Swedish lake data show dark diversity can predict when closely related or distant invasive fish are more likely to establish.

A new collaborative study involving FISC postdoctoral researcher Shuya Fan shows how dark diversity can help explain invasion success. The research offers a new perspective on Darwin’s naturalization…

An international research team, which included University of Tartu visiting doctoral student Wen-Gang Zhang and Professor of Botany Meelis Pärtel, has found a new solution to one of ecology's long-standing controversies—Darwin's naturalization conundrum, which addresses the question of why some species successfully establish in a new habitat while others do not.

Marine ecosystems can appear stable despite facing delayed changes. Using a probabilistic species pool approach, we estimated the suitability of species in observed and dark diversity—set of suitable...

Scientists studied thousands of sites worldwide to discover that natural areas are missing many plant species that could live there, a hidden loss they call dark diversity.

In 2025, the study that drew the most attention in public digital channels was led by Professor of Botany Meelis Pärtel and confirms the negative effect of human activity on wildlife biodiversity.

Aim Biological invasions are one of the major threats to ecosystems worldwide and are expected to increase further in the future. Prevention and swift responses are crucial to mitigate this threat. .....

As droughts become longer and more intense, impacts on terrestrial primary productivity are expected to increase progressively. Yet, some ecosystems appear to acclimate to multiyear drought, with cons...

npj Biodiversity - Quantifying the influence of intraspecific variability in trait spaces

Projections of extinctions of bird species and losses of functional diversity over the next 100 years suggest that even immediate and widespread threat abatement would be insufficient to prevent losse...

Even protected forests may be losing biodiversity due to human activity far away. A global study reveals the hidden erosion of nature’s potential.

According to a recent study, accounting for dark diversity — the species that could be in a particular area but aren’t — could be the best way to identify and restore “silent losses” in plant diversit...

Trait-based ecology, a prominent research field identifying traits linked to the distribution and interactions of organisms and their impact on ecosystem functioning, has flourished in the last three...

Photo credit: Robert Lewis, NINA Behind the study is a global research network of more than 200 researchers, called  DarkDivNet, coordinated by the University of Tartu in Estonia, and advised by an i...

YouTube video by Trent University

Photo credit: Robert Lewis, NINA Behind the study is a global research network of more than 200 researchers, called  DarkDivNet, coordinated by the University of Tartu in Estonia, and advised by an i...

Back in 2019, we ventured into the field with a rather unusual mission: to search for the biodiversity that wasn’t there. At first glance, this might seem counterintuitive – after all, we’re …

Brno and Průhonice, 10. 04. 2025 – According to a new study by a team of more than 200 botanists from around the world, published in the prestigious journal Nature, the vegetation of natural areas is ...

A comparison of alpha diversity (number of plant species) and dark diversity (species that are currently absent from a site despite being ecologically suitable) demonstrates the negative effects of re...

A comparison of alpha diversity (number of plant species) and dark diversity (species that are currently absent from a site despite being ecologically suitable) demonstrates the negative effects of re...

A comparison of alpha diversity (number of plant species) and dark diversity (species that are currently absent from a site despite being ecologically suitable) demonstrates the negative effects of re...

Many native plants are missing from habitats where they should thrive – even in wilder areas. Why? Human actions such as logging, poaching and setting fires.

Nature study shows that the potential occurrence of plant species is significantly higher

A comparison of alpha diversity (number of plant species) and dark diversity (species that are currently absent from a site despite being ecologically suitable) demonstrates the negative effects of re...

A comparison of alpha diversity (number of plant species) and dark diversity (species that are currently absent from a site despite being ecologically suitable) demonstrates the negative effects of re...

A study recently published in Nature indicates that human activities have a negative effect on the biodiversity of wildlife hundreds of kilometres away. A research collaboration led by the University ...

A comparison of alpha diversity (number of plant species) and dark diversity (species that are currently absent from a site despite being ecologically suitable) demonstrates the negative effects of re...