Trait Evolution, Lineage Diversification and Historical Biogeography in a Big Data era

Organizer: Aelys M. Humphreys, Svenska Systematikföreningen
Invited speaker: Isabel Sanmartin, Real Jardin Botanico, Madrid

This symposium will showcase a variety of ongoing macroevolutionary research. Topics will include, but are not limited to: trait evolution, lineage diversification, historical biogeography, adaptive radiations and diversity dynamics across different groups of organisms. It is an exciting time for this field, in an era of large, open access databases (e.g. phylogenetic, geographic and trait data) and the development of artificial intelligence modelling approaches. The symposium will aim to highlight new questions and insights, or new answers to old questions, arising with these developments but we welcome abstracts that fit with this general theme, even if they do not include Big Data or AI aspects.

Evolution in Deep Time: Fossils, Phylogenies, and Reconstructing the History of Life

Organizers: Daniele Silvestro and Seraina Klopfstein, Swiss Systematics Society

From the discovery and interpretation of new fossils to broad evolutionary inference across vast geological timescales, this symposium explores how diverse lines of evidence are integrated to reconstruct the history of life. Particular emphasis is placed on approaches that combine fossil and extant organismal data to illuminate patterns and processes unfolding across deep time. Topics include methodological advances in total-evidence phylogenetics, diversification dynamics, and modeling long-term evolutionary change using Bayesian inference and emerging deep learning approaches. The symposium highlights the continuum from empirical data generation to integrative reconstructions of life’s deep past.

AI and Automated Species Identification: Assets and Drawbacks

Organizers: Andreas Schmidt-Rhasea and Thomas Bartolomaeus, Gesellschaft für Biologische Systematik

Species are the central reference units of taxonomy and biodiversity research, linking names to data across studies, collections, and databases. The increasing use of artificial intelligence for automated species identification raises both practical and conceptual questions. Can AI enhance the efficiency and reproducibility of species detection and delimitation? What are its limitations in handling taxonomic complexity, intraspecific variation, and conflicting species concepts? This symposium critically examines the potential and constraints of AI-driven identification in the context of contemporary taxonomic practice.

Advances in Museomics for Biosystematics and Taxonomy

Organizer: Martin Kapun, Network of Biological Systematics Austria (NOBIS)

Museomics is rapidly reshaping biosystematics and taxonomy by unlocking genomic data from museum collections. This focused symposium brings together researchers from molecular genetics, bioinformatics, and museum science to discuss key methodological challenges and emerging applications of museomics in systematics. This session will highlight cutting-edge methods, showcase how historical DNA informs species delimitation and evolutionary inference, and consider the role of museum collections as long-term biodiversity archives.

Are biodiversity and ecosystems the same thing?

Organizer: Société Française de Systématique
Invited speaker: Guillaume Lecointre

Biodiversity, ecosystems, systematics, and ecology are concepts that are too often conflated, both in scientific discourse and mainstream media. This symposium proposes a critical examination of their relationships in order to: clarify their definitions, describe how they are currently represented within our institutions, and assess the scientific, politic and large public consequences of this confusion. We would be particularly interested in developing a European-wide perspective on these issues, with the aim of building a shared framework to better support Systematics.

Natural History Collections and their actors

Organizers: Paco Cárdenas and Martin Westberg, Museum of Evolution, Uppsala University

Natural History Collections, and especially type material, are an essential part of systematics, taxonomy and biodiversity studies. In this session, we will also stress the importance of the different actors in history revolving around these collections: collectors, taxonomists, curators, and all of their archives.

Taxonomic treatments and revisions and their accessibility in biodiversity databases

Organizers: Olaf Banki (Catalogue of Life) and Veronika Johansson (GBIF Sweden)

Taxonomists worldwide produce taxonomic treatments of new taxa and revisions of existing ones, forming the backbone of biodiversity knowledge. It is essential for the research community to keep track of these efforts in a standardized and easily accessible manner. This session organized by the Catalogue of Life and GBIF Sweden will focus on the importance of such taxonomic data for global research infrastructures. We welcome talks about taxonomic treatments and revisions, as well as talks about accessing, organizing, and utilizing such information. The session will also highlight use cases of these data in downstream policy applications.

Data-driven research in evolution and biodiversity

Organizer: DDLS Evolution and Biodiversity, SciLifeLab

This session focuses on the development and application of data-intensive approaches in evolutionary biology and biodiversity science. The emphasis is on integrating and analysing large, heterogeneous datasets, such as genomic, spatial, environmental, monitoring, and collection-based data, to address biological questions across scales. We welcome contributions that present computational methods, statistical modelling frameworks, data integration strategies, and research infrastructures that enable robust and reproducible research. Relevant topics include population and conservation genomics, phylogenetics, biodiversity monitoring, macroecological synthesis, forecasting under environmental change, and cross-scale data integration.

Environmental DNA for species discovery and biodiversity inventory

Organizer: Swedish Metabarcoding Network

Environmental DNA (eDNA) has become an important tool for detecting species and characterizing biological communities across ecosystems. This session focuses specifically on the use of eDNA and related metabarcoding approaches for species discovery, biodiversity inventory, and community assessment. We invite contributions addressing methodological developments, sampling design, marker choice, reference databases, bioinformatic pipelines, taxonomic annotation strategies, and comparative studies with traditional survey methods. Studies applying eDNA in terrestrial, freshwater, or marine systems are welcome.

Speciation, Adaptation and Phylogeography: Microevolutionary Processes Shaping Biodiversity

Organizers: Per Alström, Uppsala University

This session focuses on microevolutionary research at the interface of population biology, ecology, and evolutionary genomics. We welcome contributions on the evolution of reproductive isolation, ecological divergence and host/habitat shifts, hybrid zones and introgression, and the genomic or morphological aspects of adaptation. We also encourage phylogeographic and landscape-genomic studies that integrate genetic variation with geographic and environmental data to infer demographic history, dispersal routes, and barriers to gene flow. Empirical, theoretical, and methodological talks are all invited, including experimental and field-based tests of local adaptation.

Open session

Organizer: Svenska Systematikföreningen

We are happy to accept any talks in the field of systematics and biodiversity research more broadly. If you feel that your talk does not fit in any of the themed symposia, please submit it to the open session.

Meet the Editors

Organizers: Peter D. Olson and Tom S. White, Systematics and Biodiversity

Join the two co-editors of Systematics and Biodiversity for a questions-and-answers session on scientific publishing, peer review and editorial services in the field of systematics and biodiversty. Systematics and Biodiversity is an international, peer-reviewed Hybrid Open Access journal devoted to whole organism biology and published online by Taylor & Francis on behalf of the Natural History Museum, London.

Systematics and Biodiversity will publish a special collection of articles arising from BioSyst.EU 2026. Talk to the editors about this opportunity during the meeting, and visit the submission site today: https://mc.manuscriptcentral.com/tsab