Biography

Diana Wall works on soil biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in any ecosystems. She works at the physical limits to life in the Antarctic dry valleys and interior of the continent where climate change effects are amplified and species diversity is much reduced compared to other soil ecosystems. Across these ice-free ecosystems, she and her colleagues showed the response of the dominant animals, soil nematodes, to climate change through manipulative experiments, long term observations and past climate events. This knowledge on habitat preference and response of animal species can be used to help predict how species and ecosystems might respond to climate change.