"Research is becoming increasingly data intensive and computation driven across various scientific domains from the social and life sciences all the way to particle physics. Many new scientific insights will likely emerge from vast stores of existing data, rather than from new data collection efforts. In addition, funder and journal mandates now require that researchers share at least the final datasets at the time of publication. rOpenSci is an effort to foster such data driven science among researchers that use R. Our suite of tools (http://ropensci.org/packages/) allow access to these data repositories through a statistical programming environment that is already a familiar part of the workflow of many scientists. Our tools not only facilitate drawing data into an environment where it can readily be manipulated, but also one in which those analyses and methods can be easily shared, replicated, and extended by other researchers. In this talk we highlight some our recent efforts in advancing open and transparent practices in the sciences."

Karthik Ram
Berkeley Institute for Data Science, UC Berkeley

Genetically-based variation in the functional traits of keystone species can influence the composition of the community within which those species are embedded. Similarly, local adaptation to biotic and abiotic environmental variation can drive population-level variation in such traits. We test the hypothesis that local adaptation of a keystone plant can lead to variation among populations in the community of associated arthropods. Studying a strong environmental cline along the California coast, we test for local adaptation in the perennial shrub Artemisia californica and its consequences for the more than 200 species of associated arthropods. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D6DhcVmCPKk

Kailen Mooney
UCI, University of California, Irvine

"- Joan Giménez Verdugo Título: Ecología espacial y trófica de los cetáceos del Golfo de Cádiz. Directores: Renaud de Stephanis y Manuela G. Forero Resumen: La península ibérica y en concreto las aguas andaluzas están reconocidas como lugares de gran importancia para diferentes especies de cetáceos debido a la gran diversidad y densidad de especies que habitan en ellas. A pesar de ello existe un vacío sobre la ecología trófica y espacial de los cetáceos que habitan en el Golfo de Cádiz. Los objetivos generales de la tesis son: (1) Conocer la abundancia y distribución espacio-temporal de los cetáceos en el Golfo de Cádiz, (2) Estudiar la competencia con las pesquerías locales y (3) Determinar qué medidas de conservación son las correctas para la comunidad de cetáceos del Golfo de Cádiz -Jose Mª Romero López Título: Cooperación y conflicto en hermanos de nidada de Cigüeña Blanca (Ciconia ciconia). Director: Dr. Tomás Redondo Nevado Resumen: El estudio profundiza en las interacciones padres-crías y en las causas que conducen al comportamiento cooperativo entre hermanos de nido de Cigüeña Blanca, en oposición al comportamiento abiertamente competitivo presente en la mayoría de especies de aves semialtriciales."

Joan Giménez Verdugo y José Mª Romero López
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Human landscape alterations and invasions by non-native species are one of the main causes of biodiversity loss. The predicted effect of indigenous species extinctions and exotic species colonisation is the increase of biotic homogenisation in human-altered landscapes. This process is accentuated on isolated oceanic islands where numerous empty niche opportunities are offered. To assess the role of exotic species in biotic homogenisation, we sampled epigean and canopy arthropod assemblages in four islands of the Azores archipelago. Habitats were selected across a disturbance gradient from native forests to most disturbed agricultural areas. We detected that exotic species promote assemblage homogenisation. Interestingly, such process was contingent on each island and habitat. We also analysed the degree of nestedness, which represents the extent of ordered loss/gain of species across environmental or ecological gradients. On the contrary, species can show segregation characterising their species replacement across such gradients. We detected that both exotic and indigenous species may show segregated patterns, indicating distinct local assemblages. Thus, exotic species also show habitat specialisation, not necessarily contributing to the homogenisation of regional fauna. We also detected that in most disturbed agricultural habitats, the species richness of both indigenous and exotic species was drastically reduced. However, only exotics showed low species richness in native forests, suggesting that native assemblages may have a degree of resistance to invasions in undisturbed habitats. Concluding, habitat disturbance seems to be a key factor structuring both epigean and canopy assemblages in the Azores archipelago.

Margarita Florencio
Estación Biológica de Doñana

One of the keys to the success of the field of phylogeography is its flexibility and ability to integrate information from different fields, although arguably so far it has been unable to successfully incorporate demographic data in the inference process. We aim to contribute to fill this gap through a combination of modeling, field- and molecular-based approaches conducted at different geographic and temporal scales. This is illustrated through the analysis of two co-distributed amphibian species (Pleurodeles waltl and Pelobates cultripes), including 1) local (pond-based) studies producing data on local abundance (effective / census population size ratio) and fine-scale movement patterns; 2) regional studies describing landscape-level patterns of gene flow; and 3) range-wide studies including species distribution modeling (past and present environmental favourability) and analyses of multilocus datasets. Our approach highlights the need for an organismal, integrative and iterative phylogeography, continuously testing and producing new hypotheses on the origins of biodiversity. We also emphasize the practical (conservation) applications of this approach, for instance for the establishment of programs of long-term genetic monitoring. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QjKUZoaoqhc

Iñigo Martínez Solano
Estación Biológica de Doñana

: La pérdida, fragmentación y aislamiento de los hábitats conducen a la disminución tanto de la diversidad de especies concretas como de sus funciones ecológicas, tal es el caso de la pérdida de polinizadores. Los polinizadores son fundamentales por los servicios ambientales que ofrecen, tanto para el mantenimiento de poblaciones vegetales como para la producción de frutos y semillas de consumo humano. La provincia es una de las mayores productoras de fresa mundial. Para mejorar el rendimiento de los cultivos, los agricultores colocan nidos comerciales de abejorros. En esta tesis queremos desenmarañar las posibles consecuencias ecológicas que podría tener dicho vertido de polinizadores. Por tanto, evaluaremos la abundancia de abejorros nativos y manejados en un gradiente de alteración del paisaje. Estudiaremos si la presencia de especies manejadas y la alteración del paisaje afecta a la carga de parásitos que portan los abejorros. Evaluaremos el vertido bidireccional de abejorros entre cultivos y hábitat semi-natural. Y por último, analizaremos como de eficaces son los polinizadores manejados y nativos en la producción de fresa.

Alejandro Trillo
Estación Biológica de Doñana

"La normativa actual sobre experimentación animal introduce relevantes cambios en los requisitos formales de control a los que se deben someter los proyectos y procedimientos en los que se utilicen animales vivos. Esta normativa contempla la necesidad de evaluación previa de los proyectos, de evaluación retrospectiva de los mismos en determinados casos, la obligatoriedad de clasificar los procedimientos en función de su grado de severidad, las exigencias de transparencia e información (RD 53/2013). Las distintas convocatorias de financiación de la investigación exigen que los proyectos que impliquen experimentación animal cumplan los requisitos establecidos por la legislación vigente, y que cuenten con la autorización pertinente antes del comienzo de la ejecución de los procedimientos. Este proceso de evaluación y autorización suele plantear numerosas dudas tanto a los investigadores como a los miembros de los Comités de Ética de los centros de investigación que deben informar sobre dichos proyectos. En este seminario se intentará resumir el estado actual de esta normativa en lo que se refiere a investigación con fauna salvaje y tratar de aclarar las dudas que los investigadores puedan tener al respect"

Tomás Redondo
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Australia has the largest population of feral horses (Equus ferus caballus) in the world, with some one million feral horses occupying the diverse and often remote Australian environments. Despite numerous concerns raised by government agencies, private landholders, and the general public on feral horse presence in the Australian ecosystems, there is lack of collective solutions on the management of this overabundant species. In this talk I focus on two studies from my PhD research that relate to measurement of the main vital parameters of the population of feral horses, which occupies a unique coniferous environment in Australia. I will first discuss a method for measuring reproduction and survivorship of the population. I show that estimation of these parameters could be used for modelling the annual population growth rate, which in turn could be used for long-term population management. I will then screen a documentary, which depicts for the first time the social organisation of feral horses in Australia in an attempt to understand the biology of the species and their relationship with the environment. With this work I demonstrate the value of understanding the ecology of feral animals and encourage future managers and government organisations to cooperate in the formulation of the appropriate feral horse management programs in Australia and elsewhere. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wt4Vwslk7zw

Magdalena Zabek
University of Queensland, Australia

Natural selection is the main mechanism to explain the diversity of living organisms. However, natural selection is limited in absence of environmental variation. Yet, our knowledge on how evolution works under different environmental circumstances is extremely limited in wild populations, because most of our understanding of how natural selection operates has been focused in studies based on single years and populations. In this talk, I will show how different sources of environmental variation like food abundance, parasites or climatic conditions influence the variance of the expression of sexual traits in long-term (Common kestrels – Falco tinnunculus) or multiple studied populations (Red grouse – Lagopus lagopus scoticus). Also, I am particularly interested on showing some preliminary analyses looking at first, the influence of environmental heterogeneity on both additive genetic variance and selection (i.e. microevolution) in common kestrels. Second, exploring the evolutionary potential of multiple populations and species to respond to environmental change by analysing evolutionary biology using bio-geographical tools. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeUH5O1c9h8

Jesús Martínez-Padilla
Estación Biológica de Doñana

This PhD Project is underway in the Conservation Biology Department, supervised by Dr. José L. Tella. We started working together in March 2014 in an investigation of the deterministic and stochastic effects that may be acting upon the dynamics of the remaining population of the endangered Lear’s Macaw, an endemic species from the Caatinga (Brazilian tropical dry forest), using a multidisciplinary approach with molecular tools, ecological modeling, stable isotope analysis and indices of breeding success. The entire population of the Lear’s Macaw is estimated at ca. 1200 birds, of which only 20% are breeders concentrated in two localities. This current population may be the outcome of a recent demographic increase from only approximately two hundred birds, estimated before the 2000s. Nesting and roosting sites are restricted to sandstone cliffs walls and the Licuri Palm fruit is supposedly their main food item. Our central hypothesis is that, if the population does not expand geographically, their continuous increase could result in the saturation of the environmental resources and generate negative density dependent effects. In this context, we aim to answer the following questions: Do breeding sites and food availability constrain the breeding success and the distribution of the Lear’s Macaw population? Is the genetic diversity of the current population constrained as a result of a genetic bottleneck? Is there sexual bias in the current population affecting the recruitment? Can the viability of the population be affect by any of these processes?

Erica Pacífico
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Mi proyecto de tesis propone un estudio multidisciplinar, mediante el cual a partir de aproximaciones observacionales, experimentales y teóricas, analizamos como las especies de vectores de parásitos de la malaria aviar (mosquitos y Culicoides) determinan la eficacia biológica de diferentes líneas genéticas de Plasmodium y Haemoproteus, la importancia que presenta la infección sobre el vector, la competencia vectorial y el rango de vectores de dichas líneas genéticas.

Rafael Gutiérrez
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Understanding the factors that govern species’ distributions is of utmost importance to predict potential range shifts triggered by climate change. Species' ranges are partially limited by their tolerances to extrinsic environmental conditions such as climate and habitat, and partially determined by species’ capacity to disperse, establish new populations, and proliferate, which are in turn dependent on species’ intrinsic life-history traits. Yet most forecasts of range shifts consider only climate and dispersal. In order to ask whether other factors should be considered, I (and my colleagues) investigated how range filling and range size of European plants, birds and mammals are determined by these factors. We found that traits related to ecological generalization, such as habitat breadth, were important for all groups of species. Dispersal and seed-banks that permit survival during unsuitable environmental conditions were highly important for plants, whereas fecundity-related traits were important for animal groups. We suggest that considering these traits would improve assessments of extinction vulnerability under climate change. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WylSnuGWKoU

Alba Estrada
Universidade de Évora

Puede ocurrir que se pierda la noción del carácter exótico de especies que se introdujeron hace mucho tiempo. Pareciera que cangrejos de río los hubiera habido en España de siempre, porque aquí estaban al menos desde antes de que naciera la persona más vieja que haya conocido la persona de más edad que viva hoy. Pero la revisión de la información generada desde diversas disciplinas muestra que una introducción desde Italia es la única explicación parsimoniosa para la presencia de Austropotamobius italicus (el “cangrejo autóctono”, tiene su gracia) en la península ibérica. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VlS2LiXqRes&t=9s

Miguel Clavero
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Failure to plan effectively for biodiversity conservation has led to irretrievable losses of ecosystem structure and function worldwide. In relatively intact systems, pro-actively plan for biodiversity conservation and for a sustainable use of natural resources is a must. The Boreal Avian Modelling (BAM) project and the Boreal Ecosystems Analysis for Conservation Networks (BEACONs) project provide models and tools for pro-active conservation and management of the largest remaining intact systems in the world, the Canadian boreal forest. Come and join Alberto Suarez-Esteban if you want to know more about these exciting initiatives

Alberto Suárez-Esteban
University of Alberta

Sexual selection (essentially the competition for mates) is traditionally studied in highly mobile organisms with complex behavioural repertoires, sophisticated visual systems, and obvious adaptations that function in the context of increasing reproductive fitness. It is far less obvious how sexual selection operates in organisms that are immobile (e.g. clamped to the seabed) and release gametes seemingly haphazardly into the external environment (i.e. sessile or sedentary external fertilizers). Indeed, Charles Darwin comically dismissed the possibility of sexual selection in such taxa in his original treatise of the topic, arguing that these organisms have ‘too low mental powers’ to be capable of the subtleties of mate choice and mating competition. The aim of this talk will be to convince you otherwise. I will summarise a series of playful experiments on mussels and sea urchins that led to the observation that these taxa exhibit sophisticated processes of sperm-egg interaction that ultimately facilitate sexual selection at the level of the gamete. Our work on these systems has revealed preliminary insights into the complex patterns of selection on ejaculates and tantalizing evidence that eggs release subtle variations in chemical signals that may facilitate the fusion of genetically compatible gametes. I’ll end the talk with some inevitable speculation on the mechanisms that might drive these processes, with the firm hope that someone far more qualified than me will put me on the right track.

Jonathan Evans
Centre for Evolutionary Biology, University of Western Australia

My research is centered on deciphering the ecology, behavior, and movement of organisms, particularly marine turtles. I use stable isotopes in my studies, as they are biogeochemical markers that reflect trophic interactions and geographic origin. First, I will focus on individual vs. population level resource use patterns of sea turtles. I examined the long-term foraging history that can be obtained from sea turtle scute (the hard keratin covering on the shell) to investigate temporal consistency and specialization in resource use of both loggerheads (Caretta caretta) and green turtles (Chelonia mydas). I found that individual specialization is primarily due to foraging site fidelity and that foraging area preferences can contribute to differential reproductive output in loggerhead turtles. Second, I will discuss the use of stable isotopes as a tool in tracking animal migration. In the case of terrestrial organisms, hydrogen and oxygen stable isotope values in precipitation vary predictably with environmental and climatological factors. These markers reflect environmental water at the site where the tissue was synthesized and retain a record of origin when an animal moves. I have investigated how the incorporation of spatio-temporal variation in generating precipitation isoscape models can improve the ability to make accurate assignments of geographic origin. Whereas precipitation isoscapes have been used extensively in terrestrial studies, there are no equivalent isoscapes for the marine environment. Therefore, I developed and validated the use novel isoscapes for the Gulf of Mexico and Greater Caribbean and have provided the first application of probabilistic assignment to origin using marine isoscapes. I confirmed that the isoscape approach can be used to accurately decipher the movements of loggerheads in the Gulf of Mexico. I have also used long-term records in scute to examine sea turtle foraging behavior responses in the Gulf of Mexico following the Deepwater Horizon oil spill.

Hannah Vander Zanden
University of Utah

Increasing understanding of current and potential impacts of climate change has started to influence research and practice of conservation planning. In this talk, I will give an overview of the work our team does regarding the assessments of climate change impacts, and how assessments and projections can be integrated into conservation plans. I will show how policy and applications lack behind scientific knowledge and highlight important gaps that are unattended by conservation science. But in particular, I will focus on trade-offs. Conservation is often about tradeoffs: tradeoffs between biodiversity and economic interests or trade-offs between the different biodiversity features we want to save. Climate change adds yet another dimension to the trade-offs to be considered and balanced. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UNbYbzOS0WQ

Mar Cabeza
Universidad de Helsinki

David Tilman has a dual appointment at the Bren School and the University of Minnesota, where he is Regents' Professor and McKnight Presidential Chair in Ecology and Director of the university’s Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve. His research focuses on the causes, consequences, and conservation of Earth’s biodiversity, and on how managed and natural ecosystems can sustainably meet human needs for food, energy, and ecosystem services. His current research explores ways to use biodiversity as a tool for biofuel production and climate stabilization through carbon sequestration. His work on sustainable agriculture and renewable energy has critically examined the full environmental, energetic, and economic costs and benefits of grain crops, of current food-based biofuels, and of biofuels made from diverse mixtures of prairie grasses and other native plants growing on already-degraded lands. He has also dedicated much of his career to communicating with the public, politicians, and the managers of Earth’s ecosystems in policy contexts. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=31a6jrG80Q4

David Tilman
College of Biological Sciences, University of Minnesota, USA

Beissinger Lab: We study conservation, behavior and population biology toward the goals of understanding the influence of climate change, managing endangered or commercially-valuable wildlife, or of understanding the factors shaping life histories to satisfy our curiosity about how nature works. Our research combines intensive field studies based on quantitative sampling with field or lab experimentation, and modeling. Recent work has been done in California, Venezuela, and Puerto Rico. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yd4yiEYvBg

Steve Beissinger
Berkeley, University of California

A pesar de la inmensa diversidad de especies que habitan en el suelo y de su importancia funcional tanto a nivel de comunidad como de ecosistema, la teoría ecológica ha tenido principalmente en cuenta las interacciones que ocurren en la parte aérea de las plantas dando menor importancia a lo que ocurre en el suelo. Sin embargo, durante la última década se ha revelado la importancia que tienen las interacciones planta-suelo sobre diferentes procesos que se dan en la parte aérea. Estos estudios han demostrado que estas interacciones son imprescindibles no sólo para entender la dinámica de la comunidad vegetal sino también las respuestas de otros niveles tróficos como son los herbívoros foliares, sus enemigos naturales, polinizadores, etc. Durante mi presentación analizaré este tipo de relaciones en algunos sistemas naturales (dunas costeras, brezales atlánticos, bosques templados caducifolios) que ilustran la importancia de estas interacciones para el funcionamiento y dinámica de la comunidad vegetal y sus implicaciones en el manejo y la restauración de ecosistemas. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6aoMJ5gDiUI

Eduardo de la Peña
IHSM-UMA-CSIC & Ghent University

Many parasite taxa are able of altering a wide range of phenotypic traits of their hosts in ways that seem to improve the parasite’s chance of completing its life cycle. Alteration in host behaviour are classically seen as compelling illustrations of the “extended phenotype” concept suggesting that some parasite genes have phenotype effects on the host. There are many impressive examples of such phenomena. For instance, several anecdotal reports in the literature have suggested that arthropods parasitized by hairworms and mermithids commit ’suicide’ by jumping into an aquatic environment needed by the adult worms for the continuation of their life cycle. Despite increasing evidence of host phenotypic manipulation by parasites, the underlying mechanisms causing infected hosts to act in ways that benefit the parasite remain generally enigmatic. Also, the host-parasite cross-talks involved during the manipulative process of a host by its parasite are still poorly understood. Proteomics have been used to lay the foundations of the understanding of some aspects of manipulation by parasites (i.e. proximate mechanisms, crosstalk and evolutive convergence) by using some arthropod host-parasite associations. These pioneer studies reveal new candidate genes and biochemical pathways potentially involved in the manipulative process of a host by its parasite. In this talk, the parasite manipulation hypothesis will be briefly presented. Secondly, the pioneer proteomics results obtained on the manipulative process will be pointed out. I will present some additional considerations to move this work forwards. Future prospects for a new discipline in proteomics, the population proteomics, will be presented. This one could be used (i) to study the molecular crosstalk at population scale; (ii) to test ecological hypothesis on distribution range of species (ex.: Brown’s and EVH hypothesis); (iii) to decipher from the molecule to the habitat the taking-decisions to choice a microclimate by injurious and beneficial insects living alone or in association with a parasite; (iv) the behavioural strategies used to reach microclimates in an habitat. Finally, I will briefly present the application of proteomic tools to environmental problems for generating hypotheses regarding how xenobiotics could affect host-parasite associations in ecosystems. The environmental proteomics is a promising avenue to assess the effects of environmental pollution in ecosystems.

David G Biron
CNRS Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique

Although there is no difficulty in theory in estimating fitnesses, in practice, the difficulties are virtually insuperable” (Lewontin, 1974).Fitness is a key concept in evolutionary biology. In many models, this is a quantity that can be defined without (too much) ambiguity. When it comes to test these models of evolution and measure fitness empirically, however, many difficulties arise, in addition to these definitional problems. In this presentation, I will try to summarize and provide an overview of these issues. I will present different approaches to measure fitness in the lab or in the field, distinguishing 'forward' and 'backward' methods. To illustrate each case, I will use examples from my work that include some of the most precise estimates that have been obtained to date. I will finally relate the problems of fitness measures to important debates in evolutionary biology. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2CnC4q4-dY

Thomas Lenormand
Centre d’Ecologie Fonctionnelle et Evolutive, Montpellier

Hutchinson definition of the niche has had a tremendous impact on niche modelling and inspired the most prolific species distribution models (SDMs) ever. Those models, called correlative SDM, relate statistically the species presence/absence to various environmental descriptors. They are very much specific and precise, but lack some generality and realisms in the sense of Levins. In this talk I propose another definition of the niche based on species traits and present a new generation of SDMs, namely process-based SMDs, that I use to predict the geographical distribution of forest tree species in Europe. Process-based models are sometimes less precise than correlative models, but are more realistic and more general. I will present some recent results on projections of species future distribution changes as well as projections of past changes (Holocene). Finally I will present how such models can be used to study the impact of phenotypic plasticity on range size and distribution changes, as well as current and future selection gradient of key adaptive traits. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H_hQejyERjU

Isabelle Chuine
CEFE, CNRS, Montpellier

We assessed the population and/or phylogenetic structure of a small mammal, the mountain treeshrew, across a small geographic scale, and large elevational gradient. We collected samples from two field seasons to Sabah, Malaysia, and enriched the DNA through in-solution hybridization for a panel of UltraConserved Elements (UCEs). Additionally, we amplified the complete mitochondrial genome. The large dataset generated here provides insight into the limits of 'universal' phylogenetic markers on recently diverged species

Melissa Roberts
Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, Washington DC

Over 600 biodiversity-ecosystem function experiments have established that many ecosystem services, such as biomass production, carbon storage, and pollination, increase with increasing species richness. Leading conservation organizations are now embracing ecosystem services as an argument for conserving biodiversity. However, how well the results of small-scale ecological experiments can be extrapolated to real-world landscapes is not known. This seminar presents two of the first landscape- and regional-scale studies of this question, both of which suggest that biodiversity may not be as critical to ecosystem service provision as has been assumed.

Rachael Winfree
Rutgers University

Time is often a critical ecological constraint determining whether animals survive and successfully reproduce. Organisms have evolved to synchronise the timing of key seasonal events (i.e. reproduction, migration, hibernation) with the environmental conditions that maximize their fitness. Seasonal environments are characterised by short time-windows with optimal conditions to breed and grow. However, the timing and length of these conditions are variable among seasons, and many organisms have recently experienced abrupt changes in their phenology ascribed to climate change. The capacity of organisms to track alterations in seasonality and adjust their life-history strategies to the changing environment is thus crucial for adapting to the current scenario of high climatic variability. In my research, I focus on the processes and mechanisms that allow organisms to cope with phenological variation, using amphibians as study models. In this seminar, I will talk about the plasticity of life-history strategies in larval amphibians in response to changes in breeding phenology, the interaction between life-history responses to breeding phenology and predation risk, as well as on the costs and potential activation mechanisms of alternative life-history strategies in amphibians. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SdjXfMS9mj4

Germán Orizaola
Animal Ecology, Dept. Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, Sweden.

In the recent years powerful tools have become available to understand why and how organisms diversify. In my talk I will exemplify the use of “omics” in natural populations, giving insights into three different studies. What are the processes shaping the adaptive radiation of 24 species of Diospyros on New Caledonia after a single long-distance dispersal event? What is the importance of recurrent allopolyploidization in Dactylorhiza and what mechanisms allow sibling polyploids to adapt to divergent environments? How reproducible is parallel evolution of distinct ecotypes in Heliosperma? My group is currently addressing these questions by investigating the links between the genetic constitution of individuals, their epigenetic regulatory landscape and their native environmental conditions. Biology is more exciting than ever!

Ovidiu Paun
Department for Botany and Biodiversity Research University of Vienna

Although there are numerous studies of the impact of herbivores on plants, most experimental studies are limited to small enclosures that do not fully account for the ways they may change community assembly via colonization-mediated processes. In a mesocosm study to overcomes some of these limitations, we found that herbivory accounted for about half of plant species richness and strongly altered the ability of plants to suppress nitrogen and phosphorus availability. Other factors such as eutrophication, stoichiometry and shading also affected plant composition (but not species richness) but did not have as big an impact. These results contrast with many previous experiments that did not adequately account for the ways colonization-extinction processes altered the role of herbivores and suggest that herbivory may be much more important that has been though.

Mathew A. Leibold
The University of Texas

El jaguar ha pedido cerca del 95% de su distribución en Argentina y esta críticamente amenazado. Desde el año 2003 desarrollamos investigaciones sobre el estado poblacional de la especie y sus principales amenazas para generar información que sirva de base para el desarrollo de estrategias de conservación. Para obtener la información básica hemos utilizado distintas metodologías incluyendo relevamientos con cámaras trampas, muestreo de participativos, seguimiento de individuos mediante collares GPS y técnicas genéticas. Para el análisis de datos hemos usado distintos enfoques desarrollando diferentes modelos de hábitat, y hemos utilizado modelos de captura-recaptura para la estimación de densidad. Hemos desarrollado un análisis de viabilidad poblacional y utilizamos modelos de conectividad del paisaje para evaluar distintas alternativas para mantener el hábitat de la especie. Durante la charla recorreré los distintos pasos que hemos dado durante el proceso y las nuevas investigaciones en marcha. Para más información sobre nuestro trabajo pueden visitar www.proyectoyaguarete.com.ar o www.facebook.com/proyaguarete. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-RxdFgeWmIw

Agustín Paviolo
National Scientific and Technical Research Council, Buenos Aires

The transition from aquatic to terrestrial reproduction in early tetrapods is viewed as a major adaptive change in the history of life. Extant amphibians are an interesting group for testing how such a shift may have occured, given the multiple, independent evolutionary changes towards terrestrial breeding in this group. Many amphibian species show partly or fully terrestrial modes of reproduction and their spatial distribution correlate with specific life history traits as well as climatic and environmental factors. Phylogenetic comparative methods provide a powerful tool for investigating such evolutionary correlations and in this seminar, I will use two examples from Africa: the fauna of the speices-rich Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania and the diverse African colonizers, the true toads, to test hypotheses on the evolution of terrestrial life history strategies, their effect on evolutionary rate dynamics and on evolutionary lineage diversification. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JuOmai8otok

Christoph Liedtke
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Pathogens play an important part in shaping the structure and dynamics of natural communities. A shared goal of ecology and epidemiology is to predict when a species is most vulnerable to disease. A leading hypothesis asserts that the impact of disease should increase with host abundance, producing a ‘rare-species advantage’. However, the impact of a pathogen may be decoupled from host abundance, because most pathogens infect more than one species, leading to pathogen spillover onto closely related species. We study how the phylogenetic and ecological structure of the surrounding community can be important predictors of disease pressure in a grassland plant community. We formulate predictive models of pathogen sharing using a global database, then use these models to predict disease pressure at the local scale. We find that we can both explain variation in disease across a community of hosts and predict disease pressure for experimentally introduced novel hosts. Our work has implications for the maintenance of biodiversity, epidemiology, biotic resistance against introduced weeds, and the success of managed plants in agriculture and forestry. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hr6xF4nwsrM

Ingrid Parker
University of California, Santa Cruz

Plant pathogens are thought to help maintain diversity in natural plant communities through negative density-dependent effects. Many studies have documented the effects of density of single host species on the spread of individual pathogens and disease development, but most such studies focus on special cases of pathogens with narrow host ranges or managed plant communities with low host diversity. However, we know that most plant pathogens can attack a number of alternative host species, and that host ranges show a significant phylogenetic structure, and that the natural history of different kinds of pathogens varies widely. This means that the spread and impact of disease in complex plant communities depends on the diversity, abundance, and phylogenetic relatedness of local plant species, and different kinds of pathogens may behave differently. Using studies of plant pathogens in California grassland and Panamanian tropical rain forest, I examine the roles of numerical and phylogenetic rarity in understanding the evolutionary ecology of plant disease. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gqv-0VBAWVU

Gregory S. Gilbert
Department of Environmental Studies University of California, Santa Cruz

Genomic data from samples that originate from different time periods (heterochronous samples) provide a unique opportunity to directly examine temporal changes in genome-wide diversity. Moreover, genomic data from different points in time can also be used to infer genome-wide mutation rates, which in turn can be used to assess the timing of demographic changes and population divergence events. The aim of this presentation is to showcase how such analyses can be done, using data from woolly mammoth and wolf as examples. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F6X5cpi_nMY&t=11s

Love Dalén
Department of Bioinformatics and Genetics Swedish Museum of Natural History. Stockholm University

Las enfermedades infecciosas constituyen una de las principales amenazas para la conservación de especies silvestres, no obstante el desconocimiento en este campo aún sigue siendo grande en muchos sentidos. El objeto primero de la presente tesis es estudiar los parámetros eco-epidemiológicos en una población silvestre, usando para ello como modelo el conejo de monte (Oryctolagus cuniculus) y sus dos principales virosis: mixomatosis (MV) y enfermedad hemorrágica del conejo (EHCV). Este modelo nos permite estudiar la emergencia y el desarrollo de las enfermedades sobre poblaciones reales en estado de semi-libertad, identificar posibles interacciones de estos agentes patógenos con factores bióticos y/o abióticos y conocer su efecto último sobre la dinámica poblacional. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXxD6PWtSY0

María Isabel Pacios
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Los incendios constituyen una perturbación que provoca grandes alteraciones en ecosistemas mediterráneos, afectando al paisaje y la dinámica y estructura de las comunidades. Una amplia literatura indica que, en ambientes propensos a incendios como la Península Ibérica, las comunidades vegetales autóctonas son relativamente resilientes, recuperándose progresivamente después del fuego. En cambio, la información disponible sobre los efectos en las comunidades animales, y concretamente en invertebrados, es mucho más escasa. Por lo tanto, el objetivo de la tesis es entender cómo especies, comunidades y ecosistema responden a los cambios ambientales provocados por el fuego analizando los efectos de este en: 1) Los patrones de abundancia y riqueza específica de hormigas, coleópteros y arañas, 2) La diversidad funcional de hormigas, coleópteros y arañas, 3) Las relaciones de dominancia en las comunidades de hormigas y 4) el uso de los recursos tróficos por las hormigas

José M. Vidal Cordero
Estación Biológica de Doñana

repaso a toda su trabajo y el de su grupo en la EBD en los últimos años

Jordi Bascompte
Estación Biológica de Doñana

My research interests lie within the broad field of Behavioural Ecology, and more specifically to the area of mammalian sexual selection. At the beginning of my career I utilized the powerful technique of experimental evolution to explore the evolutionary implications of postcopulatory sexual selection in mice. I established and maintained selection lines of mice, and forced them to breed under different selection regimes to create laboratory populations that were evolving either with (polygamy) or without (monogamy) the influence of the postcopulatory selective force of sperm competition. I observed divergence in sperm competition traits between males from the different populations after only a few generations of selection. As predicted, males evolving with sperm competition had improved fertility compared to males that had evolved in the absence of sperm competition. At the same time, I sampled island populations of mice, quantified the level of sperm competition and male fertility within these populations, and found similar results to what I had observed within the laboratory. Most recently, my research has focused on interactions between the gametes and the implications of such interactions for sexual selection, sexual conflict and speciation. In particular, I took advantage of the specialized technique of in vitro fertilization to explore the phenomenon of ‘egg defensiveness’. An earlier study of mine had shown that males with high quality sperm have greater in vivo fertilization success, and suggested that competitive conditions will favour sperm that rapidly penetrate the egg. However, a detrimental outcome of increased ‘sperm aggressiveness’ is an elevation in the frequency that more than one sperm will enter the egg (polyspermy). As a response to the fatal threat of polyspermy, females are expected to counter-adapt by increasing their resistance to fertilization, or become more ‘defensive’. Sexual conflict theory thus views females as walking an evolutionary tightrope: reduced defenses increase the risk of polyspermy, while overly efficient defenses may prevent fertilization altogether. Empirical support of this paradigm was previously limited to just two comparative studies. My recent investigations have extended this evidence beyond correlational data, and for the first time within a species, I have observed both evolutionary and plastic responses in egg resistance to fertilization. These results have shown that sperm competition has the potential to drive egg resistance to fertilization, which may rapidly generate reproductive barriers between populations.

Renee Claire Firman
University of Western Australia

The Thermal Adaptation hypothesis posits that the warmer, less seasonal tropics generates populations with higher and narrower thermal limits. It has largely been tested among populations across latitudes. However, considerable thermal heterogeneity exists within ecosystems: across 31 tropical trees in a Panama rainforest, surfaces exposed to sun were 8 °C warmer and varied more in temperature than surfaces in the litter below. Tiny ectotherms are confined to surfaces and are variously submerged in these superheated boundary layer environments. We quantified the thermal performance curves of 88 ant species from this forest that ranged in average mass from 0.01 to 57 mg. This rainforest’s thermal environments generate a range of thermal maxima subsuming 74% of those previously recorded for ant populations worldwide. Canopy ants, living in a hotter, more variable thermal environment had higher thermal tolerances, but traded this durability with lower peak velocity than litter ants. The Thermal Adaptation hypothesis can be a powerful tool in predicting diversity of thermal limits within communities. Boundary layer environments are likely key to predicting the future of Earth’s tiny terrestrial ectotherm populations

Mike Kaspari
Universidad de Oklahoma

Human alterations to the environment such as land-use changes, eutrophication and climate change have elevated the rate of species’ extinction to a level on par with historical mass extinction events. In temperate forests, biodiversity is mainly a function of the herbaceous understorey community. Many forest understorey plants, however, are not able to track land-use and climate change due to their limited colonisation capacities. In addition, probably due to the greater structural complexity and pivotal role of light availability in forests, evidence is now increasing that the effects of human alterations to both nutrient cycles and the climate system are often buffered due to shading in forests. I will present our research on the (interactive) effects of climate change, enhanced nitrogen inputs, and light availability on (i) the growth and reproduction of a selection of forest plants, and (ii) the composition and diversity of understorey plant communities in European and eastern North American temperate forests

Pieter de Frenne
Ghent University

Konik horses (Equus caballus) are maintained in several reserves in the Netherlands for habitat management. While there are a few challenges that accompany this introduction, it can serve as a fascinating laboratory to understand the relations between social structure, pedigree and leadership in movements in a social species. Knowledge of the genetic relations among individuals in a group may shed light on the social relationship within the group. We observed and videotaped behavior and movement of the 27 Konik horses that occupy the Blauwe Kamer reserve. The parents of horses that were born on the reserve were determined through DNA and the pedigree was reconstructed. The social network was analyzed based on positive affiliation and proximity, after aggressive interactions were removed. The comparison of harems composition to the pedigree revealed that the large group, which includes the oldest individuals, supplied young females that eventually formed the smaller harem. We also determined the hierarchical rank of the horses, and I will present insights from the relations between leading, rank, pedigree and role in social network. The leaders during collective movements were not the most dominant individuals, rather, two of the oldest females. Of all the network parameters that were tested with model selection to explain the leading rank of horses during collective moves, weighted degree (the number of connections each individual had with other horses, weighted by the intensity of each connection) provided the best explaining factor. Network parameters were also good indicators for future changes in membership in the different groups. An additional insight provided by the comparison between social interactions and the pedigree was the fact that at least two males attempted to mate with their own daughters, in contrast to the common incest-avoidance behavior in horses. Our results can suggest slight modifications in the management of the horses to reduce the risk of inbreeding

Amos Bouskila
Blaustein Inst. for Desert Research, Israel

En una sociedad totalmente dependiente de los metales, la minería metálica ha alterado el medio natural desde sus inicios hace miles de años. Por ello, en esta tesis se va a evaluar la exposición de la fauna que habita en la zona de influencia de una mina de cobre en activo, analizando distintos biomarcadores, tanto a nivel individual como de población. Si existiera algún efecto, se plantearán medidas para su reducción.

Esperanza Gil
Fundacion Migres

La hormiga argentina es uno de los cinco formícidos incluidos en la lista de 100 de las peores especies invasoras del mundo, por sus graves impactos en invertebrados, tanto por depredación directa o indirectamente a través de la competencia por los recursos o el espacio. Pocos estudios se centran en el efecto de la hormiga argentina en vertebrados. Con esta tesis pretendemos estudiar los impactos en vertebrados, tanto directos por la molestia o agresión, como indirectos debido a la disminución de recursos de depredadores nativos.

Paloma Álvarez
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Whether and why male parents should adjust the amount of care they provide to young if the female partner is unfaithful has been discussed for more than two decades. While there is general agreement that such a relationship exists across species, empirical results for within-population effects are ambiguous. The problem partially lies in the difficulty to disentangle between-individual from within-individual processes. We use an exceptionally well-suited dataset on wild house sparrows (Passer domesticus) to revisit this problem. https://sites.google.com/site/evolbehavecol/ http://www.orn.mpg.de/218867/Research-Group-Schroeder http://lundysparrows.blogspot.de/

Julia Schroeder
Max Plack Institute for Ornitology

We report on an 11 yr study of floater interference in a population of Spanish Imperial Eagles Aquila adalberti. We analyzed changes over the years in the productivity of 15 territories to test predictions of two hypotheses of density dependent fecundity in relation to the presence of floaters. According to the "interference" hypothesis, as density increases, the frequency of floater intrusion increases, resulting in a decrease in fecundity. Thus, in a high density population a negative relationship between floater intrusions and productivity of the territory is expected. In contrast, on the "habitat heterogeneity" hypothesis, as density increases a greater proportion of individuals are forced to occupy lower quality habitats and, at least up to a certain level, no relationship between floater intrusions and fecundity is expected. Results showed that floater eagles tend to visit natal populations during certain months which coincide with the beginning of the breeding cycle. Among floater eagles, males made significantly more intrusions per day than females, but females stayed in the natal population for longer each year than males. Floater intrusions and fecundity were highly positively correlated, supporting the "habitat heterogeneity" hypothesis; individuals are apparently able to assess the quality of a territory and, at the frequencies observed, their interference with the breeding pair had no obvious depressing effect on fecundity.

Virginia Morandini
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Des will summarise some key work being undertaken on raptor conservation and management in the UK, with a focus on Scotland, and especially work on golden eagles and hen harriers. Des was founder chairman of the Scottish Raptor Monitoring Scheme (which gave rise to Raptors: a field guide for surveys and monitoring (three editions), and was recently elected Chairman of the UN Convention on Migratory Species’ Conservation of Migratory Birds of Prey in Africa and Eurasia Technical Advisory Group. Des manages policy, research and advisory work on biodiversity and climate change, and has led some of Britain’s upland nature conservation work for the government and its agencies. He took his PhD and DSc from the University of Nottingham (publishing his PhD as the textbook Gulls and plovers - the ecology and behaviour of mixed species feeding groups, co-written with the late Chris Barnard). He has specialist interests in upland and bird ecology, and has published more than 200 papers, articles and books, including Ecological Change in the Uplands; Heaths and Moorland – cultural landscapes; Tundra Plovers; Shorebirds; Birds of Prey in a Changing Environment; Mountains of Northern Europe: conservation, management, nature and people; An Illustrated Guide to British Upland Vegetation; Alpine Biodiversity in Europe; and The Changing Nature of Scotland. His latest book, co-edited with John and Hilary Birks, on one of the world’s foremost experts on raptor conservation (Nature’s Conscience: the life and legacy of Derek Ratcliffe) will be published shortly. Des is an Associate Editor of the Journal of Applied Ecology, and Chairman of the Field Studies Council.

Des Thompson
Scottish Natural Heritage

El proyecto de tesis se enfoca en el estudio de comunidades acuáticas -con énfasis en la ictiofauna- en una región del piedemonte y la llanura de la cuenca amazónica, el río Madre de Dios al sureste de la Amazonía Peruana. El gradiente altitudinal que abarca el área de estudio y la falta de información previa suponen la principal justificación del estudio. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3W5twkmIWk

Julio Araujo
Biología Ambiental y Salud Pública. Universidad de Huelva

La selección sexual favorece la evolución de numerosos caracteres implicados en la reproducción, es responsable de complejas interacciones coevolutivas entre los sexos, y juega un papel importante en especiación . La poliandria (cuando las hembras se aparean con más de un macho dentro de un mismo periodo reproductivo) tiene implicaciones evolutivas de gran calibre puesto que posibilita que la selección sexual continúe después del apareamiento por medio de mecanismos de selección postcópula (los cuales determinan el éxito reproductivo) y facilita interacciones entre los sexos que tienen consecuencias importantes como son aquellas basadas en la obtención de beneficios genéticos por parte de las hembras o aquellas que resultan en conflicto sexual. Consecuentemente, la comprensión del significado adaptativo de la poliandria suscita gran interés entre los biólogos evolutivos. Sin embargo las preguntas en relación al cómo y por qué este comportamiento se ha originado y se mantiene desde un punto de vista evolutivo siguen sin una respuesta clara. La presente tesis tiene como objetivo avanzar en el conocimiento de los mecanismos que posibilitan el mantenimiento de la poliandria en las poblaciones naturales, determinar si existe varianza genética en las tasas de apareamiento y analizar los niveles de dicha varianza y profundizar en la relación existente entre el comportamiento poliándrico y las dinámicas de conflicto entre los individuos de ambos sexos en relación a las tasas de apareamiento. Para ello se usará como modelo de estudio el coleóptero Callosobruchus maculatus y herramientas metodológicas robustas como son Evolución Experimental (experimentos de selección) y diseños de genética cuantitativa.

Eduardo Rodríguez
Estación Biológica de Doñana

La selección sexual favorece la evolución de numerosos caracteres implicados en la reproducción, es responsable de complejas interacciones coevolutivas entre los sexos, y juega un papel importante en especiación . La poliandria (cuando las hembras se aparean con más de un macho dentro de un mismo periodo reproductivo) tiene implicaciones evolutivas de gran calibre puesto que posibilita que la selección sexual continúe después del apareamiento por medio de mecanismos de selección postcópula (los cuales determinan el éxito reproductivo) y facilita interacciones entre los sexos que tienen consecuencias importantes como son aquellas basadas en la obtención de beneficios genéticos por parte de las hembras o aquellas que resultan en conflicto sexual. Consecuentemente, la comprensión del significado adaptativo de la poliandria suscita gran interés entre los biólogos evolutivos. Sin embargo las preguntas en relación al cómo y por qué este comportamiento se ha originado y se mantiene desde un punto de vista evolutivo siguen sin una respuesta clara. La presente tesis tiene como objetivo avanzar en el conocimiento de los mecanismos que posibilitan el mantenimiento de la poliandria en las poblaciones naturales, determinar si existe varianza genética en las tasas de apareamiento y analizar los niveles de dicha varianza y profundizar en la relación existente entre el comportamiento poliándrico y las dinámicas de conflicto entre los individuos de ambos sexos en relación a las tasas de apareamiento. Para ello se usará como modelo de estudio el coleóptero Callosobruchus maculatus y herramientas metodológicas robustas como son Evolución Experimental (experimentos de selección) y diseños de genética cuantitativa.

Eduardo Rodríguez
Estación Biológica de Doñana

no disponible

Ana Montero
Estación Biológica de Doñana

How organisms adapt to their environment is becoming increasingly relevant in our changing world. The overall aim of my PhD is to test for the existence and importance of two neglected mechanisms of adaptation to new habitats. I. Selective pre-establishment filters during biological invasion Before an invasive species can become established in a non-native range, individuals of this species will have to successfully pass the stages of uptake, transport, and introduction. There is some evidence for a species bias in invasion success. However, in general what exactly happens during the pre-establishment stages is hardly studied. Moreover, it is likely that during these stages there is also selection on certain traits at the individual level. This pre-establishment selection could change the composition of introduced populations, and with this their invasion potential. We will test this novel hypothesis by following the fate of a set of individuals from their capture in the native range (Senegal) through transport and until their simulated release in a non-native range (Spain), characterising various traits thought to be important for invasion success (condition, parasite load, stress resistance, immune system genotype, behaviour/personality, morphology). II. Matching Habitat Choice If individuals vary in which habitat yields best performance and highest fitness, it would benefit them to settle in those habitats that best match their phenotypes. Such Matching Habitat Choice (MHC) will lead to the clumping of similar individuals, and to the adaptation of local populations. Here we aim to assess the presence, functioning, relative importance and consequences of Matching Habitat Choice for adaptation to different and novel environments. We will experimentally compare the speed and efficiency of natural selection, phenotypic plasticity and MHC to drive local adaptation, and also assess the consequences of MHC for assortative mating and the ability to invade novel environments.

Adrián Baños
Universidad Pablo de Olavide

Camouflage is one of the most widespread anti-predator defences in nature, and a textbook example of natural selection. In recent years there has been a substantial increase in the amount of work testing camouflage theory, focusing on the types of camouflage that exist and how they may work to defeat predator vision. However, despite substantial progress, most work has been done in artificial systems or with theoretical models, rather than with real animals in complex natural habitats. Here, I will discuss recent work we have done to test camouflage theory in two main systems: several species of ground nesting birds in Africa (mostly plovers and nightjars) and highly polymorphic shore crabs in the UK. I will describe work we have done to test the different types of camouflage that exist in these species and across different habitats, and how the level of individual camouflage affects the probability of predation over time. Next, I will discuss some of the mechanisms that individuals can use to improve camouflage, including behavioural choice of backgrounds and colour change. I will finish by outlining where these and other projects can go next to understand the evolution of camouflage and individual variation.

Martin Stevens
University of Exeter

Bees, wasps, ants and termites are fascinating because of their well organized societies. Among the characteristics of social insects is the occurrence of a great diversity of exocrine glands. The high number of these glands goes along with the various functions their products play. To date, this variety amounts to more than 130 different glands that can be distinguished among the various social insect groups, with ants the most diverse group with 91 known glands. The glands can be classified in five main groups according to their anatomical organization. This talk brings a survey of the structural and functional diversity of exocrine glands in social insects, using selected examples that represent the main gland types. These examples at the same time also illustrate the big variety of functions the glandular secretions can play. A very well known function is that of producing the various pheromonal substances, that play a role in the communicative interactions between nestmates (such as alarm, trail, recruitment, sex pheromones…). Other known functions of exocrine gland secretions deal with reproduction and caste determination, or with the elaboration of antibiotic substances, digestive enzymes and saliva, nest material and lubricants.

Johan Billen
University of Leuven

Climate warming in the higher (arctic and sub-arctic) latitudes is causing encroachment of shrubs into previously open habitats. It is also causing the expansion of the range of common avian nest predators, and of course, longer ice-free seasons. How are arctic-breeding waders coping? This talk examines several studies that have explored the impacts of these potential factors on the densities and demography of arctic-breeding waders in northern Canada. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e22ua9dPeI

Erica Nol
Department of Biology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada

The reproductive success depend on the animal’s effectiveness and the context in which the mutualism occurs. The present thesis is about the interplay between these two aspects in the mutualism of pollination. We try to meet the challenge with a particular group of pollinators, opportunistic nectar-feeding vertebrates, in a particular context, oceanic islands. Due to their intrinsic ecological conditions, oceanic islands favour the appearance of depauperate and disharmonic assemblages of opportunistic pollinators, whose effectiveness and level of context dependence may differ significantly from those of continental systems. In the concrete case of the Canary Islands, passerine birds and lacertid lizards are frequent floral visitors of native flora, but their pollination ecology has remained almost unknown. For this reason, the present thesis follows a dual objective: first to experimentally demonstrate the effectiveness of birds and lizards as pollinators and analyse the potential differences between both functional groups, to then understand how their benefits on plant fitness vary under the presence of antagonists. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hwvbq4GZ6Ig

Candelaria Rodríguez
Estación Biológica de Doñana

What can we learn from long-term studies of a single-species of bird? Often what drives the earlier questions will not drive the later ones and often, unexpected problems will direct the questions that are posed. Short-term studies of Semipalmated Plovers (Charadrius semipalmatus) within the context of a longer-term research program provide detailed information about the biology and conservation of this widely distributed North American plover. I will present some of the findings from the work conducted by myself and my graduate students, from the last 25+ years of study. The work encompasses studies conducted both on the breeding grounds in northern Canada and at several wintering sites. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9e22ua9dPeI&t=12s

Erica Nol
Department of Biology, Trent University, Peterborough, Ontario, Canada

Declining and isolated populations lose genetic diversity due to genetic drift, what could cause a reduction of fitness and adaptive potential. Balancing selection, recombination and mutation opposes the action of genetic drift by generating or maintaining diversity in functional areas of the genome. The concurrent action between these forces and genetic drift may vary in different demographic scenarios and result in distinct diversity patterns across the genome. We aim to study these coexisting processes in Lynx lynx and Lynx pardinus populations with different demographic histories. In addition to contemporary patterns, we will assess diachronic changes in Iberian lynx genome using ancient and historical samples. To do so, we will use high throughput sequencing data. We will also take advantage of the newly annotated Iberian lynx genome and recently developed analysis methods, such as genomic scans.

María Lucena Pérez
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Declining species lose fitness through the accumulation of genetic load and its increased exposure due to inbreeding. This basic principle of the conservation genetics paradigm is well accepted, yet the underlying mechanisms haven’t been fully disentangled, mostly because studies of adaptive variation in declining populations have been limited. In this thesis, we will take advantage of the wide array of genomic resources generated by the recently completed Iberian lynx (Lynx pardinus) genome project, in order to directly assess functional variation in the populations of this highly endangered species. We’ll be focusing on the evaluation of selection against deleterious traits (purifying selection), whose efficiency, theory predicts, is weakened in smaller populations. We will use genome-wide patterns of non-synonymous –potentially deleterious– polymorphisms and substitutions to assess the interaction of purifying selection with locally heterogeneous processes like recombination and mutation. The genomic scan for major effect mutations could reveal the genetic basis of inbreeding depression, including those deleterious traits already identified in the captive population (e.g. juvenile epilepsy, cryptorchidism). Finally, we will try to improve current genetic management by fine-tuning the genomic tools at our disposal, including the selection of an extensively curated set of SNP markers and, eventually, by including selection against deleterious alleles in the conservation programme.

Daniel Kleinman Ruiz
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Fleshy-fruited plant species depend on frugivores for seed-dispersal – a widespread mutualism in tropical rainforests. The availability and ecology of frugivores therefore affects the evolution of fruit traits – e.g. large fruits may only be eaten and dispersed by large-bodied frugivores. However, little is known about how interaction-relevant fruit traits, such as fruit size, have influenced diversification rates on macro-evolutionary time-scales. Here, we address this question in the globally-distributed palm family (Arecaceae, >2600 species), using an all-evidence phylogeny (~95% of all palm species), fruit size data (~80% of the species) and Bayesian statistics to infer diversification dynamics. Our results suggest that large-fruited palm lineages (fruits > 4 cm, presumably dispersed by frugivorous megafauna) have lower speciation rates than lineages with small fruits, possibly due to increased gene-flow among palm populations and/or longer generation times. Furthermore, we detect a distinct increase in the extinction rate of large-fruited lineages from 0.5-2.6 Mya till the present, as well as a increase in transition rates from large to small fruits during this time period (compared to palm diversification prior to 2.6 Mya). These results suggest that the extinction of megafauna in the Quaternary may have left its signature on the diversification of palm lineages worldwide.

Renske Onstein
Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands Lab. Écologie, Systématique, Évolution (ESE), Université Paris-Sud, Orsay, France

The Coastal Forests of Eastern Africa (CFEA) are a global biodiversity hotspot, consisting of a complex landscape of savannah and fragmented forest patches heavily influenced by late Pleistocene climate cycles and sea level changes. Although most habitats have contracted and expanded with the changing conditions, it has been predicted that some remained constant since the last interglacial period (120kya) allowing the persistence of lineages that became locally extinct in the surrounding landscape. To date, explanations of diversity and endemism in the CFEA have been based on knowledge of taxonomically recognised species ranges, failing to include phylogenetic information. We address these shortcomings by investigating endemism across the whole amphibian assemblage (species level and below), integrating spatial and newly generated phylogenetic data from across the coastal forests in Tanzania and Kenya. Our results show that endemism is concentrated in five major areas; three areas of coastal dry forest and two areas of transitional rainforest on the lower slopes of the nearby Eastern Afromontane region. These areas correspond to predicted habitat stability, likely playing a major role in the maintenence of biodiversity in this region, and should be considered as important evolutionary refugia.

Christopher Barratt
Biogeography Group, Department of Environmental Sciences, University of Basel, Switzerland

Epidemiological models for the transmission of infectious diseases used to assume that different hosts are equally appealing to their vectors, that vectors and hosts interact randomly and tended to ignore the impact of host-trait heterogeneity on disease transmission. However, recent studies have shown that mosquitoes feed disproportionately on some host species in relation to what may be expected from their relative abundance. This phenomenon may dramatically alter the host-pathogen contact rate and thus the transmission dynamics of infectious diseases. My thesis will focus on identifying the impact of host morphology, infection status and condition of the attractiveness for blood-seeking mosquitoes. First, we will review what sort of traits may serve as searching cues for host-seeking mosquitoes. Second, we will investigate the relationship between different bird traits (e.g. morphology, metabolism, infection status,) and mosquito attraction at intra- and interspecific levels. Finally, how the competence of different bird species as host of West Nile virus is related to taxonomy and immune system characteristics. By far, we have achieved some preliminary results but your suggestions will be highly welcome for our upcoming works. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xuETm8UEsnw

Jiayue Yan
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Vector-borne pathogens play an important role in the regulation of wild populations and are model systems for ecological and evolutionary studies. The evolution of these systems is the result of triangular affairs between the parasite, the vector (mosquito) and the vertebrate host. Vectors present important interspecific and interpopulation differences in their feeding behaviour and consequently, interact with their pathogens with different frequencies. As model systems, we will use two multi-host/multi-vector pathogens (Plasmodium and West Nile virus), both transmitted by mosquitoes, and Turdus merula and Passer domesticus like a host. In particular, we will analyse how different host individual characteristics may affect vector attraction and how the heterogeneity on host attractiveness may affect the transmission dynamics of pathogens. We will focus special attention of odorant bird, the feeding behaviour of mosquitoes (mammals vs birds) and the influence of the parasite in the vector and host behaviour. This information may increase our understanding on the dynamics of transmission of numerous vector borne diseases, including pathogens potentially dangerous for humans and wildlife. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsl9A0UuGEQ

Alazne Díez
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Siguiendo los pasos de Valverde, HARMUSH, una Asociación de Estudio y Conservación de fauna, formada por biólogos, especialistas zoólogos, investigadores y gente entusiasta de la conservación de especies, presenta un resumen de su reciente libro publicado dónde se recopila toda la información científico-técnica de los resultados obtenidos de las prospecciones faunísticas realizadas en el Sáhara Occidental/Atlántico en busca de caracal, gacelas y guepardos desde el año 2011 al 2014. Colaboramos con la Estación Experimental de Zonas Áridas (CSIC) de Almería y el Centro de Investigação em Biodiversidade e Recursos Genéticos (CIBIO) de Portugal además de contar con el apoyo institucional de la Universidad Rey Juan Carlos (Madrid) y Universidad Mohamed V de Rabat (Marruecos).

Antonio Javier Rodríguez Siles
Harmush Asociación de Estudio y Conservación de Fauna

Worldwide, insect pollinators significantly contribute to biodiversity and the provision of ecosystem services within agricultural systems. While it is clear that the yield and quality of global food crops benefit to varying degrees from animal pollination, we still know little about the specific mechanisms by which different pollinators impact production. In this presentation, I will discuss some of the current work we are doing in this field, new developments in methods and how these can help us better understand the interactions between crops and crop pollinators. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qq0H_8Rsa3A

Romina Rader
School of Environmental and Rural Science University of New England

Fred Allendorf is one of the founders of the modern Conservation Genetics and his text books on conservation and population genetics are a reference worldwide. He is now very involved in promoting the use of genomics in conservation. Fred is visiting us after being the a plenary speaker in the European Science Foundation congress ConGenOmics in Porto last week.

Fred Allendorf
University of Montana

En primer lugar se tratarán cuestiones relacionadas con la misión, estructura y funciones de la VATC, con especial atención a la Unidad de Protección de Resultados y Promoción de EBTs. A continuación, se comentarán aspectos prácticos del procedimiento de trabajo de la UPR_EBTs relativos a: - la evaluación de resultados de investigación en el sector medio ambiental, y su protección a través de las distintas figuras que reconoce el derecho, fundamentalmente, patentes, modelos de utilidad, secreto industrial y propiedad intelectual; - las Empresas de Base Técnológica (EBTs), poniendo el foco en cuales son los requisitos fijados por el CSIC y cómo se gestionan, desde nuestra institución, este tipo de iniciativas empresariales surgidas en su seno.

Javier Etxabe Oria; Juan Martínez Armesto; Pancho Sueiro Blanco
CSIC

In recent years, an intense debate has been generated about the environmental risks posed by neonicotinoids, a group of widely-used, neurotoxic insecticides. When these systemic compounds are applied to seeds low concentrations are subsequently found in the nectar and pollen of the crop and so they can be consumed by bees. A key point of controversy is whether bees consume enough of these compounds during the flowering period of the crop to do them significant harm. Thus, there is a need to understand the routes of exposure for bees and the levels present in the pollen and nectar of the flowers they visit. In this seminar I will show the concentrations of neonicotinoid insecticides that bees are exposed to when they forage in agricultural landscapes, and I will comment on the work in progress where I am assessing the effect of field-realistic levels of pesticides on bumblebee colonies. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIxYn7_nGsQ

Cristina Botías Talamantes
Estación Biológica de Doñana

"Drones sobre Doñana" es un vídeo de 5 minutos de duración sobre el uso de los drones que llevan a cabo nuestros compañeros del LAST en colaboración con el equipo de seguimiento, en la colonia de gaviotas picofinas de Veta la Palma. Después del video, David Aragonés nos hablará de las posibilidades de los dos modelos de drones con los que actualmente trabajan. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tp1o9DVW9-k&t=11s

David Aragonés
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Biodiversity affects ecosystem properties through changes in the trait composition and variation of natural communities. Using phytoplankton data obtained across 28 lakes we found that trait evenness - the regularity in distribution of morpho-physiological traits of individual organisms - was the strongest predictor of community resource use and biomass yield. Our results suggest that elucidating the mechanisms linking individual-level trait variation to community dynamics could improve our ability to forecast changes in ecosystem properties across environmental gradients. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Xchlb_DxLw

Simone Fontana
Department of Aquatic Ecology. Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Water Science and Technology

New methods to assess the variation in species composition among biological assemblages (i.e. beta diversity) provide novel avenues to investigate the drivers of biodiversity. Further insights can be gained from integrating the evolutionary layer in macroecological analyses, using molecular phylogenies in combination with novel methods to quantify dissimilarity among assemblages.

Andrés Baselga
Departamento de Zoología, Facultad de Biología Universidad de Santiago de Compostela

Host-parasite interactions are amongst the most plastic systems in nature. Epigenetic processes regulate transcription and provide means for rapid responses to the environment that can be heritable. To test the idea that epigenetic mechanisms regulate host-parasite adaptive phenotypic responses in the course of an infection, in this project I used a natural system involving the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum and its natural mosquito vector Anopheles gambiae. My investigations combine genome-wide analysis of trancription by RNA-seq, the analysis of histone modifications by ChIP-seq, as well as the study of chromatin structure by ATAC-seq, at different time stages during parasite life-cycle in the mosquito. In this talk I will focus first on the results on the parasite, which show that in the course of a malaria infection P.falciparum undergoes a number of alterations in patterns of gene expression, which depend in turn on reciprocal modifications to the structure and organization of the chromatin. Importantly, these changes impact genes linked to malaria pathogenesis. I will then move to present results on the mosquito vector. In this case, the comparison of histone modification and gene expression profiles between infected and uninfected mosquitoes allowed us to identify malaria responsive epigenes as those mosquito genes showing correlated changes in mRNA and histone mark levels in response to infection. In addition, the analysis of small non-coding RNAs identified a set of mosquito miRNAs whose abundance is altered in response to infection and potentially target multiple immune genes. These findings are not only relevant at the fundamental level for the fields of Plasmodium and mosquito biology, but have important practical implications for the design of new strategies to fight malaria. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L3VXdqSNDJg

Elena Gómez-Díaz
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Los seres vivos se ven sometidos a diferentes presiones selectivas a lo largo de su vida. Estas presiones pueden ser de muy diversa naturaleza y pueden afectar a diferentes aspectos de los individuos. El presente proyecto estudiará en una especie de ave (lechucita de las vizcacheras; Athene cunicularia) la presión selectiva generada por un proceso de modificación (urbanización) del hábitat y su efecto sobre diferentes rasgos del fenotipo que englobarían: (1) caracteres fisiológicos, como la capacidad individual para afrontar el estrés oxidativo, (2) caracteres morfológicos, como el nivel de melanización del plumaje, y (3) caracteres de comportamiento, como la distancia de huida frente a depredadores. El objetivo será describir fenotipos locales en poblaciones en simpatría de medios rurales y urbanos. Se profundizará en el efecto del proceso de adaptación al medio urbano sobre las interacciones que se establecen entre variables de estrés oxidativo, personalidad y coloración de dichos individuos. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=249boOSbwro

Antonio Palma
Estación Biológica de Doñana

La urbanización del medio es una de las formas de transformación del hábitat más profundas, constituyendo un desafío conservacionista. No obstante, cada vez se tienen más en cuenta estos espacios humanizados como un escenario evolutivo único para estudiar aspectos como la adaptación a nuevos medios y la especiación ecológica. Nuestro objetivo fundamental es ahondar en los factores ambientales e individuales que afectan a las distintas estrategias dispersivas de nuestra especie de estudio en un contexto urbano y rural. Partimos de la premisa cada vez más estudiada de que los individuos deciden dónde asentarse para reproducirse y qué distancias recorrer antes de hacerlo, influenciados para ello por factores relacionados con su fenotipo (comportamiento, morfología y fisiología) y genotipo, así como con los condicionantes ambientales que operan en las áreas natales y de asentamiento. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_tcmIeayS4

Álvaro Luna
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Doñana marsh is one of the most important wetlands in Europe; however, it is under extreme human pressure. Remote sensing techniques have proved to be an effective method for modeling and monitoring biomass. The main objective of this project was to model the Doñana marsh biomass, to study the vegetation dynamics of the last 15 years and at the same time to predict the biomass in the future. This project consisted in four different steps: first, to mode the phenological curve, second, to calibrate the metrics of the phenological curve with the biomass production, third, to validate the model, and fourth, to map the biomass and analyze the main patterns of distribution and production. The results showed that it was possible to model the biomass production on the marsh using the NDVI; however it was clear that the high variability of the marsh made the process of modelling challenging. This variability is the result of a highly dynamic ecosystem that interplays water, soil, vegetation, and the presence of cattle. We hope this research can be a starting point to a more deeply research into the Doñana marsh biomass and be a tool for scientifically based management of the cattle in the marsh. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ab17xKtmce4

María Lumbierres
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Ecosystem services, such as pollination and pest control, largely underpin the production in arable agriculture. Treatments to enhance one ecosystem service, however, may influence the effect of other ecosystem services and knowledge about these interaction effects can be used to optimize ecosystem services to enhance agricultural production. Over the last few years various experiments have been performed to test how ecosystem services can be optimized. In my presentation I will present some of my own work on the optimization of ecosystem services, as well as the limitations to this kind of studies. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFN6q0z_WUc

Stijn van Gils
Netherlands Institute of Ecology,NIOO-KNAW

Retracing complex population processes that precede extreme bottlenecks may be impossible using data from living individuals. The wisent (Bison bonasus), Europe’s largest terrestrial mammal, exemplifies such a population history, having gone extinct in the wild but subsequently restored by captive breeding efforts. Using low coverage genomic data from modern and historical individuals, we investigate population processes occurring before and after this extinction. Analysis of aligned genomes supports the division of wisent into two previously recognised subspecies, but almost half of the genomic alignment contradicts this population history as a result of incomplete lineage sorting and admixture. Admixture between subspecies populations occurred prior to extinction and subsequently during the captive breeding program. Admixture with the Bos cattle lineage is also widespread but results from ancient events rather than recent hybridisation with domestics. Our study demonstrates the huge potential of historical genomes for both studying evolutionary histories and for guiding conservation strategies. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iCnCdFkdFRs

Karolina Wecek
Mammal Research Institute Polish Academy of Sciences, Bia?owie?a, Poland

Environmental variability has long been postulated as a major selective force in the evolution of large brains. To test this hypothesis, we assembled information of brain size for over 1,200 bird species and used remote-sensing analyses to estimate temporal variation in plant productivity. As expected, larger brains (relative to body size) are more likely to occur in species exposed to larger environmental variation throughout their geographic range. Reconstructions of evolutionary trajectories are consistent with the hypothesis that larger brains (relative to body size) have evolved when the species invaded more seasonal regions, although the alternative - that the species already possessed larger brains when invaded more seasonal regions - cannot be ruled out. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLnApfgpuak

Ferran Sayol
CREAF

Los buitres atraviesan desde hace varias décadas una crisis de conservación global. Pese a que en este tiempo el conocimiento sobre este grupo ha crecido exponencialmente, existe todavía un gran desconocimiento sobre algunas facetas de su ecología. Entre ellas destaca el uso del espacio, pues al ser especies con gran capacidad de desplazamiento, su seguimiento es técnicamente complicado. En este marco, nuestro objetivo es profundizar en la ecología espacial del buitre leonado en relación a las variaciones que el cambio global origina en la disponibilidad y accesibilidad de recursos tróficos de origen doméstico y silvestre. Esta especie es un inigualable modelo de estudio dentro de los carroñeros estrictos pues es el más abundante a nivel europeo (albergando España el 90% de los efectivos del continente) y por lo tanto, el principal proveedor de servicios ecosistemicos. El eje conductor de nuestra investigación es el seguimiento GPS de 60 individuos adultos de buitre leonado procedente de dos colonias situadas en los extremos norte y sur de la Península Ibérica. Primeramente, evaluaremos espacial y cuantitativamente el uso actual que la especie hace de sus principales recursos (ungulados silvestres, ungulados domésticos en extensivo y ungulados domésticos en intensivo). En segundo lugar, analizaremos cuales son los motivos tróficos que llevan a la especie a seleccionar preferencialmente el hábitat de forrajeo. A continuación, abordaremos el papel que juegan las políticas sanitarias y agro-ganaderas a la hora de distribuir el recurso trófico y como ello condiciona el movimiento del buitre leonado. Finalmente añadiremos una perspectiva a nivel de comunidad analizando como carroñas provenientes de usos humanos alternativos (ganado y caza mayor) son explotadas por un mismo gremio de carroñeros. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZB6EuAlmfc

Eneko Arrondo
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Vultures are a group of globally threatened birds deserving increasing attention in conservation. However, as happens with other long-lived birds with deferred maturity, their ecology during the pre-breeding stage is a major knowledge gap largely precluding the application of evidence-based management. The aim of our research is to deepen into the spatial and movement ecology of the endemic Canarian Egyptian vulture during the pre-breeding stage in relation to the availability and predictability of resources and environmental constraints. We take advantage of a long-term monitoring program of this population (18 years) which has resulted in 90% of the population individually identified. Moreover, 48 individuals are currently marked with GPS devices which have provided more than 19 million of fixes. We will deepen into the between-individual foraging strategies in relation to human-related feeding resources varying in spatial-temporal predictability (farms and vulture restaurants). Then, we will examine which factors determine the asymmetric use of livestock exploitations by individual birds. The next step will be to identify those factors influencing local farmers' perception about ecosystem services provided by the vultures. In addition, we also aim to determine the factors influencing variability between individuals in the use of roosting resources (power lines). Finally, we will develop sensitivity maps in relation to existing and planned wind farms in an attempt to reconcile vulture conservation and wind energy development. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjnB4AAxFwQ

Marina García
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Altitudinal gradients imply a variation in several environmental variables (as temperature and moisture) generating a spatial variation in the selective pressures and allowing for the study of different ecological and evolutionary processes. In this PhD thesis, I will study the ecology and evolution of treeshrews (Tupaia montana) along an altitudinal gradient in Kinabalu park (Sabah, Malaysia), from different approaches. I will study the trophic ecology of the tree shrews (genus Tupaia) by means stable isotopes, their parasites and their immune system (Class I and II genes of the Major Histocompatibility Complex). We will also study the relationship between parasites and immune system. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YOjB8tIQk3Y

Mar Comas
Estación Biológica de Doñana

The buttonquail family (Turnicidae) is one of the least studied bird groups of the world. Among them, the nominate subspecies of the Small Buttonquail (Turnix sylvaticus), widely known as Andalusian Buttonquail, formerly occurred along the western Mediterranean countries in both European (Italy, Spain & Portugal) and African (from Libya to Morocco) shores. Starting from a global review of the knowledge status of the whole family, we will focus on the recent history and status of this critically endangered taxon. Based on museum specimen data and historic literature we will reconstruct the former distribution area and then study the long-term changes in land use and the environmental drivers that can explain the large decline of the species along the XX century. Then an assessment of the demography status and habitat selection of the last remnant population that still exist in Morocco will be done as well as a description on the breeding biology and the natural history if this population. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kRXFThLoKCY

Carlos Gutiérrez-Expósito
Estación Biológica de Doñana

El estudio de las es de vital importancia ya que representan uno de los procesos más importantes de cambio global y pérdida de biodiversidad. Son dos los factores determinan la invasión de una nueva área: las características de la especie que invade, que determinan su potencial para invadir; y las características del ecosistema nativo, que determinan su susceptibilidad a ser invadido (“invasibilidad") y su vulnerabilidad a los impactos potenciales. Mi tesis se centra en este segundo factor, evaluando el efecto de las comunidades nativas en el éxito e impacto a una invasora mundial, la hormiga argentina (Linepithema humile), y la importancia relativa de uno de los principales mecanismos que modulan estos efectos: la resistencia biótica. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgTnfbp2fjM

Sara Castro
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Estudiar la diversidad de la vida es un desafío intelectual de primer orden, cuyos resultados tienen importantes implicaciones para la humanidad. Sin embargo, a día de hoy, incluso las unidades comparativas básicas en el estudio de la biodiversidad están poco o nada estudiadas. En este seminario, se expondrán los esfuerzos de un grupo de biólogos en el estudio de la biodiversidad animal. Usando radiaciones evolutivas de anfibios, como por ejemplo las ranas de cristal, en la región mas biodiversa del planeta—la cuenca amazónica—el Dr. Castroviejo-Fisher explicará desde como se organizan expediciones científicas a algunas de las regiones mas remotas del planeta para la colecta de datos, hasta como se testan explicaciones causales sobre el origen y distribución de la diversidad observada. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaistior4vM

Santiago Castroviejo-Fisher
Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (PUCRS), Porto Alegre, Brasil

Los cambios ambientales rápidos inducidos por el hombre, tales como la pérdida de habitats naturales son una amenaza para los polinizadores, y aún no sabemos qué especies de polinizadores están preparadas para afrontar estos cambios que suceden y seguirán sucediendo en el futuro. El desconocimiento de la adecuidad de los habitats o de la forma de afrontar los cambios pueden suponer pérdidas de ciertas especies. En esta tesis pretendemos investigar las habilidades que tienen las abejas para afrontar estos cambios, centrándonos un poco más en las abejas solitarias debido a la importancia que tiene en el servicio ecosistémico de la polinización, y comparando especies y rasgos para ver su habilidad plástica de adaptarse a los nuevos medios, viendo cómo utilizan los nuevos habitats que hemos ido modificando y experimentando con ellas para ver como afrontan situaciones nuevas para estudiar su comportamiento. VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRRI1gH7RAY

Miguel Ángel Collado
Estación Biológica de Doñana

La polinización mediada por insectos es un proceso fundamental para los ecosistemas terrestres así como para la producción de cultivos, siendo este un servicio ecosistémico clave para la humanidad. Las poblaciones de abejas están en declive como consecuencia de las presiones de los diferentes factores del cambio global existiendo una creciente evidencia que indica que estas presiones no actúan de manera aislada teniendo efectos interactivos complejos no aditivos. En la presente tesis trataremos de analizar la interacción de varios de estos factores de manera conjunta mediante experimentos en campo en taxones modelo con diferentes historias de vida.

Carlos Zaragoza
Estación Biológica de Doñana

During flight birds must move efficiently through an environment which is constantly changing, an environment which is also in motion. Radar networks and global tracking systems have created fantastic opportunities to study bird movement 24/7, over land and sea and across continents. By integrating measurements, models and expertise across a range of disciplines we study how birds respond to their environment and explore potential short and long term consequences of their flight behaviour. I show examples or how our knowledge is applied to reduce human-wildlife conflicts, to engage the public and foster fascination for science and the natural world around us.

Judy Shamoun-Baranes
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Doñana es uno de los humedales más emblemáticos y de mayor extensión en Europa, aunque al igual que muchos otros humedales en el mundo, se encuentra amenazado por la continua presión de las actividades humanas. Una de las principales amenazas en Doñana es la contaminación por nutrientes debido a la intensa actividad agrícola, industrial y a los núcleos urbanos del entorno que, junto con las condiciones climáticas de esta región, han provocado episodios de eutrofización y han contribuido al establecimiento de nueva especies invasoras en la marisma. En este contexto, el objetivo de esta tesis es precisamente ampliar el conocimiento sobre el origen y la contribución relativa de las principales fuentes de nutrientes, en especial del nitrógeno, que llegan a la marisma a través de los arroyos vertientes. En primer lugar, se usarán datos históricos de concentración de nutrientes en la marisma de Doñana para determinar las variaciones interanuales y los factores potenciales (antrópicos y climáticos) que puedan explicar dichas variaciones durante el periodo de estudio (1995-2010). En segundo lugar, se explorarán las variaciones intranuales y espaciales de datos de concentración de nutrientes recogidos en la marisma y arroyos vertientes entre 2013 y 2016. En tercer lugar, se emplearán los isótopos estables para determinar el origen del nitrógeno que llega a los arroyos y a la marisma usando como indicadores dos especies de macrófitas acuáticas (castañuela y espadaña) y los nitratos (NO3-) disueltos en el agua. De ellos se obtendrá la firma isotópica del nitrógeno (?15N) con la que se analizará la variación espacial y se intentará cuantificar la contribución relativa de las distintas fuentes antrópicas (fertilizantes, aguas residuales) en el aporte de nitrógeno a estos sistemas acuáticos. Finalmente, tanto los resultados de concentración de nutrientes como los de isótopos estables se cruzarán con datos climáticos y de usos del suelo del entorno de Doñana para la interpretación de los mismos. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-KN3LlkzgY

Irene Paredes Losada
Estación Biológica de Doñana

El coríxido invasor americano Trichocorixa verticalis verticalis se citó por primera vez en la Península Ibérica en el Algarve en 1997 y desde entonces se ha extendido dentro y fuera de Doñana, encontrándose en el delta del Guadalquivir, así como en otros lugares de interés de conservación de Andalucía, incluyendo humedales RAMSAR y Reservas Naturales. El éxito de una invasión depende en gran medida de cómo se enfrente a nuevas condiciones ambientales, tanto abióticas (requerimientos fisicoquímicos) como biológicas (interacciones con competidores nativos, con depredadores y parásitos (especialmente ácaros acuáticos)). La presente tesis investiga el papel de estos factores (abióticos -bióticos) involucrados en una invasión, haciendo hincapié en el papel de los ácaros acuáticos como limitante de la invasión. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7jeYj3FGqM

Vanesa Céspedes Castejón
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Biological invasions by alien species represent one of the major current threats to diversity. The commercial uses of alien species for recreational or ornamental uses are main pathways for deliberate introduction. The main objective of my thesis is to obtain a scientific analysis of the historical trends for the use of alien species with commercial value in Spain and the prediction of potential related future threats that allows us to carry out preventive actions. The first chapter is at a quite advanced stage. We conducted an ‘horizon scanning’ analysis of outdoor gardening plants commercially available in Spain. For this purpose we compiled a database which includes the vast majority of plant species sold in the market (919) and we classified them according to (1) its invasive status in Spain, including if regulated, (2) its invasive status elsewhere, (3) its climatic suitability for Spain, and (4) its potential ecological and socio-economic impacts. This database will be transferred to the national environmental authorities as the bases for Horizon scanning on potential invasive species in Spain which introduction could be avoided. Another chapter will be on the analyses of historical, functional and phylogenetic trends of planted woody plants in urban parks. Finally, I also plan to conduct an historical analyses of fashions of pets, hunting and sport fishing species based on specialized popular journals. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D8FMTWpqhTA

Alvaro Bayón
Estación Biológica de Doñana

The genus Oreobates is a clade of Neotropical frogs of which very little is known. More than half of the 24-named species have been described in the last ten years. They are distributed across a wide range of habitats and altitudes in South America. Unfortunately, some Oreobates species have been only found once. This is particularly a problem for traditional phylogeography and phylogenetics studies based on data from a few orthologous loci from multiple individuals. With the increasing usage of high throughput sequencing we are now able to sequence big amounts of orthologous loci, allowing the use of less individuals. In organisms with big genome sizes, such as amphibians, a common way to obtain a reduced representation of the genome is by transcriptome sequencing. Using a transcriptome-based exon capture approach, in my PhD thesis I will use thousands of orthologous genes to study evolution rates, demographic history and adaptation patterns on the frogs of the genus Oreobates. The results of this project will allow us to solve questions such as: “Is the evolution rate lower in the highland Oreobates species?”, “Is the genetic diversity larger in montane Oreobates species?” or “Are there any genes related to adaptation to dry forest in Oreobates?” VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Izie9FbXyRg

Santiago Montero-Mendieta
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Karen's visit is part of the Severo Ochoa’ women in science initiatives aiming at giving visibililty to the achievements and success of international women researchers and so to promote female role models in research that inspire and engage future generation of scientists. In this context, Karen, in addition to the seminar, will be giving a PhD round table same Tuesday 14th at 16h to talk about #WomenInScience VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5HtruI6ZDk

Karen McCoy
MIVEGEC (CNRS, Montpellier, France)

El área de distribución de una especie es una construcción conceptual que delimita el área donde está presente en un momento dado. El concepto de área de distribución es central en las disciplinas de biogeografía, macroecología y biología de la conservación, utilizándose a menudo para describir patrones de biodiversidad, informar en la gestión y conservación de recursos naturales, identificar áreas prioritarias para la conservación o investigar relaciones evolutivas. En este contexto recopilamos información mediante una revisión bibliográfica de los métodos comúnmente utilizados para delimitar áreas de distribución así como sus requerimientos, ventajas e inconvenientes. Nos centramos en algoritmos que utilizan registros de observaciones de especies como el Minimum Convex Polygon (MCP), Kernel Density Estimation (KDE) y k, r y a Local Convex Hulls (LoCoH). Evaluamos también como de robustos son estos algoritmos a variaciones en las características de las áreas de distribución (forma y fragmentación) y la cantidad y calidad de los datos, incluyendo el efecto de sesgos y errores. Finalmente, en base a los resultados obtenidos, elaboramos un procedimiento heurístico que permita definir las áreas de distribución a partir de información de presencia para una especie focal dada e información de otras especies en los lugares donde no hay información para la especie de estudio y que, a su vez, pueda ser implementado de manera automática en los servidores de información de biodiversidad. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e-g8w7fCOu0

Laura Ríos
Estación Biológica de Doñana

El intercambio de genes entre poblaciones través de la dispersión se ha considerado tradicionalmente como la principal fuerza que se opone a la diferenciación evolutiva. Sin embargo, estudios recientes muestran que los movimientos de dispersión pueden reforzar la diferenciación de poblaciones cuando el intercambio de individuos se producen de forma no aleatoria en relación a su genotipo o fenotipo particular. Las causas de la dispersión no aleatoria permanecen sin explorar en la mayoría de sistemas naturales y, por tanto, todavía desconocemos en gran medida sus consecuencias ecológicas y evolutivas. Esta tesis doctoral tiene como objetivos (1) caracterizar la diferenciación de poblaciones a pequeña escala espacial (2) estudiar el papel de la dispersión no aleatoria y (3) entender sus consecuencias ecológicas y evolutivas. El sistema de estudio está formado por dos hábitats geográficamente próximos (1 km) aunque ecológicamente distintos (reciente plantación de pinos y antiguo bosque de roble melojo) utilizados para nidificar por una población de papamoscas cerrojillo (Ficedula hypoleuca). Para abordar los objetivos de la tesis, contamos con una amplia base de datos sobre la reproducción, supervivencia y movimientos de los papamoscas obtenida tras más tres décadas de seguimiento (1984-2016) que servirá como complemento a los experimentos (intercambios de pollos) y recogida de datos (dieta y disponibilidad de alimento) que se han llevado a cabo en los últimos años. En este seminario, se expondrán los resultados obtenidos hasta la fecha en relación al efecto del fenotipo, la experiencia y la genética de los individuos sobre los patrones de dispersión y su papel en los procesos microevolutivos. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n7hZRvxHyFo

Carlos Camacho
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Closely related species are expected to share similar ecological niches, yet also compete more strongly with one another. How does that affect their coexistence? Using phylogenetic history to understand ecology has typically been approached with descriptive data sets. Here, I describe some studies in which we explicitly incorporate phylogeny in our experimental design to address the conundrum posed by Darwin. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kph_Z5bsTJM

Sharon Strauss
University of Davis, California

Aimee is an ecosystem and global change ecologist. In the last 10 years she has moved from Tennessee to Copenhagen and very recently she moved to Vermont.

Aimeé T Classen
University of Vermont

The understanding of the population fluctuations of rodents, especially voles, is fundamental because their ecological, healthy and economic importance. The literature shows a high variety in schools of thought about what the drivers of the population fluctuations are. However no study provides information about the general causes of the population fluctuations. Therefore the global goal of the Thesis is to identify the general trends and drivers of the population fluctuations of voles. Nevertheless, the specific goals of the Thesis are: (1) to provide a public and standardized database with the capture-recapture data of most of the vole populations sampled since 60s; (2) to describe the survival and reproductive rates of the different populations and species; (3) to identify the general drivers of the population changes; and (4) to detect early warning signals of vole outbreaks. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFNlPuv7nKw

Rubén Bernardo
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Las actividades humanas generan grandes y acelerados cambios globales, cuyos impactos en la naturaleza aumentan conforme crece la presión antrópica. Como consecuencia, la biodiversidad se encuentra amenazada a lo largo y ancho del planeta, siendo un gran número de especies las que han desaparecido o en las que han disminuido sus poblaciones. Sin embargo, recientemente se están proporcionando evidencias a favor de la recuperación del nivel de abundancia y distribución histórica de algunos grandes mamíferos terrestres debido a la recolonización de ciertos ambientes humanizados. La finalidad de este proyecto de tesis es conocer qué efecto tendrán sobre especies con altos requerimientos espaciales, los cambios en el uso del paisaje por motivos socioeconómicos que ocurren en la actualidad y la presencia de nuevas presas provenientes de reintroducciones. Para ello, se analizará si los grandes felinos Neotropicales como el jaguar y el puma, pueden hacer uso de hábitats y de presas producto de la humanización del medio natural. Nuestra hipótesis inicial de trabajo es que la combinación de ciertos cambios en las actividades humanas podría tener un efecto positivo en la recuperación de las poblaciones de estos grandes felinos neotropicales en paisajes humanizados, al reducir los conflictos socioeconómicos que enfrentan a los depredadores con la población rural, y a su vez permitir la persistencia de sus poblaciones en hábitats más favorables para estas especies. Por lo tanto, la viabilidad poblacional de estas especies amenazadas podría modificarse en las áreas más transformadas de su distribución, mejorando su estado de conservación. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HVd9uUgLF28

Setefilla Buenavista
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Las invasiones biológicas son una seria amenaza para la conservación de la biodiversidad global, la economía y el funcionamiento de los ecosistemas. Entre estas especies invasoras, los loros (Psittaciformes) son uno de los grupos de aves más extendidos debido a su extensa comercialización internacional como mascotas (el 16% de las especies de psitácidos han establecido poblaciones salvajes fuera de sus áreas de distribución nativa). Sin embargo, se desconocen sus impactos reales, especialmente los que ocasionan sobre la biota nativa de los ecosistemas receptores. En este contexto, la presente Tesis Doctoral tiene como objetivo fundamental evaluar las interacciones ecológicas e impactos de las especies exóticas/invasoras de psitácidos en distintos ambientes y comunidades biológicas. En particular, se utilizan como modelo de estudio las dos especies de loros de mayor distribución y éxito de invasión (la cotorra de Kramer, Psittacula krameri, y la cotorra argentina, Myiopsitta monachus), para evaluar los procesos de competencia por recursos (sitios de nidificación), el comensalismo y la facilitación de nuevos recursos para las especies nativas, y analizar el rol de estas especies invasoras como dispersores de semillas de plantas nativas y exóticas. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdIYAmC2dxc

Dailos Hernández Brito
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Understanding the processes that generate and maintain biological diversity and how these interact with landscape history is a central theme in biogeography and evolutionary biology. Information across the whole spatiotemporal spectrum at which these processes take place is also necessary to preserve biodiversity at its different levels, from ecosystems and communities to unique intraspecific evolutionary processes. The study of recent evolutionary radiations is particularly attractive to address these questions because the signatures of such events have not been fully erased by time and thus provide the potential to infer processes from patterns in genetic data. The goal of this project is to integrate next generation sequencing (NGS) techniques, detailed phenotypic information and spatial modelling to unravel the factors promoting recent evolutionary radiations and infer the underlying evolutionary processes behind spatial patterns of genetic, ecological and phenotypic divergence. This project will use as model a species complexe of montane grasshoppers of the genera Omocestus (subgenus Dreixius) to understand the consequences of past climatic changes and the role of geography, environment and adaptation processes in species diversification phenomena and regional and local intraspecific patterns of genomic variation. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6o_8aCbu0HI

Vanina Tonzo
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Despite the wealth of knowledge of ecology of amphibian larvae, their functional role within aquatic systems is relatively poorly studied. In this thesis we study the interactions between amphibian larvae and other trophic levels present in temporary ponds, especially with aquatic macrophytes. We focus on the effects of tadpole herbivory on native aquatic macrophytes, studying the consequences for the reproductive phenology and effort of the plants, under different contexts of long lasting vs. dry down water levels. Moreover, we are also assessing the effects of an invasive plant, Azolla filoculoides on native macrophytes and zooplankton, and how these effects can cascade onto amphibian larvae. Finally, we are also studying different aspects of the dispersal of seeds of aquatic macrophytes by tadpoles, and the possibility of secondary long distance dispersal as a consequence of bird predation on amphibian larvae. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-wcvo1TGG4

María Jesús Piñero Rodríguez
Estación Biológica de Doñana

My research interests lie in how the interaction between the environment and the genotype can shape phenotypic variation within a species. Variation in phenotypic expression can either result from differential gene expression in response to environmental variability (environmentally-sensitive genes) and/or genetic adaptation to the varying environment along a geographical gradient. I am aiming to answer how the interplay of ecological factors and underlying genetic mechanisms give rise to phenotypic expression, and am incorporating an array of study questions and systems in my dissertation. In my first chapter, I am investigating an intriguing case of continental dwarfism in amphibians, focusing on the natterjack toad Epidalea calamita in southern Spain. The dwarf populations in Doñana are about 30% smaller than conspecific populations only about 60 km North, while lacking an efficient geographical barrier. To fully understand the various factors that are driving the intraspecific size variation in this species, I am incorporating standard metabolic rate analysis, stable isotope analysis, skeletochronolgy, male advertisement call description, female behavioral assays, and population genetics using neutral markers. From my second to fourth chapter, I am using the spadefoot toad Pelobates cultripes to study the evolution of phenotypic plasticity. For my second chapter I am raising and conducting water drop experiments on 10 populations of P. cultripes tadpoles, half of which originate from long lasting ponds and half from ephemeral ponds. Those are predicted to have evolved a different capacity to respond to pond desiccation and accelerate development, thus the phenotypic as well as transcriptomic reaction norm will vary across populations. In continuation of this experiment, I am testing the carry-over effects of the environmental challenges experienced in the larval stage in the terrestrial stage in my third chapter. Further, for my fourth chapter, I am planning on exploring the transgenerational effects of the capacity to respond to environmental stress and aim to describe the paternal and maternal effects separately. To do so, I am going to raise my toads to sexual maturity and conduct the water drop experiment on the F1 generation. For my fifth chapter, I am using the waterflea Daphnia magna, a study system that is more readily manipulated in lab conditions due to its fast reproductive cycle. This will allow me to conduct large-scale experiments comprising several generations and populations. I am planning on conducting an experiment on 2 populations of Daphnia, of which only one will receive a predator cue. Subsequently, I will describe how the phenotypically plastic responses of Daphnia have altered the population dynamics and build a model to describe the weight of phenotypic plasticity on population demography. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UY7T-aEEPA

Hyeun-Ji
Estación Biológica de Doñana

The recognition of the structure of ecological communities is the main objective of community ecology. Observed patterns are fundamental to know the relative importance of the different factors that determine the structure of these ecological communities. This is because once the pattern is recognized, the question is to investigate which are the underlying processes causing that pattern. Currently, species local coexistence is better understood considering not only environmental factors or interactions among species, but also the regional distribution of the species under study. The general aim of the Thesis is to describe the assembly patterns of mammal communities in a fragmented agroecosystem and infer possible underlying processes that may cause these patterns. To do this, we follow a regional-to-local perspective. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KNP7EMmrNP8

Bruno Suárez
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Las invasiones biológicas son consideradas, hoy en día, una de las principales y más severas causas de pérdida de biodiversidad, y específicamente, en ecosistemas dulceacuícolas. Desde un punto de vista multidisciplinar, esta tesis se centra en el estudio de una de las especies invasoras más conocidas y extendidas a lo largo de todo el mundo: el cangrejo rojo americano (Procambarus clarkii). En grandes líneas, los objetivos son (1) conocer la historia de la invasión en Europa desde un punto de vista filogeográfico, la estructura y conectividad entre las distintas poblaciones; (2) estudiar la expresión de proteínas para saber cómo los individuos hacen frente a nuevas condiciones abióticas; (3) evaluar la compleja interacción entre dos especies invasora de cangrejo (Procambarus clarkii y Pacifastacus leniusculus); y finalmente, evaluar las consecuencias de la invasión sobre (4) especies de macroinvertebrados, (5) anfibios a causa de la quitridiomicosis y (6) otras especies de cangrejos nativos europeos a consecuencia de la afanomicosis o peste del cangrejo. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6pvUvZA8kho

Fran Oficialdegui
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Parasites are model systems for linking microevolutionary processes with macroevolutionary patterns. Avian feather lice spend their entire lifecycle on the body of their host and are highly host specific. Variation in host specificity across different groups of dove feather lice is related to differences in dispersal ability, which translates into differences in how much the evolutionary tree of lice matches that of their hosts. Across feather lice more broadly, genera differ in how they escape host preening defenses, having repeatedly evolved into head, wing, and body lice, often diverging within a single host group. New phylogenomic techniques using an automated Target Restricted Assembly (aTRAM) method can assemble thousands of genes from genome sequences of lice, which have relatively small genomes. Phylogenies based on these genes are highly supported and provide new insights into the higher level relationships of lice. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0gTE1C18-cY

Kevin P. Johnson
University of Illinois

Climate change and biological invasions are two of the greatest threats to global biodiversity and ecosystem functioning. Both climate change and invasions have, individually, caused population declines and local extinctions of native species. Furthermore, these threats may not be independent, leading to a “double whammy” for native species if they are simultaneously impacted by climate change and invasive species both directly and indirectly, e.g., via climatedriven increases in invasive species or invasive species impacts on the ability of natives to cope with climate change. In my talk, I address the hypothesis that climate change and species invasions will interact, to the detriment of native species. First, I ask: will invasive species be favored over native species under changing climatic conditions? Secondly, will climate change increase the impacts of invasive species on native species? I draw conclusions from empirical data and results of meta-analyses and syntheses conducted as part of two international, crossecosystem working groups. Together, these findings suggest that climate change is likely to increase the success and impacts of many invasive species. However, the threat varies across taxa, ecosystems, and regions, highlighting the importance of localized prevention and management efforts and scope for restoration under future change.

Cascade Sorte
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of California, Irvine

Aprender haciendo: la gestión adaptativa como herramienta de respuesta rápida al cambio global VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMDs_A33BNU

Luis Santamaria
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Tras la finalización del proyecto de internacionalización de la ICTS de la RBD se ha puesto en marcha una infraestructura que proporcionará apoyo a la investigación a través de un conjunto de servicios sobre varios niveles del stack tecnológico corporativo y en su globalidad, conforman un nuevo y potente marco de trabajo. El seminario hará un breve resumen práctico del uso de las diferentes utilidades del framework de la ICTS, pasando desde herramientas habilitadas en los elabs a las disponibles en Observatorio de Cambio Global de Doñana. Se simulará un workflow de trabajo que incluirá, entre otras, la ejecución de scripts de R desde entornos online y el pre-tratamiento y la visualización de datos, tanto gráfica como geoespacialmente.

Antonio García y Luis Torres
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Next-generation DNA sequencing has revolutionized the way we can study evolutionary and ecological processes using genomic data. In this talk, I will show how genomic data can be used in an evolutionary and ecological context, to understand the past and present diversity, distribution, and dynamics of megafauna (large mammal) species and communities. I will discuss how DNA retrieved from ancient material including the bones, teeth and gut content of Late Pleistocene megafauna can be used to infer the past ecology and population dynamics of extinct species, and demonstrate how DNA extracted from sediments can be used to reconstruct the palaeoenvironments once inhabited by these Ice Age giants. Furthermore, using genome-wide data from the polar bear, I will demonstrate how population genomics has been used to estimate the age of the species, reconstruct the joint demographic history of polar bear and brown bear, and identify candidate genes under positive selection in the polar bear lineage that have enabled the species to survive the extreme conditions of life in the High Arctic. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6Zw7bHEULk

Eline Lorenzen
Natural History Museum of Denmark

Dr. Ian Newton earned a Ph.D. at Oxford University under the tutelage of David Lack. He has been interested in birds since his childhood. As a teenager he became particularly fascinated by finches, and undertook doctoral and post-doctoral studies on them. His interest in that group has continued to the present time. Beginning in the 1970s, Dr. Newton conducted extensive research on the long-term impacts of organochlorine pesticides on several raptor species, and on the population ecology of the Eurasian Sharrowhawk. His 30-year study of a Eurasian Sparrowhawk population nesting in southern Scotland has resulted in what many consider to be the most detailed and longest-running study of any population of birds of prey. In 1979, he produced the classic book, “Population Ecology of Raptors,” and a comprehensive monograph on the Eurasian Sparrowhawk followed in 1986. Dr. Newton’s research in avian population ecology focuses on the factors that limit bird numbers and distributions, including pesticide impacts. From 1989-2000, Ian headed the Avian Biology Section at the Monks Wood Research Station, and has continued his research on raptors since his “retirement” in 2000. He has authored, or co-authored, 13 books, published over 300 technical papers, and made frequent television and radio appearances. He has served as President of the British Ornithologists’ Union and the British Ecological Society, as Chairman of the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds in the United Kingdom, and of The Peregrine Fund in the United States. He is the current Chairman of the British Trust for Ornithology. Dr. Newton has received numerous awards, including Order of the British Empire, the Union Medal and Goodman-Salvin Medal of the British Ornithologists’ Union, and the Elliot Coues Award of the American Ornithologists’ Union. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x02ewExbPkw

Ian Newton
Centre for Ecology & Hydrology Wallingford, OXON Lancaster, United Kingdom

This presentation describes a novel perspective on life history evolution that combines recent advances in /r/- versus /K/-selection theory with behavioural ecology theory on pace-of-life syndromes (POLS). These theories predict phenotypic co-variation in life history, physiological, morphological and behavioural traits as a continuum from the fast reproducing short-lived bold, aggressive and highly dispersive /r/-selected types at one end of the POLS to the slow reproducing long-lived cautious, shy, plastic and socially-responsive /K/-selected types at the other. We propose that such variation in life histories and the associated individual differences in behaviour can be explained through their eco-evolutionary dynamics with population density – a single and ubiquitous selective component that is present in all biological systems. Contrasting regimes of environmental stochasticity are expected to affect population density in time and space and create differing patterns of fluctuating /r/- versus /K/-selection, and this generates variation in fast versus slow life-histories within and between populations. We therefore predict that a major axis of phenotypic and genetic co-variation in life history, physiological, morphological and behavioural traits (i.e. the POLS) should align with the major trade-off in the multivariate fitness landscape created by these fluctuations in /r/- versus /K/-selection. Phenotypic plasticity and/or genetic (co-)variation generated along this major axis in life history trait co-variation is thus expected to facilitate rapid and adaptively coordinated changes in various aspects of life history within and between populations and/or species. In addition, negative frequency-dependent selection on the different individual types, such as on fast aggressive /r/-types of individuals when at high densities, could further exaggerate phenotypic variation along the POLS caused by fluctuations in population density. The /r/- vs /K/-selection POLS framework presented here therefore provides a series of clear and testable predictions, the results of which will further our fundamental understanding of life history evolution and thus our ability to predict natural population dynamics in the face of environmental change.?

Jonathan Wright
NTNU Norwegian University of Science and Technology (Norway)

El debate sobre la importancia relativa de los efectos genéticos y demográficos sobre las poblaciones ha sido uno de los más importantes de las últimas décadas. En esta charla introduciré la importancia de la pregunta en el contexto de degradación ambiental actual y lo que sabemos sobre el tema. Presentare datos empíricos sobre los efectos de la variabilidad genética en caracteres asociados a la eficacia biológica que no han sido explorados hasta la fecha. Para ello utilizare datos de poblaciones naturales de mamíferos, de 2 especies de ratón y de leones. Los resultados ponen de manifiesto primero, la importancia de los estudios longitudinales en poblaciones salvajes para desvelar estos efectos y, segundo, la importancia de la consideración explicita de niveles intermedios de organización biológica, como la fisiología, para comprender la estructura de causalidad que va de los genes al nivel poblacional.

Aurelio Malo
University of Oxford, UK

Bird seed-dispersal (BSD) interactions can function as mobile links to connect fragmented forests by scaling-up from within-fragment networks to a spatial metanetwork linked by shared interactions. We explored the structure of a metanetwork of BSD-interactions from 16 fragments of a biodiversity hotspot, the Atlantic Forest, to test whether a distinct subset of BSD-interactions may mediate connectivity among forest fragments. We found high beta-diversity and turnover of interactions among fragments, forming an interaction-rich, modular and poorly connected metanetwork. Larger, less-disturbed tracts harboured distinct interactions vanishing in smaller-area fragments (<10,000 ha) which, in turn, harboured new combinations of interacting species, generating geographic variation across large spatial scales. Potential mobile links constituted a distinct subset of interactions, involving generalist small-bodied bird species and small-seeded, fast-growing plant species. We unveiled specific BSD-interactions as the metanetwork components potentially connecting forest fragments and persisting facing defaunation and fragmentation, possibly leading to long-term changes of forest structure. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7hdPtNAnhs

Carine Emer
UNESP/EBD-CSIC

A major goal in ecology and evolutionary biology is to understand how environmental change generates a rapid phenotypic response through evolutionary and ecological processes. A particular and currently important form of environmental change is the ongoing global change in climate. There is increasing evidence of micro-evolutionary changes associated with climate and other on selection driven by variation in climate. However, little is known how these are linked and what the underlying physiological adaptations are. A classical way of investigating such adaptation to different environments is the study of genetic colour polymorphism in natural opulations. This is because theory predicts that colour morphs are adaptations to different environments. In this talk I will present long-term data on tawny owl colour polymorphism. I will first show how climate change drives natural selection on colouration and how this translates into micro-evolutionary change. Second, I will present our studies showing the putative mechanisms of this climate-driven selection dealing with plumage insulation, parasite defence and telomere dynamics. Lastly I will present some future prospects of the project.

Patrik Karell
Novia University of Applied Sciences

Several theoretical models on the evolution of begging predicts that begging must be costly to be an honest, and evolutionarily stable, signal of need. However, the empirical search for begging cost has been unsuccessful, with proposed costs of begging, such as energy, attraction of predators, or reduced growth, not being universal or sufficient to explain the evolution of begging. Nonetheless, recent research points to a cost of begging in the form of reduced immunocompetence. Laboratory experiments with an array of bird species repetitively support the contention of a negative correlation between begging effort and immunocompetence. Moreover, my co-workers and I have shown that the negative impact of begging on immune system is not compensated by the increased ingest of food in fiercely begging nestlings. Furthermore, in a long-term field experiment, we have modified begging behaviour of pied flycatcher (Ficedula hypoleuca) nestlings, finding that begging level is under natural selection, and that its trade-off with immune system is key for understanding the impact of begging on fitness. In overall, although the subjacent cause of the relationship between begging and immune system remains unclear, recent findings suggest that offspring begging exaggeratedly may incur in an immunological cost, which has shaped the evolution of begging. However, these empirical results, demonstrating that begging is associated with a “cost”, do not demonstrate that such a cost is necessary for begging to be honest and evolutionarily stable. Begging, as other behaviours, might be inevitably associated to physiological processes, conducing to unavoidable trade-offs. In fact, several mathematical models predict that cheap begging may be honest and evolutionarily stable. The model in which I am working, as other models, predicts that begging does not require be costly to be honest, but the cost increases information contained in the signal. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0cq3lwHKN80

Gregorio Moreno-Rueda
Departamento de Zoología. Universidad de Granada

This talk, which is the result of a 30-year study, will discuss the factors that influence the population levels of Sparrowhawks, including habitat, food supply, and nest sites. It will discuss the lifetime reproduction of individuals, and age-related changes in the reproduction, survival and behaviour of individuals, and how these measures relate to territory quality. Many findings from this species are also applicable to other birds of prey, and also to some non-raptorial birds. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7Fu_4tRXzo

Ian Newton
Centre for Ecology and Hydrology, Natural Environment Research Council

La historia de la ornitología española en el S.XIX y primera mitad del XX está constituida por materiales pobres, dispersos, de difícil acceso, a menudo mal documentados, y muy poco estudiados. En este seminario presentaré las investigaciones que he hecho sobre ornitología histórica de Cataluña y Menorca. Se tratará el acceso a fuentes de información (archivos, colecciones, literatura gris) con ejemplos concretos sobre el efecto del esfuerzo de muestreo, citas invernales, rapaces, y biografías de los ornitólogos y naturalistas más relevantes de la época. Se mostrarán fotografías históricas inéditas de mi archivo personal

Xavier Ferrer
Dep. Biologia Animal, Universitat de Barcelona

Understanding the processes and key drivers of biodiversity loss is fundamental in halting the decline. New Zealand was one of the last large land masses to be colonised by humans, so the consequences of human arrival are still playing out. Although we have made great strides in managing some invasive species, there remain many challenges if we are to retain the essence of a biota that was isolated for 80 million years. Using examples from my involvement with conservation research, from the iconic k?k?p? (nocturnal, ground parrot), to the ecology and control of introduced northern hemisphere social wasps I will discuss the key challenges for conservation in New Zealand. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vFpcYQpLJnQ

Jacqueline Beggs
Centre for Biodiversity and Biosecurity, University of Auckland

From vulnerable to critically endangered, the seven existing sea turtle species have long suffered from anthropogenic actions, such as overhunting/poaching, large-scale fishing activities, pollution and habitat degradation. Different phenomena such as hybridization and extreme low molecular diversity have been detected for some populations in different studies, but it is unclear how the recent pressures have been involved in changes in the evolutionary history of sea turtles. The amount and diversity of molecular markers available to study such influences is still very low and analyses lack statistical confidence in many cases due to low variation and/or high levels of shared SNPs. We have decided to use one single genomic approach that can boost the number and variety of nuclear molecular markers available for all sea turtle species. Assuming a deceleration of evolutionary rates in sea turtles, we have used the same Double-Digest Restriction Associated DNA (ddRAD) sequencing methodology for the five sea turtle species with worldwide distribution and generated thousands of new molecular markers that will be useful for a large number of important conservational questions, such as levels of population structuring and composition of mixed-stock. The approach we present in this study is a simple but effective solution to largely deepen the knowledge upon ddRAD data produced that can be transferred to virtually any given species or population. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z3o2FKeD66U

Camila Mazzoni
Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research , Berlin. Department of Evolutionary Genetics

I will talk about the factors shaping invasive species richness and distribution in Europe and Australia at large scales and will also present several case studies from our work on interactions between invasive and native birds from around the world, with focus on parrots, starlings, mynas and more. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_gYHNMbflo

Salit Kark
University of Queensland

Wood-pastures are multi-functional habitats that uphold high ecological and cultural values. However, they are currently declining in Europe as a result of land use changes, modulated by agricultural intensification or abandonment. Large herbivores may be utilized for wood-pasture restoration and management. To test whether Gotland ponies could serve as tool for wood-pasture restoration, a three year field experiment with paired control (herbivore exclusion) and experimental plots was applied at three different 10 ha wood-pasture enclosures replicates, where four one year old stallions were introduced per enclosure. We tested whether browsing had an effect on the forest structure by comparing tree height/diameter ratios in experimental (grazed) and controls and, and on the forest composition, and therefore quantified 1) browsing pressure estimates, 2) tree consumption estimates and 3) tree selectivity estimates that ultimately conform a management “tool-kit” for wood-pasture restoration and management. In grassland dominated areas, we used community-weighted means of plant functional traits to elucidate plant community changes induced by grazing and abandonment (ungrazed) conditions. We tested for plant-insect co-dependent functional traits to investigate the response on insect pollinated plants and the subsequent effects on habitat utilization of butterfly and bumble bee communities. The grassland community exerted a mixed tolerance-avoidance response to grazing. This resulted in a gradual change of the community composition which favored prostrate plant species (low plant height at maturity, H) with high specific leaf area (SLA), characteristic of ruderal (R) communities. Plant species richness was significantly higher in grazed compared to ungrazed plots. Butterfly and bumble bee species richness and feeding-resting activities were higher in grazed areas, except for butterfly feeding where no significant effect was found; this was also true for the number of generalist and specialist butterfly species. We found a positive relation between pollinator species richness and feeding activities, and plant species richness. The abandonment of semi-natural grasslands can have rapid pernicious effects on plant species richness and composition and consequent effects on pollinator communities. Thus, the re-introduction of large herbivores may offset the general rapid biodiversity decline in agricultural landscapes by maintaining important functional links between plants and pollinators in grassland ecosystems. Urgent solutions to be found to tackle wood-pasture abandonment and biodiversity losses of semi-natural grasslands for our increasingly abandoned European agricultural landscapes.

Pablo Garrido
Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences

Concerns regarding the ecological footprint of conventionally intensified agriculture are global. Ecological intensification, or the improvement of crop yield through enhancement of biodiversity, may be a sustainable pathway toward greater food supplies. Such sustainable increases may be especially important for the 2 billion people reliant on small farms, many of which are undernourished, yet we know little about the efficacy of this approach. Using a coordinated protocol across regions and crops, we quantify to what degree enhancing pollinator density and richness can improve yields on 344 fields from 33 pollinator-dependent crop systems in small and large farms from Africa, Asia, and Latin America. For fields less than 2 hectares, we found that yield gaps could be closed by a median of 24% through higher flower-visitor density. For larger fields, such benefits only occurred at high flower-visitor richness. Worldwide, our study demonstrates that ecological intensification can create synchronous biodiversity and yield outcomes. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdNpvoxEn4o

Lucas Garibaldi
Instituto de Investigaciones en Recursos Naturales, Agroecología y Desarrollo Rural (IRNAD) / CONICET

Esta semana tendremos un seminario con un formato un tanto fuera de lo común. El jueves a la 1 en el CABIMER proyectaremos el documental “Peces en el desierto” de Ecotono, protagonizado por las andanzas de nuestros compañeros del departamento de Biología de Conservación en busca de la ictiofauna que habita en las condiciones extremas de los ríos de las zonas más áridas de Marruecos. Después de la proyección (media hora), podremos disfrutar de un rato de charla y debate con el productor Javier Esquivias y sus protagonistas. Aunque ya lo hayáis visto en youtube (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WdwJiG2iS9U), ¡no perdáis esta oportunidad!

departamento de Biología de Conservación
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Islands are the test-tube experiments of evolutionary biologist and have played a fundamental role in our current understanding of diversification. Processes such as adaptive radiation and convergent evolution are trademarks of island biotas. However, isolated ecosystems do also offer ample opportunities for non-ecologically driven speciation. Because of their airborne dispersal capabilities, spiders are among the first settlers of remote islands and their predatory habits and ability to endure starvation makes them important component of other isolated ecosystems, such as caves and mountain tops. In this presentation, I will review some of the research conducted in my lab on the diversification of spiders on island-like systems and will discuss its main drivers, and the underlying similarities and idiosyncrasies of the evolutionary process in remote and extreme habitats. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TCXRUjTzaWk

Miquel Arnedo
Departament de Biologia Evolutiva, Ecologia i Ciències Ambientals, Fac. Biologia, Universitat de Barcelona.

Since Heinrich Fahrenholz proposed his rule back in 1913, the idea of symbionts speciating following host speciation (i.e., cospeciating) has dominated research on parasite evolutionary ecology. Recent studies, however, have shown that host-shift speciation (speciation after switching to a new host species) is almost as relevant as cospeciation in explaining symbiont diversification. The relative importance of these processes is highly variable among host-symbiont systems and ranges from strict cospeciation to extensive host-switching, according to system features such as the mode of transmission of symbionts: permanent and vertically transmitted symbionts, such as bird feather mites, belong to the extreme end of the continuum in which cospeciation alone should explain symbiont diversification. In this thesis, we have first developed tools for the study of feather mites, and we have investigated key aspects of their ecology relevant to understand their evolution. Then, with the help of this knowledge and tools, we studied the diversification history of feather mites in a macroecological context. In this talk, I will give an overview of these results and of ongoing works. Overall, I will show the unexpected relevance of host-shift speciation on the diversification history of feather mites. And, lastly, in the light of ecological fitting theory, I will discuss why host-shift speciation should no longer be considered irrelevant even for permanent and highly host-specific symbionts. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbtgB4Y8W5w

Jorge Doña
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Migratory waterbirds act as dispersal vectors for a broad variety of organisms that have no or limited means of active dispersal such as plants and invertebrates. In Andalucia, the wintering population of the Lesser Black-Backed gulls (Larus fuscus) has increased greatly over the past 20 years. Larus fuscus individuals move regularly between and within different wetlands and they may play a key role in the dynamics aquatic metacommunites and wetlands across Andalusia by co-dispersing certain species. During the first half of the winter I will quantify and model the co-dispersal effect of gulls in ricefields, giving importance to dispersed weeds that may have an economic impact to the ricefields. The second winter half, I will study and model the co-dispersal connectivity of those gulls between wetlands all around Andalusia focusing in alien species that may be passively transported. I will also focus more in detail in Fuente de Piedra lagoon as an important roosting place of gulls in Andalusia. I will study the behavior of gulls meanwhile they remain in the lagoon and surrondings, and thus, quantify the external nutrient and contamintants transported by gulls. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TH_zHE-0rns

Víctor Martín
Estación Biológica de Doñana

La divulgación no es una opción, es una necesidad. Pero no puede realizarse de cualquier forma: requiere conectar con el público, seducirle, atraerle y ganarle para la causa. Por ello, quienes tenemos la obligación de hacer la ciencia extensible a la sociedad debemos usar herramientas a la hora de comunicar que apelen a su emoción. Os lanzo dos preguntas para que reflexionemos: ¿Hay algo que no pueda ser comprendido? ¿Hay algo que no pueda ser explicado? Si la respuesta es NO, estás listo para comunicar ciencia. En este pequeño encuentro abordaremos los principales problemas a la hora de comunicar ciencia, cómo solventarlos, cuáles son las herramientas más adecuadas y, finalmente, veremos algunos casos prácticos de éxito y fracaso. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sOSXA-cV0mI

Erika López
Casa de la Ciencia/Delegación del CSIC Andalucía

Birds are one of the most popular models in biological research. However, our knowledge about this group is to a great extent based on a very limited number of species that have been intensively studied because of their high tolerance to capture and handling, among other reasons. This bias is particularly severe in temperate zone species that breed in artificial nest boxes. Monitoring non-conventional taxa with scientific purposes generally poses a major challenge to researchers, but may however reveal alternative life strategies that deviate from the standard assumptions and thereby contribute to a more complete picture of the actual diversity of this group. In this talk, I will present the results of the work carried out by the Estación Biológica de Doñana over the last decade with one of the least known European birds: the red-necked nightjar (Caprimulgus ruficollis). VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzeoaUbObYE

Carlos Camacho
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Understanding the biological pathways causing life-history trade-offs is a challenge of major importance, because it concerns all life including humans. Telomere length potentially provides a unifying window on this problem, because many associations between telomere length and life history traits have been reported in recent years in a variety of species. In this talk I will provide a summarizing overview of current knowledge of causes and consequences of variation in telomere length. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3p6D9kDylrQ

Simon Verhulst
University of Groningen

El olor de un ave juega un papel fundamental para la atracción de los mosquitos. Factores como la especie, sexo o edad, incluso hábitat y dieta, pueden modificar la composición de las secreciones de la glándula uropigial, y con ello, su olor. Así, el papel de estas secreciones estaría relacionado con la atracción de los mosquitos, condicionando la transmisión de patógenos, como la malaria aviar. Programa de Seminarios ‘cicCartuja Phd Talks’: http://phd-talks.ciccartuja.es

Alazne Díez
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Hydrogen isotopes are of paramount interest for studies of animal migration and food web ecology, but these techniques have been methodologically complex. This seminar will cover the potential (and challenges) of using H isotopes to track insect migration and movements, and to investigate to which extent autochthonous (aquatic) and allochthonous (terrestrial) primary production fuel Afrotropical aquatic food webs.

David X. Soto
Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences. University of Leuven

Los pigmentos florales están considerados como una pieza clave en la diversificación de las angiospermas ya que pueden afectar a los grupos de polinizadores que visitan las flores. Las antocianinas son los pigmentos más diversos y ampliamente extendidos entre las plantas con flores y su ruta biosintética es una de las mejores estudiadas. El avance en los campos de la biología molecular y la química orgánica ha permitido identificar los genes, enzimas y moléculas responsables de los cambios de color floral que pueden conllevar procesos de especiación. En esta charla presentaré un estudio sobre la interconexión de distintos niveles de organización cuando se produce un cambio de color floral. Estos cambios conllevan un efecto en el proceso de comunicación planta-polinizador ya que afecta desde la expresión génica asociada a la producción de antocianinas hasta su percepción por los polinizadores. Emplearé como sistema de estudio tres especies de brasicáceas, polinizadas principalmente por himenópteros y que presentan una elevada variación de color producida por la acumulación de antocianinas. Por último, presentaré una nueva metodología basada en fotografía digital que permite estimar de forma no destructiva la cantidad de antocianinas presente en flores y otros órganos vegetales. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7iwAruyYrGc

Eduardo Narbona
Universidad Pablo de Olavide

The honeybee Apis mellifera is vital for maintaining levels of biodiversity and agricultural production through its role in plant pollination. However, it is threatened by several factors, including pathogens, biological invasions, climate change and pollution. We are surveying genetic variation across the entire genome in these populations using next-generation sequencing in order to identify the molecular basis of traits under selection for adaptation to different environments and disease resistance. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0xKdUnr-eI

Matthew Webster
Uppsala University

The specialists, lesser kestrel, and its close relative, the generalist common kestrel, are two protected raptors breeding in sympatry in southern Spain. In this doctorate thesis project, we want to study the movement ecology of these two falcons in a comparative way. Under the umbrella of individual specialization, we want to study the movement strategies of the two species during commuting flights, energy expenditure, habitat selection and prey selection in three study areas that differ in habitat availability. The main hypothesis is that common kestrels my show individual specialization that will be reflected in their movement strategy while lesser kestrels may be limited by their already highly specialized character. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kCRMVc1mbI

Lina Lopez Ricaurte
Estación Biológica de Doñana

In order to offer an alternative to the current system of publication -which is particularly expensive and not very transparent - we have initiated the Peer Community in (PCI, https://peercommunityin.org) project. PCI is a non-profit scientific organization that aims to create specific communities of researchers reviewing and recommending,for free, unpublished preprints in their field (i.e. unpublished articles deposited on open online archives like arXiv.org and bioRxiv.org). Each PCI is a group of several hundreds recommenders playing the role of editors who recommend such preprints based on peer-reviews to make them complete, reliable and citable articles, without the need for publication in 'traditional' journals (altough the authors can submit their recommended preprints afterwards). Evaluations and recommendations by PCI Evol Biol are free of charge. When a recommender decides to recommend a preprint, he/she writes a recommendation text that is published along with all the editorial correspondence (reviews, recommender's decisions, authors' replies) by PCI Evol Biol. The preprint itself is not published by PCI Evol Biol; it remains in the preprint server where it has been posted by the authors. The first Peer Community in has been launched in 2017: Peer Community in Evolutionary Biology (PCI Evol Biol). More than 350 recommenders have already joined PCI Evol Biol. PCI Paleontology and PCI Ecology have been launched in January 2018 and this latter PCI already counts 250 recommenders. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3kCRMVc1mbI

Denis Bourget
Centre de Biologie pour la Gestion des Populations (CBGP), Montpellier

The timing of annual cycle events (i.e. phenology) shows evidence for strong responses to climate change in many organisms. However, measuring phenology is associated with several challenges and biases. Dates of first emergence or arrival are strongly affected by population size and observation effort. With densely sampled data within the season, empirical quantiles are a much better option, but may still be noisy or biased if data is truncated, irregularly sampled, or detection depends strongly on weather. A way to deal with these problems is statistical fitting of phenological functions, possibly with weather covariates and appropriate restrictions on the parameters (e.g. Bayesian priors). I claim that using full phenological functions provides better answers to many biological questions relating to phenological change, such as the match–mismatch between a prey and a predatory species.

Andreas Lindén
Bioeconomy Research Team. Novia University of Applied Sciences

Environmentally-induced differences in endocrine systems are among the underlying causes of the phenotypic plasticity observed in many traits. Glucocorticoid (GC) hormones (i.e. corticosterone, cortisol) are involved in the capacity of vertebrates to face environmental changes. This may include immediate adjustments (i.e. “stress response” to a sudden threat) but also long-term phenotypic changes (i.e. lifelong effects of early life conditions). Over the past years, much research has attempted to use GC concentrations as indicators of individual or population welfare or fitness prospects. In the meantime, causes of the wide variability in GC levels among and within individuals remain poorly understood. My research focusses on identifying environmental and internal factors affecting glucocorticoid variation in the short and in the long term. To investigate this, I quantified GC traits in adult zebra finches exposed to benign vs. harsh environmental conditions during development and in adulthood. In this talk I will show the most relevant findings on environmental sources of glucocorticoid variation in our population. I will further provide insights on two functional mechanisms arising as potential mediators of such environmental effects at different scales: metabolic rate and epigenetic processes.

Blanca Jimeno
Groningen Institute for Evolutionary Life Sciences, University of Groningen (the Netherlands). Max Planck Institute for Ornithology, Seewiesen (Germany)

Los caprélidos son pequeños crustáceos marinos que viven en todos los ambientes y profundidades. A pesar de ser mucho menos conocidos que otros crustáceos como las gambas, los centollos o las langostas, desempeñan un papel fundamental en los ecosistemas, sirviendo de alimento a muchas especies de peces y de invertebrados marinos. Sin embargo, poco se conocía de este grupo, y en los últimos años se han descrito numerosos géneros y especies nuevas para la Ciencia. La taxonomía, por tanto, ha sido fundamental para profundizar en el conocimiento de este grupo y ha permitido conocer especies que han resultado ser muy interesante como bioindicadores de la calidad de las aguas. Además, el elevado contenido en ácidos grasos omega-3 y proteínas de algunos caprélidos les convierte en un recurso interesante en acuicultura. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A5gC-0e5dfI

José Manuel Guerra García
Universidad de Sevilla

En las últimas décadas, el incremento de las actividades humanas ha motivado la liberación incontrolada de muchos contaminantes a los ecosistemas terrestres y acuáticos. Consecuentemente, multitud de iniciativas de biomonitoring usando especies de aves (principalmente rapaces, aves acuáticas y aves marinas) como centinelas han sido establecidas para determinar el grado de impacto de estas potenciales perturbaciones. En este sentido, varios tipos de muestras biológicas han sido consideradas (huevos, plumas, heces, sangre, tejidos internos, etc.). Sin embargo, no todas han permitido advertir con exactitud la exposición a contaminantes. Generalmente, los programas de biomonitoring con aves basados en el análisis de exposición a contaminantes evalúan alteraciones en los parámetros fisiológicos y comportamentales de las especies. No obstante, en las dos últimas décadas, las relaciones entre las fuentes de carbono (?13C) y nitrógeno (?15N), el nivel trófico y la exposición a contaminantes también han sido consideradas. Además, la mayoría de estudios sobre exposición a contaminantes en aves han sido propuestos a corto plazo, usando para ello tejidos de individuos vivos. Sin embargo, la fuente histórica de información que ofrecen las colecciones de museo ha sido casi obviada. En esta tesis doctoral se pretende evaluar la calidad ambiental de las áreas terrestres aledañas al tramo bajo del río Guadalquivir, mediante el estudio (a corto plazo) de la exposición a elementos traza en pollos 3 especies centinela: cernícalo vulgar (Falco tinnunculus), lechuza común (Tyto alba) y cigüeña blanca (Ciconia ciconia). Además, se estudiarán las tendencias temporales (análisis retrospectivo) en la exposición a un amplio rango de elementos esenciales y no esenciales a partir de especímenes de museo. En todos los casos, se considerará además un estudio isotópico (?13C/ ?15N) para investigar si los patrones espaciales o temporales de exposición a cada elemento pueden ser explicados por cambios en la ecología trófica de las poblaciones. Igualmente, se valorará qué tipo de matriz biológica (sangre vs pluma) refleja con mayor certeza la exposición a 29 elementos inorgánicos. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nl57JscozIA

Javier Manzano
Estación Biológica de Doñana

El aumento de la transformación del uso del suelo mediante procesos de urbanización y actividades agropecuarias producen altos impactos ecológicos a nivel global. Esto genera una pérdida global de biodiversidad y modifica el funcionamiento de los ecosistemas potencialmente afectando el estado de salud de las poblaciones animales. Los ciclos de transmisión de enfermedades transmitidas por insectos vectores, entre otros, se han visto alterados como consecuencia de la perturbación de la abundancia y diversidad de los insectos vectores y los hospedadores vertebrados. El objetivo de esta tesis es valorar cómo la alteración antrópica del medio y la pérdida de biodiversidad afecta las dinámicas de transmisión de patógenos y sus efectos en los hospedadores. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LbQb4mMZSY

Jéssica Jiménez
Estación Biológica de Doñana

The use of the surrogate species concept is widespread in conservation science and environmental risk assessment, especially in efforts aimed at protecting species that are endangered or provide ecosystem services. Surrogates are often chosen on the basis of convenience or similarities in physiology or life history to species of concern, but few formal protocols exist for the choice of surrogates. At the same time, our ability to predict how species of concern will fare when subjected to anthropogenic disturbances such as environmental contaminants or toxicants is often based on misleading comparisons of static toxicity tests (e.g., the LC50). Here I present an alternative approach that features simple mathematical models parameterized with life history data, applied to different assemblages of species. I describe several case studies using data from diverse taxa including endangered salmonids and a suite of parasitoid wasps important for biological control in agroecosystems to illustrate how we can incorporate life history traits into models in order to better understand and predict population outcomes. I demonstrate that we cannot always reliably use the response of designated surrogate species to predict the fate of similar species exposed to the same disturbances. These results have implications for how we assess risk and set conservation policy in both managed and natural/semi-natural ecosystems. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Dlzu1PTMGU

John E Banks
California State University, Monterey Bay

All ants are social, except for specific socially parasitic ants, inquilines. We will focus on inquilinism, the ultimate form of social parasitism, where the inquiline species practically lack own workforce and depend on their host for all colony tasks throughout their life cycle. We will concentrate on selected inquilines of the genus Myrmica. In this genus, several inquiline–host pairs are phylogenetically closest relatives to each other, such pairs having originated independently. This strongly suggests sympatric speciation of the inquiline from its host. We will present ecological, chemical and genetic support for this hypothesis. Finally, we will discuss the debated status of the inquiline of Myrmica rubra—whether it is an intraspecific parasite, an evolutionary lineage speciating from its host, or a good, though young, species. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXpQQbjXRkE&t=31s

Riitta Savolainen, Kari Vepsäläinen
Department of Biosciences; University of Helsinki; Helsinki - Finland

Salinity of freshwater systems is increasing due to habitat modification, road salt run-off, industrial/mining wastes, and sea level rise. Because amphibians are adapted for life in freshwater systems, even small increases in salinity can be physiologically stressful, causing disruption of homeostasis with direct and indirect negative health consequences. In this seminar, I will discuss my research examining the health effects of anthropogenic increases in salinity across life history stages on wood frogs, Lithobates sylvaticus, in two different contexts: road salt run-off and habitat disturbance. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-3TNPyRT-G4&t=11s

Erica Crespi
Washington State University; School of Biological Sciences; Center for Reproductive Biology

Dramatic loss of biodiversity in the last two decades has been associated with human activities. Yet, we understand little of the mechanisms that enable species persistence to anthropogenic environmental changes over evolutionary time. Here, I present ecological and evolutionary responses of a population of Daphnia magna to multiple anthropogenic stressors over six decades. I studied the phenotypic and molecular responses that enabled a population of D. magna to persist across major pollution events, including pesticides and increase of temperature. In this talk I present some of my most interesting findings VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3c2T5zQuL18&t=12s

Maria Cuenca Cambronero
University of Birmingham

One of the greatest unresolved mysteries since the 19th century is to observe wide distributions of relatively immobile species throughout aquatic ecosystems. How do aquatic plants and small invertebrates disperse across kilometers of ocean or dry land? In this talk I will present my past and current research on the possibility that more mobile animals, especially waterbirds, transport plant seeds and aquatic invertebrates in their digestive system or adhering to their outside. I will talk about laboratory experiments, fieldwork and population genetic analyses. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ1f537ASM8&t=38s

Casper Van Leeuwen
Netherlands Institute > of Ecology (NIOO-KNAW)

Species richness and morphological diversity often vary drastically among groups of closely related organisms. Why are some groups more diverse than others? What are the ecological factors that drive such differences? In this talk, I will discuss two recent studies in which I examine the importance of microhabitat use in determining both body form, and thus morphological diversity in some groups, as well as differences in diversification rate, which closely relates to species diversity. In the first part of the talk, I will discuss morphological convergence and the scales (both temporal and spatial) at which it is typically observed. I then will describe a study that examined the relative importance of similar microhabitat use versus shared evolutionary history in determining body form in anurans (frogs and toads). In the second part of the talk, I will explore the relative importance of microhabitat use and climatic factors on diversification rates in anurans. Finally, I will describe recent work in my lab to better characterize and understand diversity in microhabitat, morphology, and functional performance across clades of frogs, highlighting recent fieldwork in Madagascar. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqI3GETd21U&t=38s

Daniel Moen
Oklahoma State University

Human malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Plasmodium and transmitted by mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles. It is a major cause of disease and poverty in resource-limited countries, particularly in Africa. Plasmodium falciparum is the most prevalent and virulent species. The human malaria parasite, with life stages in both human and the mosquito vector, presents a high degree of phenotypic plasticity, which allows it to respond and to adapt to changing environmental conditions during its life-cycle. The parasites are able to display phenotypic changes throughout development and to adapt, with variability in traits such as morphology, length of the life-cycles and virulence or pathogenesis. This is associated to a tight regulation at the level of transcription, so that genes with identical sequences can be found in different transcriptional states. For example, the variable expression of subsets of proteins, i.e. surface antigens, facilitates the evasion of the host immune responses and the optimization of survival and transmission. Extensive transcriptional regulation during development and adaptation in the malaria parasites is made possible by epigenetic mechanisms and in recent years, the focus in the field has been the study of epigenetic regulation in the human host. However, some processes are still poorly understood. Importantly, there is very little information about phenotypic plasticity and underlying epigenetic mechanisms and regulatory networks in the stages of development in the mosquito, despite transmission and development within the mosquito host being crucial for the biology and virulence of the parasite. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9BxZGRdks28&t=34s

José Luis Ruiz Rodríguez
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Ungulates are keystone elements of many terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, as they often regulate vegetation composition and cover, and play crucial roles in other ecological processes (e.g. soil fertilization). In recent decades, strong increases in the abundance and activity of wild ungulates have been reported across temperate and boreal ecosystems. The ecological, economic and social impacts of this changes are potentially strong, and they are receiving increasing attention among researchers, practitioners and policy makers. To understand the reasons behind the current changes in ungulate abundance across different regions of the planet, we must deepen our knowledge of the factors that govern their population dynamics. A key element in forecasting their causes and impacts is the concurrent changes in food availability – i.e. the interplaying influences of plant production and herbivore consumption, and the role of the spatial and movement ecology of the ungulates in regulating such interaction. My PhD thesis focuses on the population dynamics and spatial ecology of the wild and domestic ungulates of the Doñana National Park. The objective is to provide knowledge and criteria for the sustainable management of ungulates in environments with high variability in rainfall and plant productivity. For this purpose, I propose a multidisciplinary approach involving the use of several techniques, including population analysis (historical data on ungulate population counts), demographic models, movement and space use analysis (based on data from GPS-tracked individuals) and spatial models (plant productivity and phenology, based on EO data). VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9xbjwX7j2E&t=174s

Juan Miguel Giralt
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Some non-native plants can establish self-sustaining populations and become naturalised in new regions, causing strong impacts by affecting the native flora and fauna, and also the ecosystem services on which people rely. Most biogeographic studies to disentangle the causes of success have compared non-native species populations in the native and in the introduced range, while there have been few approaches at the community level. This thesis will focus on community assemblage of native and non-native plant species on Mediterranean ecosystems. The analysis will be performed at different levels of ecological resolution and will be based on the analysis of large plant datasets, previous empirical data on functional traits, field surveys, and experimental tests. The methodological approach will use tools of functional ecology. Plant functional traits are heritable features, easily measurable at the individual level, and associated to fundamental axes of functional differentiation. The analysis of traits permits the establishment of hierarchies among species which are conserved across environments, therefore allowing for comparisons. My thesis, by scanning plant traits between coexisting native and non-native species across transcontinental areas, will improve our understanding on the biogeography of plant invasions in Mediterranean regions. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYxs-4oPfr4&t=33s

Javier Galán Díaz
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Seasonal wetlands are selective, “isolated” habitats of interest to ecology, evolutionary biology, and conservation. Seasonal wetlands in warmer climates (e.g., subtropical, Mediterranean) have been especially vulnerable to alteration and removal by people, and likely vulnerable to changing hydrology with climate change. Recent large-scale evaluations of seasonal wetlands have focused within a continent. Here I attempt to compare and contrast seasonal wetlands across continents, starting with wetlands in the upper Everglades of the Florida peninsula (USA) and in Doñana (Spain). The two regions differ in geology, climate, and research histories, but share other important conditions (seasonal precipitation, flat terrain, agricultural land use, and numerous seasonal wetlands. Perhaps this comparison can lead to future collaborations and even expansion to include other regions. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pfzN9X7j6yI&t=64s

David G. Jenkins
University of Central Florida

Biodiversity is currently facing the most severe crisis of the last 65 million years. During the last centuries, the exponential growth of human population and the consequent increase in resource consumption have triggered a rapid loss of biological diversity, in which the extirpation of populations and the decline in local abundance are rapidly driving species towards the brink of extinction. Understanding the conservation status of species is fundamental for an effective scheduling of future conservation actions and an efficient allocation of conservation resources. The main objective of my PhD project is the development of a new tool to quantify species’ vulnerability to extinction, a composite index assessing three different dimensions of risk: species’ intrinsic traits linked to vulnerability, the intensity of anthropogenic threats, and the amount of available information on the taxa analysed. The predictive ability of the multidimensional index of vulnerability will be tested against the IUCN classification system. Subsequently, the index will be applied to elaborate global maps of current and future vulnerability for terrestrial mammals, to assess the conservation status of some of the species missing sufficient data for the application of the IUCN criteria, and to identify any possible unrecognized conservation concerns among the studied species. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5elZLdHTGYE&t=45s

Nicola Bernardo
Estación Biológica de Doñana

The socially learnt behavioural elements are essential for the survival and reproduction of individuals in their prevailing environment in many species. The accumulation of such behavioural elements in a population constitutes a culture, and its diversity and stability will determine the characteristics of the adaptation of the population. Therefore, it is crucial to understand how cultural diversity emerges, fluctuates and evolves, but evidence for such complex mechanisms operating within the same system are rare at the best. Using bird song as model system, we investigate the dynamics of individual- and population-specific repertoires of song elements (syllables) in natural populations of the collared flycatcher (/Ficedula albicollis/). I will show our newest results concerning the inheritable cultural elements, the individual capacity of learning, the effects of social interactions, and the large scale temporal and spatial patterns of the song. I will also address many still unanswered questions inviting for brainstorming.

Sandor Zsebok
Department of Systematic Zoology and Ecology Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest

La distribución del pinzón azul de Gran Canaria en las últimas décadas ha estado reducida a una sola localidad del sureste de la isla: los pinares de Inagua, Ojeda y Pajonales. En el año 2007 se localizaron algunos ejemplares en un pinar de repoblación de La Cumbre central dela isla, por ello, este lugar fue elegido para realizar las liberaciones de los ejemplares producidos en el Centro de Cría en Cautividad a partir del año 2010. Además, como acción complementaria, desde el año 2015 se traslocaron ejemplares silvestres procedentes dela población principal de Inagua. Estas acciones se enmarcaron en el proyecto LIFE+Pinzón a partir del año 2016. Con el fin de evaluar las traslocaciones, se realizó un seguimiento de la población de pinzón azul de Gran Canaria en ambos pinares que comprendió diversas labores:(1) marcaje de ejemplares con anillas de color, (2) prospecciones en los pinares de la isla con el fin de localizar ejemplares y realizar recapturas visuales de los ejemplares marcados, (3) seguimiento reproductivo de las parejas localizadas y (4) seguimiento visual y radioseguimiento de los ejemplares liberados. Esta información nos permitió estimar la supervivencia y el éxito reproductor de ejemplares silvestres y traslocados. En total se han traslocado 173 ejemplares,111 ejemplares procedentes de cautividad y 62 de origen silvestre. No se han encontrado diferencias en la supervivencia de los ejemplares y el éxito reproductor entre ambas poblaciones. La población de reciente colonización de La Cumbre pasó de tener dos ejemplares en 2009 a más de 50 en 2018, describiendo un aumento promedio anual del 56,7%

Alejandro Delgado
LIFE+Pinzon

Phenotypic plasticity defined as the ability of a genotype to alter its phenotype in direct response to changes in the environment, provides the potential for organisms to respond rapidly and effectively to environmental change. Global change has led to advances in the timing of breeding of birds (laying date) with strong consequences for the genetic contribution of individuals to the next generation. However, we know rather little about the role of phenotypic plasticity in wild populations as evolutionary mechanism. The aim of this PhD project is to explore the role of plasticity of laying date in a population of pied flycatchers, Ficedula hypoleuca, tracked since 1987 in central Spain on local adaptation to current environmental variation. The first point of my PhD is to detect the environmental factors i.e. agents of selection, that lead evolutionary adaptation. Multiple environmental conditions can act as selective agents and influence laying date and their fitness consequences. In a second time, I will focus on exploring the between and within-individual variation (reaction norms) on laying date according to the major environmental factors detected before. Third, I will determine the evolutionary potential of phenotypic plasticity, tackling explicitly whether plasticity at the level of genotypes occur. Forth, and finally, I will explore the demographic consequences of phenotypic plasticity under scenarios of climate change. The uniting goal of my PhD is understanding the role of phenotypic. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ra0tyLrutKg&t=36s

Justine Le Vaillant
Estación Biológica de Doñana

The inner islands of the Seychelles Archipelago are a Gondwanan fragment, and have been isolated in the Western Indian Ocean since the Palaeocene. The region forms part of the Madagascar Biodiversity Hotspot and harbours a high proportion of endemic, evolutionarily distinct amphibian taxa. Recent work has begun to uncover their biogeographic relationships, life histories, and ecological requirements. With particular focus on the Sooglossidae (one of only two amphibian families endemic to islands), a summary of recent discoveries will be presented, along with conservation actions currently underway. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AljMTJPZQng

Jim Labisko
the Durrell Institute of Conservation and Ecology (University of Kent, UK)

Community composition of both host and helminth species differs as a function of spatial location. As a result, interactions between helminth parasites and their host species may vary spatially, with potential implications to species demographics and distributions. I use a global database of host-helminth interactions to explore spatial patterns in community composition, network structure, and the consistency of species roles in host-helminth interaction networks. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_nP-JxlByw

Tad Dallas
University of Helsinki

This seminar should serve as an introduction of the functions of this system that are most relevant to ecology, evolution and conservation

Jordan Moore
FLUIDIGM

British oaks, Quercus robur and Q. petraea, are under threat from Acute Oak Decline (AOD). Severe cases are lethal within five years. Symptoms include necrotic, longitudinal, bleeding cracks in the bark, from which dark fluid emanates. AOD is caused by the interaction of several bacterial species. The lesion microbiome shows a significantly similar composition pattern, where Brenneria goodwinii, Gibbsiella quercinecans and Rahnella victoriana are the predominant pathogens. Species belonging to the Enterobacterales and Pseudomonadaceae are also routinely isolated. Many field samples from affected oak need to be processed on a daily basis, therefore a rapid and cost-effective detection and identification method is needed. A multiplex high resolution melt (HRM) analysis has been developed for the identification of B. goodwinii, G. quercinecans, R. victoriana and Lonsdalea britannica. HRM analysis is a real-time PCR-based technique in which single nucleotide polymorphisms can be identified in amplicons, without DNA sequencing. Our multiplex HRM can identify up to four bacterial pathogens in a single tube in only 40 minutes per HRM run. This diagnostic method will potentially be a useful tool for research institutions working with AOD. To further investigate the bacteria associated with AOD we have identified several novel species of Pseudomonas and described these following a polyphasic approach. Further investigation will establish if the novel Pseudomonas play a role in AOD.

Victoria Bueno-Gonzalez
University of the West of England, UK

Waterbirds are an abundant, mobile, and highly sensitive group of animals dependent on some of the planet’s most threatened habitats.Their frequent movements link artificial and natural wetlands, and maintain metapopulation dynamics in fragmented landscapes. This talk reviews recent research on waterbird movement behavior, space use, and population dynamics in Hawaii and in Southern Spain. It begins with alandscape genetics analysis on the Hawaiian gallinule (Gallinula galeata sandvicensis), an endangered subspecies exhibiting strong genetic structuring over small spatial scales. Observed patterns of genetic dissimilarity strongly suggest that these birds rely on rivernetworks and other freshwater features to disperse across Oahu’s increasingly urbanized landscape. A subsequent spatially-explicit population viability analysis reveals that population fragmentation and sea level rise are a considerable threat to Oahu’s remaining gallinule populations. The final theme of the talk highlights preliminary data on the space-use of overwintering Lesser black-backed gulls (Larus fuscus), in artificial wetlands around Doñana National Park. Spatial analysis shows important shifts in space- and resource-use over the course of the winter season, with potential consequences for freshwater conservation and food safety.

Charles B. Van Rees
Estación Biológica de Doñana

In this talk, I will discuss how climate change is expected to impact the start of the growing season and the timing of goose migration in coastal western Alaska. I will present results from a 3-year manipulative experiment, where we changed the timing of the growing season and the timing of goose arrival to see how vegetation dynamics, forage quality and C and N cycling are influenced by these variables. Our results suggest that the timing of arrival and subsequent grazing by geese is the most important factor in this system. Early goose arrival reduced above- and belowground biomass, increased forage quality, increase N availability in soil, and increase overall greenhouse gas emissions. Geese seem to have gotten the clue - they are arriving earlier every year, even though they are not quite keeping up with the start of the growing season. While this might be good from a goose's perspective, from an overall greenhouse gas emission perspective, the outlook is more grim. With phenological mismatches developing globally, we argue, we can no longer just look at the how consumer populations are affected. We also have to take an ecosystem approach to understanding the long-term consequences of changes in timing. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ApSnukFTQ4

Karen H. Beard
Utah State University

Bats are among the most important and least understood sources of emerging viral threats, including Ebola, SARS, and Nipah. The impacts of bat viruses are currently mitigated reactively, by treating the human or domestic animal hosts after the viruses appear and cause disease. In this talk, I aim to demonstrate how deeper understanding of transmission dynamics in bat reservoirs can empower strategic shifts towards preventing cross-species emergence. First, I will focus on vampire bat-transmitted rabies, an economically important virus affecting humans and livestock across Latin America. Data from a long-term mark-recapture study in Peru will provide ecological explanations for the inability of widespread bat culls to control rabies, and recent field experiments with biomarkers will demonstrate new prospects to prevent human and livestock rabies by applying self-spreading vaccines to wild bats. Next, by linking host and viral genetics with landscape data, I will show that we can forecast viral invasions into currently rabies-free areas, enabling use of life-saving human and animal vaccines prior to outbreaks. Finally, I will discuss a machine learning approach to rapidly identify the unknown animal origins of emerging viruses using signatures of evolutionary associations with specific host groups embedded into viral genomes. These three vignettes illustrate how combining ecological and evolutionary insights can overturn conventional wisdom on disease control and provide new avenues for preventive management of wildlife diseases. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BTCEFdw5IXo

Daniel Streicker
University of Glasgow

Landscape genomics offers powerful tools to assess the influence of habitat loss on genetic diversity and functional connectivity, and to identify adaptations to local environmental conditions. At Instituto Tecnológico Vale, located in the mouth of the Amazon River, we employ these tools to generate the knowledge needed to help mitigate the negative effects of mining on Amazon biodiversity. Specifically, we developed an analytical pipeline to analyze next-generation sequencing data and study how habitat loss led by mining impacts genetic diversity and gene flow in threatened endemic plants from Amazonian Savannas. Relying on different environmental association approaches we are also in the process of identifying adaptations to local environmental conditions that could optimize restoration programs.

Rodolfo Jaffé
Instituto Tecnologico Vale, Belém, Brazil

Bird migrations have stumped humankind for millennia and inspired some particularly crazy theories among the naturalists of yore. Even now we realise that swallows don't hibernate on the bottom of lakes we still know very little about the lives of migrant birds outside the western world, and how they find their way across the globe. Thankfully, however, the advent of advanced biologging tools and remote sensing technology increasingly enables us to escape our ground-based human perception of the world, and to try and look at the world from a migrant bird's perspective. Large and long-lived raptors are especially useful study species in this regard because they can carry tracking devices capable of measuring behaviour with high resolution and precision at a global scale and for long periods of time. In this talk, I will summarise how I have combined movement data and atmospheric models to understand how weather shapes the flexible migration strategies of European Honey Buzzards (Pernis apivorus) from local to flyway scales. Using longitudinal tracking data I will further show how population-specific flyways of this species emerge from a largely stochastic individual learning process, even though soaring raptors are usually thought to learn traditional flyways through cultural inheritance. My talk will end with a brief outline of the research I am conducting into the migration strategies of Eleonora's Falcons (Falco eleonorae) for my JdlC postdoc at EBD. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mtfyz8KbuN0

Wouter Vansteelant
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Wolves currently show a remarkable return to many places in the world, in particular in human-dominated landscapes. In Germany for instance, they have been recolonizing since 2000 and already occupy 9 out of 16 Federal States. People experience coexistence with a large carnivore for the first time in recent history, and opinions on wolves range from a pest species to a valuable element of biodiversity that enriches the nature experience. Knowledge is a key factor for successful consensus finding and in order to move from societal conflicts to human-wildlife coexistence, the transfer of evidence-based information to society is essential. Common challenges and barriers in knowledge transfer include the media and scientific literacy of the broader society. However, in the case of wolves, knowledge transfer is hindered by an additional and so far unaddressed emotional barrier of knowledge transfer. Because the debate is highly emotional, people have biased perceptions of human-carnivore coexistence and associated costs and benefits. My presentation at the EBD aims at giving a perspective on human-wolf coexistence in Germany, reporting on social surveys and media content analyses, and introducing “KnowWolf”, a knowledge transfer project on human-wolf coexistence across countries.

Ugo Arbieu
Senckenberg Biodiversity and Climate Research Centre

Information about population size, average breeding sucess and regional connectivity is relevant for assessing population status, understanding evolutionary processes operating at local scales, and unraveling how life-history traits affect these processes. We address the study of relevant demographic parameters such as census and effective population sizes, polygamy rates and gene flow by combining genetic analyses and individual-based capture-mark-recapture data. In this talk I will show some estimates obtained during our 10-year monitoring program in an amphibian community in central Spain to prove that integrative demography represents a good opportunity for obtaining robust demographic inferences with wide applications for evolutionary and conservation research. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z3cufSOmR3M

Gregorio Sánchez Montes
Departamento de Biodiversidad y Biología Evolutiva, Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales.

Bryophytes are the second most diverse group of terrestrial plants and can colonize almost any ecosystem on Earth (peatlands, tundra, alpine areas, drylands, tropics, geothermal areas, etc.). They possess very low levels of morphological and anatomical complexity and limited capacity of self-internal regulation (poikilohydry), and yet they are extremely tolerant to abiotic stress, such as heavy metal toxicity. Exposure to heavy metals imposes a strong selective pressure to plants, nonetheless, bryophytes are able to thrive and some species even specialize to live in highly contaminated environments. Nowadays, there is still limited information about the ecological and evolutionary significance of heavy metal accumulation and tolerance in bryophytes as well as on the molecular pathways underlying these traits. In this seminar I will present BRY’O’MICS, a project funded by the European Commission designed to provide a deeper understanding of the mechanisms underlying the existence of phenotypic variability for heavy metal tolerance and hyperaccumulation in bryophytes. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fQoEa7Nmlww

M. Teresa Boquete Seoane
Estación Biológica de Doñana

In the Animal Kingdom males often offer edible donations to females during courtship or mating. These so-called nuptial gifts are intriguing male reproductive traits, taxonomically widespread and extremely diverse in form and function. Gifts have indeed evolved as a male mating effort to attract females and secure mating, as a form of parental investment due to the nutritious resources provided, and as a protective practice against cannibalistic mating partners. Despite being uncommon in spiders, Pisaura mirabilis has become one of the best-known model organisms in the study of nuptial feeding behaviour. Males of this species hunt for a prey, cover it in dense silk layers and offer it to females during courtship. Mating occurs only once the female accepts the donation and starts feeding from the gift. In this talk I will explore the evolutionary significance of gift giving in Pisaura mirabilis, addressing both, male and female reproductive interests. I will review findings from recent experimental laboratory studies and field surveys that have shed light on the evolution and maintenance of this male trait. Finally, I will illustrate how sexual selection and sexually antagonistic co-evolution have shaped this spiders’ fascinating mating system. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iv-N6D5fTjM

Cristina Tuni
LMU-München

In many species, ranging from crocodiles and birds to humans, embryos can perceive and even produce sounds before birth. Surprisingly however, the implications of such embryonic capacities for developmental programming had not been recognized until recently.I revealed this novel function of prenatal communication by showing that zebra finch parents adaptively alter their embryos’ development at high ambient temperatures, by emitting a peculiar vocalisation during late incubation. Both in the wild, and under controlled thermal conditions in the lab, parental calling is specifically triggered by high air temperatures, and interestingly, is predicted by individuals’ body mass. In a large playback experiment in incubators, I show that exposure of embryos to this call alone adaptively alters subsequent nestling growth in response to nest temperature, and influences individuals´ thermal preferences and thermoregulation capacity as adults. Together, the findings demonstrate that the effect of the prenatal acoustic environment on development is considerably greater than currently acknowledged, and shed light on a novel mechanism for thermal adaptation in birds.

Mylene M. Mariette
Centre for Integrative Ecology, Deakin University, Australia

Es bien conocida la importancia del medio abiótico sobre la estructura y organización de las comunidades animales. En el caso concreto de las hormigas, por tratarse de ectotermos de pequeño tamaño, necesitan, por una parte, una temperatura mínima para activarse, pero por otra parte, las temperaturas extremas les suponen un importante estrés ambiental. Asimismo,. la temperatura tiene una importancia decisiva no sólo sobre los patrones de actividad, sino también sobre el resultado de las interacciones competitivas. En los ecosistemas mediterráneos, en primavera y verano, es posible encontrar diferencias de 20- 25ºC entre las temperaturas del suelo al sol y a la sombra. La existencia de un mosaico de temperaturas, espacial y temporal, permite que en dichos ecosistemas coexistan numerosas especies de hormigas, minimizando con bastante frecuencia el efecto de las especies dominantes. A partir de muestreos de las hormigas, mediante cebos, en los diferentes hábitats de la Reserva Biológica de Doñana (provincia de Huelva, SW de España) hemos analizado la importancia de la temperatura y de las interacciones competitivas sobre la organización de la comunidad de hormigas. Cataglyphis floricola, es una especie muy termófila y ecológicamente subordinada; Linepithema humile, la hormiga argentina, es una especie invasora, ecológicamente dominante y que huye de las temperaturas elevadas. La mayor o menor abundancia de cada de una de ellas puede servirnos como indicador de la importancia de la temperatura sobre la estructura de la comunidad de hormigas en cada uno de los hábitats estudiados. VIDEO Es bien conocida la importancia del medio abiótico sobre la estructura y organización de las comunidades animales. En el caso concreto de las hormigas, por tratarse de ectotermos de pequeño tamaño, necesitan, por una parte, una temperatura mínima para activarse, pero por otra parte, las temperaturas extremas les suponen un importante estrés ambiental. Asimismo,. la temperatura tiene una importancia decisiva no sólo sobre los patrones de actividad, sino también sobre el resultado de las interacciones competitivas. En los ecosistemas mediterráneos, en primavera y verano, es posible encontrar diferencias de 20- 25ºC entre las temperaturas del suelo al sol y a la sombra. La existencia de un mosaico de temperaturas, espacial y temporal, permite que en dichos ecosistemas coexistan numerosas especies de hormigas, minimizando con bastante frecuencia el efecto de las especies dominantes. A partir de muestreos de las hormigas, mediante cebos, en los diferentes hábitats de la Reserva Biológica de Doñana (provincia de Huelva, SW de España) hemos analizado la importancia de la temperatura y de las interacciones competitivas sobre la organización de la comunidad de hormigas. Cataglyphis floricola, es una especie muy termófila y ecológicamente subordinada; Linepithema humile, la hormiga argentina, es una especie invasora, ecológicamente dominante y que huye de las temperaturas elevadas. La mayor o menor abundancia de cada de una de ellas puede servirnos como indicador de la importancia de la temperatura sobre la estructura de la comunidad de hormigas en cada uno de los hábitats estudiados. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aemL_-8TLyM&t=60s

Xim Cerdá
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Understanding species’ abundance is a main topic in ecology. Much has been advanced to understand the abundance of free-living organisms, but less has been done to understand species abundance in host-symbiont systems. In this PhD project we study the interaction between birds and feather mites, using a double (host and symbiont) approach to understand the reasons why different host species harbor different symbiont abundance, and why different symbiont species have different abundances in different host species.

Maria del Mar Labrador
Estación Biológica de Doñana

A frequently-used approach to explore seed dispersal is through complex network analysis, in which species are represented as nodes and interactions as edges. However, most seed-dispersal networks are analysed as connections with a single type of static edge, excluding any explicit consideration of their temporal change. This limits our understanding of temporal dynamics of seed dispersal in real ecosystems, given that the abundance of both frugivores and fruit crops varies over time. For birds and plants being able to interact, they need to have a matching phenology. In fact, phenological uncoupling is one of the most frequent reasons of the presence of forbidden links in ecological networks, i.e. links that remain unrecorded because of biological constraints (and not because of limited sampling effort). The emergent field of multilayer networks incorporates multiple layers of ecological complexity and allows a proper analysis of highly dynamic temporal systems, with differentiated intra-layer (a time span) and inter-layer connectivity (species persistence across time spans). In this talk, we present the theoretical background and main objectives of my recently started TEMPNET project, in which fruit phenology is linked to the temporal dynamics of seed-dispersal networks. We aim at 1)assessing how seasonal and long-term phenological shifts in the abundance of frugivore and plant resources will alter seed-dispersal networks; 2) determining the prevalence of phenological uncoupling and evaluating its ultimate consequences for biodiversity conservation. We will use as study system a Mediterranean scrubland community from SW Spain (Doñana National Park). This new conceptual approach allows exploring the evolutionary consequences of phenological mismatches among fruits and bird consumers, with higher probability of occurrence in a context of global change. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CB1TdtVfu60

Irene Mendoza
Estación Biológica de Doñana

There is increasing concern about the decline of pollinators worldwide. However, despite reports that pollinator declines are widespread, data are scarce and often geographically and taxonomically biased. These biases limit robust inference about any potential pollinator crisis. Non-structured and opportunistic historical specimen collection data provide the only source of historical information which can serve as a baseline for identifying pollinator declines. Here, I will first show how researchers can use historical data to identify long-term changes in biodiversity, species abundances, and responses to climate warming. A second key challenge is bridging the gap between ecological theory and empirical studies to understand the mechanisms regulating pollinator community dynamics. Species do not live in isolation but are embedded within a network of species interactions. Although responses to global change are typically studied at the species level, the emergent properties of complex communities of interacting organisms may buffer species from extinction. Using a well-replicated dataset of pollinator communities across a land use change gradient, I will show how we can characterize pollinator-pathogen interaction networks. In order to understand how pollinator populations are regulated, we need to link the network of mutualistic and antagonistic interactions to the stability of pollinator populations over time. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxTY7OteJFo&t=5s

Ignasi Bartomeus
Estación Biológica de Doñana

As a consequence of global climate change, species distribution ranges are expected to be dramatically altered in the near future. Hence, the identification of drivers accounting for distribution range shifts has become a goal of paramount importance for better understanding the ecology and evolution. Nevertheless, there is much debate concerning whether geographic boundaries are driven by merely geographic and climatic characteristics and/or by biological and historical processes, such as dispersal, post-glacial re-colonization history and human activities. Arabidopsis thaliana represents a useful model system to assess the effects of these processes on distribution patterns, mostly due to the high-quality and quantity of genetic and genomic resources publicly available. Although previous studies provided insight into the climatic features where A. thaliana is expected to occur, the new tools and resources available, such as spatial distribution models, satellite image, and predicted vegetation layers, enable the use of more reliable distribution models including several biotic and abiotic factors as well as the historical dynamics of the species. This project aims to disentangle the differential role of drivers accounting for contractions and expansions at very different distribution edges as well as the forces governing the genetic structure of A. thaliana with particular attention to contact and overlapping zones among different genetic lineages. Furthermore, this PhD project will shed light on the understanding of the drivers and processes accounting for the distribution range of cosmopolitan organisms.

Bernardo Toledo González
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Movement ecology has been recently proposed as a new paradigm to encompass a broad range of scientific approaches and it is currently considered a unified framework to study the movement of organisms. Simultaneously, the study of animal movement has experienced a massive revolution due to the technological advances in tracking free-range animals such as miniaturization of devices, high temporal and spatial resolution and the development of new sensors. As a result, the long-term tracking of specific individuals has shown that individuals from the same population are not as ecologically equivalent as traditionally assumed, e.g. in terms of prey and habitat selection. To our knowledge, there have not been any attempts to study individual specialization from the perspective of movement ecology in raptors. The aim of this thesis is to assess how movement patterns differ between a specialist falcon, lesser kestrel (Falco naumanni), and a generalist one, common kestrel (Falco tinnunculus). At the same time, we would like to elucidate if individuals have some degree of specialization. We hypothesize that lesser kestrel specialism will be reflected in its movement ecology, conversely for common kestrel. Hence, lesser kestrel range of movement patterns will be narrower and individual differences will be smaller than those of common kestrel. In order to achieve these goals, individuals from the two species are being monitorized in areas where they breed in sympatry and information about energy expenditure, prey selection, habitat use and hunting strategy will be analysed.

Daniel Garcia Silveira
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Devil facial tumor disease (DFTD) is a transmissible cancer that threatens the persistence of Tasmanian devils (Sarcophilus harrisii). Using genomic techniques, we have detected evidence for rapid evolution in response to DFTD as well as a genetic basis to isease-related phenotypes. Recently a second independently derived transmissible cancer was discovered in devils, raising the hypothesis that this a recurring selective force. We have found widespread evidence for historic selection in the devil genome, but it is not trongly associated with the genes currently responding to DFTD. These results hold important implications for management of devil populations for the conservation of adaptive potential in the face of transmissible cancer and other threats.

Paul Hohenlohe
University of Idaho

The genomes of organisms living in diverse environments can reflect adaptations to diverse environmental conditions. Anthropogenic disturbances such as soil pollution can quickly create steep environmental gradients that likely induce adaptation and imprint genomic signatures of selection. Fungi are ubiquitous in soil environments and are key players in soil systems processes, however little is known about how they evolve in face of anthropogenic soil pollution. We used population genomics to investigate incipient local adaptation to heavy metals in Suillus luteus, a widespread symbiotic ectomycorrhizal fungus associated with pine trees. Available phenotypic data show that S. luteusisolates from the same population have variable heavy metal tolerance with some isolates tolerating high metal concentrations, while others show reduced growth and death when exposed to heavy metals. Whole genome scans across isolates from both habitats revealed genomic signatures associated with colonizing polluted sites, with a strong enrichment for transmembrane transporters. Candidate genes underlying heavy metal adaptation in S. luteus were involved in metal exclusion, immobilization, and detoxification, and displayed both allelic and copy number variation. Results from our study revealed incipient local adaptation to heavy metals in S. luteusand elucidate on the evolutionary processes involved in environmental adaptation in fungi.

Anna Bazzicalupo
Deparment of Microbiology and Immunology, Montana State universityEstación Biológica de Doñana

Erratic birth rates challenges ecologists to explain the transitions in forests that are happening now and to anticipate the consequences for food webs. Uncertain seed limitation remains perhaps the greatest obstacle to predicting forest response to climate change. Relatively few, site-specific studies explain small fractions of the variation in seed production, dispersal, germination, and seedling survival. These studies do not provide a basis for extrapolation to continents or even landscapes due to poorly parameterized effects of species composition, tree life history, habitat variables, and quasi-periodic variation (‘masting’). From the perspective of seed predators this volatile seed supply constitutes an unreliable resource. As climates change, poorly-understood fecundity responses will ramify throughout food webs. Consumers will experience change each in its own way, depending on its capacities to cope with covariance structure in time, in space, and across a diverse diet of alternative host trees that vary in quality and are dispersed throughout the canopy and forest floor. The questions are many. What are the changes in tree fecundity that are happening now? To what extent are these changes controlled by direct climate responses versus the changing structure of forests? How does the space-time structure of masting interact with the capacities of consumers to exploit alternative hosts, to forage widely in space, and to store reserves in time? I discuss a new synthetic collaboration to answer these fundamental questions of forest response and its impact on food webs, MASTIF. We combine efforts of dozens of collaborators from across the globe, but focus here on North America. The overview includes i) new theory to evaluate, quantify, and predict changes in recruitment that are underway now and ii) and how we quantify these effects. I discuss two theoretical innovations. First is a shift in emphasis from ‘states to rates’. This is the notion that future states (e.g., community composition of multiple species) are never observed, but those we care about most (the decade scale) follow from what is observable now, the current rates of change. Second is theory needed to evaluate resource supply at the scales of space, time, and diet breadth experienced by consumers. From the first continental scale, long-term network of tree fecundity data we determine where seed production is limiting tree recruitment, and we attribute variation to climate, species, and the structure of forest stands, which varies regionally and continues to change over time. Unlike meta-analysis of aggregated statistics from individual studies, MASTIF accomplishes Bayesian inference (a single posterior distribution) on the full network. With the goal of understanding the types of consumers that forests can support, we incorporate changes in fecundity and predict spatio-temporal covariance in the diverse diets of mast consumers with their capacities to average over variation through movement in spaces, storage in time, and substitute resources that vary asynchronously.

James Clark
Nicholas School of the Environment, Duke University

Generalist plants interact with constellations of pollinators varying in their frequency of interaction and fitness impact. These heterogeneous groups of organisms are themselves networks that define the pollination niches of plants. The composition, topology and architecture of these pollination networks vary spatially, temporally and across organization levels: within individuals phenologically, among individuals of the same population, among nearby populations, among geographical regions, among related species and macroevolutionarily among phylogenetically-distant species. How generalist plants evolve in response to pollinators in this fractal context is yet an unsolved question. Here, using as model system plant species of the Brassicaceae family, I explore the role played by pollinator networks in the micro- and macroevolution of generalist plants. At microevolutionary level, several attributes of individual-based pollination networks favor the occurrence of significant selection on plant phenotype and promote the maintenance of a fine-scale genetic structure. But not only organisms may be agent of selection. The whole individual network itself can constitute as selective pressures, with some network metrics becoming part of the extended interactive phenotype of generalist plants. Because the inherent spatial variability of individual networks, selection geographic mosaics and landscape-scale local adaptations easily emerge in generalist systems. Scaling up, spatial variation in the attributes of pollinator networks may trigger pollinator-mediated ecological speciation or, on the contrary, foster the occurrence of hybrid zones. At the macroevolutionary level, the lability of clade-oriented networks may cause the occurrence of pollinator-mediated phenotypic diversification. All this evidence suggests that the patterns of plant evolution in generalist scenarios are more complex than previously thought. Their study from a network perspective provides us with a richer and sounder picture of the role that multispecific assemblages of pollinators play in the phenotypic evolution of generalist plants.

José Mª Gómez Reyes
Estación de Zonas Áridas, CSIC

Microorganisms associated to complex organisms are not longer considered passive passengers but active crew, who can affect and even condition a myriad of biological processes of their hosts. Although such effects have been so far mainly explored in applied contexts (e.g. medicine, agrisciences), an increasing amount of evidence is indicating that they could also be relevant in basic ecological and evolutionary processes. The hologenomic approach I will introduce in this talk takes advantage of the newly developed high-throughput DNA/RNA sequencing methods, to study host-microbiota interactions at different ‘omic levels (e.g. genomes, transcriptomes), and eventually understand their impact on eco-evolutionary processes such as acclimation, adaptation or speciation. In this talk, I will present basic concepts about the host-microbiota interplay and introduce the work we are carrying out on the topic, before providing an overview of the research approaches we are using on chickens, deers, shrews, mice, wolves and toothcarps, among others, to address different ecologically and evolutionary relevant topics. I will also introduce the Centre for Evolutionary Hologenomics that will kick off in Copenhagen in early 2020, and I will encourage researchers to join the Earth HoloGenome Initiative (EHI), an endeavour we are now launching aiming at promoting, facilitating, coordinating and standardising hologenomic research on wild organisms worldwide. In the initial phase of EHI, we are coordinating a large research network to generate geographically expansive coupled host genome and microbial metagenome data from 10,000 animals belonging to 100 European vertebrate species, aiming at addressing major questions regarding adaptation to climate change and disease transmission, among others

Antton Alberdi
University of Copenhagen

Transgenerational plasticity in Daphnia and Callosobruchus: insights into mechanisms and evolutionary implications across model systems. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ysok9CpOkes

Verónica Castaño
Estación Biológica de Doñana

The difficulty in providing straightforward answers to questions underlying ecological interactions lies in the fact that ecological and evolutionary outcomes are the product of a complex of interacting actors, in which individual species are only a small part. The architecture of mutualistic interactions within a community forming a web-like system can be explored using the network approach, which allows one to better describe and elucidate such complexity. Yet a persistent challenge in the analysis of mega-diversified systems, such as those from tropical ecosystems, is the lack of studies encompassing all major higher vertebrate taxa coexisting in conserved habitats, the major goal of this study. Here we delineate the structure of a hyper-diverse tropical system, the continuum of Paranapiacaba in São Paulo state, in Brazil, and evaluate the consequences of the loss of functional roles to the stability of the ecosystem using a network approach based on a concrete scenario of species threat.

Lisieux Franco Fuzessy (Lica)
Universidade Estadual Paulista

Involvement of amateurs and volunteers in the development of scientific activity has been common throughout history. However, nowadays, with the help of new technologies, citizen science offers a new set of possibilities for research teams, which can address questions and problems of much greater magnitude thanks to a massive growth in the amount of available data. After a brief historical tour, we will review the existing tools and applications to collect field data, process and integrate it into collaborative projects. Specifically, we will focus on Observation.org, an international citizen science platform on biodiversity that collaborates with many scientific institutions along Europe. This platform allows users to record, both from your mobile and from the web, observations of any living being anywhere in the world with all kind of details. It allows to associate images and sounds to the observations, opening the possibility to explore the surroundings with the automatic recognition of species from images. Numerous scientific teams and working groups use Observation.org in their projects both as a tool for data collection as a repository of data, since its design meets the needs of the advanced amateur and the professional fieldworker. All the knowledge collected by the hundreds of thousands of collaborators is used to improve the conservation and knowledge of the environment, generating with the accumulated information around 100 scientific publications per year. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BJZH7OnhQGA

Julio Rabadán González
Coordinator of Observation in Spain

Ecological networks are built through a diverse set of interactions between plants and animals, and are tightly linked to many other ecological processes such as population dynamics, trophic chains, gene flow or responses to environmental changes. These processes influence the functioning and composition of communities in ecosystems, where super-generalist species have a pivotal role, acting as hubs within these networks. Super-generalist species provide support to a wide array of partners within an ecosystem. Using as a model organism the lentisc (Pistacia lentiscus, Anacardiaceae), a super-generalist plant species that dominates the Mediterranean shrubland, we aim to explore the configuration and characteristic features of its interaction network with animal partners that influence its natural regeneration. Pistacia lentiscus can be considered as a foundation species, since it provides abundant fruit food resource to wide array of resident and migratory birds, being at a central position in the structure of Mediterranean lowland shrubland plant-frugivore interaction networks. Many avian species rely heavily on the fleshy fruits of lentisc during autumn and winter, especially migrant species that need to maintain or gain body mass to continue their migration or the over-winter stay. Additionally, lentisc interacts antagonistically with herbivore species and seed predators during the pre-dispersal stage and during the demographic stablishment stages. Fruits can be heavily consumed by other species such rodents, granivorous birds or a wasp (Megastigmus pistaciae). The main objective of my thesis is to understand how super-generalist species arrange their interactions from an individual perspective, understand their strategy, evolutionary success and their implications in the ecosystem functioning. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1J4vBX5uouI

Elena Quintero
Estación Biológica de Doñana

During the last years, the exponential growth of human population has entailed a dramatic effect on the global biodiversity. Large carnivores have been one of the greatly affected in this biodiversity crisis. Despite apex predators, such as wolves, have apparently increased their distribution range in Europe during the 21st-century, local declines and lack of gene flow between fragmented populations might be hindering the recovery of these carnivores. Specifically, in the Iberian Peninsula, the Iberian wolf (Canis lupus signatus) has remained isolated from the rest of the European wolf populations since 19st-century. During decades, the distribution of the Iberian wolf has been divided in two populations separated by intensive urban and agricultural areas, the Northwestern population and the Southern population, a smaller population located in Sierra Morena. The decline of the Southern population may have made it increasingly vulnerable in an extinction vortex, in which a combination of low population size and negative environmental and genetic factors spiral the population toward extinction. The main objective of my thesis is to understand the evolutionary history of Iberian wolves through the integration of ecological and genetic/omic approaches. In my thesis, I will address biological questions related with genetic diversity, fragmentation and patterns of connectivity in recent and past wolf populations in the Iberian Peninsula by analyzing modern, historic and ancient DNA.

Isabel Salado
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Islands are unique model systems to study evolutionary processes, such as adaptation, divergence and speciation. In my PhD I will focus on two mechanisms that facilitate local adaptation and convergence: secundary gene flow and structural variants. To do it, I will use two different models: the adaptive radiation of Eleutherodactylus frogs in the Caribbean Islands and a widely distributed species, the common quail, in the Macaronesian islands. Adaptive radiations are an important driver of ecological and phenotypic diversity in island ecosystems, where the adaptation to different and unoccupied habitats favours speciation. In the frog genus Eleutherodactylus, more than 160 species have evolved in the Caribbean islands and diversified to occupy different ecological niches. They represent a good example of convergence and parallel evolution, as the same ecomorphs evolved independently in the different islands. Although speciation in the face of gene flow is generally thought to be difficult, recent studies have shown the importance of gene flow in the evolutionary histories of many clades, both during the divergence process or as result of a secondary contact. To study the role played by adaptive introgression, I will compare different species of Cuban leaf-litter frogs that evolved independently in the same island, testing if gene flow occured among species adapted to the same microhabitat during the lineage divergence process or as a result of secundary contact, as well as which genomic regions were involved. In the Macaronesian islands, the common quails show different phenotypes in pigmentation, body size and wing shape, which could affect their migratory potential. The different morphotypes coexist in the same islands and previous analyses suggest that the differences in phenotype may be caused by a large chromosomal inversion. Assessing the presence of the putative inversion and locating the breakpoint could shed ligth on its role in local adaptation and divergence in the island populations of common quails, as well as on the colonitation and dispersal processes that took place in the different archipelagos. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZjtslyjJ8k

Sara Ravagni
Estación Biológica de Doñana

The Guadalquivir LTER is a Long Term Ecological Research program monitoring monthly since 1997 the biodiversity, population densities, environmental variables, community and trophic structure of the Guadalquivir river estuary. This last section of 50 km of “the big river” is a highly dynamic ecosystem which provides relevant ecosystem services to society, especially as a critical nursery ground for many fish and crustacean species. The estuary presents a high productivity, a marked seasonal cycle defined by temperature while species are clearly spatially distributed along the salinity gradient. More than 350 species are structured in a highly-connected food web fueled by phytoplankton and a heterotrophic microbial community. Food resources are mainly channeled through copepods and mysids. Being aware of the importance of the nutritional value at the base of the food web for an efficient transmission to consumers, a novel quantitative fatty acid–based procedure allowed to quantify both phytoplankton functional groups and the nutritional quality of suspended particulate organic matter (SPOM). The structure of the estuarine phytoplankton community was mostly influenced by salinity; secondly influenced by water temperature, irradiance, and river flow, and unaffected by nutrients. Twelve phytoplankton groups were quantitatively distinguished by iterative matrix factor analysis of seston fatty acid signatures in this turbid estuary. Diatoms dominated about half of the phytoplankton community spatiotemporally. Cyanobacteria and Chlorophytes were more abundant in the upper reaches of the estuary and were little affected by seasonality. Euglenophytes were also more abundant at lower salinity, increasing their presence in autumn–winter. Coccolithophores and Dinophytes contributed more to phytoplankton community at higher salinity and remained little affected by seasonality. Salinity was the main driver of SPOM nutritional quality, with salinities within 20-35 ppt producing SPOM 2.2-fold higher in nutritional value than salinities within 0-5 ppt. SPOM in summer showed a 1.5-fold higher nutritional value than SPOM in winter. Extracting the lipid fraction of SPOM led to estimations of microbial community representing from 20.9% of particulate organic carbon (POC) in winter to 44.5% in summer, and from 28% at salinities of 0-20 ppt to 41% in the 20-35 salinity range. Bacteria-specific fatty acids indicated that phytoplankton maximally contributed to microbial community slightly more than 60% only in summer and at salinities higher than 10 ppt in all seasons. Basal resources in the estuary are mainly channeled to upper trophic levels by mysids, which actively graze on phytoplankton and heterotrophic microorganisms. Mysids are the most abundant and key species in the estuarine food web and represent the main prey for early life stages of many marine fish and crustaceans, especially for the European anchovy Engraulis encrasicholus, a species of great ecological and economic importance in the Gulf of Cadiz marine ecosystem. Long term series analysis of estuarine environmental variables, anchovy juvenile biomass in the estuary and fishery stock biomass show how reduction in freshwater discharges due to damming of the Guadalquivir river (since 1930) has led to decreases in anchovy juveniles in the estuary. It seems likely that trophic cascading up effects associated to altered microbial communities might have influenced on mysid populations decreasing. By considering, the socio-economic-ecological impacts of different management strategies, we show that terrestrial and marine resources cannot be continued to be managed separately without negative consequences for human activities, and propose an Integrated Ecosystem Management for the region. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g-ZKKFzpOGs

José Pedro Cañavate y César Vilas
Centro IFAPA "El Toruño"

Past processes and events may have an important influence on contemporaneous ecological patterns, including current human impacts on landscapes and organisms. In spite of that, most of the ecological knowledge has been built upon short-term studies, which very rarely exceed one decade. Ecology and Conservation Biology have an important lack of historical approaches, a deficiency that may become a hindrance for the management of natural systems. In this talk I will present examples of how historical information on the distribution of organisms can be used to address ecological questions. Analyses are mainly based on two important Spanish historical written sources from the 16th century and the 19ht century, but also use archival information. I address questions related to the history of biological invasions, habitat loss and the impacts of global warming focusing on animal populations in freshwater systems. The outputs of ecological research based on historical data become useful tools for present-day biodiversity conservation planning and actions-VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9prN3rEB8c

Miguel Clavero
Estación Biológica de Doñana

El polen es el vehículo de los gametos masculinos de las plantas con flor. Los granos de polen difieren en forma, ornamentación, tamaño, aperturas ... de manera que el estudio de estas características (la palinología) permite reconocer con mayor o menor precisión los taxones vegetales que los han originado. El esfuerzo de las plantas formando granos de polen es muy grande, para asegurar la reproducción. Muchos granos de polen no van a poder realizar su función biológica, pero su presencia en el ambiente aportará información muy útil. El polen sedimentado en el suelo es un indicador de paisajes pasados (paleopalinología), el presente en los productos elaborados por las abejas (melisopalinología) y en el cuerpo de los insectos informa de los taxones más apreciados y permite establecer sellos de calidad y estrategias de cultivo, el interceptado en el aire refleja las plantas que forman el paisaje vegetal de una localidad (aerobiología) y tiene aplicación en salud pública (para el diagnóstico, tratamiento y prevención de alergias respiratorias) y en estudios de la respuesta de las plantas anemófilas a la meteorología y, por tanto, a los posibles cambios en el escenario de cambio climático. En el Punto de Información Aerobiológica de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (PIA-UAB) iniciamos la investigación en Aerobiología en 1983. Hablaremos de cosas aprendidas, dudas generadas, expectativas de futuro… VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TkbrkRyLxTw

Jordina Belmonte Soler
Universidad Autónoma de Barcelona

Recently diverged taxa showing marked phenotypic and ecological diversity are optimal systems to understand the genetic processes underlying speciation. We used genome-wide markers to investigate the diversification of the Reunion gray white eye (Zosterops borbonicus) on the small volcanic island of Reunion (Mascarene archipelago), where this species complex exhibits four geographic forms that are parapatrically distributed across the island and differ strikingly in plumage color. Using population genomic and phylogenetic analyses, we reconstructed the population history of the different forms and confirmed the monophyly of the complex. One form restricted to the highlands is separated by a steep ecological gradient from three distinct lowland forms which meet at narrow hybrid zones that are not associated with environmental variables. Landscapes of genomic variation reveal that signatures of selection associated with elevation can be found at multiple regions across the genome, whereas most loci associated with the lowland forms are located on the Z sex chromosome. We identified TYRP1, a Z-linked color gene, as a likely candidate locus underlying color variation among lowland forms. Overall, low dispersal capabilities in this island bird combined with both geographical and ecological opportunities seem to explain how divergence occurred at such a small spatial scale. I will also present some new results from a similar case of recent within-island divergence driven by ecological opportunity in the common chaffinch (Fringilla coelebs) within the island of La Palma. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vp8dJRfDQuo

Borja Milá
Museum Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (MNCN-CSIC)

When environmental conditions change, what determines whether biodiversity will be maintained? This question remains one of the greatest and most pressing challenges facing ecologists and evolutionary biologists because of the unprecedented magnitude of environmental change resulting from human activities. Accurate assessments of species' vulnerability to climate change require integrated measurements of its different drivers, including extrinsic (the magnitude and rate of climate change) and intrinsic factors (organisms' sensitivity and adaptive capacity). While most evaluations of species vulnerability rely on species distribution models, which allow predicting suitable habitat under future climatic conditions, these models often underestimate the actual species' ability to live under climatic conditions outside their realised niche. Measurements of the fundamental niche breadth and physiological plasticity could complement SDM providing a more complete estimation of species vulnerability. High-altitude systems, which harbour a high rate of endemism, are considered particularly vulnerable to climate change as they will experience some of the fastest rates of warming on the planet. Nonetheless, to date, predictions of the effects of climate change in alpine systems are scarce for standing water macroinvertebrates. Using as model system diving beetles restricted to Sierra Nevada mountain range, we have assessed the vulnerability to climate change in aquatic insect populations of alpine ponds by using an integrative methodology that combines distributional and climatic data, and thermal tolerance experiments. Species distribution models predict a virtual loss of climatically suitable area under different climate change scenarios. However, the studied taxa show heat tolerance limits above the predicted maximum temperatures in their current localities (but no capacity to adjust such limits through acclimation). Therefore, these beetles could have certain physiological capacity to deal with warming conditions in situ. Our results stress the importance of accounting for physiological tolerances when predicting the vulnerability to climate change in alpine freshwater biota. VIDEO https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7HBPgTqdsfA

Pedro Abellán
Universidad de Sevilla

The objective of this IPBES thematic assessment of invasive alien species and their control is to assess the array of such species that affect biodiversity and ecosystem services; the extent of the threat posed by such species to various categories of biodiversity and ecosystem services, including impacts on agrobiodiversity and food, human health and livelihood security; the major pathways for and drivers of the introduction and spread of such species between and within countries; the global status of and trends in the impacts of such species and associated management interventions by region and subregion, taking into account various knowledge and value systems; the level of awareness of the extent of invasive alien species and their impacts; and the effectiveness of current international, national and subnational control measures and associated policy options that could be employed to prevent, eradicate and control invasive alien species. https://ipbes.net/invasive-alien-species-assessment Link para asistir: https://conectaha.csic.es/b/sem-yp1-oew-fp2

Montserrat Vilà
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Desde finales del 2001 y hasta el 2005, una ola de brotes de ébola al norte de la frontera entre Gabón y la República del Congo se desplazaba en dirección este-oeste a una velocidad de 50 Km por año afectando severamente a las poblaciones humanas y a las especies de grandes simios que iba encontrando a su paso. En el año 2002 alcanzó el Santuario de Gorilas de Lossi (República del Congo) donde, desde el año 1995, la Dra. Magda Bermejo estaba llevando a cabo un estudio de comportamiento del gorila de llanura asociado a un programa de ecoturismo. Entre octubre de 2002 y enero de 2003, el ébola eliminó el 91% de los gorilas que se conocían individualmente (130 individuos pertenecientes a 10 grupos familiares). Nueve meses después (octubre de 2003) resurgió de nuevo en el límite del Santuario y hasta enero de 2004 eliminó el 96% de los individuos de siete familias que se habían monitorizado recientemente (95 individuos en total). A partir de un censo que cubrió 2700 Km2 alrededor del Santuario, concluimos que alrededor de 5000 gorilas habían sucumbido en estos brotes epidémicos. En un muestreo realizado en el año 2007, la composición social de la población de gorilas mostraba el resultado de lo que se ha llamado el coste de la sociabilidad: una reducción del 60% en el número de grupos familiares y un aumento en tres veces más de individuos solitarios que lo que había antes de la epidemia. Además, se realizaron análisis genéticos sobre heces en los que se observó que, a pesar del cuello de botella, no hubo pérdida en la diversidad genética, aunque sí se detectaron cambios temporales en la frecuencia de distintos alelos. Desde entonces no se había llevado a cabo ningún trabajo para obtener información sobre el estado de la población de gorilas en el Santuario de Lossi. Con el objeto de repetir el muestreo de 2007, 17 años después del brote de ébola, en agosto de 2019, se realizó una expedición al Santuario de Lossi para evaluar el estado de la población utilizando un sistema de muestreo similar y así poder estudiar la evolución de la población. La expedición estuvo constituida por 4 investigadores, 3 rastreadores y 4 macheteros, permaneciendo 28 días en el interior de la selva sin apenas contacto con el exterior. En este seminario realizamos una crónica de esta expedición, su desarrollo, algunos datos obtenidos, la fauna observada, y diferentes vicisitudes ocurridas durante la misma.

Magdalena Bermejo (Universidad de Barcelona), José Domingo Rodríguez-Teijeiro (Universidad de Barcelona), Alex Barroso (Universidad de Barcelona), Alberto Fernández-Gil (Dept. Biología de la Conservación, EBD) y Jacinto Román (Dept. Biología de la Conservación, EBD)
Estación Biológica de Doñana y Universidad de Barcelona

Anthropization is one of the main threats against biodiversity due to its impact on the characteristics of natural habitats. Currently, its negative effect on some species is enhanced by the increase of the average temperatures. Notwithstanding, this same scenario may also represent a perfect opportunity for some other species to spread. Ants are perfect tools to study this cause-effect processes in artificial ecosystems due to their value as bioindicators and their role as either pest control or invasive species. In this seminar, we will briefly talk about how the red wood ants, threated by habitat loss and global warming, are good candidates for the biological control of the bark beetle. The populations of this beetle, a pest species of spruce which causes serious ecological and economical losses, experienced a “boom” favored by the clear-cut and the high temperatures. Then, I will also present the consequences of habitat colonization by Solidago spp. on the arthropod’s community, using ants as an example. These invasive plants introduced for ornamental purposes, lead to changes in habitat features which strongly affect the arthropods’ assemblages. As the last point, we will discuss the most dangerous human activity, urbanization. This phenomenon usually negatively affects the local biodiversity of arthropods, decreasing the species richness and threatening the presence of specialist species. However, for invasive species this situation is perfect to expand their populations to new areas, even if sometimes they have to share the territory. Finally, I will end up with an introduction of my current research “the influence of the heat island effect on the ant activity

Gema Trigos-Peral
Museum and Institute of Zoology, Polish Academy of Sciencies,Warsaw

Long-distance dispersal (LDD) is an essential event for species colonization and expansion in oceanic island ecosystems. Endozoochory by birds is an important factor promoting the LDD of plant seeds, but its contribution to interisland seed dispersal is still unclear. Here, we show possible seed dispersal by a seed predator pigeon, the Japanese wood pigeon Columba janthina, among oceanic islands in the Izu archipelago, Japan. Intact seeds were found in 44.5% of pigeon feces, indicating the contribution of these birds to seed dispersal. Seasonal population fluctuations and frequent movements between neighboring islands which are 4 km apart by pigeons can promote interisland seed dispersal. We found seeds from fruiting plants not located on the islands where the pigeon feces were collected, which could have been transported from another island. Although many tree species overlap their fruiting phenology with pigeon movement between islands, the seeds of only six species were dispersed by pigeons, and most of the dispersed seeds were from species with small seeds less than 1.5 mm in diameter. Seed consumption and frequent interisland movement of Japanese wood pigeons might homogenize the distribution of plants with small seeds among neighboring islands. In contrast, their intensive seed consumption might disturb the recruitment of plants with large seeds and make their expansion to other islands difficult. Such effects of mutualistic (dispersal) and antagonistic (predation) interactions with highly mobile seed predators may modify plant distributions and gene flow in oceanic archipelagos. We also found the increasing flying ability of pigeons by feather morphology and genetic structure on highly isolated island condition, despite the island rule of flightless bird evolution. The interisland movement of island pigeons may be adaptive to get food resources in isolated archipelagos with unstable habitat condition in each island. The diet analyses using DNA metabarcoding revealed the pigeons’ food preference, the seasonal shift of diet composition, and frequent consumption of introduced plants. The feeding strategies of pigeons in relation to the habit of interisland movement should be considered for their effective habitat conservation.

Haruko Ando
Center for Environmental Biology and Ecosystem Studies, National Institute for Environmental Studies, Japan

Major transitions in evolution can be defined as those involving drastic habitat shifts or changes in organismal organization. These are special events in evolution where innovation and diversification rates accelerate, making them ideal systems to study the mechanisms that generate diversity. Genomic data, especially when combined with other data sources, offer an unprecedented opportunity to understand such events not only at the genomic but also at the phenotypic level. Often, this is done by studying species traits within a comparative framework, which uses phylogeny to discern convergence from common descent. Yet, the phylogeny underlying major evolutionary transitions is often blurred due precisely to the fast diversification we are interested in. In this talk, I will cover previous and current works on our attempt to clarify both the evolutionary relationships and genomic innovations in water-to-land transitions of vertebrates and plants and the origin of photosynthetic eukaryotes by symbiosis.

Iker Irisarri
Georg-August-University Göttingen, Institute for Microbiology and Genetics

The phenotype determines how an organism interacts with its environment and consequently it is at the center of some fundamental questions in biology. Among tetrapods, amphibians show notable variation in phenotypic characters associated with coloration, reproductive strategies, and development. In this lecture, I will present a series of empirical studies developed by collaborators and I where we attempt to discover patterns and mechanisms of phenotypic variation in amphibians related to color production, advertisement calls, and tadpoles. We developed our research within an evolutionary context and attempted to interpret the ecological and conservation implications of our results

Santiago Castroviejo Fisher
Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul (Brasil)

Soil microbes are the most abundant organisms on the planet, yet there are still fundamental gaps of knowledge in the importance of soil biodiversity for maintaining multiple ecosystem functions. Similarly, relatively little is known about the global drivers and the global change vulnerabilities of soil biodiversity worldwide, even for the most dominant taxa. In this talk, I will show some of my work aiming to address the major gaps of knowledge associated with the soil microbiome

Manuel Delgado Baquerizo
Universidad Pablo de Olavide

Transboundary animal diseases (TADs) are epidemic diseases which are highly transmissible and have the potential for rapid spread, causing serious socio-economic and possibly public health consequences. Some TADs are infections shared with wildlife (shared infections) and these represent a social-ecological problem with the potential to affect both agriculture and wildlife conservation. This presentation reviews the role of wildlife as indicators, victims, bridge hosts, or maintenance hosts for six TADs of special concern for Europe. We observe that wildlife are always indicator species, sometimes victims of disease outbreaks, and often relevant for disease management. In an ever-changing world, wildlife deserves to become a key component of future integrated surveillance and disease control strategies.

Christian Gortázar
Instituto de Investigación en Recursos Cinegéticos IREC, Universidad de Castilla – La Mancha & CSIC

The divergent nature of evolution suggests that securing the human benefits that are directly provided by biodiversity may require counting on disparate lineages of the Tree of Life. However, quantitative evidence connecting evolutionary history to human well-being is still surprisingly tenuous even after 25 years of academic research, and not without controversy. While some authors hold that maximizing phylogenetic diversity should lead to recognition of high levels of useful feature diversity, others have suggested that the phylogenetic approach can be misleading. Here, I provide empirical evidence supporting that evolutionary history is a powerful means to evince significant levels of plant services for humankind, both globally and across the main continental regions of the world. These findings establish an empirical foundation that links evolutionary history to human well-being, and they will serve as a discussion baseline to promote better-grounded accounts of the services that are directly provided by biodiversity.

Rafael Molina Venegas
Estación Biológica de Doñana

La creación de la Estación Biológica de Doñana en 1965 y del Parque Natural cuatro años después nos parece hoy de sentido común: un paso necesario, aunque difícil, para preservar un paraje único. Sin embargo, en su época fue una anomalía en al menos dos sentidos. Dentro de España, fue el primer parque no alpino y también el primero cuyo fin explícito no era proteger el paisaje nacional sino la fauna internacional. Fuera de nuestras fronteras, la anomalía viene por el papel de la WWF, una organización creada para resolver problemas muy específicos relativos a parques africanos en plena descolonización. Esta charla trata de explicar ambas anomalías mediante persiguiendo las conexiones internacionales de Doñana mediante el concepto de "diplomacia ecológica". Este concepto apunta a un momento histórico muy concreto tanto en términos geopolíticos como científicos.

Lino Camprubí
Universidad de Sevilla

Snake-like lizards render a fascinating study system to understand how species' phenotypes relate to climate and geographic distribution. Throughout ~180 My of history, elongated and limb reduced forms (snake-like) have evolved in at least 24 times, one of which are precisely the snakes. Along that time, snake-like lizards have evolved in all continents but the Antarctic. In this talk, I show some of my personal experience with them in Brazil and Australia, and how these species’ phenotypes may evolve in relation with climate and geographic distribution

Agustín Camacho
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Ecological communities are conformed by a complex group of interacting species. Ecologists tend to simplify their life by breaking the problem into smaller pieces and focusing, for example, on a single trophic level, or on a single type of interaction. But in nature, all interactions happen simultaneously. I present a joint effort to capture real-world complexity onto an ecological theory that allows us to understand species persistence. Overall, I show using mathematical, observational, and experimental approaches, how the network of species interactions constrains the opportunities of species to coexists. Only by including antagonistic and mutualistic interactions simultaneously, we can understand how communities persist.

Ignasi Bartomeus
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Migratory waterbirds act as dispersal vectors for a broad variety of organisms that have no or limited means of active dispersal. Co-dispersal by waterbirds is a major process influencing the biogeography, population genetics and metacommunities of a broad range of plants, invertebrates and microbes. Further research on these processes is urgently needed, to understand how birds can allow plants to migrate fast enough to keep pace with climate change, and how alien plants are spreading via waterbirds. This project focuses on co-dispersal processes using model waterbird vectors in different biomes affected by global change. We focus on waterbirds whose movements are well understood. We consider the role of waterbirds in enabling colonization and range expansion by native and alien plants in response to climate change. The main objectives of my thesis are: 1) to identify native and alien plant and invertebrates taxa dispersed by migratory Anatidae waterbirds and quantify the potential for long-distance dispersal, 2) to identify plant traits that increase the ability of native and alien plant species to disperse by endozoochory and to survive gut passage through waterbirds and 3) to identify native and alien plant and invertebrate taxa dispersed by fish-eating waterbirds and quantify the importance of alien fish in this secondary dispersal process. We will work with different vector models, mainly with bird populations of Grey Heron (Ardea cinerea), Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) and Greylag Goose (Anser anser) in different regions of Europe.

María José Navarro
Estación Biológica de Doñana

One major consequence of modern global change is that many plant and animal species world-wide are displacing their geographic ranges in response to climate change, rural lands abandonment and natural areas protection. Plant-animal interactions play a key role in these expansion processes, being able to favor these movements (e.g. Long-Distance Dispersal mediated by frugivorous animals) or constraining them (e.g. seed predation by antagonists). In my thesis project we explore how diverse interaction networks at the individual level are being reshaped under a plant range expansion scenario. In addition, we want to understand the role of individual plant traits in the structuring of interaction networks, and the consequences of dispersal service during plant movements in genetic terms. As a study model we have selected Juniperus phoenicea, which has notably expanded its distribution in the Reserva Biológica de Doñana since the protection of this natural area. We combine experimental field data and molecular laboratory techniques (DNA-Barcoding and Maternal Genotyping) with novel analysis tools such as individual network models and multilayer networks. With this thesis we intend to advance the current knowledge on how plant movements occur at a local scale, focusing on the role and consequences of diverse interaction partners.

Jorge Isla
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Forecasting the fate of individuals, populations, and entire communities of interacting species has become an increasingly urgent endeavor in the Anthropocene. In our efforts to understand how global change affects biodiversity, ecologists have realized that robust generalizations often rely on quantifying some of the mechanisms and context-dependencies driving biodiversity change. In this talk, I will discuss how a more detailed understanding of what drives differences in survival and reproduction among individuals, populations, and species - the demographic context - can substantially improve forecasts of population and community dynamics. I will focus on my most recent work, which looks at feedbacks between species interactions and demography, and how understanding such feedbacks can substantially improve forecasts of the persistence of interacting species.

Maria Paniw
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Tropical forests are increasingly degraded by industrial logging, urbanization, agriculture and infrastructure, with only 20% of the remaining area considered intact. However, this figure does not include other, more cryptic but pervasive forms of degradation, such as overhunting. In this seminar I will discuss how to quantify and map the spatial patterns of mammal defaunation in the tropics using empirical data on mammal abundance declines from local hunting studies. I will also argue how, according to our projections, half of (seemingly) intact tropical forests are partially devoid of large mammals, and how forest coverage alone is not necessarily indicative of ecosystem intactness. Further, I will show how the combination of satellite-based land-cover change maps, habitat suitability models and hunting pressure models can be applied to quantify the individual and combined effects of habitat loss and hunting pressure on mammal communities. I will finish the seminar discussing how changes in the abundance of mutualists (seed dispersers) and antagonists (seed predators and herbivores) may impair ecosystem functioning in tropical forests by altering the structure and composition of tropical forests and, eventually, their carbon storage capacity.

Ana Benítez López
Estación Biológica de Doñana

The main issues addressed by this project are related to the evolution of reproductive interactions driven by sexual conflict, which arises because the difference of interest, in reproductive terms, between males and females of the same species. Sexual conflict explains, among many other things, the evolution of traits that increase the reproductive success of one of the sexes at the expense of the other sex’ fitness, and often leads to antagonist sexual selection. This conflict explains relevant aspects of the biology of reproduction and population viability. However, our understanding of its evolutionary implications is limited by the absence of knowledge related to the role of sexual conflict underlying sexual selection dynamics or the architecture of social and sexual interactions (socio-sexual networks). That is why, having this lack of knowledge, the framework of tools encompassed within the network analysis set (Network Theory) will be an important support for this project, allowing us to understand the evolutionary causes of sexual selection, population subdivision and its consequences, addressing issues of sexual conflict, and experimental evolution among others, from an evolutionary point of view. With the framework mentioned above and this frame of network analysing tools, we want to characterise the structure of networks in a system dominated by intense sexual conflict. Attached to this we want to determine if the architecture of socio-sexual networks is shaped by selection history in relation to the presence or absence of sexual selection and metapopulation structure(manipulated through experimental evolution). Also, we wantto explore, within an approximation of selection experiments, the role of metapopulational structure (population subdivision) on the evolution of socio-sexual networks.And Finally, is known that the social group structure is a cornerstone of evolutionary processes based on cooperation and competition (including sexual competition). So, one of the main (and most important) objectives of this thesis is to know if the ability of individuals to modulate their social environment is influenced by their selection history.

David Quevedo
Estación Biológica de Doñana

In sexually reproducing species offspring production depends on access to members (and gametes) of the other sex. This implies strong selective pressures acting upon multiple aspects of sexual interactions. In this talk I will revise some concepts, and I will discuss a few challenges and ways forward, in relation to the study of sexual selection. Polyandry (when females mate with multiple males) is a widespread behaviour with far-reaching implications. Polyandry typically leads to ejaculates from different males overlapping in the fertilization arena, thereby extending sexual selection beyond mating. By facilitating postcopulatory sexual selection, female multiple mating generates intense selection for male and female adaptations that allow individuals to gain control over paternity biases. Polyandry also enables the evolution of adaptations resulting from sexual conflict over mating frequency and paternity. I will mainly use results from my own work carried out over the last years to navigate through these questions, focusing on several aspects connected to them, including: bet-hedging as a mechanism underlying the evolution of polyandry, the interaction between ecology and mating system selection histories underlying sexual conflict dynamics, and some discussion on the transgenerational consequences of sexual interactions.

Francisco García-González
Estación Biológica de Doñana

In this talk I will give an overview of my PhD project. The main objective of this project is to study how the nutritional condition in mosquitoes affects their immune system and therefore their resistance or tolerance to survive infections. I will use a combination of experimental and ecological approaches to study the effects of different diet in the survival of mosquitoes. I will focus on two pathogens, West Nile Virus and Plasmodium. In addition, I will study both the impact that nutritional condition of mosquitoes could have on the transmission and prevalence of these pathogens. I will analyze how different environmental factors affect the nutritional condition of mosquitoes studying different locations, and seasons and using long-term datasets.

Olaya García Ruiz
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Recent evidence suggests that species can diverge in the presence of gene flow, and that even moderately divergent species can exchange genes through hybridization. This gene flow during or after species divergence can have important consequences for the speciation process itself, for adaptive evolution, and for conservation. In my thesis, I will use the genus Lynx as a study model, and whole-genome sequencing data from multiple individuals of the four species composing it, in order to contribute to a better understanding of the evolutionary history of lynxes. The main objectives will be to improve the knowledge regarding the speciation process, the role of admixture in species divergence and the nature of barriers that maintain species integrity in the presence of gene flow, both in general and for lynxes in particular

Enrico Bazzicalupo
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Some species such as large carnivores cause damage to human economic activities and at the same time are of interest for conservation by acting as key species in ecosystems. These species can be simultaneously under conservation and control actions with opposite objectives, generating conflict situations. In my thesis project, we intend to analyze the new conservation challenges faced by the Cantabrian brown bear population. This population reached population minimums around the decades of the 80-90s. Currently, although still in danger of extinction, the population is in a more favourable situation, which poses new challenges for its conservation. The increase in population and distribution area causes the conflict scenario to increase and spread to new areas. Our main objective is to make an ecological and social approach to these new problems posed by the expansion of this species. To do this, we will analyze how the changes in the distribution have been so far, as well as the potential areas for expansion. We will use surveys to measure the perception that different social groups have about conservation and conflicts with this species. Finally, we also want to characterize some of these conflictive situations such as damages to human property and especially the approach of individuals to inhabited and urban areas.

Jesús Manuel Díaz Fernández
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Climate change will produce a range of new selection pressures forcing many species to move in search of suitable conditions or adapt. Research carried out in my group integrates genomic tools with ecological and geographic data and modelling approaches to assess and predict how climate and land-use changes affect biodiversity. We focus on bats as important ecosystem components and potential indicators of the state of the environment and other biodiversity. In my talk I will highlight the importance of incorporating adaptive variation, movement processes and biotic interactions when assessing biodiversity vulnerability to global environmental changes.

Orly Razgour
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Northern Spotted Owls (Strix occidentalis caurina) have been a flagship species of conservation biology in the United States of America. Their decline was strongly associated with timber harvests that removed and degraded habitat, and their conservation relied on regulating timber harvests to protect habitat. However, the congeneric Barred Owl (Strix varia) expanded its range across North America to now completely overlap the Northern Spotted Owl’s range. Competition between these two species has led to further declines in Spotted Owl populations. This presents a challenge for conservation, as it appears the only way protect Spotted Owls will be to lethally remove the closely related Barred Owl. My presentation will cover the history of Northern Spotted Owl conservation and the Barred Owl range expansion. My current dissertation research in Oregon is making use of the Barred Owl specimens collected as part of a large-scale removal study, where I am investigating their foraging ecology through stomach contents and body condition. This research is helping to inform how Barred Owls have been so successful in their new range as well as indicate other species, beyond the Spotted Owl, that may be threatened by this novel predator.

Ryan Baumbusch
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Groundwater plays a significant role in sustaining Doñana's ecosystems, particularly wetland hydroperiods. However, several threats to groundwater quantity and quality (e.g., climate change, pumping) have contributed to Doñana's hydrological degradation over the past decades. This talk will deal with groundwater dynamics in Doñana, trying to shed some light on what are the main characteristics of the aquifer, how much water goes in and out, whether pumping is affecting wetland-groundwater interactions or not, and how could water management be improved.

Héctor Aguilera Alonso
Instituto de Geológico y Minero de España (IGME)

Ecological field studies and theory over the past several decades have demonstrated that the spatial scale of heterogeneous habitats can have a profound effect on the growth, movement, reproduction, and mortality of resident plants and animals. Integrated Pest Management (IPM) schemes often build on this by establishing or retaining natural vegetation in and around agroecosystems in addition to strategic pesticide spraying. However, the effects of both habitat heterogeneity and pesticides vary greatly among species both within and across trophic levels, creating challenges for determining how best to manage landscapes in order to maximize environmental services such as biological control. Using a system of partial differential equations to simulate the spatio-temporal dynamics of predator-prey interactions in an agroecosystem, I address some gaps in our understanding of the link between non-crop vegetation in field margins and pest suppression. I examining differences in how predator colonize crop fields from adjacent vegetation as a potential driver of differences in overall pest suppression. Secondly, I demonstrate how differences in colonization behavior may interact with spatial scale and sublethal effects of pesticide sprays in determining the ability of predators to suppress prey in diversified agroecosystems, and discuss the implications of these findings for IPM.

John E. Banks
California State University, Monterey Bay

Plant metabolic pathways and gene networks involved in the response to herbivory are well-established, but the impact of epigenetic factors as modulators of those responses is less understood. Mounting evidence indicates that epigenetic regulation can modulate plant responses that include priming and maternal effects on resistance. In this project, we aim to evaluate the role of DNA methylation as an epigenetic regulator in plant responses to herbivory by screening the effects of herbivory in DNA methylation, plant performance and defense in three non-model plant species (Thlaspi arvense, Fragaria vesca, Populus nigra). We investigate plants from diverse life histories and their phenotypic traits underpinned by insect and artificial herbivory induction to gain generality. Subsequently, we assess the correlation of phenotype/epigenotype variation using the Global DNA cytosine methylation by HPLC and Reduced Representation Bisulfite technique (epiGBS). Our study points towards multifaceted genetic-epigenetic interactions in determining herbivory-induced phenotypic plasticity and linking these epigenomic profiles to plant defensive traits could offer interesting opportunities for crop improvement.

Anupoma Niloya Troyee
Estación Biológica de Doñana

I will take advantage of this opportunity to introduce the research line I would like to carry out in the next years, instead of talking about my previous work. So, I would like to see if I can get some feedback on some of the points that I will bring up. The computational biology lab (https://fortunalab.org) I have started to set up will work on the idea of harnessing evolution. That is, to what extent we can control the evolutionary trajectories of populations towards desired states. I think our background as ecologists and evolutionary biologists might place us in the right track to apply this idea into biomedicine.

Miguel A. Fortuna
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Dr. Tanya Lama is a National Science Foundation Postdoctoral Research Fellow in Biology in the Department of Ecology & Evolution at SUNY Stony Brook. Using genomic methods, Dr. Lama studies the evolutionary processes underlying population vulnerability, resilience, and response, particularly in the context of global climate change. Her applied conservation research on Canada lynx (L. canadensis), which will be the focus of her talk, demonstrates how genomics can bridge the gap between research, management, and policy. Tanya’s postdoctoral research, focuses on how life-history traits -- particularly lifespan -- can shape evolutionary responses to rapid environmental change. Along with co-PIs Drs. Liliana Davalos (SUNY Stony Brook) and Emma Teeling (University College Dublin), Dr. Lama uses comparative genomics to explore the evolution and mechanisms of aging in long-lived and short-lived species of bats and other mammals. In addition to her role as a research fellow, she receives teaching pedagogy training as an associate of National Institutes of Health NY-CAPS IRACDA – a targeted program for the development of underrepresented minority scholars in biomedical research.

Tanya Lama
SUNY Stony Brook

Phenotypic diversity exists at all scales of evolution: from plastic development within individuals to striking disparity in traits across the tree of life. Among vertebrates, arguably no group shows more diversity in reproductive modes and life history traits than the amphibians. Here, I explore macroevolutionary patterns in reproductive mode evolution using comparative phylogenetic methods. Specifically, how losses of metamorphosis and the amphibian larval stage are driven by extrinsic and intrinsic factors. Life history traits are seldom fixed however, and readily respond to environmental heterogeneity. The evolution of developmentally plastic traits may therefore be an undervalued source of novel phenotypes. Using transcriptomic approaches, I investigate how aspects of amphibian development are regulated through environmentally sensitive gene regulatory networks, and how changes in the degree of this sensitivity across closely related species may have resulted in evolutionary divergences in life histories. Together, I use these different approaches to integrate evolution at different scales, to understand how microevolutionary and eco-evo-devo processes can result in macroevolutionary changes

Christoph Liedtke
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Studying free-ranging marine animals is a daunting task due to their life style. This challenge promoted in the past two decades an unprecedented revolution in the use of technology to study moving animals, led by engineers and biologists, which gave rise to the emergence of biologging. Nowadays, researchers working with many different taxa -from species moving in marine to terrestrial to aerial environments- take advantage of biologging to study animal ecology. Nonetheless, seabirds are probably one of the animal groups where the use of biologging has had the greatest impact in advancing the knowledge of their ecology. In this talk, I will illustrate how biologging can help advancing the study of the ecology and conservation of seabirds, showing briefly several studies carried out in two pelagic species breeding in Spain, the Cory’s and the Scopoli’s shearwaters, addressing topics such as foraging ecology, migratory movements, behavioural landscapes, spatial consistency, Marine Protected Areas or fisheries interaction.

José Manuel de los Reyes
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Dogs (Canis familiaris) were the first domesticated animals. By the time other species were being domesticated during the Neolithic, dogs were completely integrated into human societies. Through this long-term relationship, the place of dogs in our communities has been changing. These many uses of dogs and their importance in human life can be perceived in the different contexts their remains have been found in archaeological sites. The wide range of canine uses could have led to early characterizations and differentiations of breeds, as evidenced by the osteoarchaeological record and historical descriptions. In this project, we will evaluate the distribution of dogs through space and time, their changing place in human societies and their co-occurrence with other animal species, by combining archaeological information with genomic data of ancient and modern dogs from Andalusia and Central America.

Natividad Lupiáñez
Estación Biológica de Doñana

162 years after first publication of ‘On the origin of Species’ still there is relevant scientific debate about several open questions within the evolutionary theory. Some of the topics under intense discussion are about the distribution of genetic variability within natural populations, selection patterns, life-history trade-offs, phenotypic plasticity, and their effects on evolutionary processes. To address these questions, I focus on big sized long-living forest tree species, organisms that pose certain difficulties for evolutionary studies given their long generation time. However, understanding adaptive and acclimation mechanisms in forest tree species is of paramount importance under current environmental context as worldwide forest decline has been detected and given that forests are pretty relevant carbon sinks at global scale. To address such questions, I took advantage of a Pine species genetic improvement program and its experimental device through a quantitative genetics’ approximation. Here, I will show two different study cases to discuss evolution related topics such as fluctuating selection as a mechanism to maintain genetic variability in natural populations, growth vs. tree defenses trade-offs and their context dependence and environmental triggers of phenotypic plasticity evolution. Finally, I will provide some discussion about the potential effect of these results when managing forest genetic resources.

Raúl de la Mata
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Islands are frequently referred to as natural laboratories in ecology and evolutionary biology. Several key ecological-evolutionary concepts have first become evident on them, such as allopatric speciation processes and pervasive species-area relationships that form the backbone of island biogeography theory. Islands are also ideal for understanding ecological complexity because of their well-defined borders and simplified biota. Despite representing only c. 5% of the emerged land, islands hold a very rich biota, bearing more than 20% of all terrestrial plant and vertebrate species. Ten of the 35 world biodiversity hotspots are entirely or largely islands, bearing also have a high endemism level, which is an order of magnitude higher than that found on continents. Yet, island biodiversity -expressed not only by the species they host but also the myriad of interactions evolved among them- is still mostly unknown. In this talk I will show you some of the findings of our studies in different archipelagos, focusing on the role that vertebrates play in these ecosystems enhancing the success of plant reproduction.

Anna Traveset
Mediterranean Institute for Advanced Studies (IMEDEA-CSIC)

Global change is threatening both plant and pollinator species, leading to a rapid loss of ecological interactions. Surprisingly, our knowledge of plant reproductive ecology and plant-pollinator interactions remains largely disconnected and there is a need to better understand how plant reproductive strategies affect, and are affected by, the structure of plant-pollinator interactions. During this talk, I'm going to show how I have tried to progress knowledge on this issue with the work conducted during my thesis at University of New England (Australia). Specifically, I'm going to explore: (i) plant reproductive trade-offs; (ii) how these trade-offs determine plant-pollinator interactions and (iii) the effects of pollinator sharing for plant reproduction.

Jose B. Lanuza
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Species exhibit a diversity of adaptations for persisting in variable environments. At one extreme, organisms may specialize on a subset of the conditions that are available to them; at the other, they may exhibit highly plastic phenotypes that allow them to use a broad range of habitats or resources. Research in my lab investigates the ecological and evolutionary drivers of niche evolution in plant lineages that occupy heterogeneous environments, with the goal of identifying the processes that drive ecological specialization. In this seminar, I will present our research on the evolution of habitat associations in Lasthenia, an ecologically diverse clade of herbaceous plants that is largely endemic to California, and includes several lineages that are restricted to specific microhabitats within vernal pool wetlands. Results of this research advance a basic understanding of how organisms respond to environmental variability, while informing conservation and management strategies for narrowly restricted plant species.

Nancy C. Emery
University of Colorado Boulder

Ecological communities comprise a wide diversity of species, and explaining how this diversity can be maintained is not an easy endeavour. Early ecologists often wondered about how so many species were able to coexist on apparently limited sets of resources, and explanations generally involved the partitioning of different dimensions of species niches, in order to avoid the exclusion of lesser competitors. These ecological mechanisms can be analysed quantitatively in idealized conditions, e.g. for the coexistence of two species of which very detailed ecological information is available. However, the study of communities with diversity of species, trophic guilds, interaction types, and spatial heterogeneity demands novel approaches for understanding their persistence. In this talk I will summarise my research on these questions, in which I combined novel ecological theory with focused observational data from annual grassland communities. I will show that the structure of biotic interactions is a fundamental piece of the puzzle for understanding how diversity is maintained in natural communities.

David García Callejas
University of Canterbury (New Zealand)

Climate is a key driver of biodiversity, and thus the abundances and distributions of species are to some extent matched to climatic variation. However, the ability of climate to predict abundance and distribution (i.e., climate matching) can vary among populations and species, as well as through time. I will present three case studies showing that the magnitude of climate matching can vary (1) among populations across the distributional range of a bird species, (2) among bird species depending on their traits, and (3) through time as climate changes.

Duarte Viana
Estación Biológica de Doñana

"Scavenger vertebrate communities are responsible of important ecosystem functions, such as the removal of dead animals from the field, which reduces health risk. Previous studies have related the structure of these communities to the efficiency of carrion consumption and, therefore, to the role that these communities play in the ecosystem. This structure, in turn, is affected by the presence of certain species of scavengers (e.g., obligate scavengers or top predators) and by environmental conditions such as weather or disturbances of anthropogenic origin. In this talk, I will explain how the richness and structure of large-scale scavenger vertebrate communities change under different environmental conditions and how these communities are affected by human disturbance and productivity. To do this, we collected information on vertebrate scavenger communities around the world and used network analysis to characterize the structure of these communities and relate this structure to climatic and ecological variables. We also identified species characteristics that make them important for maintaining community structure.

Esther Sebastián
Estación Biológica de Doñana

In this talk, Tano Gutiérrez Cánovas (EBD-CSIC) will show how global change is increasing river degradation through the simultaneous occurrence of multiple stressor. The combined effects of these stressors are causing an unprecedented loss of freshwater biodiversity, but conventional management and restoration actions are still based on single stressor abatements. To address this problem, he will firstly review how freshwater biodiversity responds to multiple stressors through different synthesis and meta-analytical works. Second, he will explore the functional consequences of freshwater biodiversity change and the ecological mechanisms underpinning biodiversity – ecosystem functioning under stress.

Tano Gutiérrez Cáanovas
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Pol has been interested in understanding how organisms, and specially tadpoles, respond to changes in their environment. In his talk, he will be speaking about his work analyzing the spatial and temporal variation of the thermal physiological tolerances of Ecuadorian amphibians within a global change context.

Pol Pintanel
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Sabrina McNew is a Rose Postdoctoral Fellow at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. Her research investigates host-parasite interactions, focusing on the effects of introduced parasites and pathogens on birds in the Galapagos Islands. She will share results of her research and education work focusing on two introduced threats to Galapagos birds: the avian vampire fly, and avian pox. The avian vampire fly (Philornis downsi) is a nest parasite of passerines; larval flies feed on nestling birds and may cause high mortality. Avian pox is a cutaneous virus that causes lesions on the feet and face of birds. Sabrina’s research investigates the behavioral and immunological defenses of finches and mockingbirds to these threats. In addition, she uses community education and outreach to support the research and conservation community on the islands. Her talk will discuss the islands both as an opportunity for understanding how birds respond to a rapidly changing environment as well as challenge for management and conservation.

Sabrina McNew
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Restoration ecology has gained momentum in the international conservation scene. The United Nations declared 2021-2030 the decade on Ecosystem Restoration less than a year after the release of an IPBES thematic assessment dedicated to Land Degradation and Restoration. This brings opportunities to consider bolder but also more flexible approaches, including the rewilding of complex ecosystems, which has been both criticized and advocated in recent years. Laetitia Navarro will present a framework for rewilding that considers three interacting ecosystem processes as its core components: trophic complexity, dispersal, and stochastic disturbances. She will also discuss how such approach would not only contribute to the restoration of ecosystems and the biodiversity that they sustain, but also to restore some of the lost connections between society and nature, including by supporting several of Nature’s Contributions to People.

Laetitia Navarro
Estación Biológica de Doñana

The demographic trajectories of organisms – including geographical diversification and allopatric speciation – are the outcome of the interplay between biotic (e.g., dispersal capacity, niche breadth, interspecific interactions) and abiotic (e.g., climate changes, topography, environmental heterogeneity) factors that synergistically determine their range dynamics and processes of population fragmentation-expansion. In this seminar, Joaquín Ortego will present some of his recent research on grasshoppers from the Mediterranean region aimed at better understanding some aspects of the demographic and evolutionary dynamics of alpine and montane biotas from different perspectives and at contrasting spatiotemporal/evolutionary scales. His talk will include some of his latest and ongoing work on (i) interglacial speciation in relictual alpine grasshoppers that currently form extremely fragmented populations in sky islands, (ii) the microevolutionary consequences of recent transitions to flightlessness, and (iii) concerted demographic responses to Quaternary climatic oscillations in a species assemblage of alpine grasshoppers.

Joaquín Ortego
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Dr. Andrew S. Mehring will introduce the fields of zoogeochemistry and ecosystem ecology, and will then discuss the results of a 2.5-year long project that tested the effects of waterbirds and invertebrates on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in coastal Mediterranean wetlands. Their FLAMMINGGOS project (Functional Links in Avian, Microbial, Macrophyte, and INvertebrate Greenhouse Gas Output Stimulation) manipulated the presence of predatory waterbirds with 126 long-term waterbird exclosure plots in 11 wetlands of the Doñana Natural Space, Marismas del Odiel wetlands, and Bay of Cadiz wetlands in southern Spain from 2019-2021. Water-to-air emissions of carbon dioxide (CO2) and methane (CH4) were measured in situ, and benthic fluxes of CO2, CH4, and nitrous oxide (N2O) were measured in the lab. Densities of benthic invertebrates and fluxes of CO2 were higher when flamingos were excluded, and invertebrate densities were positively correlated to fluxes of CO2 and CH4 in both field and laboratory experiments. Finally, Mehring will briefly discuss the other environmental correlates of GHG emissions within these Spanish wetlands, and related conservation implications.

Andrew S. Mehring
Estación Biológica de Doñana

The West Nile virus is a re-emergent pathogen naturally circulating in western Andalusia since, at least, 2003. Nevertheless, the number of cases of West Nile Disease in humans had been scarce until 2020, when an unprecedented increase of cases in humans was registered. In this talk, I present the objectives of my thesis that aims to assess the effect of biotic and abiotic factors on the occurrence of the 2020 outbreak. To do so, I will study changes associated to WNV vectors and vertebrate hosts populations and their interactions with pathogens which could affect the WNV epidemiology. Firstly, I will analyse how environmental conditions influence mosquito abundance, their genetic population structure and the WNV prevalence in mosquitoes. Secondly, I will identify the role of hosts species identity and intrinsic factors like parasite specialization on the pathogen incidence in vertebrate hosts. Finally, I will explore the role of blood feeding preferences of vectors on WNV circulation in the area. With this, I expect to contribute to the understanding of the changes of the epidemiology of WNV during 2020.

Sonia Cebrián Camisón
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Genomic studies have shown that chromosomal inversions may play an important role in adaptation, diversification and speciation. Chromosomal inversions protect co-adapted alleles from recombination with maladaptive ones, resulting in combinations of traits that are inherited together, as a single unit, called supergenes. Although theoretical studies suggest that this may be common across the tree of life, extensive genomic data is still scarce for most non-model organisms and it is not clear how often intra-population polymorphisms could be due to genomic inversions. Preliminary data from our research group suggests that one very large chromosomal inversion may be affecting the genome of common quails in the southwest of the Iberian Peninsula and that this could be associated with differences in pigmentation, size and wing shape.

Celia Vinagre
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Decline of the insects’ populations, often dubbed “insect apocalypse”, is a subject for many controversies, over inconsistent and incoherent populational trends in different taxonomic groups and geographic regions. Most of the timeseries of the insect populations are originating from the monitoring efforts which started already well into the industrial era and are probably missing a true pre-decline baseline of said populations. This missing baseline and short duration of most time series (10-20 years) presents a difficulty for accessing true magnitude of insect decline. Viktor Baranov will talk about his studies of the aquatic insects decline, and how we can gain baseline for the decline studies using palaeobiological methods.

Viktor Baranov
Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich

Global ecotourism is rapidly expanding; yet, the impacts on wildlife are largely unknown. Using a variety of techniques, including in-water observations, unmanned aerial vehicles and enzyme immunoassay, we examine the effects of ecotourism activities on African elephants, sea turtles and whale sharks. This research provides resource managers and ecotourism operators information to better ensure the welfare of wildlife used in their operations and minimize stress caused by tourist activities.

Curt Griffin
University of Massachusetts Amherst

Emerging infectious diseases of wildlife are one of the most important global health challenges and pose a substantial threat to the conservation of biodiversity. Their increase in recent years has been linked to climate change, habitat fragmentation and land use change among other factors. In my talk I will use different models, including our recent work with West Nile virus, to show how combining ecological and genomic approaches can help to understand the connection between environmental, animal and human health.

María José Ruiz López
Estación Biológica de Doñana

In this talk, Lorena Lorenzo will present her thesis plan, which aims to find adaptive divergences in and between the four lynx species from a genomic perspective. This objective is going to be covered from a microevolutionary level, which means looking for genome regions under putative selection, and from a macroevolutionary level, which means using species diversification to explain key functions that sed lights in the mechanisms of adaptation.

Lorena Lorenzo
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Anthropogenic warming is a global phenomenon that is threatening biodiversity and ecosystem function. Mechanistic niche models have become a powerful tool where researchers use the computation of heat, water, and nutritional budgets of organisms as a function of their environments. In this seminar, Michael Kearny will give an overview of mechanistic niche modelling and introduce the NicheMapR package which uses the R environment to compute fundamental physical and chemical constraints on living things.

Michael Kearny
Estación Biológica de Doñana

This brief talk will be an overview of my interest on bat's study in Sabah. My work employs morphological and molecular approaches to observe the effect of habitat fragmentation, and to observe the role of geographical barrier in shaping bats population genetics and structure, apart from developing a reference collection for bats species in Sabah. Borneo is an island full of biodiversity wonder and a very interesting ground for evolutionary studies.

Noor Halizan Hasan
Estación Biológica de Doñana

This talk is about stress in captive sun bear and how environmental enrichment can reduce stress. Faecal glucocorticoid metabolite (FGM) analysis was used to measure the level of cortisol hormone. This method is non-invasive method and can be apply to other animals of interest to study on the stress of the animal.

Siti Sarayati Abdul Mawah
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Lanjak Entimau Wildlife Sanctuary safeguard highly unique diversity of the land vertebrates in Sarawak. There are at least 89 species of mammals, 263 species of birds, 112 species of freshwater fish, 64 species of amphibians and 50 species of reptiles recorded from various sites within the sanctuary and its surroundings since 2000 until 2019. Spectacled flowerpecker (Dicaeum dayakorum) was collected from Nanga Segerak in 2019 after 10 long years of awaiting of the holotype specimen to be described. The rare and elusive species of Hose’s civet (Diplogale hosei) and bay cat (Catopuma badia) photographed during a four year surveys from 2016 until 2019. After more than a decade gazetted as a wildlife sanctuary, there are still more new discoveries obtained from this rich wildlife reservoir. In order to understand the ecological relationship between totally protected areas and its neighbouring mixed use landscapes, long-term monitoring of land vertebrates in this sanctuary is recommended.

Roslina Binti Ragai
Estación Biológica de Doñana

This talk will outline my work using genomic data to understand hybridisation between wildcats and domestic cats in Scotland. Using whole-genome sequence data, we can reconstruct a detailed picture of the history and dynamics of interbreeding between the two species. This has important implications for wildcat conservation in the UK, where this species is on the brink of extirpation.

Jo Howard McCombe
Estación Biológica de Doñana

From tiny shrews and duckweeds to gigantic whales and sequoias, the extent of trait variation among organisms on Earth is extraordinary. Despite all this functional diversity, species’ ecological strategies resulting from trait combinations are constrained by physiological limits set by evolutionary history and trade-offs in resource allocation. Aiming to understand what the main dimensions of functional variation are and how species are organized within them, ecologists have recently started mapping the functional spaces of different taxonomic groups. I will provide an overview of our most recent research undertakings, which include developing methods to characterize functional structure, incorporating fine root traits in the global spectrum of plant form and function, sketching functional spaces for vertebrates, and estimating how future extinctions will erode functional diversity at different scales. https://youtu.be/agmHDoqvQRk

Carlos Pérez Carmona
University of Tartu (Estonia)

We will introduce the different research activities carried out in the framework of eLTER Plus and SUMHAL projects concerning remote sensing upscaling in Doñana protected area. With the assistance of LAST-EBD and ICTS-RBD, both projects focus on the implementation and co-location of this 2 ESFRI Research Infrastructures in Doñana. A short intro on the long-term monitoring and research in Doñana will give way to present the methods developed to remote sensing monitoring of vegetation phenology and water and CO2 fluxes as well as products validation with in situ data.

Ricardo Díaz-Delgado, Diego García y Pedro Gómez
Estación Biológica de Doñana

The study of interaction networks promotes the understanding of species interactions, their spatio-temporal dynamics and some determinant processes behind. Here, I analyze how plant-hummingbird interaction networks change over time and space, either when affected by extreme climatic events such as hurricanes, or by habitat modifications due to human activities such as agriculture, pasturing and urbanization. Furthermore, I evaluate the importance of species abundance, and phenological and morphological overlap as factors determining hummingbird-plant interaction frequencies and network attributes

Sergio Díaz Infante Maldonado
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México

Owing to global heating and other forms of global change, migration and long-distance dispersal will be central to the maintenance of biodiversity and ecosystem functioning during the present century. Yet our understanding of whether or not plants can disperse fast enough, and how, is limited. Are we handicapped by the pervasive dominant paradigm that assumes the dispersal mechanism can be predicted from fruit/seed morphology, and that only fleshy-fruited plants are dispersed by vertebrates? We will consider whether non-frugivorous animals have a key role as dispersal vectors via “non-classical zoochory”, i.e. the plant dispersal by animals which is ignored by the current paradigm.

Andy J. Green
Estación Biológica de Doñana

La aparición de propuestas para nuevos escenarios para la interacción de personas y objetos dentro de la red global supone de nuevo una disrupción en el actual paradigma de Internet. Toda esta visión estará soportada por un conjunto de tecnologías que ya existen y, a diferencia del paradigma del metaverso, son maduras y aplicables transversalmente en casi cualquier dominio del conocimiento. De ese conjunto de tecnologías y soportes, Blockchain puede que sea la infraestructura menos conocida pero con mayor recorrido y no tenemos que esperar al metaverso para poder consumirla en nuestra actual WWW

Luis Guillermo Torres
Estación Biológica de Doñana

In this talk I'll give an overview of the kind of research that I have done, and am currently doing. Most of my work focuses on understanding the eco-evolutionary consequences of species interactions. In this talk I'll look at how these ecological processes can shape global patterns of cooperative behaviours within and between species, as well as how they can drive the evolution of behaviours such as medicine use, domestication and the building blocks of language.

William Feeney
Estación Biológica de Doñana

About the talk: What are the consequences of the loss of consumers for the functioning of marine ecosystems? Whereas most work evaluating consumer impacts focuses on consumption, I will present and discuss other functions that consumers provide in marine systems, including their roles in recycling nutrients and enhancing recruitment of algae. 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. About the speaker: I study the links between community-level and ecosystem-level processes, especially in marine systems, including the role of biodiversity as a driver of nutrient cycling and biomass accumulation. I am also interested in the understanding local-scale versus large-scale processes, spatial subsidies, and the roles of consumers as mediators of productivity and nutrient availability. I studied at the University of Puget Sound (B.S., Biology), and Oregon State University (Ph.D., Zoology), and worked at the University of California, Davis (Postdoc, Bodega Marine Lab) before becoming a faculty member, first at Northeastern University and now at the University of California, Irvine. Twitter: @BrackenLab

Matthew Bracken
Estación Biológica de Doñana

Wildfires are perturbances that have shaped plant evolution for hundreds of millions of years. In some species, post-fire resprouting might produce changes in within individual variability. In other species, adaptations such as smoke released seed dormancy might involve epigenetic mechanisms. Understanding these mechanisms is more relevant in the face of global change and its alterations of fire regimes.

Jaime Saiz
Estación Biológica de Doñana

This PhD project focuses on the study of the natal and breeding dispersal of an insular population of a long-lived avian scavenger: the Canarian Egyptian Vulture (Neophron percnopterus majorensis). We will combine long-term monitoring information with GPS-tracking data in order to identify both intrinsic and extrinsic factors modulating the plasticity in dispersal patterns. We also will analyze the consequences of different dispersal strategies on individual fitness. Our last purpose is to deepen into individual prospecting behavior patterns trying to identify how the birds gather public information.

Cecilia Gimeno Castellar
Estación Biológica de Doñana

La ponencia abordará los problemas de acoso sexual y de acoso por razón de género en las universidades y en los centros de investigación, explicando en qué consisten estas conductas inapropiadas y cuáles son las particularidades del mundo de la ciencia que dificultan su detección y prevención temprana. Además, también se expondrán de forma práctica las principales barreras a la hora de identificar situaciones de acoso y las consecuencias que tienen sobre las víctimas y el entorno.

Ángela Bernardo
Autora del libro 'Acoso. #MeToo en el mundo de la ciencia'