Welcome to CAnMove activities

Very welcome back after the summer break and field work! I hope your summer was relaxing and enjoyable.

There are a number of upcoming CAnMove activities that I hope will interest you all. Please, make sure to sign up for the meetings and workshops that are planned, and do not miss the new Moon watching project and associated events! More information is available at our home page.

This is the list to remember:

1. Symposium on “Insect flight” including CAnMove BBQ, 29-30 August.

2. New “Moon watch” project is initiated and celebrated with a social event and associated technology information (LIDAR show at the Physics Department). We will meet at the Ecology Roof 9 September at 19.30h, visit the LIDAR lab at the Physics Department and then return to the Ecology Building roof to observe nocturnal bird migration and socialize. “Varmkorv etc” and drinks will be served. All CAnMovians are Welcome!!

3. BECC/CAnMove symposium “Beyond the Climate Envelope”, 10-12 October.

4. Migration course for PhD students will start 18 October and run for 12 days. You are all welcome to visit lectures at the course.

All the best!

Susanne

Genetics of migration – perspectives and challenges

In a diversity of organisms, closely related species, or even various populations of the same species exhibit strikingly different migratory behaviours, spanning from intercontinental movements to complete residency. We know that a significant proportion of phenotypic variance in migratory traits has a genetic basis, and migratory traits are under strong selection and can change within few generations.

But we still don't understand which genes are responsible for variable expression of specific migratory traits, such as migratory direction, timing and migratory distance? How many genes are involved in variation of migratory strategies? What is the magnitude of their effects?

Given the revolutionary technological achievements in the field of genomics, we think that this can be a turning point for the field, and finally allow us to evolve migratory genetics from phenotypic to molecular approaches enabling us to incorporate genetic architecture into our understanding of migratory traits.

Thus, we thought this is a great time to synthesise and review the state-of-the art in the field in an opinion paper (doi:10.1016/j.tree.2011.07.009).


Our review covers a diverse range of taxa (sketching key studies currently carried out in insects, fish and birds) with focus on different technical aspects, experimental paradigms, and presents the various methodological approaches ready to be applied to study migration in order to make major advances in this research field.

We hope that this paper will contribute to providing the necessary forum to enhance discussion in this newly emerging field, encourage interdisciplinary dialogue, foster collaborations and promote debate.

New Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation

During summer CAnMove member Rachel Muheim got appointed Fellow of the Royal Institute of Navigation "in recognition for her research into light-dependent magnetoreception and how migratory birds navigate".

Rachel has been working with orientation and navigation in birds since the mid-90s and is now assistant professor in the department of Biology, Lund University. Find out more about her research here.