Science Club Events - 17 February 2014

Science Club Events - Lent 2014
17 February 2014 - 1pm - Zoology Museum (W129)

Frills and Spills: 

The interplay of body size and shape with oxygen in aquatic organisms

Dr. Andrew Hirst

(Queen Mary University of London, UK)

Moon Jellyfish (Aurelia aurita). From: http://life-sea.blogspot.co.uk

The marine environment, especially the marine pelagic ecosystem, plays a profound role in determining the characteristics of our biosphere and hence is of primary importance to humankind. The zooplankton is one of key groups of organisms in the pelagic environment. However, as our speaker will show, Dr. Andrew Hirst from Queen Mary University London, research on this group of organisms is not only of practical relevance, it offers also exciting opportunities to test fundamental theories in ecology! 

Abstract

In this talk we use aquatic organism to test major ecological theories. Firstly, most ectothermic species mature at a smaller size when reared at warmer temperatures. This phenotypic plastic response is termed the Temperature-Size Rule (TSR). The TSR is near universal, yet ultimate causes for it have remained elusive. We test whether oxygen supply is a major driver by looking across environments that differ radically in this respect. 

We find that differences between terrestrial, freshwater and marine taxa support the oxygen-hypothesis; maturing at a smaller size as temperature increases is an effective way to balance supply and demand constraints. 

In the second part of the talk we test the major theories of metabolic scaling, those based on limits set by the body exchange surfaces, versus those based on internal distribution networks (e.g. the Metabolic Theory of Ecology). Many pelagic invertebrates change shape radically during ontogeny, which allows us to test divergent properties of these theories. 

Our results show that shape change closely relates to the intra-specific metabolic scaling in pelagic taxa, and supports the surface-area dependent theory of metabolism.

Recent papers:

Kiørboe T, Hirst AG. (in press)  Shifts in mass-scaling of respiration, feeding, and growth rates across life-form transitions in marine pelagic animals. The American Naturalist

Hirst AG, Forster J (2013) When growth models are not universal: evidence from marine invertebrates. Proceedings of the Royal Society B 280: 20131546. http://dx.doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2013.1546

See you at the Zoology Museum - 1pm - everyone is welcome!

Biosciences Seminar Speaker - 13 February 2014

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

(University of Zurich, CH)

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. 

Everyone is welcome - 1pm in the Zoology Museum!

Science Club Events - 07 February 2014

Science Club Events - Lent 2014

07 February 2014 - 1pm - Zoology Museum (W129)

Discussion on 

"Evolutionary Ecology or 

Ecology and Evolution?"

From: http://ecoevoevoeco.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/normal-0-false-false-false.html

 Are new concepts driving the integration of Ecology and Evolution? What are the possibilities for developing EcoEvo collaborations at Biosciences?

led by Dr. Sonia Consuegra 

(Swansea University, UK)

Apparently, if you type into Google the search term 'why is evolution so', the first result you get is:

1. slow

(see here the post by Jeremy Fox on the Dynamic ecology blog). In fact there has been a long-standing view that evolutionary processes occur on time scales which are too long to be of interest for ecologists. In the last decades, however, there has been an incerasing recognition that evolution can hapen, and be inlfuential, also on short, ecologically relevant timescales. For example, using again Google for 'Evolutionary Ecology' results in a flurry of dedicated journals and books, e.g.:

It may then come as a surprise when research in this area is judged as "too evolutionary in the subject area and lacking sufficient direct connections to (study of) general topics in ecology.” What are your opinions? Are you interested in this topic? Come and discuss with Sonia.

Sonia is a new lecturer here at Biosciences, working on Evolutionary Ecology, Conservation Genetics and Molecular Ecology, especially in fishes. She will give a brief introduction into the field, with the aim to start a discussion among us and explore possibilities for new collaborations among interested researchers. Specifically:

“The relationship between Ecology and Evolution is both intimate and fundamental, yet the field of Evolutionary Ecology is not a strong or obvious focus of research activity.”

This is the first sentence of John Endler’s introduction to the journal Evolutionary Ecology (Springer). Yet, over the last decade or so there has been a surge of new concepts (e.g. Community genetics/genomics, Eco-evolutionary dynamics, Ecological genomics) and journals (e.g. Ecology and Evolution, Evolutionary Ecology Research, Molecular Ecology) that seek to emphasize the interaction between both fields. I would like to start a discussion on whether these are really new concepts, what has been the role of new molecular and analytical techniques (e.g. next generation sequencing, implementation of Bayesian & ML techniques in molecular studies) in making easier (or more obvious) the integration of Ecology and Evolution, and finally to explore possibilities for developing EcoEvo collaborations at Biosciences. 

Some references can be found here:

Rowntree et al. (2011a)

Rowntree et al. (2011b)

Thuiller et al. (2013)

Pavey et al. (2012)

Mitchell-Olds et al. (2008)

Hope to see many of you! And for the overly dedicated among you, even more background literature (click links for the pdf):

Thompson (1998) Rapid evolution as an ecological process. Tree 13(8)

Andrew et al. (2013) A road map for Molecular Ecology. Mol. Ecol. 22.

Pianka (2011) Evolutionary Ecology. 7th ed.

Biosciences Seminar Speaker - 30 January 2014

Biosciences Seminar Series - Lent 2014
30 January 2014 - 1pm - Zoology Museum (Wallace 129)

Myth and Mystery of Mid-water Methane

Prof. Kam Tang

(Swansea University, UK)

Source: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/8437703.stm

Given the current concerns about Global Warming, you might well have heard about greenhouse gases and the greenhouse effect. Basically, there are certain gases in the atmosphere, such as CO2 or water vapour, which absorb and emit radiation in the thermal infrared range, thereby causing the retention of a large amount of solar radiation, which otherwise would be reflected back into the space. This is called the greenhouse effect and a large part of Earth would be frozen without this process.

Source: www.columbia.edu

Since the Industrial Revolution, however, the atmospheric concentration of the greenhouse gases has risen drammatically, with obvious consequences for the current Global Warming. For example, one of the most potent greenhouse gases is methane (CH4) and the current concentration in the atmosphere is 2.5 times higher than in pre-industrial times: 

Source: www.eea.europa.eu     

There are various sources that contribute to the produciton and release of methane into the atmosphere, including methane gas released by dairy cows (e.g. see here) Crucially, we lack a good understanding of the global methane cycle, especially in the aquatic environment.

Our seminar speaker of this week, Prof. Kam Tang, dedicates his research to fill this gap. He is interested in understanding the mechanisms of microbial and planktonic processes, which form the basis of acquatic ecosystems, and their consequences for geochemical processes. Kam previously was based in the US and very recently joined us at the Department of Biosciences at Swansea University. Hence we are delighted to open our Lent seminar series with the first talk by Kam! And to give you more detail, here is the abstract of his talk:

Abstract

Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that is naturally produced by microorganisms. The prevalent view is that microbial methane production can happen only under anoxic condition. Paradoxically, methane oversaturation has been observed in well-oxygenated lake and ocean water columns around the world. 

In this seminar I will present some of the work we did in German lakes that addresses this ‘Methane Paradox’. Using a combination of field sampling, incubation experiments, and modeling, we show that the recurring mid-water methane peak in Lake Stechlin, northeast Germany, was not dependent on methane input from the littoral zone or bottom sediment or on the presence of known micro-anoxic zones. 

Source: http://s3.sci.hr/2013/BioMAR/biomar.html

The methane peak repeatedly overlapped with oxygen oversaturation in the seasonal thermocline. Incubation experiments and isotope analysis indicated active methane production, which was likely linked to photosynthesis and/or nitrogen fixation, whereas photoinhibition of methane oxidation allowed accumulation of methane in the oxygen-rich upper layer. 

Mid-water methane oversaturation was also observed in nine other lakes that collectively showed a strongly negative gradient of methane concentration within 0–20% dissolved oxygen (DO) in the bottom water, and a positive gradient within ≥ 20% DO in the upper water column. Further investigation into the responsible organisms and biochemical pathways will help improve our understanding of the global methane cycle. 

Looking forward to welcome you to our new Lent term seminar series - everyone is welcome!

Biosciences Seminar Speaker - 19 December 2013

Biosciences Seminar Series - Michaelmas 2013
19 December 2013 - 4pm - Zoology Museum (Wallace 129)

(note change of time!)

Biological Management 

of Aquatic Systems

Dr. Marc Verdegem

(Wageningen University, Netherlands)

From: www.aqua.stir.ac.uk

What a better way to end in style a successful seminar series than .. with an additional surprise seminar?! Dr. Marc Verdegem from the  Aquaculture & Fisheries Group at Wageningen University (Netherlands) will be visiting our department this week and will present us his work on Thursday afternoon. 

And it's not finished here - given the time of year, Christmas mince pies & refreshments will be offered, too! Thanks to CSAR for this.

From: www.bbcgoodfood.com

But back to the talk. Do you know which is the most rapidly growing food industry in the world? No, no tractors involved, it is aquaculture! 

From: Wikipedia.com

Given the rapidly depleting fish stocks in the oceans due to overfishing (e.g. see here and here) many hopes had been put into aquaculture to guarantee food security at a reduced environmental impact. Not everything worked out as expected, however, as aquaculture has created novel problems, or sometimes even exacerbated the problems of traditional fisheries (e.g. see here). 

Given that globally human population is not only increasing, but also becoming more carnivorous (see here and here), good sustainable solutions are urgently needed. Marc's research is dedicated to finding novel solutions for sustainable aquaculture production systems and during his talks he will present us the current state of the field and present the questions that will need to be addressed:

Abstract:

The contribution of aquatic foods to world protein supply is growing. Predictions are that seafood and chicken, will become the most important 'meat' commodities by mid century. The danger is however, that aquaculture will develop into a large scale non-sustainable bio-industry.

Polish fisherman pull a net from the Milickie Ponds during the traditional Carp haul in Grabownica village, south-west Poland. From: http://www.theguardian.com/news/2013/oct/08/today-in-photography

Presently, aquaculture products are mainly produced in ponds, and will be so in the future. Ponds are like grasslands, providing natural foods. The productive basis of ponds is explored, and compared to the present practice of external feed driven aquaculture. The latter uses the pond as a 'holding tank', relying on externally produced foods and counting on the environment to process wastes. 

The grassland concept was abandoned. Today's practice is linked to problems, including pollution, diseases, low product quality and consumer risks. Are there ways to reverse ongoing trends, and if so, what are important research questions to take up?

Everyone is welcome, as usual. And don't forget - there will be also Christmas mince pies & refreshments :-)

Science Club Events - 13 December 2013

Biosciences Science Club Events - Michaelmas 2013
13 December 2013 - 1pm - Zoology Museum (Wallace 129)

Linking behavioural, physiological and demographic responses to climate change

 

Tina Cornioley

(University of Zurich, Switzerland)

Downloaded from: http://www.popecol.org/research/sea-bird-life-history/

This week we have a visitor from the University of Zurich working on the demography of the wandering albatross. Tina recently started her PhD and her project is a collaboration between the lab of Arpat Ozgul in Zurich, the Jenouvrier lab at Woods Hole, Henri Weimerskirch's group at Chize in France (who has been studying these birds since many decades) and (ahem) my lab here at Swansea. 

What Tina would like to do is present her project, aimed at developing a trait-based demographic model linking environmental change to individual demographic responses, and discuss her ideas for modelling the movement data (results from the latter will then be included as one of the traits in the demographic model).

We are all excited about this project, as studies linking explicitly individual state, movement behaviour, environmental change, and demographic responses are rare. This means, however, that Tina will have to develop several novel ways to use her data and hence any feedback will be most welcome. 

Hope to see many of you today at 1pm! And for the exceedingly curious ones among you, here a bit more info:

Photo by Kimball Chen

There is an increasing body of evidence highlighting ecological alterations induced by climate change across the globe. Last year, Henri Weimerskirch and his colleagues showed that the wandering albatross (Diomedea exulans), a wide-ranging Sub-Antarctic seabird responded behaviourally, physiologically and demographically to changing wind patterns. This bird, which takes advantage of winds to reduce the flying cost, benefited from stronger winds and could cover more distance during foraging trips. Consequently, individuals increased in mass and had a higher reproductive success. 

Taking into consideration the potential changes in the environment is crucial to efficiently manage wild populations. Changes in the environment can be linked to demographic rates using behavioural and physiological traits as state variables. Using a trait-based model, we aim to investigate the effects of changes in foraging patterns and physiology, whether directly or indirectly induced by environmental changes, on the population dynamics of the wandering albatross. 

Quantifying movement and foraging patterns as a trait adds a new dimension to the existing trait-based modelling approaches. This model will enable us to (1) determine the most critical life history processes or pathways governing the population  persistence,  and  (2)  predict  population,  behavioural  and  phenotypic dynamics  under alternative climate change scenarios.

Obviously, I cannot resist from posting a David Attenborough video ...

... but have to confess that the first video that still springs to my mind about albatross flight is another one ;-) 

See you at the Zoology Museum!

Biosciences Seminar Speaker - 05 December 2013

Biosciences Seminar Series - Michaelmas 2013
05 December 2013 - 1pm - Zoology Museum (Wallace 129)

Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity In Changing Terrestrial Systems:

 Towards a global model of local biodiversity

Prof. Andy Purvis 

(Natural History Museum, UK)

Tree of life by Leonard Eisenberg, 2008

“It is an incalculable added pleasure...to 

know, even slightly and imperfectly, how to 

read and enjoy the wonder-book of nature.”

                                 – Theodore Roosevelt

Humans have marvelled at the diversity of life probably since ever and understanding how the diversity of life has evolved is arguably the most fundamental question in biology. However, on the 100th anniversary of the death of Alfred Russel Wallace, the Welsh naturalist who conceived the theory of evolution by natural selection (independently and at the same time as Charles Darwin, e.g. see here), it is increasingly clear that biodiversity is declining globally at a fast pace, maybe on the path to reach the rate of past mass extinctions (see here or here).

Downloaded from http://www.peer.eu/

This process may not be irreversible and an increasing number of successful conservation projects is reported (e.g. see 'Wild Hopes' and also here). A key question to address then is how to predict biodiversity dynamics under environmental change and this will be the topic addressed by our seminar speaker of this week, Prof. Andy Purvis from the Natural History Museum in London.

Andy has a broad interest in biodiversity science, ranging from changes in the diversity of planktonic foraminifera during the transition to the last ice age to the evolution and biogeography of passerine birds in the Indo-Pacific to how to predict local biodiversity responses to human-induced environmental change. The latter question is addressed by the PREDICTS project and will be the subject of this week's talk: 

Abstract:

Biodiversity underpins many ecosystem services on which human wellbeing largely depends, but a range of indicators show that biodiversity is continuing to decline. What about the future? The design of biodiversity indicators means that they cannot readily be projected into the future, whereas currently-available projections have a very limited evidence base. 

www.predicts.org.uk

The PREDICTS collaboration aims to provide a sounder basis for global projections of how local terrestrial biodiversity will change under scenarios of anthropogenic impacts, by pooling data sets from hundreds of studies of many different taxa from all around the world. I will explain the design of PREDICTS, give an overview of the first 1.2 million data points, and present results of two ongoing analyses. 

www.predicts.org.uk

The first is an all-encompassing analysis of how multiple facets of biodiversity are responding to land use change and intensification, with projections of the response to 2050 under scenarios developed by IPCC; the second looks in more detail at a group with particular economic importance - European bees - and asks how important species' functional traits are in determining how bees respond to agricultural change.

Downloaded from www.delhigreens.com

Related papers:

Tim Newbold, Drew W. Purves, Jörn P. W. Scharlemann, Georgina Mace and Andy Purvis (2013). PREDICTS: Projecting Responses of Ecological Diversity in Changing Terrestrial Systems. Front. Biogeogr. vol: 4 no: 4 p: 155-156.

Tim Newbold, Jörn P. W. Scharlemann , Stuart H. M. Butchart, Çağan H. Şekercioğlu, Rob Alkemade, Hollie Booth and Drew W. Purves (2013) Ecological traits affect the response of tropical forest bird species to land-use intensity. Proc. R. Soc. B vol: 280 no: 1750. DOI: 10.1098/rspb.2012.2131 

Cornelissen JHC, et al., 2013, Functional traits, the phylogeny of function, and ecosystem service vulnerability, ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION, Vol:3, ISSN:2045-7758, Pages:2958-2975.

See you this Thursday - everyone is welcome!