SPEAKER: Dr Megan Evans, Principal Scientist, Project Management Office, Department of Environmental and Science, Queensland Government
Honorary Research Fellow, Centre for Policy Futures, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Queensland.

DATE: Friday, 10th August 2018

TIME: 1:30pm

LOCATION: Melbourne Campus at Burwood –Burwood Corporate Centre.
Seminar will also be video linked to the following campuses: Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds – room ka4.207 (green room) and Warrnambool Campus, Room J2.22

External visitors – wish to join us and connect to our seminars?
External parties may connect to the live seminar via *N SEBE VMP LES Seminars 52236958@deakin.edu.au [ID.36958] via the methods listed below:

• For external guests, you can connect as a web guest by clicking HERE. If using Chrome you it will prompt you to install the Cisco Jaba Plugin, then it will prompt you to download the extension which you will need to install. Once this has been installed, you will have a black screen with a call button. You will just need to click call and it should connect into the VMP.
• For Deakin staff and students, please join via Skype for Business (Lync) – if you have office installed you may already have Skype for business or Lync installed. You just need to look for it on the start menu. If you find it, you can log into skype using your Deakin email and password and then dial 36958.
• Could not log in? More info on how to connect is available HERE or 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. Translating policy into environmental outcomes is typically a messy and difficult process, regardless of the issue at hand or the location of concern. Existing policy systems are political and value-laden, and involve multiple actors with a range of motivations and interests. This means that scientific evidence tends not to feed into policy and practice in a neat, linear fashion, making this process challenging and often frustrating for researchers to navigate. An interdisciplinary lens, which combines public policy, environmental law, economics, and other social and natural sciences, can facilitate our understanding and engagement with complex policy processes. In this seminar, I will describe my work to date on biodiversity offsetting and carbon farming, with a focus on how these policies are interpreted and applied in practice. I will also discuss the university sector’s current focus on impact and engagement, and how scientists (and especially early career researchers) can effectively navigate policy processes to create their own pathways to “impact”. Finally, I will provide a short overview of the Queensland Government’s $500 million Land Restoration Fund.

BIO. Megan is Principal Scientist in the Project Management Office – Land Restoration Fund, Department of Environment and Science, Queensland Government, and an Honorary Research Fellow in the Centre for Policy Futures at the University of Queensland. Her research falls broadly within environmental policy, governance and economics, with a particular focus on how complex policy processes translate into environmental outcomes. Megan is passionate about conducting interdisciplinary, impactful research in close consultation with colleagues working in government, non-government organisations and industry. She is a handling editor for Conservation Letters and Conservation Biology, and recipient of the 2018 UQ Faculty of Science Rising Star Award.

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via Euan Ritchie e.ritchie@deakin.edu.au

For more info: https://researchers.uq.edu.au/researcher/15089

SPEAKER: Dr Dejan Stojanovic, Postdoctoral Fellow, Fenner School of Environment and Society, Australian National University, Canberra

DATE: Friday, 3rd August 2018

TIME: 1:30pm

LOCATION: Melbourne Campus at Burwood –Burwood Corporate Centre.
Seminar will also be video linked to the following campuses: Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds – room ka4.207 (green room) and Warrnambool Campus, Room J2.19 (fishbowl)

External visitors – wish to join us and connect to our seminars?
External parties may connect to the live seminar via *N SEBE VMP LES Seminars 52236958@deakin.edu.au [ID.36958] via the methods listed below:

• For external guests, you can connect as a web guest by clicking HERE. If using Chrome you it will prompt you to install the Cisco Jaba Plugin, then it will prompt you to download the extension which you will need to install. Once this has been installed, you will have a black screen with a call button. You will just need to click call and it should connect into the VMP.
• For Deakin staff and students, please join via Skype for Business (Lync) – if you have office installed you may already have Skype for business or Lync installed. You just need to look for it on the start menu. If you find it, you can log into skype using your Deakin email and password and then dial 36958.
• Could not log in? More info on how to connect is available HERE or 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.Conservationists usually lack critical information about what actions need to be taken most urgently to protect threatened species, and where these actions should be implemented. This problem is worst for species that occur over large areas of potential habitat, have small populations, or are difficult to detect. Unfortunately, most critically endangered Australian birds have one or more of these traits, and despite substantial public concern for their plight, populations of these most ‘difficult birds’ continue to decline. The Difficult Bird Research Group at ANU takes a fresh look at species considered too challenging to effectively study or protect. I present case studies that use Australia’s most endangered bird species to illustrate how conservation paralysis and lack of knowledge can be overcome by using science creatively. Our research programs on orange-bellied parrots, regent honeyeaters and swift parrots demonstrate that by using innovative and adaptive approaches, it is possible to take ambitious conservation risks that can pay-off, even for difficult species.

BIO. I am a conservation scientist interested in the factors that affect small and declining populations, and am the lead post doc of the Difficult Bird Research Group. I undertook my PhD research on the breeding biology of the endangered swift parrot in their Tasmanian breeding range, and it was this research that led to the discovery of the severe predation on birds by sugar gliders. My research was the first to apply new technology and analytical tools to address a major gap in knowledge about one of Australia’s most threatened birds. I also work on orange-bellied parrots, and supervise students working on regent honeyeaters, forty-spotted pardalotes, masked owls and ground parrots. I specialise on species traditionally considered difficult to study and conserve, and I aim to identify new approaches to overcome barriers to effective conservation.

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via Euan Ritchie e.ritchie@deakin.edu.au

For more info: https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/stojanovic-d

SPEAKER: Prof Gregory F. Ball, Dean, College of Behavioral and Social Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA

DATE: Friday, 20th July 2018

TIME: 1:30pm

LOCATION: Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds – room ka4.207 (green room)

Seminar will also be video linked to the following campuses: Melbourne Campus at Burwood –Burwood Corporate Centre and Warrnambool Campus, Room J2.19 (Fishbowl room)

External visitors – wish to join us and connect to our seminars?
External parties may connect to the live seminar via *N SEBE VMP LES Seminars 52236958@deakin.edu.au [ID.36958] via the methods listed below:

• For external guests, you can connect as a web guest by clicking HERE. If using Chrome you it will prompt you to install the Cisco Jaba Plugin, then it will prompt you to download the extension which you will need to install. Once this has been installed, you will have a black screen with a call button. You will just need to click call and it should connect into the VMP.
• For Deakin staff and students, please join via Skype for Business (Lync) – if you have office installed you may already have Skype for business or Lync installed. You just need to look for it on the start menu. If you find it, you can log into skype using your Deakin email and password and then dial 36958.
• Could not log in? More info on how to connect is available HERE or 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. The functions of birdsong include the ability to attract males and/or to repel competitors.  It is therefore not surprising that, in males in the temperate zone especially, birdsong is often produced in the context of reproduction.  Testosterone of gonadal origin increases during the reproductive phase of the annual cycle and can significantly influence song production as well as song development via effects on song crystallization (testosterone secretion at the time of sexual maturity is essential for full crystallization to occur).   The widespread distribution of androgen receptors in the song control system, the syrinx as well as in the diencephalon and the midbrain raises questions as to where and how testosterone is exerting its myriad effects on song.  By selectively implanting testosterone into select brain regions of castrated male canaries (Serinus canaria) we have identified the medial preoptic area as a critical site for the induction of a generalized increase in sexual motivation that includes the motivation to sing.  Testosterone action in the forebrain song nucleus HVC in contrast facilitates song stereotypy.  Canaries receiving testosterone in the preoptic area and HVC sing stereotypic songs but at a much lower amplitude indicating that testosterone effects on amplitude are regulated elsewhere in the brain or the periphery.  We also treated male canaries with bicalutamide, an androgen-receptor antagonist that does not cross the blood-brain barrier. Thus, we isolated androgen action to the periphery in order to target the syrinx, the avian vocal production organ. Bicalutamide treatment reduced song complexity but not song acoustic stereotypy. Bicalutamide-treated birds also exhibited reduced performance of “special trills” and disrupted special syllable morphology. The performance and complexity of special trills in particular are able to stimulate copulation solicitation displays in female canaries to a substantially higher degree than any other component of canary song. The bilateral implantation of the potent androgen receptor antagonist flutamide in two key brain regions the motor cortical-like brain region–the robust nucleus of the arcopallium (RA) and HVC revealed that androgen in RA controls syllable and trill bandwidth stereotypy, while not significantly affecting higher order features of song such syllable-type usage (i.e., how many times each syllable type is used) or syllable sequences. In contrast, androgen signaling in HVC controls song variability by increasing the variability of syllable-type usage and syllable sequences, while having no effect on syllable or trill bandwidth stereotypy. Other aspects of song, such as the duration of trills and the number of syllables per song, were also differentially affected by androgen signaling in HVC versus RA. Overall, these results highlight the pleiotropic function of steroid hormones in coordinating distinct features of a single behavior into an adaptive behavioral response, and suggest that selection may shape the expression of sexual-selected traits by linking their expression to androgen receptor activation in relevant brain sites and peripheral organs.

BIO. Gregory F. Ball joined the University of Maryland in 2014 as Professor and Dean of the College of Behavioral and Social Science. He was previously Professor and Vice Dean for Science and Research in the Krieger School of Arts and Sciences at Johns Hopkins University where he directed the undergraduate neuroscience program. Dr. Ball holds a Ph.D. in psychobiology from the Institute of Animal Behavior at Rutgers University; Colin Beer served as his advisor. He completed his postdoctoral work at Rockefeller University where he worked with John Wingfield and Peter Marler.  Dr. Ball’s lab is interested in the interrelation of hormones, brain, and behavior. He studies a variety of avian species including songbirds and Japanese quail that exhibit high degrees of neuroplasticity across the seasons and in response to hormone treatment. His works concerns hormone effects on both affective and cognitive aspects of vocal communication.  He studies how hormones modulate song production and how the perception of song along with other environmental cues modulates the timing of reproduction in birds.  He is a fellow of the American Psychological Association, American Psychology Society, the American Ornithologists’ Union and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via kate.buchanan@@deakin.edu.au

For more information on the speaker, please go to https://bsos.umd.edu/facultyprofile/ball/gregory

SPEAKER: Dr Richard Loyn, Ecologist, Director, Eco Insights

DATE: Friday, 29th June 2018

TIME: 1:30pm

LOCATION: Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds – room ka4.207 (green room)

Melbourne Campus at Burwood –Burwood Corporate Centre and Warrnambool Campus, Room J2.22

External visitors – wish to join us and connect to our seminars?
External parties may connect to the live seminar via *N SEBE VMP LES Seminars 52236958@deakin.edu.au [ID.36958] via the methods listed below:

• For external guests, you can connect as a web guest by clicking HERE. If using Chrome you it will prompt you to install the Cisco Jaba Plugin, then it will prompt you to download the extension which you will need to install. Once this has been installed, you will have a black screen with a call button. You will just need to click call and it should connect into the VMP.
• For Deakin staff and students, please join via Skype for Business (Lync) – if you have office installed you may already have Skype for business or Lync installed. You just need to look for it on the start menu. If you find it, you can log into skype using your Deakin email and password and then dial 36958.
• Could not log in? More info on how to connect is available HERE or 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. Most birds are diurnal and conspicuous by sight or sound, and they can give us unique and rapid information about the ecosystems they inhabit. Many birds play strong roles in shaping those ecosystems and keeping them healthy, and Richard will mention some his research in that area, including the roles of despotic species. Top predators such as forest owls can be used as umbrella species to guide forest management, as Richard has done in Victorian forests. He will also touch on counting birds (twice over a million together), survey methods, hollows, Orange-bellied Parrots, retrospective research, waterbirds and fire ecology. People notice birds and value them aesthetically or as sources of inspiration, food, feathers and environmental information. Many people travel to see birds and this can help encourage local communities to conserve habitats in developing countries. Richard will provide glimpses of his recent travels in Madagascar, India, Papua New Guinea and South America, and a vision to help us live better together.

BIO.Richard is an ecologist with special interests in forests, fire, wetlands, threatened species, migration and conservation. He worked for the Victorian Government for many years, mainly at the Arthur Rylah Institute for Environmental Research. He then established a consultancy (Eco Insights), conducting strategic projects in Australia and Papua New Guinea. He holds adjunct positions at three universities (La Trobe, Charles Sturt and Melbourne), and was awarded the D.L. Serventy Medal in 2014. Richard developed the timed area-search method for counting bush-birds and instigated many long-term monitoring programs on bush birds and waterbirds. He is known for his work on despotic birds, insects and tree dieback, and on contentious issues such as duck hunting, fire and logging. His team’s work on forest owls led to 170,000 ha of state forest being protected to conserve those birds and the ecosystems on which they depend. He and his family love to travel and today he will tell us about his work and how birds and people can shape our shared global environment. Birds provide a unique window on the natural world, and can help us conserve its extraordinary diversity.

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via hojess@@deakin.edu.au

SPEAKER: Dr Paul Carnell, Research Fellow, Blue Carbon Lab, Conservation Science Lab & Marine Mapping Group, Centre for Integrative Ecology, Deakin University, Queenscliff

DATE: Friday, 22nd June 2018

TIME: 1:30pm

LOCATION:Melbourne Campus at Burwood –Burwood Corporate Centre

Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds – room KA4.207 (green room); and Warrnambool Campus, Room J2.19 (fishbowl)

External visitors – wish to join us and connect to our seminars?
External parties may connect to the live seminar via *N SEBE VMP LES Seminars 52236958@deakin.edu.au [ID.36958] via the methods listed below:

• For external guests, you can connect as a web guest by clicking HERE. If using Chrome you it will prompt you to install the Cisco Jaba Plugin, then it will prompt you to download the extension which you will need to install. Once this has been installed, you will have a black screen with a call button. You will just need to click call and it should connect into the VMP.
• For Deakin staff and students, please join via Skype for Business (Lync) – if you have office installed you may already have Skype for business or Lync installed. You just need to look for it on the start menu. If you find it, you can log into skype using your Deakin email and password and then dial 36958.
• Could not log in? More info on how to connect is available HERE or 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.  Despite the best of efforts of scientists and conservationists, there is still a global biodiversity crisis. Development projects which impact the environment are approved because the contribution to the economy is placed front and centre. While the services of ecosystems is generally recognised, rarely are they valued on a local scale and included into decision making. The goal of research on ecosystem function and services is to support the case for biodiversity and ecosystem conservation. By measuring and valuing the services of ecosystems, we can place their value into the broader social-economic context. In this talk I will highlight some of the work I/we have been undertaking as part of the Blue Carbon Lab and the Mapping Ocean Wealth project to further coastal and freshwater ecosystem management and rehabilitation.

BIO. Paul graduated from the University of Melbourne in 2008, with a Bachelor of Science (Honours). He worked with Prof. Mick Keough for 2 years, before then undertaking his PhD investigating the drivers of change on kelp dominated reefs in Victoria. After finishing, Paul joined the Blue Carbon Lab with Peter Macreadie in 2014, while also working at Parks Victoria in their Science and Management Effectiveness branch. As the Blue Carbon Lab continued to grow, Paul started full-time in the lab in 2015. As of April 2018, Paul will be shifting location to be based at the Queenscliff marine research station.

For more info: http://www.bluecarbonlab.org/lab-members/dr-paul-carnell/

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via natasha.kaukov@deakin.edu.au

SPEAKER: Professor Jochen Zeil

DATE: Friday, 1st June 2018

TIME: 1:30pm

LOCATION:  Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds – room ka4.207 (green room)

Seminar will also be video linked to the following campuses: Melbourne Campus at Burwood –Burwood Corporate Centre; and Warrnambool Campus, Room J2.22

External visitors – wish to join us and connect to our seminars?
External parties may connect to the live seminar via *N SEBE VMP LES Seminars 52236958@deakin.edu.au [ID.36958] via the methods listed below:

• For external guests, you can connect as a web guest by clicking HERE. If using Chrome you it will prompt you to install the Cisco Jaba Plugin, then it will prompt you to download the extension which you will need to install. Once this has been installed, you will have a black screen with a call button. You will just need to click call and it should connect into the VMP.
• For Deakin staff and students, please join via Skype for Business (Lync) – if you have office installed you may already have Skype for business or Lync installed. You just need to look for it on the start menu. If you find it, you can log into skype using your Deakin email and password and then dial 36958.
• Could not log in? More info on how to connect is available HERE or 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. The ability to navigate is fundamentally important for life on earth. Vision, in particular, provides robust information on routes and places and this information can (and must) be quantified in order to understand the neural basis of navigational knowledge. Animals need to acquire navigational knowledge, most importantly for tasks at the local scale of their daily lives, and insects such as ants, bees and wasps allow us to study this process of active acquisition and subsequent use of navigational information in detail under the complex natural conditions in which animals operate. A particularly provocative fact is that these small insects with their comparatively low-resolution vision systems and compact brains are so competent at finding their way around the world. They do offer us the unique opportunity, however, to track their movements and gaze directions in detail, to reconstruct what information they have available under natural operating conditions, to investigate their behaviour in reconstructed reality arenas and increasingly also to unravel the neural machinery that supports their competence. I will discuss what insects tell us about where we should be going with research into the knowledgebase of animal navigation.

BIO. I did my PhD on Sexual Dimorphism in the Visual System of Flies at the University of Sussex, England under the supervision of Mike Land and of Deszö Varjú, Chair of Biological Cybernetics, University of Tübingen, Germany, earning the degree in 1981. I then spent two years of postdoctoral time at the University of Tübingen, Germany, studying Swarming in Insects, followed by a Visiting Lectureship at the University of New South Wales, Australia, working with David & Renate Sandeman on Tactile Localization in Crayfish and with Hans-Ortwin & Gerbera Nalbach on Visual System Organization in Crabs. I returned to the Department of Biological Cybernetics, University of Tübingen, Germany in 1985 to a teaching and research position, where I became interested in Learning Flights and Homing in Wasps. Since Germany was unfortunate not to be able to accommodate me as an academic, I went to Kuwait University in 1993 as Associate Professor to teach. There I studied Why Oil Lakes Attract Water-seeking Animals and Homing in Fiddler Crabs. In 1995 I joined the Visual Sciences Group at ANU as a Centre for Visual Science Research Fellow and earned my present position in a Strategic Development Bid for Visual Ecology, which I co-authored with Johannes Zanker and Mandyam Srinivasan.

For more information on the speaker, please go to https://researchers.anu.edu.au/researchers/zeil-jgu

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via natasha.kaukov@deakin.edu.au

SPEAKER: Assoc. Professor Damian Dowling, School of Biological Sciences, Monash University

DATE: Friday, 18th May 2018

TIME: 1:30pm

LOCATION:  Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds – room ka4.207 (green room)

Seminar will also be video linked to the following campuses: Melbourne Campus at Burwood –Burwood Corporate Centre; and Warrnambool Campus, Room J2.19 (fishbowl)

External visitors – wish to join us and connect to our seminars?
External parties may connect to the live seminar via *N SEBE VMP LES Seminars 52236958@deakin.edu.au [ID.36958] via the methods listed below:

• For external guests, you can connect as a web guest by clicking HERE. If using Chrome you it will prompt you to install the Cisco Jaba Plugin, then it will prompt you to download the extension which you will need to install. Once this has been installed, you will have a black screen with a call button. You will just need to click call and it should connect into the VMP.
• For Deakin staff and students, please join via Skype for Business (Lync) – if you have office installed you may already have Skype for business or Lync installed. You just need to look for it on the start menu. If you find it, you can log into skype using your Deakin email and password and then dial 36958.
• Could not log in? More info on how to connect is available HERE or 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 my research group, we are interested in the contribution mitochondrial genomes make to the evolution of life-histories. There are strong theoretical reasons to believe that mtDNA sequences will accumulate functional genetic variation (i.e. genetic variation that changes the phenotype) under both non-adaptive and adaptive processes. Furthermore, maternal inheritance of the mitochondria should hypothetically render mitochondrial genomes prone to the accumulation of sex-specific variation, via alleles that are benign or advantageous to females, but outright harmful to males. This has beencalled the “Mother’s Curse” effect. In this seminar, I will present studies from my group that suggest mutation accumulation and adaptation both play a role in shaping patterns of mitochondrial sequence variation. I will present experimental support the Mother’s Curse effect, including evidence that mitochondrial haplotypes are sexually antagonistic (haplotypes that are good for females are bad for males). I will discuss the implications of our findings for our understanding of key biological concepts, including the evolution of sex differences, adaptation under sexually antagonistic selection, and the capacity of our native flora and fauna to cope with ever increasing climatic stress.

BIO. Damian Dowling is an Associate Professor and ARC Future Fellow, at the School of Biological Sciences at Monash University. He completed his PhD studies in 2004 at the University of Melbourne, before embarking on postdoctoral research at Uppsala University in Sweden, working with Professor Göran Arnqvist, and then the University of Western Australia, with Professor Leigh Simmons. In 2009, he was awarded a Monash University Research Fellowship, and moved back to Melbourne. In 2010 he was awarded an ARC Australian Research Fellowship, and then a Future Fellowship commencing in 2017. Damian is the theme leader for Evolution, and has taken on the role of Director of Research, in the School of Biological Sciences. He is an evolutionary ecologist by training, who is broadly interested in adaptation under sexual selection and sexual conflict, and the evolution of ageing. In recent years, he has been fascinated by the possibility that the mitochondria might play a role in mediating these processes.

For more info: http://www.damiandowlinglab.com/

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via ondi.crino@deakin.edu.au.

SPEAKER: Prof Marie Herberstein, Chair of Academic Senate, Department of Biological Sciences, Macquarie University, NSW

DATE: Friday, 27th April 2018

TIME: 1:30pm

LOCATION:  Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds – room ka4.207 (green room)

Seminar will also be video linked to the following campuses: Melbourne Campus at Burwood –Burwood Corporate Centre; and Warrnambool Campus, Room J2.22

External visitors – wish to join us and connect to our seminars?
External parties may connect to the live seminar via *N SEBE VMP LES Seminars 52236958@deakin.edu.au [ID.36958] via the methods listed below:

• For external guests, you can connect as a web guest by clicking HERE. If using Chrome you it will prompt you to install the Cisco Jaba Plugin, then it will prompt you to download the extension which you will need to install. Once this has been installed, you will have a black screen with a call button. You will just need to click call and it should connect into the VMP.
• For Deakin staff and students, please join via Skype for Business (Lync) – if you have office installed you may already have Skype for business or Lync installed. You just need to look for it on the start menu. If you find it, you can log into skype using your Deakin email and password and then dial 36958.
• Could not log in? More info on how to connect is available HERE or 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!

BIO and ABSTRACT.  I have been a behavioural ecologist for over two decades conducting my research using the traditional approaches of the field: comparing individual variation in behaviour in an ecological and fitness context. My work is on spiders, and the occasional insect, and typically focuses on behaviour of individuals from a single population. Occasionally, I conduct species comparisons in a phylogenetic context. Being surrounded (and somewhat influenced) by plant ecologists that have excelled at multi-species trait comparisons, I have been thinking about the scope of Behavioural Ecology and the opportunities for this field in expanding behaviour into trait space and landscape level analyses. In this seminar, I will briefly describe my overall research and then discuss some recent forays into the landscape and trait space approaches. 

For more info: https://sites.google.com/site/behaviouralecologymacquarie/home

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via natasha.kaukov@deakin.edu.au.

SPEAKER: Dr Michaela Blyton, Research Fellow, Hawkesbury Institute for the Environment, Western Sydney University

DATE: Friday, 20th April 2018

TIME: 1:30pm

LOCATION:  Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds – room ka4.207 (green room)

Seminar will also be video linked to the following campuses: Melbourne Campus at Burwood –Burwood Corporate Centre; and Warrnambool Campus, Room J2.22

External visitors – wish to join us and connect to our seminars?
External parties may connect to the live seminar via *N SEBE VMP LES Seminars 52236958@deakin.edu.au [ID.36958] via the methods listed below:

• For external guests, you can connect as a web guest by clicking HERE. If using Chrome you it will prompt you to install the Cisco Jaba Plugin, then it will prompt you to download the extension which you will need to install. Once this has been installed, you will have a black screen with a call button. You will just need to click call and it should connect into the VMP.
• For Deakin staff and students, please join via Skype for Business (Lync) – if you have office installed you may already have Skype for business or Lync installed. You just need to look for it on the start menu. If you find it, you can log into skype using your Deakin email and password and then dial 36958.
• Could not log in? More info on how to connect is available HERE or 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 I will present some choice findings from my work on the social interactions and population genetic structure of mountain brushtail possums as well as from my current research on the koala microbiome. In my research on the mountain brushtail possum, in the central highlands of Victoria, I used proximity logger collars to reveal that the night time foraging interactions of this elusive species reflect the genetic similarity (kinship) between pairs. I also demonstrated that limited natal dispersal has led to the spatial clustering of kin and fine-scale genetic structure between males and females; creating an inbreeding risk. To reduce this risk of inbreeding the mountain brushtail possum appears to actively avoid kin during mate choice. One potential constraint on the social interactions of a species is pathogen transmission. To understand the transmission dynamics associated with mountain brushtail possum behaviour I used commensal E. coli strains as a model system and inferred transmission patterns from strain sharing networks. In the koala microbiome project we are also investigating the transmission dynamics of the entire gastrointestinal microbiome, which plays a crucial role in koala health and nutrition. We are also investigating the developed of the microbiome in joey koalas, tracking the changes in the microbiome during translocation and characterising the extent of microbiome variation across the koala’s geographic range. This work has revealed geographic variation in microbiome structure and that the functional capacity of the microbiome differs with koala diet. These somewhat desperate studies nonetheless highlight how the fundamental ecology of a species is shaped by complex intra and interspecific interactions.

BIO. My research interests span the fields of molecular ecology, population genetics, behavioural ecology, nutritional ecology and microbiology. In particular, I am interested in how host-symbiont interactions influence the genetic structure and population dynamics of both the symbiont and host. I am also interested in how environmental factors, demography and life history traits influence population genetic structure, impact contemporary social interactions and shape the evolution of social systems. I have combined field studies and captive experiments with laboratory techniques, such as bacterial culture, genotyping and next generation sequencing, to gain insights into the ecology of elusive species. I also take advantage of a range of analysis techniques including classical, information and Bayesian statistics, together with bioinformatics, population genetic analyses, mathematical modelling and computer simulations to maximize the value of my empirical data and to explore theoretical questions.

For more info: https://www.westernsydney.edu.au/hie/people/postdoctoral_fellows/doctor_michaela_blyton

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via desley.whisson@deakin.edu.au.

SPEAKER: Prof Lynn (Marty) Martin, Department of Integrative Biology
University of South Florida, Florida

DATE: Friday, 23rd March 2018

TIME: 1:30pm

LOCATION:  Geelong Campus at Waurn Ponds – room ka4.207 (green room)

Seminar will also be video linked to the following campuses: Burwood Campus, Room HD3.008; and Warrnambool Campus, Room J2.22

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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.  Some individuals are better able than others to impact the communities where they reside.  For instance, super spreaders disproportionately infect susceptible hosts in populations and might often be instigators of disease outbreaks.  Likewise, colonizers of new areas are most likely a non-random sub-sample of populations; those individuals with particular physiological and behavioral traits are more likely to expand the native and introduced ranges of species.  In my talk, I’ll describe work we’ve done with West Nile virus super-spreading in response to various stressors, and I’ll also discuss what we’ve learned about variation in immunity, stress responses, neophilic behavior and other traits that have helped the ubiquitous house sparrow colonize Kenya, Senegal, and other parts of the world.

BIO. Marty is an integrative animal biologist, predominantly working on songbirds to understand what individual traits facilitate i) the spreading of diseases, and ii) colonization of new areas.  He is a Professor at the University of South Florida, having earned his PhD in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology from Princeton University and serving as a postdoc in Physiology and Neuroscience at The Ohio State University.

For more info: http://lbmartin.myweb.usf.edu/Martin_lab_at_USF/People.html

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via kate.buchanan@deakin.edu.au.