Biodiversity follows geological diversity. This basic tenet underpins a collection of research projects at ETH Zurich that collectively falls under the umbrella of GeoBioDiversity. The worldwide distribution of biodiversity is highly variable, and although there are some clear drivers such as latitude and elevation to this distribution, there are other features to the biogeography whose origin remain elusive. Geobiodiversity research at ETH has as its fundamental goal the understanding of how, when and why the global distribution of biodiversity takes the form that it does. Towards this goal, we work on the geodynamic and tectonic processes that create topography, the climatic processes that interact with topography, and the biological response to changing habitat.
- What impact do tectonics and climate processes have on plant biodiversity patterns?
- How can studying the interplay between earth surface dynamics, climate, and biological processes fill in the existing knowledge gap on species diversification and allow better cross-disciplinary communication?
These are other motivating questions underlie the formation of this research collaboration project between scientists within the ETH domain and our colleagues worldwide.
