CAnMove Newsletter Winter 2012

The winter has now come to the south of Sweden first with white fluffy snow, but thereafter with rain and grey weather.  Christmas is approaching and there has been an intense period for CAnMove personnel and members preparing for a winter break and Christmas celebration. I wish to thank all for their efforts and enthusiasm for the program progress!

I am very happy to announce some of the recent progress within CAnMove:

1)      We successfully received a grant from the Swedish Research Council dedicated to large database developments. I wish to thank all persons assisting me in preparing the application which was granted by the Swedish Research Council. Thanks to Johan Bäckman, Thomas Alerstam, Anders Hedenström and Ulf Gärdenfors from LifeWatch Sweden! The position as a database developer is now open and we welcome dedicated and interested applicants to this exciting and central work for CAnMove. The plan is to recruit one qualified person starting early next year.

2)      Johan Bäckman and SÅ have visited WRAM in Umeå, another database project dedicated to spatial telemetry data and remote sensory data for wildlife tracking. We will be cooperating on developing database efforts and on web-based solutions for communication of tracking data to LifeWatch Sweden. The meeting with Holger Detki, Per Ericsson and co-workers in SLU, Umeå was a great success and very inspirational. We look forward to future cooperation between CAnMove and WRAM.

3)      We are grateful to Rachel Muheim who has initiated the equality work at CAnMove and who is not stepping down from the duty to let Maren Wellenreuter and Åke Lindström lead the activities during the coming period starting with new activities in 2013. Thanks Rachel and very welcome to the job Maren and Åke, and we are looking forward to your enthusiastic work and efforts!

4)      Tom Evans with supporters are starting with a book club for CAnMove in 2013, inviting participants to read literature across species, topic and scale. Please, join the discussions which will be announced early next year.

5)      The PhD student course on the Ecology of Animal Migration will be given again to 1 November 2013. Anders Hedenström and Rachel Muheim with support from Jannika Boström will organize the course. Please, spread the word to interested PhD student across the world! You may sign up for the course at the web page.

6)      Helena Osvath will continue to work with CAnMove, but at a reduced level in 2013. We are grateful for her decision to stay with us for the coming period and dedicate her time to the upcoming evaluation.

7)      Please, do not forget to sign up for the dispersal symposium organized by Sylvie Tesson. Information at our home page.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I am looking forward to see you back in Lund after the Winter Holidays!

Susanne

CAnMove Conference 2013

Every second year, all CAnMovians gather to discuss the programme, science and the future - and next year it’s time for the third conference since the programme start in 2008. Next year will also be characterized by the upcoming mid evaluation by the Swedish Research Council, which of course will influence the conference. As usual, our Science Advisory board will be invited to join and we hope for two extremely interesting and fun days! Please reserve April 16-17^th in your calendars!

Drought in Africa delayed arrival of European Songbirds

The late spring arrival of several European songbirds puzzled bird watchers and researchers in 2011. Especially since many of these trans-Saharan migratory bird species have been shown to arrive progressively earlier over the last 50 years due to climate change.

In a study published in Science, December 6th, CAnMove researchers in collaboration with Danish collegues reveal that the delay of red-backed shrikes and thrush nightingales in 2011 was caused by a prolongation of stopover time during spring migration at the Horn of Africa, which was affected by extreme drought. To the publication!

New open-access journal for Movement Ecology

"Movement Ecology is a new open-access interdisciplinary journal publishing novel insights from empirical and theoretical approaches into the ecology of movement of the whole organism – either animals, plants or microorganisms – as the central theme. We welcome manuscripts on any taxa and any movement phenomena (e.g. foraging, dispersal and seasonal migration) addressing important research questions on the patterns, mechanisms, causes and consequences of organismal movement. Manuscripts will be rigorously peer-reviewed to ensure novelty and high quality." To the web site

Vacant position as database developer!

Due to the recently granted money from VR, CAnMove is now hiring a full time database developer to create a database for animal movementa data. Read more!

The Ecology of Animal Migration 2013!

The dates are now set for the 7th version of the popular PhD-course Ecology of Animal Migration: October 22nd - November 1st 2013

The course has been given since 1999, with CAnMove as sole organizer since 2009. Last time the course attracted students from 17 different countries!

During the two-week course the students are given insight in a number of different methods and approaches to study the migration of birds, insects, fish, amphibians and mammals, ranging from experimental studies in the laboratory to tracking long-distance migration in wild animals. Lectures are given by international authorities in the field as well as by researchers within the CAnMove group.

Registration opens in 2013. To the course web!

All systems go!

We are approaching 10 years of studying the mass migration of freshwater fishes from Lake Krankesjön into the connecting streams! Nearly time for some kind of party…

The old antenna system has served us well, but recent support from CAnMove and Fysiografen has enabled us to modernise. To study fish migration we use passive telemetry, collecting data on the movements of tagged individuals with continuously operating antenna stations in every stream. Last year we installed a brand new and upgraded system, which required a new database to handle the millions of data points generated by the seasonal movements of mostly cyprinid fishes. We hosted Dr. Henrik Baktoft of the Danish Technical University, who, along with CAnMove’s Johan Bäckman, built a custom-made database to hold old data and process new information gathered by the system.

Fysiografen also funded the project 170 ksek to modernise the system further. We will install solar panels at the remote antenna stations so that our migration research will have a self-supporting energy supply. In addition we will install technology that allow us to send the data from our study site straight to Lund via mobile phone satellites and into the database on a daily basis. This will save us time and also make the project a great deal more environmentally friendly!

Our aim is to have (almost) real time data from the fish migration available on the CAnMove webpage, so that fellow migration enthusiasts can follow the fish as they migrate. This advanced and upgraded system will also support us in our current projects, which include investigating sex differences in migratory behavior, experimentally manipulating predation risk to assess migratory plasticity, evaluating the impact of pollutants upon migration and searching for the mechanisms of navigating during migration. It will also help us develop a longer-term project, which aims to quantify some of the costs and benefits associated with migratory versus resident strategies. The future is bright! Thanks to CAnMove and Fysiografen for their support!

//Kaj, Ben, Christer B & Lars-Anders

With that diet, you will go far!

Butterflies and moths expand northwards quickly. But some move faster than others. A new study by Lars Pettersson and collegues, covering 37 years of range expansion in Sweden reveals that diet can play a major role. Specialist species whose larvae feed on nitrogen-favoured plants spread northwards more rapidly. The researchers demonstrate that expansion rates depend in predictable ways on traits such as diet specialization and habitat affinities. This suggests that increased areas of nitrogen-rich habitat, and increased availability of nitrogen-favoured diet, are among the most important drivers of range expansions, potentially having far-reaching consequences for a wide variety of organisms.

The study - With that diet, you will go far: trait-based analysis reveals a link between rapid range expansion and a nitrogen-favoured diet - is published in Proceedings of Royal Society B.

"Mitt i Naturen" about Caspian tern migration

For those of you who missed it, last week's "Mitt i Naturen" focused on the Caspian tern and the use of GPS-divices to track its migration.
To the programme!

CAnMove book camp

Helena, Miriam and Åke

The lead authors of the CAnMove book “Animal Movement Across Scales” recently met at nearby “Gården” providing a cosy and friendly atmosphere for the book camp. 

Lars-Anders Hansson led the program extending over two days which involved creative discussions, brainstorming and discussions on cross-referencing covering the topics of all different book chapters.

Version #1 of the book was at the table and the mission of the book camp was to find connections between chapters and to update contents of each chapter and thus help the authors to move the book to a final stage to be available for review early next year.

Ben, Johan and Glenn

We hope to produce a book of interest for advanced students and interested scientists in the field covering basic theory and understanding, but also high-lighting exciting new findings. Topics like, effects of climate change on movements were discussed as well as spread of diseases by migrating animals, adaptations related to locomotion and navigation, genetics of migration and migration patterns. 

The locomotion expertise; Anders and Christoffer

The book camp was a very successful step in this process and gave the participants an excellent chance to interact with the other scientists in the program. 

//Susanne  

Database funding to CAnMove!

Today is a happy day for CAnMove! We have just received an announcement from The Swedish Research Council that CAnMove has been granted special funding for creating a database on animal movement data. We were among the 11 lucky applicants out of 38, that were granted money.

Creating this database will enhance both current research and enable us to perform new and advanced analysis of our large data collections. CAnMove will cooperate with similar infrastructures on the technical solutions and focus on providing our researchers with best possible data handling support. The main part of the grant will be used to recruit a full time IT expert on data handling. Our future is bright!

Link to VR

New publication on geomagnetic bi-coordinate navigation

A bi-coordinate map sense based on geomagnetic information was first suggested by Viguier, almost 130 years ago, but it did not receive much attention until the beginning of this century. The magnetic map hypothesis in animal navigation has attracted an increasing amount of attention during the last decade and magnetic navigation has been demonstrated in several animal species from widely separated taxa.

In a recent paper by Boström et al. 2012, published in Ecography, we investigated the global geomagnetic prerequisites for geomagnetic bi-coordinate navigation in order to pinpoint possible problematic, as well as suitable, areas for migrating animals. We analysed the angular difference between isolines for inclination and total field intensity on a global map divided into 3° lat. × 3° long. squares and produced a map illustrating different regions of the earth defined by different angular intervals. This map revealed four vertical bands of little or no variation between isolines (‘no-grid’ zones) in the northern hemisphere as well as a few areas in the southern hemisphere. Most part of the globe show intermediate angular difference (2-30º), but there are also large regions both at northern latitudes and in the Pacific, Indian and south Atlantic Oceans where the two isolines form a clear grid.

Illustration of the possibility for animals to use a bi-coordinate map based on geomagnetic inclination and total field intensity ona global scale. Areas with an angular difference of 2 ° are shown in red, 2– 30° in yellow and 30 ° are shown in green.

We also analysed how the geomagnetic field varied along four assumed migration routes as well as two fictive routes across the US that may have been followed by birds geographically displaced in this region. For animals migrating long distances across longitudes we discovered a possible cause of difficulty. When moving east-west across one of the ‘no-grid’ zones stretching north-south the animals have to first move against higher values for both total field intensity and inclination, past a peak and then continue towards lower values. For juvenile individuals using an innate navigation system more complex than the clock-and-compass model, this information would have to be incorporated into the endogenous migration program. We also discussed possible problems for animals dealing with the ambiguity that may arise when migrating in regions where mirrored combinations occur. These mirrored combinations often occur on both sides of the north-south stretching ‘no-grid’ zones and will hence also affect animals moving east-west across longitudes.

Climate change affects Swedish bird life

Within the Swedish Bird Survey, the population size changes of Swedish breeding birds is monitored. Given that it started already in 1975, it constitutes a rich source of long term data. In a number of recent studies, Åke Lindström and Martin Green has collaborated with French researchers to investigate how the last decades of increased temperature in Sweden has affected bird life.

One approach was to investigate how the proportion of warmth-loving and cold-loving species has changed in Sweden. To start with, all bird species in the study were classified in relation to the average temperature of the species’ breeding distribution in Europe (STI, Species Temperature Index). The Siberian tit, for example, bredding in northernmost Europe only, get a STI of +6.9° C. It is a ”cold” species. The Goldfinch, with a STI of +15.3° C, is a ”warm” species. The average STI of all birds in a given site is the ”Community Temperature Index” (CTI). The CTI was calculated for a large number of sites around Sweden and compared over years (Lindström et al. 2012). Generally, CTI increased over time at most sites in Sweden, in parallel to increasing summer temperatures. Clearly, as Swedish summers get warmer, we get more and more warmth-loving birds. This is primarily because the “warm” birds of southern Sweden become more common and also move northwards, and to some extent that “cold” birds of northern Sweden retreat northwards.   

However, the study also showed that, while a given summer temperature moved about 300km north during 1975-2009, the bird communities only moved 100 km north – thus lagging behind about 200 km!  The birds are not moving as fast as the climate. Although the long term effects of this is not yet known, a potential problem could be that the birds get out of phase with important resources, such as food and habitat. A similar study on birds in Europe (Devictor et al. 2012), where Swedish data were included, showed a similar trend. It also revealed that butterflies were much better in following the changing temperature, possibly due to their much shorter life span.

Another European study, using data from the Swedish bird survey, showed that habitat generalists are doing better than habitat specialists (LeViol etal. 2012). This trend was visible throughout all of Europe, but most apparent in Sweden.

Based on several different forecasts of climate and landscape changes, the Swedish Bird Survey data also formed the basis of detailed scenarios on how the Swedish bird population will be distributed in 2050 (Jiguet et al. 2012). These scenarios show that the population changes the last decade follow the pattern of the predicted bird distribution in 2050!

Even though there are other factors affecting bird numbers, such as land use, the above studies clearly reveal that current climate change affects the Swedish bird populations here and now.

Differential orientation in Scandinavian willow warblers explained by genotype

Photo: Dimitar Dimitrov

The willow warbler (Phylloscopus trochilus) is a tiny passerine capable of flying thousands of kilometers during long-distance migrations from the temperate regions of Europe and Asia to Sub-Saharan Africa and back. Just like most European songbirds, during their first autumn migration these small birds are flying alone in the night guided by their endogenous migration program. Willow warblers breeding in southern and northern Scandinavia belong to two different subspecies. Due to the efforts of a group of scientists from Lund University both subspecies can now be distinguished by genetic markers. Ringing recoveries and stable isotopes show that the willow warblers from southern and northern Scandinavia migrate to different wintering areas in Africa.

In a recent paper by Ilieva et al. 2012 published in Behavioural Processes we used orientation cages to show that the autumn migratory orientation of the Scandinavian willow warblers depends on their origin. Genetically assessed southern and northern birds headed south-west and south-southeast, respectively. Depending on whether the birds were tested far from the coast or at the southern tip of the island of Öland, they oriented in a different way. Willow warblers tested in front of an ecological barrier, the Baltic Sea, were less active compared to the individuals tested inland, especially when overcast conditions were simulated by placing Plexiglas sheets on top of the cages. More individuals also showed reverse directions at the coast, a phenomenon often observed in coastal areas. The current experiments show the potential of using orientation cages to study inherited migratory directions in willow warblers. Future studies of the orientation of hybrids between both subspecies will be crucial for a broader understanding of the mechanisms underlying the determination of migration direction.

Mihaela

Cross-disciplinary seminar!

Welcome to a joint seminar with one of the other Linnaeus programs LCCC (Lund Centre for Control of Complex Engineering Systems) at LTH,  15 November 13.30-16.00 in Tanken!

Three researchers from LCCC will present LCCC and their work, and we hope for lively discussions on cross-disciplinary work and technological applications to biological movement research! After the discussion there will be a tour around the CAnMove-facilites such as the wind tunnel, the radar and the technology lab for those who are interested.

"Introduction and overview of LCCC" - Anders Rantzer
 - "On postion estimation algorithms"- Bo Bernhardsson
 -  "Networks and control" - Giacomo Como
 
Welcome!

Grants and prizes!

Today the Swedish Research Council announces the grants from 2012:s general call. Congratulations to CAnMove PIs and associates Thomas Alerstam, Anders Hedenström, Niclas Jonzén, Karin Rengefors, Erik Svensson and Maren Wellenreuther who all were granted money!

Photo: Kennet Ruona

Congratulations also to CAnMove PI Karin Rengefors, who in October was awarded the Lund University prize for outstanding efforts in education. Karin received the prize for her outstanding efforts as director of the research school GENECO (Graduate Research School in Genomic Ecology). The prize is awarded every year, and consists of 25 000 Swedish crowns to use for travel.

Version #1 of The Book now ready!

One of our main aims when CAnMove was launched was to produce a book on Animal Movement Across Scales. We have now worked with the book project during 2012 and, as you see on the photo, Version #1 is now finished. 

In this version all authors (about 40 persons!) have displayed a draft text of their chapter. This draft will serve as a basis for a lead-author meeting 12-13 Nov, where we will “make 14 chapters transform into a book”. In January 2013 the next version will be ready and that will be sent for review. After revision and editing of all chapters the final version will be handed over to the publisher which we have contract with (Oxford University Press). The book will then be on the shelf in renowned book stores in May 2014. 

//Lars-Anders Hansson

Newsletter CAnMove Autumn 2012

The autumn migration season is coming to an end and we are currently observing redwings and buzzards arriving late from the north heading for wintering sites to the south. Herring gulls and eider ducks are also moving south along the Swedish coasts. It is time to prepare for the winter.

I have with great joy noted that the stream of publications from the CAnMove program is stronger than ever, and many PhD Theses have been defended by students associated with CAnMove. The PhDs are ending their studies in the most excellent way, entering the next stage of their career. Congratulations to the many impressive PhD Thesis, interesting discussions and stimulating seminars which has taken place in association with the Thesis defenses! On the behalf of CAnMove I wish you all good luck with future careers!

CAnMove members are currently strongly involved in the production of the planned text book Animal Movements Across Scales to be published by Oxford University Press. Lars-Anders Hansson is leading the work with energy and strong engagement, making sure the time line is kept. Thanks for this Lasse! We are looking forward to stimulating interactions between scientists which will be a synergetic bi-product of the work. The book will we hope reach the sales desks in 2014.

CAnMove members have invited scientists from the Linnaeus program LCCC (Lund Centre for Control of Complex Engineering Systems; coordinator: Anders Rantzer, Anders Robertsson and co-workers), at LTH to a joint seminar with LCCC. The meeting is open to all interested and the invited scientists will present their work and will occur 15 November 13.30-16.00 at the Ecology Building. All interested are most welcome to join and discuss cross-disciplinary work and technological applications to biological movement research. Please, check CAnMove web page for location and detailed program.

Johan Bäckman and Susanne Åkesson will visit WRAM at Umeå University during end of November to discuss how we may interact and use combined efforts in database work associated with our actions as one of the nodes in LifeWatch Sweden.

The CAnMove program has entered the stage during which we are preparing ourselves for the mid evaluation taking place in 2013 by the Swedish Research Council. A financial evaluation is currently taking place within Lund University. The coming year we will prepare ourselves for the evaluations, and we will ask scientists and students associated with the program to contribute to the evaluation. I am convinced we will make a strong case when presenting our joint achievements, and when reviewing our work I am amazed by the number of activities and new findings that have been generated with support from CAnMove. I feel privileged and proud to represent the program as a coordinator and I look forward to work with preparations of the evaluation with you!

During the coming months the Steering committee will revise the action plan, as well as communication and equality plans for 2013. We welcome input and suggestions from CAnMove members, and please feel free to approach me or other members of the steering committee so that we can take suggestions under considerations with the benefit of the program.

Susanne

New films about CAnMove research!

Earlier this year, four short films about different CAnMove projects were published on the CAnMove YouTube Channel. Now, we are proud to present two more; one on Susanne Åkesson's swift project and the other, a short version of the documentary on Åke Lindström's, Raymond Klaassen's and Thomas Alerstam's research on the Great snipe, which was shown on national television last autumn. The films are in Swedish. Enjoy!
The Swift project
The Great Snipes

Spectacular multi-generational and long-distance migration revealed in the painted lady

One of the most spectacular and widely known long-distance migrations by insects is the multi-generational migration by Monarch butterflies Danaus plexippus, in North America. Monarchs are migrating north in spring to breeding sites as far north as southern Canada and returning to wintering sites in mountainous forests in Mexico. The migration distance and number of generations involved are now beaten by the European migratory butterfly, the painted lady Vanessa cardui. In one year the painted lady is migrating from tropical Africa to northern Europe and back, twice the distance the monarch butterfly is covering in the same time. The painted lady, unlike the Monarch butterfly which is hibernating in winter, reproduces all year around but at different latitudes. It takes the painted lady six generations to cover a round-trip distance of 15 000 km (up to 60 degrees of latitude and back). In some years (like in 2009) the painted lady shows massive migrations, which may be performed also at high altitudes out of sight from entomologists and migration watchers.

Photo: Pål-Axel Olsson

In a recent paper by Stefanescu et al. 2012 (now available as early view) published in Ecography we describe the migration phenology for the painted lady across its continuously breeding path from winter and early spring in tropical Africa via central Europe to the most northern locations in northern Europe in summer and back. The migration of the painted lady is spectacular and show the migration of a habitat generalist and highly polyphagous migrating butterfly adapted to migration in a temperate region. Radar observations show the selectivity to winds and use of high altitude flights to reach more distant areas for breeding which has been observed for other insects too and suggest that the migration strategy may be widespread among insects in temperate regions migrating long distances.

The data set included in the paper contains more than 60 000 observations from the Palaearctic and benefit strongly from national observation schemes (“citizen science”), such as those compiled in the Swedish “Artportalen”, included in LifeWatch Sweden. On the behalf of all co-authors - thanks to all who reported observations of this charismatic long-distance migrating butterfly!    

Susanne

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"!

CAnMove research in today's "Ny teknik"

Tom Evans during fieldwork at Stora Karlsö this summer.

Today's issue of Ny teknik reports on PhD-student Tom Evans' and Susanne Åkesson's research on lesser black-backed gulls at Stora Karlsö. Read the ARTICLE or more on Tom Evans' research on seabirds HERE, or a  BLOG POST from this summer's fieldblog (scroll four posts down).

The Swedish name for gull - "trut" seems to have amused the journalist...the little informative text box on the bottom of the picture says "Håll truten", which apart from the not so frequently used  expression "Hold the gull" also means "Shut up".

The Behavioural Ecology of Animal Movement

Following last week's ISBE2012 conference, hosted by Lund University, we ended the week with a CAnMove symposium on the behavioural ecology of animal movement.

It was a great day with a lively and highly diverse group of people from all over the world working on all sorts of disciplines related to behavioural movement ecology.

The breadth and diversity of the topic was apparent from the plenary talks we listened to, covering different magnitudes of tracking distance and movement patterns, looking at behavioural strategy and responses of both wild but also caged animals. Questions addressed covered: What are the sensory processes? How does ecology shape group strategies and sociality and vice versa? (How) does this differ in different habitat and for different species and communities? How does the underlying genetic architecture of these movement traits look like?

In addition to highly inspiring talks, we enjoyed ample opportunity for poster presentations, discussions and change of ideas, which we then synthesized in a final plenary discussion - before ending this day in glorious sunshine with delicious dinner at Kulturen.

Thanks to all of you, making this symposium a real highlight.

Spotty cows avoid horsefly bites

"Fjällko" Photo: Susanne Åkesson

A warm summer day the air is full of insects, such as pollinators, butterflies and blood sucking dipterans. Tabanid flies (or horse files) can in many areas be an annoying pest to grazing horses and cattle. The horse flies bite to suck blood from the mammalian host and use the blood meal to produce eggs. These eggs are later attached to vegetation near to water and ponds, in which the larvae develop. The tabanid flies can see reflected linearly polarized light and use this information to locate water and mammalian hosts. In a recent paper published in PLoS ONE we demonstrate that the coat pattern of cattle is crucial in attracting the biting flies, such that the more spots you have the less attractive you are. Cattle have been bread to increase meat and milk production, with limited focus on coat pattern appearance. However, for the future we suggest that also this feature should be considered in cattle farming in order to minimize spread of diseases to cattle and to minimize disturbance during grazing. It is interesting to note the typical coat pattern of the ancient Swedish cow race “fjällko” (photo above), which seem to have an ideal coat pattern in order to avoid horsefly bites – predominantly white with black spots.  

Susanne

Sign up for the symposium!

This summer CAnMove will host a symposium in the "Behavioural Ecology of Animal Movement" at Lund University on August 18^th. The symposium will follow the ISBE meeting in Lund and will reflect upon the synergies between the two disciplines of behavoural ecology and movement ecology. We have 6 plenary speakers from around the globe who will present talks on a variety of topics, from the role of personality in animal movement to the psychology of movement to the mechanisms of navigation. It will be a really fascinating day and you are all welcome to join in the discussions and see the talks! There is also the opportunity to present your own work at our poster session and join for a symposium dinner that evening.

For more information and registration see here: http://canmove.lu.se/node/814

We plan to submit a meeting report to Animal Migration (http://versita.com/am/).  Animal Migration is a new, international journal that publishes cutting-edge research on the biology of migratory species.  The editor of the journal, Melissa Bowlin (a CAnMove alumnus), invites symposia participants to submit additional manuscripts to the journal.  Animal Migration publishes research articles, brief communications, reviews, and commentaries on all migratory species and all aspects of migration biology, from genetics and physiology to ecosystem-level interactions between migrants and their environment.  

Have a great summer and we hope to see you there !

Ben, Susanne, Miriam and Rachel