Postdoc position in evolutionary ecology in Svalbard

A 2-year postdoc position in evolutionary ecology is available at the University Centre in Svalbard (UNIS). The project is on modeling of zooplankton life histories and behavior.

The full announcement is available HERE.

"The Post Doc position is on modeling of life history strategies and annual routines of copepods. Our modeling work is motivated by the ability of mechanistic models to look beyond what can be learnt from observed correlations and predict biological responses to environmental change scenarios. The candidate must have a PhD, or equivalent degree, in biology, computer science, or related fields. We look for individuals with experience from quantitative approaches to ecology, including programing skills, and that are familiar with life history theory, optimization models or individual based models."

The birdy smell of a compatible mate

Blue petrel

Animals are dependent on their nose in many aspects of life. Tasks like food search, navigation or kin recognition often include the ability to evaluate odours and migrate towards or away from them. Humans and several other animals can even sniff their way to picking a compatible partner. By choosing a mate that smells right, individuals can produce healthy babies with efficient immune systems. In contrast to many animals birds have generally been thought to have a poor sense of smell, but there are exceptions. The Blue petrel is an Antarctic sea bird with a remarkable sense of smell that it uses to recognize its partners, to navigate and to find food.

A few weeks ago, CAnMove associate Maria Strand (together with Helena Westerdahl, Björn Canbäck and researchers at CNRS, Montpellier in France) published an article that shows that the nose of the Blue petrel is even capable of smelling which mates will produce kids with the best immune systems. To the article in Proceedings of the Royal Society B!

Swedish storks breaking new migration records!

The Swedish Reintroduction Project on White Storks is running better than ever. Yet, the work with this long-distance migrant bird has been all but straightforward, and a major obstacle has been the birds’ unwillingness to migrate. The turning point came two years ago when about 25 juveniles left Skåne on their first autumn migration.

Equipped with a GPS by Raymond Klaassen & Berith Cavallin.

This year, two juveniles were equipped with 35 gram solar GPS from Northstar. Thanks to Johan Bäckman at CAnMove the storks’ journey has been possible to follow on a map on the project’s webpage. The migration routes and wintering areas of these birds are typical to the European storks of today. One flew southeast, through east Europe, the Bosporus, crossed the Sinai dessert and stopped at the pre-wintering area in Tchad. After three months it headed south and reached South Africa at New Year’s Eve. The second stork migrated southwest and stopped at a rubbish dump in Spain. In fact, half of the west migrating population winter in the Iberian Peninsula, whereas the rest carry on to sub-Saharian West Africa. The study was funded by Foundation Lund Animal Welfare Fund.

In 2011, the number of migrating storks reached 100 – a magnitude similar to long before local extinction! The large number was made possible by the release of some 70 captive bred juveniles. Even this year captive juveniles were released and almost 90 storks migrated. In 2014 the first storks are expected to come back to breed. This will be a critical step since recruitment has to be sufficient for a sustainable population in Skåne. During the next couple of years the project will expand to new localities in Skåne where pairs will be released to settle and breed. Photos: Emma Ådahl. www.storkprojektet.se

/Emma Ådahl, project manager

Symposium on Dispersal in Lund!

On January 30th - February 1st, 2013 CAnMove and BECC will co-host a symposium - "the Causes and Consequences of Organism Dispersal", arranged by CAnMove postdoc Sylvie Tesson.
The aim of the symposium is to gather people from a range of empirical and theoretical backgrounds to share and discuss ideas on the causes and consequences of organism dispersal. Eight research scientists from Europe and Canada, involved in different scientific domains (ecology, physiology, behavior studies, tracing devices, prediction and conservation), have confirmed their participation.

The registration to the symposium is free of charge, and participants are encouraged to attend or bring posters to share their work during the symposium. We hope to see many of you there!

Preliminary program and registration to the symposium are available here!

An ode to the technical development lab of CAnMove

One of the pillars of the CAnMove research environment is the advanced technical development laboratory and now, a few years after the start of the programme, the investments in this laboratory are indeed carrying fruits. For example, the advanced temperature steering system applied in the large-scale aquatic experimental set-up, the “WarmBrown experiment”, was developed by the CAnMove technical development lab. This temperature steering system continuously adjusts the temperature in treatment enclosure 3^oC above the ambient, allowing us to mimic future temperature regimes in a climate change perspective.   

Based on this technology (and some biological thoughts…), we recently showed that the spring dynamics in freshwater systems will change considerably in the future. However, the different trophic levels will advance their peak abundances in a similar pattern, i.e. there will be no mis-match between consumer and prey (Nicolleet. al 2012, Freshwater Biology). Moreover, we have shown that future elevated temperatures will mainly benefit the top trophic level, and each second level below (Hansson et al. Nature ClimateChange 2012), a finding allowing us to mechanistically connect traditional food web theory with climate change scenarios. 

Recruitment trap

Finally, we show that elevated temperatures will lead to stronger and earlier recruitment of zooplankton from the sediment to the water column (recruitment quantified by means of submerged traps, see photo), i.e. affect movement and dispersal (Ekvall & Hansson, PloS one, 2012). However, this effect is stronger for some species than for others, suggesting considerable alterations in community composition in future aquatic ecosystems. 

Hence, the technical laboratory platform of CanMove, lead by professional and service minded personnel, in combination with proper application of those advancements to scientific questions, have indeed been a fruitful strategy and the above studies are just examples. There are more to come! 

/Lars-Anders Hansson

Take part in shaping analysis tools for biodiversity research! - Cancelled; look out for new date in November

On Tuesday next week CAnMove will be co-hosting a workshop on analysis tools for biodiversity research, organized by Swedish LifeWatch - which is a collaboration between the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences (SLU), Lund University, The Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute (SMHI), The Swedish Museum of Natural History and GBIF, University of Gothenburg, and Umeå University. Financial support comes from the Swedish Research Council (Vetenskapsrådet) and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency.

• Are you working with research within biodiversity, ecology or taxonomy?
• Do you handle large or complex datasets in your research?
• What data and analysis functions would you like to have access to in order to facilitate your research?
• Would you like to know more about the Swedish LifeWatch project?

Then you should join the workshop!

Tuesday September 25 2012, 13:15-16:00
Red Room, Ecology Building, Lund University

What data and functions would you like access in the Analysis Portal? Welcome to a seminar / workshop, arranged by CAnMove and ArtDatabanken SLU! The afternoon will begin with a presentation of Swedish LifeWatch and continue with a workshop where the participants will discuss the planned Analysis portal and contribute with ideas and suggestions.

No cost, but please tell us if your coming by e-mail to slw@slu.se by 21 September.

For more information contact Anna Maria Wremp, ArtDatabanken SLU, anna-maria.wremp @ slu.se, phone 018-671394 or see www.svenskalifewatch.se

Light logger project on Naturmorgon

A few weeks ago, Radio P1:s "Naturmorgon" visited Susanne Åkesson on Öland to report on her research on the common swift. Listen to the programme on Naturmorgon's web or read more about the project in "Norrbottenskuriren"!