EES Conference2011
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Welcome to the 2011 EES Conference
Dates: October 12th and 13th 2010
Location: LMU Biozentrum in Martinsried
Check our EES Conference poster here
The annual EES conference is being held on the 11th and 12th October 2011 at the LMU Biozentrum. Everyone interested in topics in Evolution, Ecology, and/or Systematics is invited to join. At this conference, finishing Master students and PhD students will give talks on their research, and Master students completing their first year will present posters. In addition, three invited speaker will be presenting their work. During the conference, we will welcome our new EES Master students, hold a graduation ceremony for our third cohort of EES Master students, and award the EES Young Researcher Prizes for best Master/Diplom and PhD talks.
September 1st is the deadline for applications for the 2011 EES Young Researcher Prizes for best Master/Diploma and PhD research in the fields of Evolution, Ecology and Systematics at the LMU. Seize the opportunity to participate in the 5th Annual EES Conference on the 11th and 12th of October 2011! Present your research in a brief talk (10-15 minutes) and win 1000 € (for the two best Master/Diploma students)or 1500 € (for the two best PhD students). If you are a Master/Diploma student who handed in your thesis between August 1st 2010 and September 2nd 2011 or a PhD student who handed in your thesis between August 1st 2010 and September 1st 2011 or PhD student in your final year (that is, started before October 1st 2009). Then you are eligible!
How to apply: By September 1st, send an email containing a brief CV, the abstract of your talk and a short statement from your supervisor confirming that you are eligible for the prize to Katharina Böndel (boendel@bio.lmu.de) or Olivia Hesse (hesse@bio.lmu.de)
If you would like to join the conference, please send an email to Olivia Hesse (hesse@bio.lmu.de).
Key note speakers
Ralph Tollrian
Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Lehrstuhl für Evolutionsökologie und Biodiversität der Tiere, Ruhr-Universität Bochum, Universitätsstraße 150, 44780 Bochum. tollrian@ruhr-uni-bochum.de
The ecology and evolution of inducible defences: Daphnia as model system.
The study of phenotypic plasticity is at the intersection between genetic and environmental determination of traits. A good example is the role of phenotypic plasticity in defensive traits. The fascinating ability of organisms to chemically sense their predation risk and to form adequate defenses only when they are needed has been reported from unicellular organisms to vertebrates. Inducible defenses protect individuals but bear the potential to influence communities: On a population level they have been reported to dampen predator-prey oscillations leading to coexistence in bi- and tritrophic experimental systems. Phenotypic plasticity in defensive traits has been shown to evolve as an adaptation to heterogeneity in predation risk. Inducibility of traits is favored if the predation risk is variable, if reliable cues indicate the danger, if effective defenses can be formed within relatively short time spans and if costs are associated with the defenses, which can be saved during times when the defenses are not needed. Daphnia are excellent model organisms. They form a variety of inducible defenses, however, even within single species not all genotypes respond in the same direction. Local adaptations and even the existence of multiple optima have been shown, illustrating the role of selection in the evolutionary process. Current research is targeting pathways and genetic background of inducible defenses.
Volker Loeschcke
Dept. of Biology, Ecology and Genetics, Aarhus University, Ny Munkegade 114, Buildg. 1540, DK-800 Aarhus C, Denmark. volker.loeschcke@biology.au.dk
A systems biology approach to the study of adaptation to thermal stress.
We are studying adaptation to thermal stress using Drosophila as a model organism. To achieve our research goals, we study costs and benefits of acclimation to various stressful conditions and characterize heat shock protein expression levels along thermal gradients. We study correlated responses in lines selected for resistance to various climatic stressors as heat, cold, starvation and desiccation, and for longevity, a trait that often has shown to be correlated with stress resistance traits. Results on the stress resistance level are related to results on the gene expression level in the same stress selected lines using Affymetrix gene chips at different time points after being exposed to a heat or cold hardening treatment. We discuss how to use the information from gene expression studies to get information that allows relating genetic variation to functional differences. We compare our results on putative candidate genets for stress resistance with those of other studies selecting for the same traits for evaluating quantitatively the role of genetic background. Further, we study the metabolic profile of the same selection lines, and find different patterns of responses at the different levels of biological organization. To complement the laboratory studies, we use acclimated and selected lines to study fitness in the wild using release-recapture experiments to bridge the gap between laboratory experiments and studies of thermal adaptation in the wild. Finally, we extend studies on thermal adaptation in multiple populations from single species along environmental gradients to a multi-species level, and discuss ecological and phylogenetic constraints on adaptive evolution. Here, we also discuss if tropical species seem to be more constrained in their evolutionary potential than temperature species.
Nadia Fröbisch
Amphibian evolution through deep time: integrating the fossil record, morphology, and development.
In modern ecosystems, amphibians are represented by three characteristic groups (frogs, salamanders, and caecilians), which show a wide range of adaptations and explored countless habitats in temperate and tropical regions of the earth. Moreover, amphibian evolution is documented by an extensive fossil record that reflects an even greater diversity and especially morphological disparity throughout their long evolutionary history than is reflected by the modern representatives only. Despite their extensive fossil record, the origins and relationships of modern amphibians with potential Paleozoic taxa remain very controversial with three vastly divergent hypotheses currently discussed in the literature. In recent years, new insights into the biology of the ancient taxa and their potential relationships with modern forms have been gained from studying and comparing the ontogeny of extant and fossil amphibians. Ontogenetic series of fossil taxa are exceedingly rare and most data have been gathered from taxa preserved in fossil lagerstätten, especially the Upper Carboniferous and Lower Permian lake deposits of central Europe. These have yielded hundreds of exquisitely preserved specimens of various ontogenetic stages that provide rare insights into the development of fossil taxa. Amphibians plesiomorphically show a characteristic life cycle that consists of a free swimming, aquatic larva that undergoes a short phase of drastic physiological and morphological changes and metamorphoses into a terrestrial adult. However, this life history pathway has been altered many times in modern taxa and amphibians are characterized by a strong degree of developmental plasticity, which has been demonstrated to be of great ecological and evolutionary significance. It remains largely unknown when in the evolutionary history of amphibians a biphasic life cycle evolved and became established. However, ontogenetic series of one group of fossil amphibians, the branchiosaurids, show that they already had a biphasic life cycle similar to modern amphibians, highlighting the early evolution of this life history pathway. The fossil ontogenetic series of branchiosaurids further reveal, that they share a unique pattern of skeletogenesis in their limb skeleton with modern salamanders only, which differs from an otherwise highly conservative pattern observable in all other tetrapods. Ongoing research on gene expression patterns and the regulatory control of limb development in salamanders helps to understand the potential phylogenetic significance of this feature and the driving factors behind this aberrant pattern in limb development and evolution.
Program
The program is coming in September ....
Organising team
Organising team is coming soon ....
Supported by,
Dr. Winfried Hense, Evolutionary Biology
Dr. Alice Edler, EES program coordinator
Prof. Dr. John Parsch, Speaker of the EES program
Previous EES conferences
EES Conference 2010 - the fourth annual EES conference.
EES Conference 2009 - the third annual EES conference.
EES Conference 2008 - the second annual EES conference.
In 2007 the EES conference took place for the first time. See here for the details and some pictures of the First EES Conference.
