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More information about CAnMove and the research activities within the programme can be found at:

http://canmove.lu.se

torsdag 29 januari 2015

CAnMove conference 2015


It was a misty morning when we met at Häckeberga slott – some 40 CAnMovians gathered to discuss movement research for 1, 5 intense days!

Jannie, Sylvie and Emily
Among the participants were also four of CAnMove’s  five scientific advisary board (SAB) members, and it was our newest SAB, professor Holk Cruse from Bielefeld University, who started off the conference. Touching upon a Nobel prize topic, he gave a presentation on whether insects use cognitive maps for navigation or not. 

Marilyn Ramenofsky
Marilyn Ramenofsky followed with a talk comparing migrant and resident white-crowned sparrows in terms of behavioural and physiological traits, Kerstin Johannesson talked about the reproduction of Baltic sea wrack and Steve Reppert ended the first session with an overview of the evolutionary history of genetics of Monarch butterfly migration.

Steven Reppert
The conference as a whole, followed the morning trend with presentations covering a broad range of organisms, methods and approaches.  Christoffer Johansson introduced us to some of the novel approaches in the flight lab, such as modelling a 3D wing or creating an optimal feather. Sissel Sjöberg gave us an overview of the Falsterbo Radio Telemetry project with  - at the moment  - 1 409 893 5 gathered data points to analyze.

Sissel Sjöberg
Two good friends (photo from Anders Hedenström's presentation)
Anders Hedenström shared some of the fresh results of the non-breeding flight behaviour of the the common swift, using the latest technology from CAnMove's own lab. 
Mikael Ekvall updated us on the latest research from the nano biology group. Expanding from 1 litre to 30 litre aquariums enables new approaches, such as introducing other species and also predators. Sylvie Tesson continued on the aqatic path with her talk on how environmental factors help shape community diversity in protists.
Sylvie Tesson
Due to relatively short slots we got the opportunity to listen to no less 16 interesting talks the first day (which makes it impossible to cover all here!), and the experienced presenters did well in keeping their time slots. Although some of the more enthusiastic presenters, like Jan-Åke Nilsson, literally had to be chased off the scene by the chair. 
Jan-Åke Nilsson taking about limitations to feeding rate in bird parents.

Right from the programme start, outreach and communication has been on the agenda, and during the conference there were no less than two presentations on outreach projects targeting young people.
When Jan Heuschele realized how much non-scientific material about evolution/intelligent design there was for children, he decided to take matters into his own hands. And so he created "the world of Hopfs" - an e-book for chidren on how evolution works. Inspiring!

Jan Heuschele
Some hours later, Caroline Bolmeson and photographer Aron Hejdström presented CAnMove's own scientific outreach project - an e-book on animal movement research for high school students - engaging most of the CAnMove associated PhDs and postdocs. For the first time we got to see some of Aron's breathtaking photos, which just made you long for more!

Arne
However, a conference is not only about presenting research - meeting, talking and having a nice time is equally important - and the nice surroundings, good food and inspiring environment helped.


Susanne & Mikkel
Caroline, Christina & Sylvie
After dinner, the board took the opportunity to follow up the brainstorming event on CAnMove's future earlier this autumn.



Johan Bäckman started the second day with an overview of the latest advances of the technology lab - some of which we had already heard in earlier talks - covering micro data loggers, GPS trackers and the new data base. 
Mikkel Brydegaard Sörensen, Emily O'Connor, Max Lundberg and Kaj Hulthén then managed to cover insects, birds and fish, as well as electro-optical, genetic and tracking approaches in the four remaining presentations before the poster session!

Poster session

Christoffer, Marco & Lasse
Tom, Holk & Kozue
To sum up the conference from the advisory board's point of view, they concluded that the programme development since the conference in 2011 has been remarkable. Especially the technological development – which also has been CAnMove's first and primary goal. Moreover, they were impressed by the development in the genetic field as well as the successful integration between genetics and ecology.

Thanks to everyone who contributed to this inspiring meeting and also to Christina and Susanne for the great organization! 

//Text and photo:
Helena Osvath

tisdag 13 januari 2015

New publications



In Decembers issue of Proceedings of the Royal Society, Biological Sciences, CAnMove researchers
, , , , Their study showed a significant heritability of telomere length on the maternal but not on the paternal side, and that the mother's age was positively correlated with their offspring's telomere length. Find the paper here: "Maternal and genetic factors determine early life telomere length"
 
Another fresh paper "Testing avian compass calibration: comparative experiments with diurnal and nocturnal passerine migrants in South Sweden" can be found in Biology open. This time it is Susanne Åkesson, Mihaela Ilieva and their european collaborators who has compared compass calibration in
dunnocks, sedge warblers and European robins.

Available PhD Position in Bird Migration in Germany

The Institute of Avian Research "Vogelwarte Helgoland" in Wilhelmshaven, Germany is looking for a PhD student to study the effects of climate change on migratory birds. The position is available from April 2015 for 3 years, last day of application: 31 January 2015. Read more!