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BES ANNUAL MEETING
3 - 5 SEPTEMBER 2008
IMPERIAL COLLEGE LONDON, UK
THEMATIC TOPICS
The BES is pleased to announce an interesting array of thematic topics this year at Imperial College, London.
It is possible to request inclusion in any of these topics once you have entered the abstract submission process.
THE EFFECTS OF CLIMATE CHANGE ON BIOTIC INTERACTIONS AND ECOSYSTEM SERVICES:
Organisers: Jose Montoya, Dave Raffaelli
Keynote speaker: Gian-Reto Walther, University of Bayreuth, Germany
Title: Community and ecosystem responses to recent climate change
Speakers:
Jane Memmot, University of Bristol, UK
Guy Woodward, Queen Mary University of London, UK
Jens Dauber, Leeds University, UK
Martin Solan, University of Aberdeen, UK
Mark Huxman, Napier University, Edinburgh, UK
Carles Pelejero, Instituto Ciencias Mar CSIC, Barcelona, Spain
Synopsis:
Anthropogenic climate change could act as a major cause of invasions, extinctions and shifts in ecosystem functioning in the near future As evidence of widespread biological impacts of recent climate change accumulates, there is a pressing demand to anticipate the future responses of ecosystems to ongoing environmental change.
Most studies to date have concentrated on the effects of climate change on individuals and species, with particular emphasis placed on its effects on the phenology and physiology of organisms and on the range and distribution of species. However, it is difficult, and of questionable validity, to extrapolate from studies of individuals and populations to the community or ecosystem level, because of the potential indeterminacy of responses generated in these complex ecological networks, within which multiple species are connected to one another (e.g. via trophic links in food webs). Responses by individual species to climate change may disrupt their interactions with others at the same or adjacent trophic levels. The occurrence and intensity of competition, feeding relationships, and mutualisms will be affected, ultimately affecting the dynamics of ecological communities and the provision of valuable ecosystem services. The pollination crisis is an example. Increase in temperatures is desynchronizing the life-cycles of pollinators and the plants they visit, leading to an overall decrease of pollination.
There is, therefore, a need to investigate the effects of climate change on biotic interactions and on the services and functions (e.g. primary and secondary production, sustainable fisheries, pest control, nutrient cycling) provided by different types of ecosystems.
PLANT-SOIL INTERACTIONS AND THE CARBON CYCLE:
Organisers: Richard Bardgett, Gerlinde De Deyn, Nick Ostle
Keynote Speaker:
Professor F. Stuart Chapin, Institute of Arctic Biology, University of Alaska, Alaska
Title: The changing global carbon cycle: Linking local plant- soil processes to global consequences
Speakers:
Professor Pete Smith, School of Biological Sciences, Aberdeen University, UK
Do plant traits matter for soil carbon dynamics at the global scale?
Dr Hans Cornelissen, Vrije Universiteit, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Global negative vegetation feedback on carbon exchange and global warming: responses of leaf litter decomposition rates to climate change
Dr Sebastian Fontaine, INRA, Clermont Ferrand, France
The priming effect: a point of connection between microbial ecology, carbon cycling and plant functioning
Dr Michael Bahn, Institute for Ecology, University Innsbruck, Austria
Plant-soil interactions and carbon flux in mountain grasslands
Dr Edward Ayres, NREL, Colorado State University, Colorado, USA
Linkages among plant species traits, soil communities, and rates of decomposition
Synopsis:
Soils are major players in the global carbon (C) cycle, containing more than two-thirds of terrestrial ecosystem C. Soil carbon reservoirs are the balance between carbon input via primary productivity and output via gaseous release, leaching, erosion and fire. Despite the importance of soils for the global carbon cycle, our ability to predict how soil carbon reservoirs will respond to global changes remains limited.
There is also considerable uncertainty over the representation of mechanistic understanding of plant-soil-microbe-atmosphere interactions in soil carbon models. Plant traits and functional groups have a major influence on ecosystem carbon dynamics by controlling carbon assimilation, its transfer and storage belowground, and its release from soil as CO2, DOC, VOCs and CH4. At a landscape and regional scale, plant traits and functional groups can also influence carbon erosion processes and the likelihood of wildfires.
The aim of this thematic session is to explore recent advances in our understanding of the mechanisms by which specific plant traits, and changes in vegetation composition and diversity, influence soil carbon dynamics. In particular, the session will focus on interactions between traits of plants and soil biota that influence ecosystem carbon balance. To do this, we bring together scientists with different expertise in ecosystem carbon dynamics, ranging from those working on plant physiological controls on carbon dynamics at local scales, to those exploring how major shifts in vegetation might feedback on soil carbon cycling at regional and global scales.
RAPID HUMAN INDUCED EVOLUTIONARY CHANGE:
Organisers: Tom Cameron, Tim Coulson
Keynote Speaker: Richard Law, University of York, UK
Title: Fisheries-induced evolution: present status and future directions
Speakers:
Tobias van Kooten, Andre de Roos, Lennart Persson, University of Umea, Sweden and University of Amsterdam, Holland
Harvesting size structured consumers with food-dependent growth
Tom Cameron, University of Leeds, UK
Harvesting induced life history evolution in a small plastic world
Fanie Pelletier, University of Concordia, Montreal, Canada
Eco-evolutionary dynamics of vertebrate populations in a human-altered world
Synopsis:
The traditional paradigm that evolution takes hundreds of generations to occur has been overturned. A number of field and laboratory studies have shown that life-history evolution can occur over contemporary time-scales, with a number of adaptive traits varying over fewer than tens of generations. Such traits include behaviour, morphology and the mean and plasticity in life-history traits such as maturation and reproductive investment. And although evolved changes in organism life-history may lead to a cascade of changes in population structure and the mean size and densities of individuals in different stage or age classes, which will influence population dynamics and the selection pressures between the population and its natural environment, their remains few studies that have explicitly examined the life-history and subsequent population dynamic consequences of evolution in ecological time.
Of particular international interest at the present time are the consequences of contemporary life-history evolution in animal and plant populations resulting from anthropogenic forcing, either via resource exploitation or from induced environmental change at multiple scales. A number of experimental and theoretical studies across a variety of taxa (e.g. plants, cladocerans, mites, nematodes, molluscs, marine and freshwater fish, rodents, birds, ungulates) are demonstrating that induced contemporary life-history evolution is real and can have important consequences for population dynamics, economic yields and extinction risk. It is now important that these discoveries lead to solutions through the application of this knowledge to determine appropriate management intervention that will halt, minimise or reverse the evolution of detrimental, non-optimal life-history traits.
MULTITROPHIC INTERACTIONS – FROM GENOME TO FIELD:
Organisers: Cathy Hawes, Scott Johnson, Ali Karley
Keynote Speaker: Professor Guy Poppy, Head of Biodiversity and Ecology, University of Southampton, UK
Title: Multitrophic Interactions - From Genome to Field
Speakers:
Professor Geoff Squire, SCRI, UK
Dr Joannna Staley, Imperial College London, UK
Dr Adam Vanbergen, CEH Edinburgh, UK
Dr Martijn Bezemer, Wageningen University, The Netherlands
David Coyle, University of Wisconsin, USA
Synopsis:
There is growing recognition that ecosystem processes are closely intertwined through complex interactions that shape both community structure and function. This multi-trophic perspective is particularly prevalent in ecological studies of agro-ecosystems which focus on crop plant communities and their associated weed, insect herbivore and predator / parasitoid assemblages. Research in this area has adopted several conceptual frameworks, ranging from food web ecology and biodiversity to aboveground-belowground interactions.
Over the last decade, there have been many important empirical and conceptual developments in these areas and these in turn have generated questions about how these interactions could be exploited for a host of environmental issues ranging from pest management to the preservation of diversity and system resilience. This is particularly apparent in agro-ecology with growing public concern about conventional (e.g. pesticide usage) and novel (e.g. GM plants) management practices.
To answer such questions however, ecologists must first determine which underlying principles and patterns are important in structuring agro-ecosystems and, where possible, make predictions based on such generalisations. Key to this is the ability to quantify functional traits and their role in trophic interactions, which forms the basis for the proposed thematic session. During the session we aim to explore how functional traits underpin trophic linkages and thus contribute to ecological processes operating in agro-ecosystems, and to assess how these may be exploited for sustainable management of productive, diverse and reduced input systems.
FOREST CANOPY ARTHROPODS: PROCESSES AND INTERACTIONS:
Organiser: Claire Ozanne
Keynote Speaker: Professor Roger Kitching, University Brisbane, Australia
Title: Animal mediated processes driving the canopy sub-system
Speakers:
Dr Rob Ewers, Imperial College London, UK
Edge-effects
Dr Owen Lewis, Oxford University, UK
Forest canopy food-webs
Dr Neville Winchester, University Victoria, Canada
Suspended soils and decomposition
Drs Colin Maycock and Chris Kettle, ETH Zurich, Switzerland
Pollination and tree reproductive biology
Andrew Mitchell, GCP
Future directions for canopy studies
Synopsis:
Many crucial ecosystem processes have key elements located in plant canopies. This thematic session will focus on forest canopies: processes, biodiversity and the interface with the atmosphere. Globally, forests cover approximately 30% of land area, support around 40% of extant species and contribute 70% of biogenic VOC emissions (FAO 2006, Guenther et al. 1995, Ozanne 2003).
The canopy, whilst only one stratum of the habitat, is currently an arena for intense debate around key ecological topics including: how many species there are on earth Novotny 2002; the specificity of herbivores and pollinators (Dyer et al. 2007, Novotny et al. 2007); syspended soils and decomposition (Lindo and Winchester 2007);the complexity of foodwebs (Tylianakis 2007); the contribution of the biosphere to climate regulation (Mahli & Grace 2000) and the effects of elevated CO2 (Keel et al. 2006). The challenges this habitat presents in terms of accessibility bring together a melting pot of researchers working on a range of topics, often providing the springboard for new ideas and technological developments. The proposed thematic session includes papers across a range of key ecological processes occurring in the canopy.
INTEGRATING GENETIC AND BIOGEOGRAPHIC RESEARCH: THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING DIVERSITY IN THE TROPICS?
Organiser: Simon Queenborough and Will Gosling, Sheffield University and Open University, UK
Keynote Speaker: Toby Pennington, Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, UK
Title: Comparative phylogeography and biogeography of tropical tree species
Speakers:
Keynote: Toby Pennington "Using plant phylogenies to understand the historical assembly of tropical forests"
Wolfgang Wurster "Comparative phylogeography of African venomous snakes: is there a pattern?"
Cathy Walton "Comparative phylogeography of forest-dependent mosquitoes in SE Asia"
Nathalie Seddon "Avian diversity in the Neotropics: genes, geography and behaviour"
Simon Queenborough "Sex and diversity: why do some tropical forests have so many species of dioecious tree?"
Alex Twyford "Biogeography of Rhododendron subgenus Vireya: a test of Wallace's Line"
Synopsis:
The tropics are the most biodiverse region of the Earth. However, the mechanisms that generated this diversity are poorly understood. Recent advances in molecular ecology are providing new insights into the age and rates of speciation in the tropics. Coupling these findings with biogeographic data (both past and present) provides a powerful tool to investigate the origins of the diversity. This thematic session sets out to bring together experts in molecular ecology and biogeography to showcase recent advances and to demonstrate the benefits of integrating these two disciplines. The implications for conservation in the tropics will also be considered.
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