Activities and Events
SwissCollNet
The SSS supports the development of a Swiss Natural History Collections Network.
The Swiss Natural History Collections Network (SwissCollNet) develops a common vision for natural history collections in Switzerland.
The main goals of the initiative are to
- promote the management and curation of natural history collections in Switzerland;
- unify physical and virtual access to biodiversity and geodiversity information;
- provide new, linked and open access to data associated with collections;
- create a platform to encourage and supprot the scientific use of natural history collections.
Events, News
Biology22 is the largest conference on organismic biology in Switzerland. It provides an important platform for academic exchange, especially among junior researchers (Master students, PhD students and postdoctoral fellows) affiliated to a Swiss university or research institute.
This year, the Alps have once again proven to be a source of undiscovered biodiversity. After many seasons of field work and research in herbaria, a new plant species of the primulaceae family has been described: Androsace albimontana. This new species was chosen this year as an emblem by the Swiss Systematics Society.
Image: Denis Jordan
On the occasion of the National Day of Natural History Collections, 26 Swiss institutions are offering you a glimpse behind the scenes. From now on, the curators will be telling you the stories of selected objects. But beware: one of the three stories of each institution is completely made up! Watch these fantastic stories and learn more about the Collections Day program.
Image: Christoph Germann
Thursday 5 November: online workshop on morphometric methods and their use in systematics Friday 6 November: the annual meeting of the SSS, at the Natural History in Bern
Image: wikipedia
Although much of the biodiversity still to be discovered is hidden in the tropics, new species are still being described from Europe. This is the case in Andrena amieti, the species chosen as an emblem by the Swiss Systematics Society (SSS) in 2020.
Image: S. Giriens, www.swisswildbees.ch
Every year, more than a hundred new species are described by researchers working in Swiss institutions. Most of them are insects, the group with the highest biodiversity, but new plants are also discovered. They often live in remote and hard-to-reach places.
Image: F. Ratovoson
As for current species, new fossil species are described each year by scientists. In 2017, researchers working in a Swiss institution described a total of 138 new species. And eight of them are extinct species! Of these, the SSS elected Foreyia maxkuhni species of the year 2018.
There are now 1.5 million known species of animal and plant in the world, but specialists estimate that the true number is actually between 10 and 100 times as many. Every year, several thousand species are discovered and described in scientific publications. Switzerland is not getting left behind in this adventure; no fewer than 153 species were described by researchers working in Swiss institutions in 2016 alone. Among these, the Swiss Systematics Society has elected Colilodion schulzi species of the year 2017!
