Título: Bird migration Resumen: 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.

Título: Life history evolution in a changing world: /r/- versus /K/-selection and the adaptive alignment of pace-of-life syndromes Resumen: 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.

la temperatura como factor clave de la organizacion de las comunidades de hormigas en Doñana

Título: Population dynamics of voles: Characterization and modelling of global spatio-temporal patterns Resumen: 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.

Título: Desafíos para la persistencia de grandes felinos Neotropicales en paisajes dinámicos dominados por la actividad humana Resumen: 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.

Ponente: Santiago Montero-Mendieta Title: A genomic view on the diversification of neotropical frogs Abstract: 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?”.