Biosciences Seminar Speaker 30 January 2020

Biosciences Seminar Series - Winter 2020
30 January 2020 - 1pm - Zoology Museum

Inferring macroevolutionary processes from phylogenies and fossils

Dr Daniele Silvestro

(University of Gothenburg, Sweden)

from: Rolland, Silvestro et al. (2018)

Our Biosciences Seminar Series resumes for the 2020 winter term with a talk by Dr Daniele Silvestro from the Department of Biological and Environmental Sciences at the University of Gothenburg. Daniele is a computational biologist, particularly interested in macroevolution, and broadly in Bayesian inference and stochastic processes.

Abstract

Present biodiversity represents a snapshot of a very long and complex evolutionary history, during which species and entire clades have originated, diversified and –to a large extent– gone extinct. Reliable estimates of the processes that have shaped diversity through time and in space are crucial to understanding present biodiversity patterns. Here, I present a suite of Bayesian models to infer different macroevolutionary processes including the dynamics of speciation, extinction and dispersal and the evolution of quantitative traits. These methods show that both phylogenies of extant taxa and the fossil record provide valuable information about past and present biodiversity, although their integration remains challenging. Finally, I will outline how artificial intelligence can help the development of an interdisciplinary approach interfacing earth sciences, palaeontology, and evolutionary biology to further improve our understanding of the processes driving the evolution of organisms and ecosystems.

   

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


For the list of forthcoming seminars see here

Wallace Coffee Talks - 07 January 2020

Wallace Coffee Talks - Winter 2020

07 January - 12pm - Zoology Museum

Fancy a cup of coffee or tea and learning more about the researchers at Swansea university? Come join us at the Wallace coffee talks: an informal seminar series where students, staff and others related to Swansea university speak about their research or personal interests.

Billy Moore

A coralline alga gains tolerance to ocean acidification over multiple generations of exposure 

Crustose coralline algae (CCA) play a crucial role in the building of reefs in the photic zones of nearshore ecosystems globally and are highly susceptible to ocean acidification. Yet the extent to which CCA can gain tolerance to ocean acidification over multiple generations of exposure is unknown. We show that while calcification of juvenile CCA is initially highly sensitive to ocean acidification, after 6 generations of exposure the effects of ocean acidification disappears. A reciprocal transplant experiment conducted on the 7th generation where half of all replicates were interchanged across treatments confirmed that they had acquired tolerance to low pH and not simply to laboratory conditions. Our results demonstrate that reef-accreting taxa can gain tolerance to ocean acidification over multiple generations of exposure, suggesting that some of these cosmopolitan species could maintain their critical ecological role in reef-formation.

Ed Pope

Maze learning and memory in a decapod crustacean 

Spatial learning is an ecologically important trait well studied in vertebrates and a few invertebrates yet poorly understood in crustaceans. Considering many decapod crustaceans play key roles in marine and freshwater ecosystems and live in complex, three-dimensional habitats, learning the location of, and routes to, resources should be an adaptive trait we can investigate in these animals using mazes. We investigated the ability of European shore crabs, Carcinus maenas, to learn a complex maze over four consecutive weeks using food as a motivator. Crabs showed steady improvement during this conditioning period in both the time taken to find the food and in the number of wrong turns taken. Crabs also clearly remembered the maze as when returned two weeks later but without any food, they all returned to the end of the maze in under eight minutes. Crabs that had not been conditioned to the maze (naïve animals) took far longer to reach the end and many did not venture to the end of the maze at all during the one-hour study period. This study provides an initial description of spatial learning in a benthic decapod.

@Ed_Pope

@maryhgagen

@1rossdavies

Wallace Coffee Talks - 10 December 2019

Wallace Coffee Talks - Autumn 2019 

10 December - 12pm - Zoology Museum

Fancy a cup of coffee or tea and learning more about the researchers at Swansea university? Come join us at the Wallace coffee talks: an informal seminar series where students, staff and others related to Swansea university speak about their research or personal interests.

Lloyd Hopkins & Emma Brisdion

For What It’s Earth: can podcasts encourage changes that last? 

Forest fires, pollution, over-consumption and climate change - it's hard not to feel down about the environmental outlook for the planet. Ever the optimist, my friend Emma pitched to me (Lloyd), the idea of a sustainability and environment podcast to raise awareness to a raft of issues whilst encouraging small, concerted lifestyle changes from the average person. Armed with a rough plan, a shoe-string budget and some microphones, we recently hit 17,000 total listens after less than a year. For both of us, this was our first real strike out into the world of science communication media. We'll be sharing how we got set up, our planning and recording process, the numerous lessons we learned and more. Discussion and ideas on science communication and outreach will be welcome and very much encouraged!

Twitter: @WhatEarthPod

Facebook: @forwhatitsearthpodcast

You can find the podcast on Apple, Spotify, Acast  and Podbean

Biosciences Seminar Speaker 05 December 2019

Biosciences Seminar Series - Autumn 2019
05 December 2019 - 1pm - Zoology Museum

The importance of life cycle assessment in system design and how this relates to research

Dr Trisha Toop

(Harper Adams University, UK)

Image by Dr Trisha Toop

Our Biosciences Seminar Series concludes for the 2019 autumn term with a talk by Dr Trisha Toop from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Harper Adams University. Trisha is currently the Academic Engineering Expert for the Agri Project at Harper Adams University. Her project focuses on addressing the barriers to innovation in the agri-tech/food sector, and more broadly in using life cycle assessment methods for research in ecology, agriculture, and natural resource management..

Abstract

It is essential to consider all aspects of sustainability when designing new and improving existing systems. Life cycle assessment (LCA) is a systematic approach that allows us to identify, measure, document and interpret the sustainability of a system. Initially developed for environmental assessment its scope is being broadened to include social and economic impacts also. This paper will explore how LCA can be used in research to report the sustainability of proposed systems. It will show how it has been used to identify areas for improvements in systems which were used as targets for research.
   

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


For the list of forthcoming seminars see here

Biomath Colloquium 29/11/2019

BioMaths Colloquium Series - 2019/20

  29 November 2019 - 3pm Zoology Museum

(Wallace Building, Singleton Campus)

Signal detection and spike sorting in noisy time series using higher criticism

Dr Farzad Fathi Zadeh

(Department of Mathematics, Swansea University) 

Image: Farzad Fathi Zadeh

Our BioMaths Colloquium Series resumes for the autumn term with a seminar by Dr Farzad Fathi Zadeh, from the Department of Mathematics at Swansea University.  Farzad is a Marie Curie - SER Cymru II Cofund Research Fellow in Mathematics at Swansea University & Guest Research Scientist at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics (Germany). Farzad works on time series analysis and signal detection, including applications to multidimensional neurobiological measurements, multiple hypothesis testing in large datasets, and applications of stochastic analysis and geometric and differential analysis methods to a wide variety of practical cases.


Abstract

I will talk about a novel and robust method based on making use of higher criticism for detecting signals and sorting peaks in electrophysiological measurements of neuronal activities, which are accompanied with considerable noise. The method relies solely on the intrinsic statistical properties of the data and avoids any preprocessing, which prevents the loss of any invaluable information. This is join work with E. Mitricheva, R. Kimura, N. K. Logothetis and
H. R. Noori.   

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 28 November 2019

Biosciences Seminar Series - Autumn 2019
28 November 2019 - 1pm - Zoology Museum

Unanticipated roles of consumers in mediating the functioning of marine ecosystems

Prof Matthew Bracken

(University of California, Irvine)

Image from NOAA.gov

Our Biosciences Seminar Series continues for the 2019 autumn term with a talk by Professor Matthew Bracken from the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of California, Irvine. Matthew is Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biodiversity and leads the Marine Biodiversity Lab. Research in his lab broadly investigates linkages between marine communities and ecosystems, using a large variety of interdisciplinary approaches. Current specific questions of interest include evaluating the causes and consequences of biodiversity change and quantifying the relative importance of consumers’ top-down and bottom-up effects on the growth and diversity of primary producers.

Abstract

Humans are altering the diversity of life on Earth and consequently altering how biological systems function. Large, mobile species – consumers – are at greatest risk of extinction, prompting the question: What are the consequences of the loss of consumers for the functioning of marine ecosystems. Whereas most work evaluating consumer impacts focuses on consumption, Prof. Bracken will present and discuss other functions that consumers provide in marine systems, including their roles in recycling nutrients and enhancing recruitment of algae. He will specifically address the roles of consumers in enhancing algal growth, describe experimental designs for partitioning consumptive and non-consumptive effects of grazers, discuss the importance of community composition, and describe insights gained from conducting these experiments in the field. Typical perspectives on interactions between grazers and algae focus on consumption by the herbivores, but herbivores can also benefit primary producers, and these positive effects can outweigh the negative effects.   

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


For the list of forthcoming seminars see here

Wallace Coffee Talks - 26 November 2019

Wallace Coffee Talks - Autumn 2019 

26 November - 1pm - Zoology Museum

Fancy a cup of coffee or tea and learning more about the researchers at Swansea university? Come join us at the Wallace coffee talks: an informal seminar series where students, staff and others related to Swansea university speak about their research or personal interests.

Rose Davies

Loving Leonardo: Dissolving The Boundaries…

About half a century ago, back in the 1960’s, some engineers and artists in the USA got together and started working on interdisciplinary projects that became known as SciArt. Then it all sort of fizzled out … Fast forward a quarter century to the UK in the mid ‘90s and SciArt resurfaced with the Wellcome Trust, which funded a decade of action research projects to see what happened when medical scientists and artists work together. It was good! Since then, there have been more and more scientific research projects across British universities that include an artist as part of the team.

There’s tons of science and technology in art! I use science and technology all the time! I get to use poison! And explosives! And don’t get me started on Leonardo da Vinci!

@RosieScribblah on twitter and instagram

Email: scribblah@hotmail.co.uk 

www.scribblah.co.uk

Deb Morgan

Thinking outside the box: Developing cross disciplinary research with older adults 

The benefits of regularly spending time in natural blue and green environments in terms of overall wellbeing is well documented. But what about when you can’t access those spaces? This talk will focus on how thinking outside the box and working across very diverse academic disciplines can bring potential solutions to these challenges, while enhancing our own academic research to help us better understand the synergies between the natural world and physical and mental health.

@Deborah08765276

Email: D.J.Morgan@swansea.ac.uk 

https://uk.linkedin.com/in/deborah-morgan-05799692