TUM researchers use AI and sensors to study biodiversity impacts of climate change
Researchers at TUM's School of Life Sciences are investigating how climate change affects biodiversity in forests and freshwater ecosystems. A 2026 study by Rupert Seidl and colleagues published in Science projected that climate warming by approximately 4°C could more than double forest dieback in Europe by 2100 compared to 1986–2020, driven by wildfires, storms, and bark beetle infestations; the study was based on an AI-assisted simulation model using 135 million data points from 13,000 forest locations. Ann-Marie Waldvogel's research at the Osterseen nature reserve focuses on measuring genetic diversity in plankton and other aquatic organisms, using environmental DNA analyses; she plans to develop a genomic indicator of ecosystem health as an early warning system for threatened ecosystems.
