Jelena Prtorić

Residency project

Predicting biodiversity changes and communicating uncertainty around it

My background is in investigative journalism, where scientists have often shaped my work beyond serving as sources, by pointing to overlooked research, contributing to analysis, or verifying or collaborating on methodologies used in stories. My work has also focused mainly on climate and environmental topics, and iDiv has been on my radar for a long time as one of the main sources of knowledge for all topics concerning biodiversity.

A central focus of my stay is to understand how researchers not just measure biodiversity change, but also work on predicting the changes and impacts still to come. More importantly, I want to work on developing methods to communicate about the research whose findings are inherently uncertain, without losing public engagement. I want to reflect on how we can report on projections without them seeming speculative, and why uncertainty is essential to credible conclusions. Finally, I also want to continue building practical frameworks for collaboration between journalists and scientists, and to identify future stories along the way.