In a first for Deakin University, Professor John Endler has been elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London, the world’s oldest and arguably most prestigious science ­academy.

For more information:

• The Royal Society: Professor Endler is interested in the commonalities among the fields of Evolution, Ecology, Behavioural Ecology and Sensory Ecology.
• Herald Sun: Deakin University Professor John Endler elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of London.
• Deakin Media: Deakin’s Professor John Endler elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society.
• Australian Academy of Science: Academy President and Fellows elected to Royal Society.

We are looking for a PhD candidate keen on studying the combined impact of pollution and infection susceptibility on migrating shorebirds.

The specific hypothesis of the project are that:

1) susceptibility to infections (e.g. avian influenza) will increase in a host due to high exposure to environmental pollution;

2) pollutants modulate the immune system in a specific manner that facilitates infection prevalence and/or disease severity;

3) microRNA profiles can be used as a predictive tool to assess disease outbreaks and severity.

The position is based at NTNU in Trondheim, Norway, and financed by the Norwegian Research Council and has a special responsibility within the project COAST-IMPACT (August 2020 – July 2023).

The overall aim of COAST-IMPACT is to study the impact of pollution in the coastal wetlands of East Asia by assessing the biodiversity of littoral macroinvertebrates, and the resulting impact of food availability, pollution and infection in migrating shorebirds along the East Asian Australian Flyway using these wetlands.

The field component of this PhD project will be linked to the ongoing large-scale study of migrating shorebirds in Australia (Melbourne in Victoria, and Broome in Western Australia).

Secondly, the lab component of the project will elucidate the mechanisms driving pollutant-induced immunomodulation that relate to increased infection susceptibility in the host (targeting microRNAs and inflammation markers).

Lastly, the obtained data will be used to develop diagnostic biomarkers to assess infection and exposure that will allow to improve disease outbreak predictions for the future.

For further information and to apply for this position CLICK HERE (PhD position) or contact Prof Marcel Klaassen.

For those who were unable to connect during live broadcasting of this seminar, you may now find the recording at the CIE’s YouTube channel (don’t forget to subscribe to our channel) or simply follow these direct links to seminar’s content:

• Intro to disease ecology
• Is COVID-19 just as bad as the plague or small pox?
• Where does COVID-19 come from?
• Will COVID-19 become more virulent over time?
• Some key things about transmission
• How to manage COVID-19?
• Can we avoid this happening again?

Seminar was presented by Alfred Deakin Professor Marcel Klaassen from the Centre for Integrative Ecology, School of Life and Environmental Sciences, Deakin University, Geelong.

A follow-up talk by Marcel was given to the CIE-Geelong discussion group on the epidemiology of COVID-19. You can now watch the recording of this talk:

• COVID-19 epidemiology – its past and its possible futures
• The app that Marcel developed and which was used in the presentation is available HERE (please scale your screen’s zoom so data fits your screen; navigation is done by clicking on the right or left sides of your screen, similar to a photo gallery, even if you can’t see the navigation arrows)

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Interested in Disease Ecology and Epidemiology?

Then you should consider taking SLE 354 in T2-2020. More information below (make sure to watch the Welcome to SLE 354 video):

Avoiding and fighting disease is an important aspect of our life and that of most other organisms. Often the pathogens that cause these diseases are microorganisms and invertebrate parasites that try and use other organisms (i.e. hosts) to their benefit. This unit will provide a deep understanding of the processes underlying the evolution and ecology of host-pathogen interactions and how these affect animal populations and communities and even ecosystems.

Notably in the face of various global change processes, creating sub-optimal conditions for many animals and making them, and the populations, communities and ecosystems of which they form part, more vulnerable to disease, this unit is of great importance to the broad community of animal ecologists. At the same time this unit is also of interest to students of wildlife conservation and management and the (bio-) medical sciences wanting to develop a deeper understanding of why pathogens are around and why they behave the way they do; knowledge of fundamental importance when managing wildlife and endeavouring fighting infectious diseases.

During T2-2020 this unit will be delivered entirely online, using video recordings, web-based presentations, tutorials and (computer) pracs. Group assignments will involve the production and delivery of online powerpoint presentations and a scientific report centred around your self-selected COVID-19 or other (wildlife) disease research project.

A prerequisite for following this unit is general knowledge of animal life and research methods/statistics. As your unit chair, I trust you will find this unit both intellectually stimulating and relevant to your studies in your current course and your future directions as a Deakin graduate.

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Intro to disease ecology

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Is COVID-19 just as bad as the plague or small pox?

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Where does COVID-19 come from?

---

Will COVID-19 become more virulent over time?

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Some key things about transmission

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How to manage COVID-19?

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Can we avoid this happening again?

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Welcome to SLE 354

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COVID-19 epidemiology – its past and its possible futures

Hi Researchers of the CIE

We would like to invite you to consider this opportunity for you to share your research with wider audiences.  Impact and community engagement are what we are encouraged to consider more and more as academics at Deakin… participating in this project will do both for you.

We invite researchers (at any stage) to join us as we present a public symposium about Integrative Ecology.  The symposium date is the 11^th April at Deakin Downtown.  There will be 5 research presentations across the morning session.  Then the public part of the day concludes and lunch will be served to you and the teachers who have offered to stay the full day to continue working.  This work will involve designing and developing teaching and learning sequences for lower secondary science students (years 7 – 10).  We hope that you will stay for the afternoon session to support this process.

A team of Community Science Project students will be supporting this project.  These students will be in touch with you and will facilitate collecting the necessary information prior to the 11^th April.  This information may include:

• A narrative (collected through an interview) regarding the significance of your research
• A narrative about how you collect data – the methodology/methods of your research
• Some photos or video of this process would be great (especially if taken in the field) – this will be used to craft video resources to add engagement and interest to the resulting teaching and learning materials.
• One or two research papers – if you are published in this area.  We would like to design student activities that have them engaging in published science.
• One or two media articles – if you have any.  This will scaffold students to make accurate judgements about media presentations of science.
• Some data, if possible… as teachers often find it very hard to access good quality data so they can scaffold student development in learning how to analyse real (secondary) data.

We will also need you to review the final web-based materials once they are generated – towards the end of May.

The process has been designed to be thorough – but not time consuming or onerous for you.

We have successfully worked with several Deakin Scientist previously – check out our materials

https://blogs.deakin.edu.au/contemporary-science-practice-in-schools/

Please contact me if you have any questions.

If you would like to be part of this initiative and raise your project’s profile, can you please send an EOI to Peta White by Friday 1^st March 2019?

 

Kind regards,

Peta

Peta White (PhD)

Lecturer in Science and Environmental Education

Bachelor of Science/MTeach D304 Course Director

SPEAKER: Dr Ben Phillips, ARC Future Fellow, School of BioSciences, Faculty of Science, University of Melbourne

DATE: Friday, 18th August 2017
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 (attendees-please report to reception for room details on the day); 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: This is a homily to the role of space in evolution, in three parts.  First I will look at expanding range edges and use the cane toad system to explore the evolutionary implications of range advance.  Second, I will look at geographic variation in a much more stable system.  Using data from climate-relevant traits of a rainforest lizard, I will argue that we can use spatial reasoning to identify when geographic variation is caused by local adaptation (as opposed to plasticity).  Finally, I will head back to the toad system to float an adventurous idea for how we might use evolution to stop their invasion.

BIO: Ben Phillips spent most of the last 12 years working across northern Australia on a range of evolutionary and ecological questions.  Ben has worked on toads, snakes, mammals, beetles, and even simulated organisms. He is particularly interested in how spatial processes change evolutionary and ecological dynamics.  Ben is an ARC Future Fellow and a Senior Lecturer in the School of BioSciences.

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

SPEAKER: Dr Justine Shaw, Research Fellow, Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, University of Queensland

DATE: Friday, 11th August 2017
LOCATION: Melbourne Campus at Burwood – Burwood Corporate Centre (attendees-please report to reception for room details on the day)
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?
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: Island eradications are becoming more common and more successful. Pest eradications have been undertaken on over 700 islands globally. More and more species are benefitting from these conservation actions. As technological abilities increase, decision science and ecosystem monitoring need to expand and improve to effectively implement large-scale and complex island management. I will present some of my recent work on prioritizing actions for islands, principally “which island do we choose, and what do we target?” I’ll summarize some preliminary findings on island prioritizations involving multiple target species across hundreds of islands.

Once projects have been chosen and successfully implemented we are then faced with evaluating their efficacy in restoring ecosystem structure and function.  Our recent work on Macquarie Island is a good example of this process, where we are utilizing existing long-term datasets (some over 30 years old) and are undertaking new fieldwork. We’ve identified sites, species and environmental parameters for tracking ecosystem change into the future including habitat recovery and prey switching following rabbit, cat, mouse and rat eradication. I’ll highlight one of our biggest challenges in this work – how to address shifting baselines and their role in monitoring large scale conservation projects. Human-induced ecological change spans much longer periods of time than most formal monitoring data. Therefore, to understand the magnitude and dynamics of past ecosystem change, we need to seek data on past change from alternative sources.

BIO: Justine Shaw is a Research Fellow at the Centre for Biodiversity and Conservation Science, The University of Queensland. Her research focus is the conservation of island ecosystems and terrestrial Antarctica. Justine is interested in understanding the way in which species interact with each other and their role in ecosystem function. She is currently examining the risks posed by non-native species to Antarctic protected areas, examining the interactions between indigenous and non-native species and investigating how invasive species influence island ecosystems, in particular the impacts on threatened species. Her research focuses on informing management.  She is interested in ways of dealing with ecosystem uncertainty in large scale eradication attempts.  Justine has been working on sub-Antarctic islands for 19 years.  Her current research is funded through the National Environmental Science Program, Threatened Species Recovery Hub.

Appointments with guest speaker may be made via Tim Doherty.

 

 

What: Webinar
When: 14 June 2017, 12:30 pm to 1:30 pm

In this webinar, Dr Peter Macreadie will provide an overview of research into the distribution, value, and dynamics of Australia’s blue carbon; showcase emerging research into the development of decision tools to predict how different management plans will affect the persistence of coastal ecosystems and their capacity to sequester carbon; and discuss the current status of blue carbon offset initiatives under the Federal Government’s Emission Reduction Fund.

For more information about this event and on how to register please CLICK HERE