Our first rotifers, algae, lab equipment and chemicals have finally arrived, and Dr. Diego Fontaneto came over from Institute of Ecosystem Studies (Verbania) to teach us how to handle these little guys and keep them happy. First experiments will commence soon..
This week, we hosted an academic visitor, Dr. Luca Börger, an animal movement ecologist from Centre for Biological Studies, Chize. Luca’s research on animal dispersal focuses on developing new methods for quantifying individual differences in movement, and has cover a variety of systems from grasshoppers to deer. During his visit, Luca gave a great talk about his recent work on animal movements across spatiotemporal scales, and ran a “movement analysis clinique”, which was much appreciated by IEU students and postdocs.
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.