Museu da Ci�ncia - Universidade de Coimbra
Seminário

12 de Abril 2012
a 11 de Julho 2013

SEMINÁRIOS EM ECOLOGIA E EVOLUÇÃO (anteriores)

O Departamento de Ciências da Vida organiza regularmente, com a colaboração do Museu da Ciência da Universidade de Coimbra, os Seminários em Ecologia e Evolução.



PROGRAMA

12 de Abril | 14H30
MIGRATORY FISHES AS KEY SUBSIDIES IN STREAM ECOSYSTEMS
por Alexander Flecker, Universidade de Cornell, NY, USA.


Alex Flecker is an Associate Professor in the Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. He is a member of the graduate fields of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, International Development, and Conservation and Sustainable Development, and is an Associate Member of the Latin American Studies Program. After receiving his Ph.D. in Zoology (Ecology and Evolution concentration) in 1990, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Otago in New Zealand (1991-1993), and joined the Cornell faculty in 1995. He has worked extensively in the Neotropics, including research sites in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic, Bolivia, and Trinidad.  In addition to teaching at Cornell, he has served as an invited course instructor in Costa Rica for the Organization for Tropical Studies and at the University of Coimbra in Portugal.

Research description:
My research focuses on the roles of animals in influencing the structure and function of ecosystems, and the consequences of changes in biodiversity in ecosystems. My current work aims to integrate these themes by asking questions about ecosystem-level effects of species losses and additions. Are natural systems ecologically redundant such that species deletions and additions are buffered by other community members? Or do changes in the numbers of species and their relative abundance generally have broad ecosystem consequences? I have focused much of my research on the ecology of tropical river systems, where I am trying to understand the strength of species interactions within hyper-diverse food webs and the influence of species on ecosystem processes such as nitrogen cycling and organic matter dynamics.  One of the most striking findings in our work is that grazing and sediment-feeding fishes play dominant roles in these systems, and their selective removal results in dramatic changes in community structure and ecosystem function. Furthermore, fishes that feed on sediments are important agents of biological disturbance and can introduce significant spatial and temporal heterogeneity with important ecosystem consequences. Some of the current projects being pursued in my lab include the role of migratory fishes as food web subsidies and as major functional drivers in tropical river systems, the importance of consumptive versus nutrient recycling effects of animals in aquatic ecosystems, top-down and bottom-up controls in ecosystems across productivity gradients, and stoichiometric relationships among consumers and resources in stream food webs.

17 de Maio | 14H30
LOCAL ADAPTATION IN REED BUNTINGS EMBERIZA SCHOENICLUS: THE EFFECTS OF MIGRATION AND FORAGING
por Júlio Manuel Neto

Júlio Manuel Neto is a post-doctoral researcher based at CIBIO, University of Porto, and MEEL, University of Lund. Júlio has broad interest in behavioural ecology and evolutionary biology, and has focused his research on reedbed passerines using a variety of techniques. Further info on biography and research interests can be found at CIBIO    


12 de Junho | 11H00
HUNTING THE MOLECULAR PAST
por Eske Willerslev, Director do Centro de GeoGenetics do Museu de História Natural de Copenhaga

Eske Willerslev is a Professor at the University of Copenhagen and the director of the Centre of Excellence in GeoGenetics, Natural History Museum of Denmark. He is interested in evolutionary biology, past environmental reconstructions, human migration, population genetics and phylogenetics using both ancient and contemporary DNA sequence data.
His team was the first to reconstruct the full genome of an extinct human being, Inuk, a male individual who lived in Greenland 4,000 years ago and belonged to the first culture to settle in the New World Arctic (Rasmussen et al., 2010). Moreover, they were also the first to sequence the complete genome of an Australian Aborigine and with this uncover separate human dispersals in to Asia (Rasmussen et al., 2011).
He is the leading author on numerous publications in high profile journals like Nature, Science and PNAS. 


19 de Setembro | 15H00
ES POSIBLE LA COMPETENCIA ENTRE STREPTOPELIA DECAOCTO Y S. TURTUR EN LA PENINSULA IBERICA?
por Gregorio Rocha, Universidade de Extremadura

- Doctor en Veterinaria (especialista en fauna salvaje) e Ingeniero Técnico Forestal.
- Profesor en el Departamento de Ingeniería Agroforestal de la Universidad de Extremadura.
- Coordinador  del Grupo de Investigación "Aprovechamiento y Conservación del Monte", de carácter eminentemente aplicado.
- Autor de varios libros completos  y una veintena de capítulos, así como otros tantos artículos en revistas científicas.
- La mayor parte de su investigación es aplicada a la gestión de especies cinegéticas, destacando los estudios realizados sobre la Tórtola común en Extremadura, cuyos resultados fueron incorporados a la legislación Autonómica (retrasando la apertura de la caza en verano, poniendo cupos de capturas y estableciendo distancias mínimas de los puestos en los cazaderos). Estas medidas fueron incorporadas posteriormente por otras administraciones.
- Destacan también sus trabajos recientes sobre el conejo de monte, realizando traslocaciones para el Gobierno de la Región en el Parque Nacional de Monfrague y en Granadilla con objeto de implantar poblaciones presa de cara a la reintroducción del lince ibérico.

 
16 de Outubro | 16H00
THE BACKGROUND NOISE: BIRD COMMUNICATION IN THE URBAN ENVIRONMENT
por Dr. Diego Gil, Museu de História Natural de Madrid

Research Themes
My research can be framed within the field of behavioural ecology, with a strong emphasis on the physiological mechanisms that are at the base of the adaptive responses of organisms to the environment. My models for this kind of questions are birds, mostly passerines, and apart from the scientific interest they have, I personally enjoy working in the field with them.
I have two main lines of research. On the one hand, my first interest was the study of bird song, why it varies so much between individuals and species, what do birds use it for, how is it designed for transmission in the environment, and how it relates to sexual selection and speciation. My second line of research is the study of maternal effects, particularly the effects of hormones that are transmitted from mother to offspring in the eggs, and that have effects in the development and fitness of the birds.

Curriculum Vitae
My first degree was in Psychology, something that reflects my early interest in behaviour and learning. I was fascinated by bird song from very early on. My first scientific study, on singing patterns of two sympatric treecreeper species, led me to consider interspecific territoriality, and made me realize from very early on the close link of behaviour with ecology and evolution. I did my PhD in the University of St Andrews supervised by Peter Slater on the role of song in sexual selection in the willow warbler. From there on I became interested in how maternal effects could influence development in birds, and that was the main theme of research during my postdocs with Jeff Graves (St. Andrews) and Anders Moller (Paris).
In 2001 I came back to Spain with a Ramón y Cajal fellowship, and in 2008 I obtained a senior scientist position at the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales (CSIC).


22 de Novembro | 16H00
SOIL BIODIVERSITY AND ECOSYSTEM PROCESSES: THEORIES, BELIEFS, AND EMPIRICAL RESULTS
por Heikki Setala, Professor de Estudos de Ecossistemas Urbanos da Universidade de Helsinkia, Finlândia


Curriculum Vitae
Heikki Setala (Professor in urban ecosystem studies) has been working for more than 20 mainly in soil ecology. During the past six years his main interests have been targeted to urban green infrastructure and ecosystem services, particularly urban soils and effects on urban hydrology and urban air quality. Other research subjects include soil ecotoxicology, and habitat fragmentation. Heikki Setala has published ~100 publications in international peer review Journals, most of which dealing with relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem functioning in various ecosystems.


13 de Fevereiro 2013 | 14H30
NUTRIENT SUBSIDIES INFLUENCE ECOSYSTEM STRUCTURE AND FUNCTIONING IN NEW ZEALAND ESTUARIES AND COASTS
por Candida Savage, Universidade de Otago


Brief biography: Candida Savage is a Senior Lecturer in the Marine Science department at the University of Otago in New Zealand and an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Cape Town. She is a marine ecologist interested in human impacts in coastal and estuarine ecosystems. Her research team investigates drivers of change in estuarine and marine ecosystems and combines field and laboratory studies to understand how multiple stressors, particularly nutrient enrichment, affect food web structure and biogeochemical cycling.


11 de Abril 2013 | 16H00
FORAGING ECOLOGY AND MIGRATION PATTERNS IN NORTHERN GANNETS
por Stefan Garthe, Universidade de Kiel, Alemanha


Stefan Garthe estudou Biologia em Hamburgo e Kiel, na Alemanha. No seu doutoramento, Stefan Garthe  estudou a distribuição e seleção de habitat de aves marinhas no mar do Norte e as suas interações com a pesca. O seu pós-doutoramento foi feito no Instituto de Investigação Marinha em Kiel, sendo posteriormente professor no Centro de Pesquisa e Tecnologia em Büsum, estação externa da universidade de Kiel. Nesta instituição tem feito investigação em ecologia de aves marinhas. A sua equipa de investigação inclui atualmente cerca de 15 cientistas e estudantes. Durante vários anos Stefan Garthe foi também Professor Adjunto na Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canadá. Stefan Garthe é atualmente presidente da Sociedade Alemã de Ornitologia.

10 de Maio 2013 | 16H00
SEXO E AUSÊNCIA DE SEXO EM LIBÉLULAS
por Adolfo Cordero, Universidade de Vigo

Adolfo Cordero é professor de Ecologia e Biologia da Conservação na Universidade de Vigo, Espanha e tem trabalhado principalmente em seleção sexual utilizando as libélulas como organismos – modelo. Outros temas do interesse do Professor Adolfo Cordero incluem a evolução do polimorfismo de cor em fêmeas, ecologia de pragas e biologia da conservação.


11 de Julho 2013 | 16H00
MEASURING THE HEALTH OF WATERS FROM ARISTOTLE TO COMPLEX ALGORITHMS:
LEARNING FROM WHENCE WE CAME AND CHALLENGES ON WHERE WE GO

por Trefor Braban Reynoldson GHOST Environmental Consulting and Acadia University

Neste seminário, Tref Reynoldson vai descrever a evolução das medidas de qualidade ambiental em sistemas de águas doces e a interação entre a ciência, a política e a gestão.