A not to be missed webinar from the EAAF Shorebird Tracking Group:
When: Thurs 28th October 2021 6PM (Canberra, Melbourne, Sydney)
Registration is open – click HERE to register.
The 11th Australasian Ornithological Conference (AOC) 8 – 10 February 2022 to be held in Auckland, Aotearoa/New Zealand is pleased to announce that submissions are now open!
They are looking for contributions from all areas of ornithology and welcome submissions from community organisations, academic researchers and students, conservation specialists and more.
CLICK HERE to submit your abstract and to find out more.
Deadline to submit is 3 September 2021.
A field and video annotation guide for baited remote underwater stereo‐video surveys of demersal fish assemblages.
See the paper at METHODS IN ECOLOGY AND EVOLUTION.
Darwin, the devil, and the management of transmissible cancers.
See the paper at Conservation Biology.
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Dear CIE HDR students,
An important part of the annual CIE conference is to seek out and acknowledge your fantastic research efforts. So If you have a recent research output, please send it through for consideration in one of our Best CIE HDR Research Award categories.
1. Best reviewed research paper (a manuscript that has undergone part, or all of the external peer review process).
2. Best unreviewed research paper (a pre-submitted, or submitted manuscript, lacking any input from peer-review feedback)
Award Rules:
3. Best CIE HDR award for science outreach:
Here we are looking for great examples of how you are translating and communicating your science for the benefit of the broader community and ideally having an impact beyond the ivory towers of academia! I am leaving this vague in its interpretation to allow for the broadest consideration of your research outreach efforts (e.g. an account of how your science helped Nuns in Mexico sustainably harvest endangered salamanders to make cough syrup, or it could be a blog or some other form of popular science communication ).
If you would like to enter, please send me a brief email, using no more than 200 words to describe your science outreach efforts.
If these do not appeal, and because many of you will be presenting at the upcoming CIE conference then you automatically qualify for the:
4. Best Presentation Awards:
The CIE will also be giving out awards the for best female and best male HDR candidate presentations at the conference.
The winner of each category:
Will be awarded a voucher and certificate.
We look forward to receiving many entries and learning about your great research!
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:
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:
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:
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.
Centre for Integrative Ecology 