.N. High-resolution climate forcing data. Cross-sectoral ISIMIP and PROCLIAS Workshop 2022, 16^th – 19^th 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, 11^th – 12^th 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 11^th – 15^th January 2021, virtual meeting.
• Karger, D.N., Conrad, O., Böhner, J., Zimmermann, N.E., Modelling precipitation and temperature at 1km resolution globally. 38^th annual meeting of the Climate Working Group (Arbeitskreis Klima), 25^th – 27^th 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. 9^th Biennial Conference of the International Biogeography Society, 8^th – 12^th 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, 1^st – 5^th 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, 11^th – 14^th 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. 8^th Biennial Conference of the International Biogeography Society, 9^th – 13^th 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, 23^rd – 26^th 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, 1^st – 5^th 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 8^th – 12^th 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, 20^th – 24^th 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, 7^th – 8^th 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. 25^th Annual Conference of the Plant Population Biology Section of the Ecological Society of Germany, Switzerland and Austria, 17^th – 19^th 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”, 23^rd – 25^th 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", 21^st – 24^th 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. 17^th 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. 19^th January 2017. Center for Biodiversity and Climate Change, Yale University, USA.
• The use of new high resolution climate data for macroecological research. 12^th December 2016, University of Vienna, Austria.
• CHELSA – Climatologies at high resolution for the Earth’s land surface areas. 9^th February 2016. Geographical Colloquium, Institute for Geography, Philipp's University Marburg, Germany.
• Advances in combining macroecology and community ecology. 6^th 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, 10^th October 2012, DEG – Seminar, Swiss Federal Research Institute WSL, Switzerland.
• Patterns of Biodiversity, Plenary speaker, 26^th Annual BIOTA Convention and Scientific Sessions, 3^rd December 2011, Central Mindanao University, Musuan, the Philippines.
• Patterns of Biodiversity: A Seminar on Ecology, 15^th December 2010, University of Santo Tomas, Manila, the Philippines.

Organized conferences and workshops

• CHELSA-ISIMIP Workshop 7^th 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. 10^th – 13^th 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, 2^nd – 6^th November 2013, Leipzig, Germany. Main Organizer (with J.-C. Svenning). 12 participants

• 11.02.2023: SRF Wissenschaftsmagazin
  How the climate is modeled with Swiss data? In order to estimate how the earth's flora will change with global warming, or how the level of reservoirs will develop, the most accurate climate data possible is needed from every point on the globe. Increasingly, these data are coming from Birmensdorf. Radio interview including Dirk N. Karger
• 03.06.2013: SRF PULS
  The fact that plants introduced into Switzerland are not always just a problem for conservationists is shown by the example of giant hogweed. Arriving in Germany over 150 years ago as a gift from a tsar, it has been spreading rapidly in Switzerland for several decades. TV interview including Dirk N. Karger on hogweed starting: 29:30
• 22.03.2013: SRF Treffpunkt
  Onto the palm tree! In the run-up to Palm Sunday, the program is all about the palm tree. Today, the palm is considered an important crop and a plant with great symbolic power: as a supplier of oil, an image for vacations and recreation, or as a religious element at Easter time. Radio interview including Dirk N. Karger on Palms
• 21.02.2012: SRF Treffpunkt
  I Tarzan - You Jane, 100 years ago, the story of the boy abandoned in the jungle and raised by monkeys was published for the first time. Since then, children all over the world have been playing "Tarzan on the Vines." Dozens of Tarzan films have flickered across screens since then, and a musical has also caused a sensation. Radio interview including Dirk N. Karger on Lianas