Many long-term studies on larger vertebrates provide us with only a single time series to study population dynamics. To test all the interesting hypotheses arising from these studies, we have to shrink those systems into tubes and replicate under different treatments. For this, with the invaluable help of Dr. Diego Fontaneto (Institute of Ecosystem Studies, Italy), we chose the rotifers as our experimental system. It didn’t take too long for us to realize that we needed expert help. And that help arrived as a swiss-army-knife of a guy: Stefan Sommers, our research associate, rotifer-meister, orchestrator of our microcosm lab!
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Luis-Miguel Chevin’s visit
This week, we hosted Dr. Luis Miguel Chevin, an evolutionary biologist from the Center for Functional and Evolutionary Ecology at Montpellier. Luis studies contemporary evolution, investigating how phenotypic plasticity and evolution interact to help populations persist in a changing environment. His research on adaptive evolution has so far covered multiple levels of biological organisation from genes to populations. During his visit, Luis gave a seminar about his recently published work on genetic constraints on adaptation.
Chevin L.-M. 2012. Genetic constraints on adaptation to a changing environment. Evolution.
Gabriele Cozzi, our new movement ecologist
Gabriele Cozzi, an almost-done PhD student in the Schmid Group, came to my office one day with bunch of stinky gps collars and asked me if we could make any use of these.
Couple weeks later, he was hugging not-so-teddy bears in Northeastern Turkey. One thing led to another, and Gabriele is now (his successful defence in Feb permitting) a postdoc in our group specialising on animal movement ecology. His research plans are shaping up and will involve carnivores as dangerous as meerkats and as cuddly as bears.
Lilian Dutoit, our new & much needed admin help
We have the first member of our group: Ms. Lilian Dutoit.
A research group (especially in the Swiss system) cannot function without someone to tell us what’s what! Lillian is going to be our boss, administrative angel, and chief holder of all the scolding rights (also our “spy” in Schmid Group, which kindly shared Lilian’s admin help!).
A new beginning!
After a few busy months of settling in a new country and academic environment, our new research group finally started to shape up. This website/blog is launched with the aim of broadcasting our development as a research team, and eventually turning into an online portal where we can communicate our research to the wider community and receive feedback.