Programme

All abstracts can be found here.

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Date 

Start: 26.10.2018, 14.00 h
End:  28.10.2018, 14.00 h

Venue

Aula De Filippi, Via Accademia Albertina 13, 10123 Torino

Pizza dinner at Piano B, Via Giuseppe Mazzini 23, 10123 Torino

Plenary speakers

Prof. Péter Batáry (Georg-August-Universität Göttingen; MTA Centre for Ecological Research,
Tihany, Hungary)
Workshop: Introduction in meta-analysis in ecology
Meta-analysis as a statistical tool for quantitatively synthesizing primary researches has gained a great momentum in ecology during this millennium. Ecological questions can be answered by systematic reviews that identifies, appraises, selects and synthesizes all high quality relevant research evidences. Systematic reviews often use meta-analysis as statistical technique to combine results of the eligible studies. During the workshop the following statistical methods and problems will be discussed and used with real ecological data: calculation of effect sizes, cumulative effect size and heterogeneity, fixed- and random-effect meta-analysis, biases.

Dr. Dan Chamberlain (Università degli Studi di Torino)
The relationship between wealth and urban biodiversity: Does richer mean species rich?
The amount of urbanised land and the proportion of the world’s population living in urban areas is growing rapidly. As such, there is a need to understand how this development impacts on biodiversity to ensure urban development occurs in a sustainable way, and hence address key development goals. The Luxury Effect hypothesis posits that socioeconomic development is positively correlated with urban biodiversity. Here, I assess the extent to which there is widespread evidence for the Luxury Effect, firstly using a global meta-analysis, and secondly considering specific case studies on birds from the developing world where rates of population growth and urbanization are highest and therefore where such studies are most needed.

Dr. Barbara Helm (University of Glasgow)
Experts of timing: bird clocks and calendars in a changing world

Despite breath-taking success of circadian research, time-keeping in wild animals is still poorly understood. Birds are ideal for wild-clock research because they are well studied for their behaviour, ecology and evolution, and their migrations put highest demands on time-keeping. I present a suite of examples from studies on songbirds but also on waders, which are among the greatest temporal multi-taskers in the animal kingdom. New tools for both tracking and molecular studies promise exciting new insights in the refinements, but potentially also drawbacks, of avian clocks and calendars.

Dr. Daniela Campobello (Università degli Studi di Palermo)
Warblers from New vs Old World: quantifying selection by examining behaviours in two brood parasitism systems
Obligate brood parasites lay their eggs in nests of other species, leaving them all the parental care burden. As a consequent result of being parasitized, the host species suffer decreases in reproductive success. This strategy has triggered a coevolutionary dynamic involving behavioural, physiological and morphological adaptations and counter-adaptations from the two actors, whose functions are to successfully parasite a nest and prevent or lower the negative effects of parasitism. This arms race makes brood parasitism an ideal model to investigate the evolutionary consequences and trajectories of natural selection. Here, I quantify the strength and direction of selection on one of the frontline defences against parasitism, the nest defence recorded in two systems of parasitism, independently evolved in North America and in the Palearctic.

ECR presentations

Each accepted participant should give a 15 minute talk on their reasearch topic, followed by 5 minutes for discussion.