Biosciences Seminar Series - Lent 2014
13 February 2014 - 1pm - Zoology Museum (Wallace 129)
CARNIVORE SPATIAL ECOLOGY
A STUDY OF INTERSPECIFIC INTERACTIONS & POPULATION DEMOGRAPHY
Dr. Gabriele Cozzi
A great thank you to Dr. Gabriele Cozzi from the University of Zurich (Switzerland), who is currently visiting our lab, for agreeing to step in at the last minute to replace Prof. Adrian Thomas, who had to cancel due to the flooding and bad weather in Oxford.
Here the Abstract of the talk:
Understanding the factors that regulate species assembly and interactions within a community, and population demography, are major topics in ecology and the movement of individuals is a central element controlling and influencing such processes.
In the first part of the talk, we will use African wild dogs, spotted hyenas and lions as model system, to investigate spatio-temporal patterns of segregation and coexistence among sympatric and competing species. We shall see that the three species are characterized by a previously un-described and unexpectedly high degree of temporal overlap, thus suggesting that temporal partitioning only plays a limited role in promoting coexistence. Wild dogs, however, avoid areas characterized by a high likelihood of encountering lions; spatial segregation thus seems to be a central prerequisite to allow coexistence among these large carnivores.
In the second part, we will shift to an easier-to-handle species, the Kalahari meerkat, to investigate mechanisms and demographic consequences of dispersal in socially and spatially structured populations.
Here the Abstract of the talk:
Understanding the factors that regulate species assembly and interactions within a community, and population demography, are major topics in ecology and the movement of individuals is a central element controlling and influencing such processes. In the first part of the talk, we will use African wild dogs, spotted hyenas and lions as model system, to investigate spatio-temporal patterns of segregation and coexistence among sympatric and competing species. We shall see that the three species are characterized by a previously un-described and unexpectedly high degree of temporal overlap, thus suggesting that temporal partitioning only plays a limited role in promoting coexistence. Wild dogs, however, avoid areas characterized by a high likelihood of encountering lions; spatial segregation thus seems to be a central prerequisite to allow coexistence among these large carnivores.
In the second part, we will shift to an easier-to-handle species, the Kalahari meerkat, to investigate mechanisms and demographic consequences of dispersal in socially and spatially structured populations.
Everyone is welcome - 1pm in the Zoology Museum!
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