B&B lab goes to INTECOL
Anne, Maria, Isabel, Laura and Al went to INTECOL 2013 in London this August. It was a joint meeting with the British Ecological Society and also the 100th anniversary of the BES. The group’s presentations showed the variety in scope of the research that we do.
Anne talked about collaborative work with Peter Henderson, which is investigating how selection and density dependence structure species abundance distributions.
Maria talked about seasonal variation in fish species abundances and how it is indicative of fluctuation-mediated coexistence. This work was lead by Hideyasu, and is currently in press in BMC Biology.
Isabel talked about the spillover effect of a community reserve in Mozambique. This is the result of 10 years of research with different partners WWF, ZSL and of course St Andrews.
Laura presented a poster showing that multiple modes are a common feature in Species Abundance Distributions, a pattern rarely dealt with.
Al presented the results from an experiment he performed in Trinidad, which looked at daily activity patterns of guppies.
Our impressions of the conference were equally varied.
Anne: “Some great talks and a great opportunity to meet up with old friends and make new connections – but the timetabling was frustrating (too many occasions when talks on similar topics were scheduled at the same time in different sessions) so I missed presentations I really wanted to hear.”
Maria: “I had gone to two previous INTECOL meetings (Montreal and Brisbane), so I knew what to expect in terms of size and content. My favourite parts of the conference were catching up with friends and colleagues (see photo with Sean Connolly, my PhD supervisor and current collaborator), meet some British macro-ecologists (I haven’t been in the UK very long…) and a feel what other exciting things are happening in ecology.”
Isabel : “This was my first INTECOL conference I was overwhelmed by the size and the technology: the twists, the program in app. I specially liked the talks on citizen science and using technology for ecological education. I wish there were more presentations on marine science.”
Laura: “INTECOL was my first time at a big conference and I was amazed to see so many ecologists from so many different fields, from students to worldwide renowned scientists, in the same place. It was really rewarding to have the opportunity to show a little of my own work, and also to be able to interact with the other delegates. The frustrating part was that there was so much to see, at the same time, all the time, but it was a great week.”
Al: “I enjoyed presenting but far and away the most interesting part of INTECOL was watching and listening to the diverse talks given by the other delegates. I especially enjoyed William Sutherland’s talk on how we can improve environmental decision making and the panel debate which followed discussing the future of conservation ecology.”