ADVANCED COURSE: MODELING SPATIAL ECO-EVOLUTIONARY DYNAMICS AND SPECIES’ RESPONSES TO ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGES
Rapid environmental changes are threatening biodiversity and exposing species to novel ecological and evolutionary pressures. The scientific community increasingly recognizes the need for dynamic models integrating sufficient spatio-temporal complexity both to improve our understanding of species’ responses to environmental changes and to inform effective management strategies. This Advanced Course aims to discuss current challenges to model complex eco-evolutionary dynamics in response to environmental changes, that include increasing landscape fragmentation, the fast-pace advance of invasive species, or rampant defaunation. Prof. Justin Travis, Dr. Steve Palmer (University of Aberdeen, UK) and Cristina García (CIBIO-InBIO/UP) will offer a compelling overview with hands-on sessions to illustrate the application of RangeShifter platform (Bocedi et al. 2014 MEE 5, 388-396) to address these issues.
To get the most of this course, we encourage all participants to bring their own data sets so they can discuss with the instructors about the best way to apply RangeShifter according to their questions.
PROGRAMME
DAY 1. June 22, 2016
Modelling eco-evolutionary responses to global change (Instructor: Justin Travis)
10.00 - 11.00 | Keynote by Prof. Justin Travis
11.00 - 11.30 | Coffee break
11.30 - 13.00 | Introduction to Modelling eco-evolutionary responses to global change: an overview of different approaches and limitations
14.30 – 16.00 | Basic concepts
- Types of data sets
- Some pitfalls and limitations: Sources of systematic biases; scaling up processes and patterns; taking into account stochasticity
16.00 - 16.20 | Coffee Break
16.20 – 17.30 |RangeShifter platform
- Presentation of Rangeshifter platform: a review on different modules
- An example with illustrative data set
- How to start working on your own data set
DAY 2. June 23, 2016
10.00 - 11.00 | Wrap up session and general discussion on the application of RangeShifter
11.00- 11.30 | Coffee break
11.30 - 13.00 | Hands-on session
14.30 - 16.00 | Hands-on session/ Discussion
16.00 - 16.20 | Coffee break
16.20 - 17.30 | General Discussion
All the sessions will take place in Room 2.
REQUIREMENTS
Participants are advised to bring their own laptop and work with their own data sets. This application and its manual is freely available online.
COURSE INSTRUCTORS
Prof. Justin Travis , Zoology Department, Aberdeen University (Scotland)
Steve Palmer, Zoology Department, Aberdeen University (Scotland)
Cristina García, CIBIO-InBIO, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
INTENDED AUDIENCE
The course will be open to a maximum number of 20 participants.
Priority will be given to:
- 1st year PhD students attending the BIODIV Doctoral Programme;
- Other BIODIV PhD students;
- PhD students attending other courses;
- Other post-graduate students and researchers.
REGISTRATION
Registration deadline: June 10, 2016.
Participation is free of charge for BIODIV students | Registration fee for other participants: €75,00.
To register, please send an e-mail accompanied by your short CV to Maria Sant’Ana at post.graduation@cibio.up.pt. Please refer your status (PhD student, MSc Student, Other) and the University to which you are affiliated.
