Finding hope for biodiversity (and ourselves) on a changing planet
Over millions of years, evolution has shaped the tree of life on planet Earth. Now, in our own lifetimes, we are forced to reckon with the impacts of our own species on the natural world. Biologists are uniquely poised not only to study and appreciate other
Finding hope for biodiversity (and ourselves) on a changing planet
Over millions of years, evolution has shaped the tree of life on planet Earth. Now, in our own lifetimes, we are forced to reckon with the impacts of our own species on the natural world. Biologists are uniquely poised not only to study and appreciate other species, but also to contribute to a (r)evolution in our own. In this talk, I will offer a perspective on why it is such an interesting and important time to be a biologist. I will share insights from my two longest standing research projects (focused on speciation in reptiles and extinction in amphibians). I will also discuss how we can prioritize our own evolution as individuals, scientists, and global citizens to meet this period of rapid change
Erica Bree Rosenblum is a herpetologist and evolutionary biologist. She is a Professor of Global Change Biology in the department of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California Berkeley.
On the evolution of predaceous beetles
Beetles are the largest group of animals on Earth with close to half a million described species. Their species richness is only matched by their remarkable diversity of shapes, colors, behaviors and ecologies. Yet, until now, their evolutionary history has been hampered by a lack
On the evolution of predaceous beetles
Beetles are the largest group of animals on Earth with close to half a million described species. Their species richness is only matched by their remarkable diversity of shapes, colors, behaviors and ecologies. Yet, until now, their evolutionary history has been hampered by a lack of resolution in their tree of life. From earlier molecular studies to recent advances in the -omics era, the use of DNA permits to shed light on the drivers governing the incredible diversity of beetles. Among those, Adephaga predaceous beetles (ca. 10% of beetles) display a wide array of specialized morphological features, intricate geographic patterns and unique ecologies. This presentation offers to delve into the world of these predaceous beetles and investigate their evolutionary history.
Emmanuel Toussaint is the curator for Coleoptera, Diptera and Lepidoptera at the Natural History Museum of Geneva. His research focuses on systematics, phylogenomics and evolution of beetles and butterflies.
Behaviour and disease in insect societies
Group-living is a widespread strategy that comes with particular costs and benefits. For example, it allows for division of labour, which is thought to increase group efficiency, but it also increases the risk of disease outbreaks. Here, I will describe recent work on the emergence and
Behaviour and disease in insect societies
Group-living is a widespread strategy that comes with particular costs and benefits. For example, it allows for division of labour, which is thought to increase group efficiency, but it also increases the risk of disease outbreaks. Here, I will describe recent work on the emergence and regulation of division of labour, as well as ongoing work on the link between social organisation and infection dynamics in an experimentally accessible social insect, the clonal raider ant Ooceraea biroi.
Yuko Ulrich is an evolutionary ecologist and has helped establish the clonal raider ant as a model for the study of social and collective behavior. She is a Principal Investigator at the Max Planck Institute for Chemical Ecology.
Heed the herbivores! Selection for individual and population chemodiversity in Solanum dulcamara
Bittersweet nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) plants produce a large variety of steroidal glycoalkaloids
(SGAs). Minor chemical differences, in particular the presence (unsaturated SGA) or absence (saturated
SGAs) of a double bond in
Heed the herbivores! Selection for individual and population chemodiversity in Solanum dulcamara
Bittersweet nightshade (Solanum dulcamara) plants produce a large variety of steroidal glycoalkaloids
(SGAs). Minor chemical differences, in particular the presence (unsaturated SGA) or absence (saturated
SGAs) of a double bond in the structure, are associated with differences in resistance to herbivores and
pathogens. In a common garden experiment, we manipulated the frequencies of two different S.
dulcamara chemotypes to create different levels of plot chemodiversity. We found that both fruit and
seed production as well as herbivore damage were affected by individual and plot diversity level. This
suggest that herbivores as well as herbivore community composition may maintain chemodiversity as
observed natural S. dulcamara populations.
Nicole van Dam is the director
director of the Leibniz Institute of Vegetable and Ornamental Crops (IGZ), her research group is called Plant Biotic Interactions. She focuses on interactions between aboveground and belowground herbivores via induced plant responses, using metabolomic and transcriptomic approaches as well as manipulative experiments.
(Darwin speaker)
A very personal (non)random walk through the rise and fall of Behavioral Ecology
Scientific (sub)disciplines wax and wane, and with them individual researchers and authors. Why, and how, does this happen? Have the grand questions truly been resolved, or are scientists and the world simply losing interest,
(Darwin speaker)
A very personal (non)random walk through the rise and fall of Behavioral Ecology
Scientific (sub)disciplines wax and wane, and with them individual researchers and authors. Why, and how, does this happen? Have the grand questions truly been resolved, or are scientists and the world simply losing interest, perhaps for the wrong reasons? My personal career as a scientist was tightly linked to the rise and fall of the field of Behavioral (Evolutionary) Ecology, which, roughly 60 years after its foundation and with its heydays in the late 20th century, is now slowly withering. The re-invention or re-incarnation of the ‘biology’-conferences of the Swiss Zoological (and later also the Botanical, Mycological, Systematics) Societies is also very much connected to this field of research. A very personal historical look back may help assess the past vs. the (promised) future of scientific disciplines, academic publishing, and the changing role of academic societies
Wolf Blanckenhorn is an evolutionary ecologist at the University of Zürich. Research in his group mainly focuses on the evolution of animal life histories, body size and sexual dimorphism, and phenotypic plasticity, particularly in the context of thermal adaptation.
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