Wallace Coffee Talks - 18 June 2019

Wallace Coffee Talks - Spring 2019 

18 June - 1pm - Zoology Museum

Ashleigh Harper (Swansea University, UK)

Wildfires: Relearning to live with them, a British perspective

Wildfire is an integral part of the Earth system and has been for over 350 million years. It is a natural process and vital to many of the world’s ecosystems for rejuvenating vegetation, initiating seed dispersal and germination, clearing ground debris and maintaining biodiversity. As a result of climate change and human activities wildfires have been introduced to historically non-fire-adapted ecosystems causing the ‘wildfire problem’ we are currently experiencing. What does this mean for Britain and how can we relearn to live with fire?

Baptiste Garde (Swansea University, UK)

How do landscape and weather affect flight costs?

Flight is one of the most energetically costly of bird activities, and the extent to which birds modulate their decisions to minimise their energy expenditure in flight remains an active area of research. The goal of my PhD is to understand how flight costs are affected by the environment, especially the interaction between weather and landscape, and how birds respond to these effects. Behavioural responses may range from birds selecting flight paths that do not vary with flow conditions (instead reflecting a response to other factors), to birds modulating their flight trajectories, speed and flight mode (flapping versus soaring) in order to reduce costs. 

During my first year, I worked on finding a method to quantify energy expenditure in free flight with the help of accelerometery. I am now trying to understand the parameters that influence speed selection and the extent to which this behaviour relates to energy saving. This has been tested widely for flying animals, because the “power curve” leads to specific predictions about the flight speeds that animals should adopt in different scenarios. Nonetheless, this model is designed for level flight and does not explain the high variability in flight speeds often observed in powered flight. I equipped homing pigeons (Columba livia) with 1 Hz GPSs to examine the extent to which flapping birds vary their flight speed in relation to their climb rate and the influence of environmental factors on their flight altitude.

 

Biomath Colloquium 14/06/2019

BioMaths Colloquium Series - 2018/19

14 June 2019 - 3pm Zoology Museum

(Department of Biosciences, Singleton Park)

Shape effects on microscale swimmers

Prof Stuart Humphries

(School of Life Sciences, University of Lincoln)

Our BioMaths Colloquium Series continues for the spring term with a seminar by Prof Stuart Humphries, from the School of Life Sciences at the University of Lincoln.  Stuart is Professor of Evolutionary Biophysics and the founding director of the Lincoln Institute for Advanced Studies (LIAS) and his resarch focusses on comparative biomechanics, biophysics and biological fluid dynamics,




Abstract

Microbes in general, and bacteria in particular, exhibit great diversity in their shapes. However, while morphology is routinely linked to performance in multicellular organisms, there are almost no similar studies in bacteria. Our lab has been exploring the functional aspects of bacterial shape and I will highlight some recent studies using microfluidic experiments,  numerical modelling, and comparative phylogenetic methods to explore the links between cell shape and motility. I will show that lengthening of individual cells has profound influences on both a range of motility parameters and swimming-driven chemotactic behaviours that have implications for the ecology of these organisms. Our numerical models of bacterial cell shape show that a wide range of motile species are Pareto optimal due a trade-off between construction cost, swimming efficiency, and chemotactic ability. I will also provide insight into the evolution of prokaryote morphology and reconstruction of the phenotype of the Last Universal Common Ancestor.

The discussions will continue over tea and coffee after the seminar. 

Hope to see many of you!

For the list of forthcoming seminars, see here

Biosciences Seminar Speaker 05 June 2019

Biosciences Seminar Series - Spring 2019
05 June 2019 - 3pm - Zoology Museum

Toward a Periodic Table of Niches, or Exploring the Lizard Niche Hypervolume

Prof Eric Pianka

(University of Texas at Austin, USA)

Our Biosciences Seminar Series terminates for the 2019 spring term with a talk by Prof Eric Pianka from the University of Texas at Austin, USA. Eric is the Denton A. Cooley Centennial Professor of Zoology at UT Austins. He is an evolutiionary ecologist and a world authority on the ecology, biology and evolution of lizards. He has done the most comprehensive surveys of lizard assemblages carried out anywhere in the world, which forms the basis of major ecological work.

Abstract

Widespread niche convergence suggests that species can be organized according to functional trait combinations to create a framework analogous to a periodic table. We compiled ecological data for lizards to examine patterns of global and regional niche diversification, and we used multivariate statistical approaches to develop the beginnings for a periodic table of niches. Data (50+ variables) for five major niche dimensions (habitat, diet, life history, metabolism, defense) were compiled for 134 species of lizards representing 24 of the 38 extant families. Principal coordinates analyses were performed on niche dimensional data sets, and species scores for the first three axes were used as input for a principal components analysis to ordinate species in continuous niche space and for a regression tree analysis to separate species into discrete niche categories. Three-dimensional models facilitate exploration of species positions in relation to major gradients within the niche hypervolume. The first gradient loads on body size, foraging mode, and clutch size. The second was influenced by metabolism and terrestrial versus arboreal microhabitat. The third was influenced by activity time, life history, and diet. Natural dichotomies are activity time, foraging mode, parity mode, and habitat. Regression tree analysis identified 103 cases of extreme niche conservatism within clades and 100 convergences between clades. Extending this approach to other taxa should lead to a wider understanding of niche evolution.

  

Hope to see many of you - everyone most welcome to attend!


For the list of forthcoming seminars see here

Wallace Coffee Talks - 28 May 2019

Wallace Coffee Talks - Spring 2019 

28 May - 12pm - Zoology Museum

Emma Quinn (Swansea University, UK)

The invasive Slipper limpet Crepidula fornicata in South Wales

The invasive non-native species Crepidula fornicata was first introduced to European coastal waters at the end of the 19th Century. It is now found in large numbers in most oyster production areas in England and Wales, and has been implicated to have major negative impacts on native bivalves. The vast majority of studies carried out on C. fornicata have focused on its potential impacts through habitat alteration and trophic competition. Little work has been carried out to gain an understanding of its biochemistry and its potential as a harbourer of infectious disease that could be of detrimental effect to important shellfish species. The aim of my PhD is to help bridge this knowledge gap and to gain a further insight into this non-native species. 

@QEmma93

Bethan Kultschar (Swansea University, UK)

Metabolite profiling of a robust cyanobacterium for industrial biotechnology

Cyanobacteria are gram negative bacteria with the ability to photosynthesise, they are able to thrive in a wide variety of extreme habitats such as high ultraviolet radiation (UVR) and have many defence strategies to overcome this stress including the production of secondary metabolites. Metabolomics can be used to investigate this altered metabolism via targeted and untargeted techniques. Some metabolites produced under stress conditions are unique and are of increasing interest from a biotechnological perspective as sustainable sources of ingredients in a variety of industries. In this talk I will give a brief overview of my PhD with a focus on the changes in metabolite levels produced by Chlorogloeopsis fritschii, PCC 6912, during UV exposure and the work conducted at my 3-month placement at Unilever last summer. 

@Beth_Kultschar 

Biosciences Science Club Series 23 May 2019

Biosciences Science Club Series - Spring 2019
23 May 2019 - 1pm - Zoology Museum

Microalgae Growth on Anaerobic Digestate in Raceway Systems

Hande Ermiş

(Istanbul Technical University, Turkey)

Join us for a seminar by our visitor Hande Ermiş, PhD student at the Department of Environmental Engineering at  Istanbul Technical University (Turkey). Hande is visiting our ALG-AD group and she is interested in algal pigments and the use of micro-algae for bioenergy production.

Abstract

Anaerobic digestion is one of the most common methods used to generate energy from renewable sources. On the contrary of the benefit of the use of anaerobic liquid digestate effluent, like soil conditioning in agriculture while reducing the cost of the logistics; the characteristics of the digestion effluent can cause phytotoxic effects in plants, eutrophication of water bodies and groundwater pollution, due to the high concentrations of ammonia and phosphorus in the anaerobic liquid digestate. Therefore, the application to agricultural land without treatment may constitute a risk, thus solutions for targeting both reducing adverse effects and increasing product values by valorization should be followed. Microalgae is one of the promising candidate to recover nutrients from anaerobic liquid digestate by assimilating nitrogen and phosphate into their biomass. The results clearly indicate that anaerobic digestate can be used as a nutrient-rich cultivation medium for microalgae with high growth rates despite the fact that liquid digestate is not the ideal growth media for microalgae due to its high ammonia content, dark color, and particulate matter. In this talk, I would like to demonstrate that coupling of microalgae growth with liquid digestate treatment is an economical and ecologically friendly technology for cheap biomass production for further valuable applications in open raceway systems.

Hope to see many of you - everyone most welcome to attend!


For the list of forthcoming seminars see here

Biomath Colloquium 17/05/2019

BioMaths Colloquium Series - 2018/19

17 May 2019 - 3pm Zoology Museum

(Department of Biosciences, Singleton Park)

Eco-evolutionary assembly in meta-communities

Dr Miguel Lurgi Rivera

(Department of Biosciences, Swansea University)

from Wallace, Lurgi et al. (2016)

Our BioMaths Colloquium Series continues for the spring term with a seminar by Dr Miguel Lurgi Rivera, from the Department of Biosciences at Swansea University.  Miguel is a theoretical ecologist and lecturer in Biosciences as well as a computer engineer,  broadly interested in community and evolutionary ecology. He is in particular interested in eco-evolutionary mechanisms involved in the assembly of complex ecological networks in meta-community contexts, using empirical data from real complex communities to test theoretical predictions.



Abstract

Understanding the drivers of community assembly poses a great challenge for community ecologists. Ever since Jared Diamond proposed rules for community assembly back in 1975, ecologists have searched for mechanisms behind these rules. Even before then, prominent ecologists such as MacArthur and Elton had realised that ecological interactions played a major role in determining the fate of communities. This research gained momentum during the last 70’s and 80’s, which ended up providing the foundations for what we now know as food web theory and ecological networks. One lesson learned is that the structure of biotic interaction networks can tell us a great deal about the stability and functioning of ecosystems. This structure is hence a major driver of community assembly. We also know that other factors, such as evolution and spatial context, can contribute to shape the communities we see. In this talk, I will combine ecological networks, meta-communities, and evolution via selection to create a modelling framework to better understand the role of ecological and evolutionary mechanisms -and their interplay- in the dynamics of community assembly.

The discussions will continue over tea and coffee after the seminar. 

Hope to see many of you!

For the list of forthcoming seminars, see here

Biosciences Seminar Speaker 16 May 2019

Biosciences Seminar Series - Spring 2019
16 May 2019 - 1pm - Zoology Museum

Methods for modeling among-animal variability in habitat selection studies

Dr John Fieberg

(University of Minnesota, USA)

Photo by Jayne Gallery

Our Biosciences Seminar Series continues for the spring term with a talk by Dr John Fieberg from our College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences - CFANS at the University of Minnesota. John is an Associate Professor of Quantitative Ecology and McKnight Presidential Fellow. He is a Biostatistician and Biomathematician, broadly interested in the application of statistical and mathematical models to problems in ecology and natural resource management. A special focus concerns the analysis of wildlife telemetry data, with application to survival, home range, and habitat selection modelling.

Abstract

Understanding the causes and consequences of among-animal variation in habitat selection is key to addressing many fundamental questions in ecology and evolution. Popular conceptual frameworks used to study habitat selection include resource selection functions (RSFs) and step-selection functions (SSFs) estimated using logistic and conditional logistic regression, respectively. Both frameworks compare environmental covariates associated with locations that animals visit with environmental covariates at a set of locations assumed available to the animal. Conceptually, hierarchical models with animal-specific coefficients could be used to accommodate inter-individual heterogeneity when fitting RSFs or SSFs. A review of the literature suggests, however, that RSFs rarely include animal-specific selection coefficients. Further, straightforward and efficient one-step procedures for fitting SSFs with animal-specific coefficients have until now been lacking. 

We demonstrate simple methods for exploring among-animal variability in habitat selection parameters using models fit to individual animals. We also describe recent research showing how generalized linear mixed effects models, available in most statistical software packages, can be modified to fit hierarchical RSFs and SSFs in a single step. Together, these examples highlight the benefits of having multiple tools in the toolbox, including simple methods for exploratory data analysis and more sophisticated and comprehensive methods for modeling individual and population-level habitat-selection patterns. 

  

Hope to see many of you - everyone most welcome to attend!


For the list of forthcoming seminars see here