SPEAKER: Dr Rodrigo Hamede, Postdoctoral Research Fellow, School of Biological Sciences, University of Tasmania, Hobart

DATE: Friday, 9th December 2016
LOCATION: Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds – room ka4.207
TIME: 1:30pm
Seminar will also be video linked to the following campuses: Melbourne Campus at Burwood, LT5 (B3.07); and Warrnambool Campus, Room J2.22

External visitors – wish to join us and connect to our seminars?

• You may connect to the live seminar via *N SEBE VMP LES Seminars 52236958@deakin.edu.au [ID.36958] or via the methods listed HERE.
• For Deakin staff and students, please join via Skype for Business (Lync).
• Could not log in? More info on how to connect is available HERE.
• Please note that connection is only available while a seminar is taking place.

As a courtesy, we request that when connecting to the seminar that you mute your microphone unless you are required to speak, this would ensure that the sound from the speaker to the audience is not disrupted by feedback from your microphone – thank you!

ABSTRACT: Transmissible cancers in wildlife have been recently considered a new threat to conservation and biodiversity. Tasmanian devil facial tumour disease (DFTD) is a rare clonally transmissible cancer affecting the largest extant marsupial carnivore, the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus harrisii).

The epidemic has caused dramatic population declines and has been regarded as a serious concern for the survival of this species. Since it was first detected in 1996, DFTD has undergone evolutionary changes, producing several karyotype variants, all capable of transmission between devils.

This presentation will discuss the mechanisms that allow cancer cells to be transmitted between individuals as well as the epidemiology, ecology and evolution of DFTD and the extent to which different tumour lineages could change the development of the epidemic and its population effects.

Understanding the evolutionary dynamics of wildlife diseases and assessing how they influence transmission and epidemic outcome in host population is vital for managing infectious diseases. The Tasmanian devil/DFTD system provides a broad and interdisciplinary framework to understand the role of cancers in wildlife health and the complex mechanisms that could be involved in their appearance and persistence in wild populations.

BIO:

PROFESSIONAL

• University of Tasmania  Biology and Epidemiology – Postdoctoral Fellow 2012-2016
• University of Tasmania Biology and Epidemiology – PhD 2012
• University of Tasmania  Biology and Environmental Sciences – BSc (Hons) 2004

APPOINTMENTS/AWARDS

• Discovery Early Career Researcher Award (DECRA Recipient 2017)
• Australian Research Council    Postdoctoral Research Fellow – National Science Foundation, UTas – Washington State University  2014-2016
• Postdoctoral Research Fellow, Australian Research Council, UTas – Griffith University 2012-2013

PUBLICATIONS

Around 20 publications in multidisciplinary journals including: Nature Communications, PNAS, Ecology Letters, Conservation Biology, Journal of Applied Ecology, Evolutionary Applications, Veterinary Pathology.

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via Beata Ujvari.

SPEAKER: Dr William Chivers, School of Design Communication and IT, University of Newcastle, NSW

DATE: Friday, 25th November 2016
LOCATION: Warrnambool Campus, Room J2.22
TIME: 1:30pm
Seminar will also be video linked to the following campuses: Melbourne Campus at Burwood – Burwood Corporate Centre (attendees to please report to reception); and Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds, room ka4.207

External visitors – wish to join us and connect to our seminars?

• You may connect to the live seminar via *N SEBE VMP LES Seminars 52236958@deakin.edu.au [ID.36958] or via the methods listed HERE.
• For Deakin staff and students, please join via Skype for Business (Lync).
• Could not log in? More info on how to connect is available HERE.
• Please note that connection is only available while a seminar is taking place.

As a courtesy, we request that when connecting to the seminar that you mute your microphone unless you are required to speak, this would ensure that the sound from the speaker to the audience is not disrupted by feedback from your microphone – thank you!

ABSTRACT: Plankton are the basis of the oceanic food chain and are of major importance to fish stocks. As such, the response of plankton to climate change is of critical importance.

Using an ocean basin-wide dataset extending back six decades, we find huge differences in the range changes of 35 taxa. While the range of dinoflagellates and copepods tended to closely track the velocity of climate change (the rate of isotherm movement), the range of the diatoms moved much more slowly.

In the decades of recent warming taxa exhibiting niche plasticity versus niche conservatism had average range shifts of 7km versus 99km per decade polewards respectively and so have shifted their relative positions by many 100s of km (up to 900km) over these timescales, resulting in significant changes to the biological assemblage.

BIO: Bill Chivers has a background in both computer science and biology. After completing a degree in zoology at UNSW in the 1970s he worked in the IT industry as a computer programmer then taught in secondary schools and NSW TAFE before completing a PhD and returning to academia. He is now employed by Faculty of Science and IT, University of Newcastle, Australia.

In his research he has used his computer science experience in projects in ecology and sports science, including research in predator-prey population dynamics, optimal foraging theory, prediction of injury risk in rugby players and more recently in the effect of climate change on marine plankton.

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via Graeme Hays.

SPEAKER: Dr Geoff Heard, Research Fellow, School of Biosciences, The University of Melbourne

DATE: Friday, 18th November 2016
LOCATION: Melbourne Campus at Burwood, Burwood Corporate Centre
TIME: 1:30pm
Seminar will also be video linked to the following campuses: Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds, Room ka4.207 and Warrnambool Campus, Room J2.22

External visitors – wish to join us and connect to our seminars?

• You may connect to the live seminar via *N SEBE VMP LES Seminars 52236958@deakin.edu.au [ID.36958] or via the methods listed HERE.
• For Deakin staff and students, please join via Skype for Business (Lync).
• Could not log in? More info on how to connect is available HERE.
• Please note that connection is only available while a seminar is taking place.

As a courtesy, we request that when connecting to the seminar that you mute your microphone unless you are required to speak, this would ensure that the sound from the speaker to the audience is not disrupted by feedback from your microphone – thank you!

ABSTRACT: In this seminar, Geoff will present detailed occupancy models that integrate spatial variation in landscape connectivity, patch quality and disease risk, and describe how these models are being used by the Victorian Government to identify priorities for wetland conservation and construction across Melbourne’s urban growth areas.

BIO: Geoff is a Victorian Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the Quantitative and Applied Ecology Group at the School of BioSciences, University of Melbourne. His research focuses on the spatial and temporal dynamics of threatened species, and seeks to parameterise population models that may be used for conservation decision-making.

Over the last 15 years Geoff has worked on the metapopulation dynamics of frogs in Melbourne’s peri-urban landscapes.

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via Don Driscoll.

SPEAKER: Dr Ayesha Tulloch, Research Fellow, Fenner School of Environment and Society, College of Medicine, Biology & Environment, Australian National University, Canberra

DATE: Friday, 4th November 2016
LOCATION: Melbourne Campus at Burwood, Burwood Corporate Centre (BCC)
TIME: 1:30pm
Seminar will also be video linked to the following campuses: Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds, room KA4.207; and Warrnambool Campus, Room J2.22

External visitors – wish to join us and connect to our seminars?

• You may connect to the live seminar via *N SEBE VMP LES Seminars 52236958@deakin.edu.au [ID.36958] or via the methods listed HERE.
• For Deakin staff and students, please join via Skype for Business (Lync).
• Could not log in? More info on how to connect is available HERE.
• Please note that connection is only available while a seminar is taking place.

As a courtesy, we request that when connecting to the seminar that you mute your microphone unless you are required to speak, this would ensure that the sound from the speaker to the audience is not disrupted by feedback from your microphone – thank you!

ABSTRACT: Management of threats occurs in complex changing landscapes. Much attention has focused on the individual species inhabiting modified ecosystems, and how they respond to individual or combined processes of change. However, increasing evidence suggests that species do not respond independently to environmental and anthropogenic change; instead, species’ occupancy of the landscape and responses to threats are dynamic, and changes depend on both environmental drivers and the network of associations between species.

In this talk I will describe today’s challenges for conserving species and communities in dynamic environments, and will present some new approaches to resolving these challenges. I will summarise our recent research into understanding how occupancy of the landscape changes across time and space for highly mobile species such as nomadic birds and invasive predators, and what these dynamics mean for managing and monitoring these species.

I will then describe new work on networks of species associations under different environmental conditions and threatening processes that highlights new avenues for accurately identifying decline and recovery of communities in changing ecosystems.

The communities I describe span numerous systems across Australia, from the arid rangelands to endangered box-gum grassy woodland to the threatened fire-prone proteaceous mallee-heath in south-western Australia.

BIO: Ayesha’s research focuses on using ecological knowledge to inform conservation decision-making. Based at the Centre of Excellence for Environmental Decisions at the Australian National University, she is a conservation ecologist who has worked in applied management in non-government conservation organisations and academia for 15 years.

She now works primarily in dynamic human-modified landscapes where there are usually multiple threats and conflicting objectives related to both biodiversity and social or economic factors. She has a particular interest in solving conservation problems related to threatened bird communities, fire ecology, and invasive predators, using cross-disciplinary approaches such as network analysis and decision theory.

Ayesha’s work spans theoretical and applied ecology as well as decision-making for both monitoring and managing biodiversity, including Red Listing of Ecosystems, community dynamics and responses to anthropogenic change, prioritising threat mitigation actions for species recovery, monitoring effectiveness, and human-wildlife conflict.

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via Euan Ritchie.

SPEAKER: Dr Susanne Zajitschek, The Donana Biological Station (Public Research Institute), Spanish Council for Scientific Research CSIC (Natural Resources), Spain

DATE: Friday, 28h October 2016
LOCATION: Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds – room ka4.207
TIME: 1:30pm
Seminar will also be video linked to the following campuses: Melbourne Campus at Burwood, Burwood Corporate Centre (BCC); and Warrnambool Campus, Room J2.22

External visitors – wish to join us and connect to our seminars?

• You may connect to the live seminar via *N SEBE VMP LES Seminars 52236958@deakin.edu.au [ID.36958] or via the methods listed HERE.
• For Deakin staff and students, please join via Skype for Business (Lync).
• Could not log in? More info on how to connect is available HERE.
• Please note that connection is only available while a seminar is taking place.

As a courtesy, we request that when connecting to the seminar that you mute your microphone unless you are required to speak, this would ensure that the sound from the speaker to the audience is not disrupted by feedback from your microphone – thank you!

ABSTRACT: I am interested in sexual selection, and in particular, what is happening post-mating.

In this talk, I would like to introduce you to my current research, which started out linking sperm phenotypes and offspring behaviour, and led to the investigation of the transgenerational effects that sexual interactions have: Sexual interactions between males and females often result in suboptimal outcomes for each of the sexes, shifting fitness outcomes away from sex-specific phenotypic optima, leading to sexual conflict.

For example, optimal mating rates for males may be substantially higher than for females. This is because males typically maximise their reproductive success by mating with multiple partners. In contrast, female reproductive success is primarily constrained by the relatively small number of gametes she can produce in a lifetime, rather than the number of prospective matings she can acquire, and a high level of sexual interactions may not be in the best interests of females.

However, even in systems with high sexual conflict (such as the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster) females often mate with multiple mates, incurring male-induced harm on a repeated basis. This is puzzling given that a single copulation typically provides enough sperm to the female to fertilize her complete set of ova.

This behaviour might be adaptive if females either gain direct benefits (such as mating gifts) or indirect (genetic) benefits, e.g. by producing higher quality or more successful offspring.

I aim to investigate the costs and benefits for females across multiple generations, to gain an understanding of the “economics” of sexual conflict.

BIO: I did my PhD at the University of New South Wales in 2008 with Rob Brooks, looking at inbreeding avoidance mechanisms in guppies.

I then went postdocing in France (CNRS, investigating lizard dispersal biology with Jean Clobert), Sweden (Uppsala University, linking sperm with offspring phenotypes with Simone Immler) and the U.S. (George Washington University, working with Mollie Manier, investigating the underlying genetics of variation in fruit fly sperm morphology).

Currently, I divide my time between Seville/Spain and Monash, investigating the transgenerational consequences of sexual interactions.

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via Lee Ann Rollins.

SPEAKER: A/Professor Alan York, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Melbourne

DATE: Friday, 21st October 2016
LOCATION: Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds – CADET building room KE1.207
TIME: 1:30pm
Seminar will also be video linked to the following campuses: Melbourne Campus at Burwood, Burwood Corporate Centre (BCC); and Warrnambool Campus, Room J2.22

External visitors – wish to join us and connect to our seminars?

• You may connect to the live seminar via *N SEBE VMP LES Seminars 52236958@deakin.edu.au [ID.36958] or via the methods listed HERE.
• For Deakin staff and students, please join via Skype for Business (Lync).
• Could not log in? More info on how to connect is available HERE.
• Please note that connection is only available while a seminar is taking place.

As a courtesy, we request that when connecting to the seminar that you mute your microphone unless you are required to speak, this would ensure that the sound from the speaker to the audience is not disrupted by feedback from your microphone – thank you!

ABSTRACT: In fire-prone ecosystems, fire, an agent of disturbance, can influence landscape heterogeneity at a range of spatial scales. This heterogeneity varies not only over space, but with time, as successive disturbance events reshape landscape pattern.

The range of post-disturbance states and their spatial configuration is expressed as a landscape ‘mosaic’; the nature of which in both space and time is thought to have a substantial influence on biodiversity. Heterogenous, species-rich landscapes should be more resilient to disturbances such as fire.

Our research program in the Otway Ranges have improved understanding of relationships between biodiversity and landscape heterogeneity, identified strengths and weaknesses of using post-fire growth stages as surrogates for fauna habitat and helped refine our understanding of how other aspects of the fire regime and landscape features influence animal populations.

In this presentation I summarise our research, highlighting what we have learnt, knowledge uptake by fire managers, and where we are currently going to refine current and evolving strategies.

BIO: Alan leads the Fire Ecology and Biodiversity research program within the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences at the University of Melbourne. His research group, based at Creswick, is currently investigating how fire causes patterns in the landscape, and how plants and animals respond to these patterns.

He has been involved in applied fire ecology research for over 30 years; working primarily in universities and State research agencies in NSW and Victoria.

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via Natasha Kaukov.

SPEAKER: A/Professor Alan York, School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences, Faculty of Science, University of Melbourne

DATE: Friday, 21st October 2016
LOCATION: Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds – CADET building room KE1.207
TIME: 1:30pm
Seminar will also be video linked to the following campuses: Melbourne Campus at Burwood, Burwood Corporate Centre (BCC); and Warrnambool Campus, Room J2.22

External visitors – wish to join us and connect to our seminars?

• You may connect to the live seminar via *N SEBE VMP LES Seminars 52236958@deakin.edu.au [ID.36958] or via the methods listed HERE.
• For Deakin staff and students, please join via Skype for Business (Lync).
• Could not log in? More info on how to connect is available HERE.
• Please note that connection is only available while a seminar is taking place.

As a courtesy, we request that when connecting to the seminar that you mute your microphone unless you are required to speak, this would ensure that the sound from the speaker to the audience is not disrupted by feedback from your microphone – thank you!

ABSTRACT: In fire-prone ecosystems, fire, an agent of disturbance, can influence landscape heterogeneity at a range of spatial scales. This heterogeneity varies not only over space, but with time, as successive disturbance events reshape landscape pattern.

The range of post-disturbance states and their spatial configuration is expressed as a landscape ‘mosaic’; the nature of which in both space and time is thought to have a substantial influence on biodiversity. Heterogenous, species-rich landscapes should be more resilient to disturbances such as fire.

Our research program in the Otway Ranges have improved understanding of relationships between biodiversity and landscape heterogeneity, identified strengths and weaknesses of using post-fire growth stages as surrogates for fauna habitat and helped refine our understanding of how other aspects of the fire regime and landscape features influence animal populations.

In this presentation I summarise our research, highlighting what we have learnt, knowledge uptake by fire managers, and where we are currently going to refine current and evolving strategies.

BIO: Alan leads the Fire Ecology and Biodiversity research program within the School of Ecosystem and Forest Sciences at the University of Melbourne. His research group, based at Creswick, is currently investigating how fire causes patterns in the landscape, and how plants and animals respond to these patterns.

He has been involved in applied fire ecology research for over 30 years; working primarily in universities and State research agencies in NSW and Victoria.

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via Natasha Kaukov.

SPEAKER: Dr Dominique Potvin, College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, Australian National University, Canberra

DATE: Friday, 14th October 2016
LOCATION: Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds-CADET building, room KE1.207
TIME: 1:30pm
Seminar will also be video linked to the following campuses: Melbourne Campus at Burwood, Burwood Corporate Centre (BCC); and Warrnambool Campus, Room J2.22

External visitors – wish to join us and connect to our seminars?

• You may connect to the live seminar via *N SEBE VMP LES Seminars 52236958@deakin.edu.au [ID.36958] or via the methods listed HERE.
• For Deakin staff and students, please join via Skype for Business (Lync).
• Could not log in? More info on how to connect is available HERE.
• Please note that connection is only available while a seminar is taking place.

As a courtesy, we request that when connecting to the seminar that you mute your microphone unless you are required to speak, this would ensure that the sound from the speaker to the audience is not disrupted by feedback from your microphone – thank you!

ABSTRACT: Over the past decade, numerous studies have observed changes in bird vocalizations – especially song – in urban habitats. Such changes tend to increase the active space of a signal in the new environment, and are therefore considered to be advantageous.

While some adjustments seem to be individually flexible, others have been identified as cultural modifications occurring over generations, indicative of cultural evolution or adaptation to a changing environment. However, the proximate mechanisms mediating this evolutionary process are, as yet, unknown.

I will be presenting results from field observations as well as captive experiments to try and dig deeper into the issue of how urban noise might be affecting bird songs, including investigations into population genetics, cultural evolution, behavioural flexibility, endocrinology, song learning and even brain development.

BIO: Dominique Potvin holds a PhD Zoology from the University of Melbourne. Following postdoctoral research at Western University, Canada and the University of Helsinki & Finnish Natural History Museum, she is now based at ANU.

She studies the proximate and ultimate sources of selection on bird song, as well as the impact of human activity on animal behaviour and population genetics.

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via Kate Buchanan.

SPEAKER: Dr Michael Kasumovic, School of Biological, Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of NSW

DATE: Friday, 2nd September 2016
LOCATION: Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds, Room KA4.207
TIME: 1:30pm
Seminar will also be video linked to the following campuses: Melbourne Campus at Burwood, Burwood Corporate Centre (BCC) and Warrnambool Campus, Room J2.22

External visitors – wish to join us and connect to our seminars?

• You may connect to the live seminar via *N SEBE VMP LES Seminars 52236958@deakin.edu.au [ID.36958] or via the methods listed HERE.
• For Deakin staff and students, please join via Skype for Business (Lync).
• Could not log in? More info on how to connect is available HERE.
• Please note that connection is only available while a seminar is taking place.

As a courtesy, we request that when connecting to the seminar that you mute your microphone unless you are required to speak, this would ensure that the sound from the speaker to the audience is not disrupted by feedback from your microphone – thank you!

ABSTRACT: I’ll spend the first part of my talk discussing how technology can interact with our evolved bodies in interesting ways and how this has the potential to bias our perception of the world.

I’ll then discuss how I’m using video game to explore human evolution and how video games provide a particularly interesting lens through which we can better understand human behaviour. I’ll then end by chatting about how video games can be used to improve student understanding of complex topics (when done properly) and what this means for the future of education.

Come along and make sure you bring your mobile phone!

BIO: Michael is an evolutionary biologist interested in understanding how the social environment affects evolutionary trajectories. Most of his research is performed on invertebrates, but recently he has started working on humans as well (and has realized that they aren’t that different from invertebrates in many ways).

Michael is also interested in making science more accessible. Along with performing outreach, Michael is starting to make educational games to help students of all ages understand abstract biological concepts to awaken the scientist in everyone.

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via Kate Buchanan.

SPEAKER: Associate Professor Robbie Wilson, School of Biological Sciences, The University of Queensland

DATE: Friday, 26th August 2016
LOCATION: Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds, Room KA4.207
TIME: 1:30pm
Seminar will also be video linked to the following campuses: Melbourne Campus at Burwood, Burwood Corporate Centre (BCC) and Warrnambool Campus, Room J2.22

External visitors – wish to join us and connect to our seminars?

• You may connect to the live seminar via *N SEBE VMP LES Seminars 52236958@deakin.edu.au [ID.36958] or via the methods listed HERE.
• For Deakin staff and students, please join via Skype for Business (Lync).
• Could not log in? More info on how to connect is available HERE.
• Please note that connection is only available while a seminar is taking place.

As a courtesy, we request that when connecting to the seminar that you mute your microphone unless you are required to speak, this would ensure that the sound from the speaker to the audience is not disrupted by feedback from your microphone – thank you!

ABSTRACT: I’m interested in understanding what drives success in physical activities, and I study performance in very different but complementary systems: wild marsupials and professional athletes. The study of humans and wildlife have operated in relative isolation; by bringing these disparate fields together I aim to change the way we study performance — ultimately providing new insights into conservation, evolution and sport development.

In this seminar, I will present data on wild northern quolls, semi- and professional soccer players, and professional tennis players to demonstrate the three factors I believe are fundamental to this new performance paradigm: (1) studying suites of traits, (2) measuring athleticism and skill, and (3) focusing on performance outcomes.

BIO: Robbie Wilson is an Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow in the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Queensland, where he has been a faculty member since 2006.

Robbie completed his PhD in thermal biology at UQ in 2000 and his undergraduate studies at the University of Sydney in 1993. After completing postdoctoral positions at the University of Antwerp in Belgium and the University of St Andrews in Scotland, Robbie returned to UQ to take up an ARC early career fellowship in 2003.

His research interests are in the ecology of physical performance, with a focus on understanding what drives task success in wild animals and human athletes.

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via Beata Ujvari.