Seminar

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On March 8^th at 13.15 (CET), KAU Biology doctoral candidate Jeff Marker will present his seminar on riparian functional diversity. Measuring biodiversity in an ecosystem is more than just counting species, it is essential that we understand exactly what effects those species have on their habitats and how they shape ecosystem processes. By looking at a combination of indices and pinpointing functional traits, Jeff will walk us through the effects of forested riparian buffer and forestry management on the functional diversity of riparian spiders and plants. Join the meeting on zoom via https://kau-se.zoom.us/my/kaubiology

On 15 March, Professor Hans de Kroon will be giving a talk on his work on Living Labs: innovative projects that have been set up for nature restoration research. With his colleagues from Radboud University (NL) and many societal partners, he looks into ways in which nature and agriculture can be integrated to ensure livelihood for farmers while conserving and restoring landscape elements that contribute to the local and regional biodiversity.

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Read a bit more information on the project here, and attend the seminar via Zoom: https://kau-se.zoom.us/my/kaubiology, at 13:15 CET on 15 March.

Sebastian Rock, a LIFEConnects funded Ph.D. candidate at RivEM, will be giving a seminar on the impacts of parasitic Unionid mussels on their host fishes! These incredibly endangered freshwater bivalves are considered keystone species in their native ecosystems and are heavily protected, but will the returning salmon be able to survive in an ecosystem full of parasites? Will local anglers be upset with the habitat restoration efforts because their favorite fish are now less healthy than they were before? To find out the answers to all these questions and more! Join the seminar live on zoom https://kau-se.zoom.us/my/kaubiology at 1315 CET on 22nd February 2022.

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Velizara Stoilova (RivEM and Norconsult’s industry Ph.D. student) from the biology department of Karlstad University will be giving a seminar about her ongoing doctoral research entitled Existing approaches to facilitate downstream migrating fish. Velizara mainly works on solutions for fish migration and connectivity of rivers impacted by dams. As the title suggests, Velizara will be giving a talk on existing approaches to facilitate downstream migrating fish in rivers with limited connectivity and outlining her planned research.

This seminar will be streamed live on zoom on the 18th of January at 13.15 (CET). To join the seminar live on zoom, use the link https://kau-se.zoom.us/my/kaubiology. You are all welcome.

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Dr. Mahboobeh Hajiesmaeli, a PostDoc Researcher from Karlstad University’s biology department and a member of the River Ecology and Management (RivEM) group will be giving a talk on how individual-based models (IBMs) of salmonid populations can be used as an effective tool for understanding and managing fish population responses to hydropeaking (hydropower short-term regulation) practices. The main focus is on the first application of an individual-based model, inSTREAM 7.2-SD, to assess the effects of peaking flows on growth, survival and distribution of Atlantic salmon (Salmo Salar) and brown trout (Salmo trutta) in the lower Gullspång River, Sweden. Lilla Åråsforsen (see picture below) was used as the study site for the IBM modeling.

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This seminar will be streamed live on zoom on the 21st December at 13.15 (CET) at the link https://kau-se.zoom.us/my/kaubiology

On 15-6-2021 Sebastian Rock will be giving a talk introducing his work on the host-parasite interactions of unionid mussels. Within the broader LifeConnects projects, this work will improve mussel conservation and reintroduction efforts of this little studied order of bivalves in Sweden and around the world.

The seminar starts at 13.15 and will be streamed live over Zoom. Contact Olle Calles (olle.calles@kau.se) to receive the zoom link to this seminar.

On 25 May, Sara Cousins, professor in Physical Geography and associate professor in Plant Ecology at Stockholm University, will give a talk entitled “How does landscape change affect plant diversity?”. Sara combines plant community ecology and landscape history to improve the understanding of how land use changes affects plant dispersal and community composition, and also focuses on how climate change affects these processes.

The seminar starts at 13.15 and will be streamed live over Zoom. Contact Olle Calles (olle.calles@kau.se) to receive the zoom link to this seminar.

On 6 April, Ted Morrow will give a talk entitled “Sexually antagonistic genes in flies and humans”. Sexually antagonistic selection occurs when natural selection on traits shared by males and females operates opposite directions in the two sexes. Sexually antagonistic genetic variation is apparently common and taxonomically widespread and yet very few specific genetic loci have been identified. The talk will give an overview of experimental work that has been carried out in the Morrow lab to find these genes in the fruit fly model as well as ask why no sexually antagonistic genes have been reported from humans.

The seminar starts at 13.15 and will be streamed live over Zoom. Contact Olle Calles (olle.calles@kau.se) to receive the zoom link to this seminar.

On March 30^th Jeff Marker, PhD student in our group, will be giving a talk on his work involving stable isotopes in spiders. He investigated the feasibility of using non-lethal samples in laboratory and field-collected spiders finding, in general, spider legs are reliable proxies for stable isotope values in whole bodies. Jeff will discuss some of the implications including more robust conservation efforts and the possibility of endangered species sampling.

The seminar starts at 13.15 and will be streamed live over Zoom. Contact Olle Calles (olle.calles@kau.se) to receive the zoom link to this seminar.

On Tuesday 9 March, Einar Kärgenberg, a senior researcher in Wildlife Estonia, will give an overview of their recently published studies. These describe the movement patterns of lithophilous migratory fish in Estonian free-flowing and fragmented rivers using acoustic telemetry. Behavioural patterns of little-studied cyprinids (asp (Leuciscus aspius) and vimba bream (Vimba vimba)) were identified. In addition, the effectiveness of potential and implemented mitigation measures (removal of dams, building fishways, the effectiveness of bar-racks) was assessed. Additional methods (incl. fyke-nets, diving) were used to directly estimate the mortality of Atlantic salmon smolts (Salmo salar) caused by Kaplan-type turbines.

The seminar starts at 13.15 and will be streamed live over Zoom. Contact Olle Calles (olle.calles@kau.se) to receive the zoom link to this seminar.

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