Keynote Lectures by Meredith C. Schuman and Miguel Bastos Araújo
Miguel Bastos Araújo MAE, MCACL
Research Professor | National Museum of Natural Sciences, Spanish Research Council (CSIC).
Profile:
Miguel B. Araújo is Research Professor of the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) at the National Museum of Natural Sciences in Madrid and holds the Chair in Biodiversity at the University of Évora in Portugal. He is also a Member of Academia Europaea and the Lisbon Academy of Sciences. Previously, he held research positions at Imperial College London, the University of Copenhagen, the University of Oxford, and the CNRS. He has undertaken sabbatical stays at the University of Adelaide (Australia), the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology (OIST, Japan), and, currently, at iDiv (the German Centre for Integrative Biodiversity Research) in Leipzig, where he continues to foster collaborations at the interface of ecology, global change, conservation, and biodiversity modelling.
A globally recognized leader in the study of the effects of climate change on biodiversity, Araújo has been instrumental in shaping best practices for forecasting biodiversity change and assessing the broader impacts of human activities on the natural world. His methodological innovations have inspired thousands of scientists, and his evaluations of climate change impacts on biodiversity have significantly influenced public policy at scales ranging from local to global. His scientific achievements are reflected in a substantial publication record of nearly 300 papers, his consistent recognition as a Highly Cited Researcher by Thomson Reuters/Clarivate since 2014, his mentorship of close to 80 researchers and postgraduate students, and his success in securing over €80 million in research funding. He has received several prestigious awards, including the European Ecological Federation Ernst Haeckel Prize (2019), the Pessoa Prize (2018), the Rey Jaime I Prize (2016), the International Biogeography Society MacArthur & Wilson Award (2013), and the GBIF Ebbe Nielsen Prize (2013).
Since 2014, Prof. Araújo has served as Editor-in-Chief of Ecography. He is Chair of the Scientific Council for Natural Sciences at the Portuguese Foundation for Science and Technology, a member of the Portuguese Council for the Environment and Sustainability, Vice-Chair of the Jury of the Gulbenkian Prize for Humanity (supporting Angela Merkel as Chair), and a regular evaluator for high-level panels, including those of the BBVA Foundation, the European Research Council, and NATO’s Science for Peace and Security programme.
Keynote
Date: Tuesday, 30.09.2025, 10:15 A.M.
Title: Modeling Biodiversity Under Climate Change: From Individual Species to Communities
Abstract:
Over the past two decades, the use of models to understand and predict the impacts of environmental change on biodiversity has increased substantially. Most of these studies focus on relationships between species distributions and environmental variables, under the assumption that environmental conditions define the limits of tolerance for species survival. Consequently, shifts in environmental conditions are expected to drive corresponding shifts in species distributions.
A key limitation of this approach is its emphasis on individual species. Even when applied to thousands of taxa simultaneously, these models typically treat each species as an isolated entity, responding independently to environmental change. Such an assumption overlooks the complex dynamics of ecological communities, where collective responses may not be reducible to the sum of individual species’ reactions.
Although incremental refinements to existing species-based models have been proposed, significant progress will depend on developing approaches that explicitly capture community-level responses to environmental change. A promising direction lies in moving beyond the traditional environmental-limiting niche framework—well suited to modelling individual species but based on the premise of independent responses—toward a resource-limiting niche framework. This perspective emphasises how environmental conditions shape the coexistence of multiple species within communities, thereby offering a more integrated understanding of ecological dynamics under global change.
Prof., Dr. Meredith C. Schuman
assistant professor with dual affiliations to the Department of Geography and the Department of Chemistry at UZH
Profile:
Meredith (Merry) C. Schuman studied at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and received her B.Sc. in molecular biology and philosophy. She was then awarded a Fulbright scholarship to conduct research at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology (MPICE) in Jena, Germany, where she continued to earn her doctorate from the Friedrich Schiller University, Jena in 2012, as part of the International Max Planck Research School. She was appointed to the position of group leader and then ecology platform leader in the Department of Molecular Ecology at the MPICE, where she initiated her own research program. From 2014 to 2017, she was affiliated as a Junior Group Leader with the German Center for Integrated Biodiversity Research (iDiv). In 2018, she moved to the UZH, first as a guest professor and now as an assistant professor. She has received several awards and scholarships including the Max Planck Society Otto Hahn Medal awarded in recognition of outstanding scientific achievement, initiated scientific working groups such as the International Team "Genes from Space", and is engaged in outreach. The research program of Professor Schuman is rooted in molecular ecology. Her group investigates spatial and temporal variation of genetic and functional diversity and its consequences at a landscape scale. More broadly, they study why living things differ and where those differences matter for ecology and for people.
Keynote
Date: Wednesday, 1 October, 10:00 AM
Title: Understanding biodiversity integratively across layers of biological organization, and consequences for monitoring and management
Abstract:
Over the past two decades, the use of models to understand and predict the impacts of environmental change on biodiversity has increased substantially. Most of these studies focus on relationships between species distributions and environmental variables, under the assumption that environmental conditions define the limits of tolerance for species survival. Consequently, shifts in environmental conditions are expected to drive corresponding shifts in species distributions.
A key limitation of this approach is its emphasis on individual species. Even when applied to thousands of taxa simultaneously, these models typically treat each species as an isolated entity, responding independently to environmental change. Such an assumption overlooks the complex dynamics of ecological communities, where collective responses may not be reducible to the sum of individual species’ reactions.
Although incremental refinements to existing species-based models have been proposed, significant progress will depend on developing approaches that explicitly capture community-level responses to environmental change. A promising direction lies in moving beyond the traditional environmental-limiting niche framework—well suited to modelling individual species but based on the premise of independent responses—toward a resource-limiting niche framework. This perspective emphasises how environmental conditions shape the coexistence of multiple species within communities, thereby offering a more integrated understanding of ecological dynamics under global change.
