NATURE OF LIFE SEMINARS
About the seminars
The Nature of Life Seminars are organized by the Department of Ecological Science (AEW). We invite exciting international and national speakers, aiming to include both well-known established ecologists and rising young stars. The topics cover a broad ecological spectrum and are of interest not only to all ecologists, but also to most other biologists, environmental scientists and earth scientists.
When and where are the seminars held?
The seminars are held every 2nd Tuesday of the month and always start at 15:45 hrs. The location is usually in the W&N building, entrance and address: De Boelelaan 1085 at the VU University in Amsterdam. Prior to the seminar the speaker will visit the Department of Ecological Sciences. The seminar closes with an informal meeting with drinks and bites and an opportunity to contact the speaker directly. For an abstract of upcoming and previous seminars for this year and earlier, please see below.
Contact
If you have suggestions about other speakers to invite, do please contact any of the following people:
Vasilis Kokkoris / Wouter Halfwerk / Yumi Nakadera / Emma Ciric
Dr. Michelle Achlatis, University of Amsterdam – 8 June 2022
Coral reef sponges and their symbiosis with photosynthetic microorganisms ABSTRACT On coral reefs, excavating sponges erode and then inhabit coral skeletons, often killing the coral in […]
Dr. Martin Stevens, University of Exeter – 10 May 2022
Chameleons of the sea: colour change and behaviour in a changing world ABSTRACT Dr. Martin Stevens is Professor in Sensory Ecology and Evolution at the University […]
Prof.dr. Barrett Klein, University of Wisconsin-La Crosse – 15 March 2022
Sleeping in a society of honey bees: The tale of a sleep-deprived dancer and her unwitting followers, and the search for insect dreams ABSTRACT Foragers of […]
Dr. Marta Szulkin, University of Warsaw – 14 December 2021
Life on our Doorstep: Urban Ecology & Evolution ABSTRACT Urban areas are projected to continue growing, both in number and size and urbanisation is consequently changing […]
Dr. Bjorn Robroek, Radboud University – 12 October 2021
The role of plants and microbes in peatland carbon dynamics ABSTRACT Peatlands appear trivial as carbon (C) sinks on an annual basis, taking up ~0.14 Gt […]
Dr. Maurine Neiman, University of Iowa – 8 June 2021
Sex in the Wild (and Especially in New Zealand) ABSTRACT Why most eukaryotes reproduce sexually even though asexual reproduction is much simpler and less costly remains […]
Dr. Jen Perry, University of East Anglia – 11 May 2021
The adaptive evolution of male and female aggression in fruit flies and beyond ABSTRACT Displays of intense intrasexual aggression are frequent in many animals. Aggressive behaviour […]
Dr. Andrew Davies, Harvard University – 13 April 2021
Quantifying landscape scale animal impacts on ecosystem processes ABSTRACT Animals affect ecosystems in complex and profound ways, but understanding how observed effects scale up to influence […]
Professor Chris Jiggins, University of Cambridge – 9 March 2021
Convergent evolution in butterflies, from chemicals to colour patterns ABSTRACT What are the origins of biodiversity? There is much we still don’t understand about the evolution […]
Dr. Melissah Rowe, NIOO-KNAW – 12 January 2021
ABSTRACT All organisms host microbial communities in and on their bodies, and these microbiomes can have major impacts on host biology. For example, research over the […]
Dianneke van Wijk and Prof. dr. Wolf Mooij, NIOO-KNAW/WUR – 8 December 2020
ABSTRACT For decades we, and with us many others, have heard the warnings of overexploitation, environmental pollution, climate change, and biodiversity loss summarized as the ‘the […]
Dr. Thea Whitman, University of Wisconsin – Madison – 10 November 2020
ABSTRACT Global fire regimes are changing, with shifts in wildfire duration, frequency, and severity predicted for North American forests over the next 100 years. Additionally, in […]