Tropical Ecology Group: Conference Report

Thank you to all who attended the Tropical Ecology Group events held during the British Ecological Society annual meeting in Glasgow (9th to 12th September). I was pleased to see so many of you at the group meeting, despite the lack of advertising in the program, and delighted with the packed room throughout the special session.

During the TEG meeting I reported the group’s activities over the last twelve months and we discussed ideas and plans for the future. Prior to the meeting in Glasgow the activities during 2006-2007 were: 1) the launch of the TEG web site, www.besteg.org, 2) the “1st TEG early career researcher meeting”, and 3) our poster presentation at the ATBC in Mexico. Proposals for the forthcoming year put forward at various stages of the meeting included: 1) visit to Kew botanic gardens, 2) possible workshops to look at “Dealing with biodiversity”, “Extracting information from tropical collections” and “Modern and palao-ecological linkages”, and 3) a special session at the BES annual meeting in London showcasing advances in “Phylogeography in the tropics”.

In addition, it was announced that the “2nd TEG early career research meeting” would be held in Oxford during March 2008 – so keep your diaries free. It was suggested that this meeting was linked with the “Student Conference on Conservation Science” (http://www.sccs-cam.org) to be held in Cambridge 25th to 27th March; in particular with regard to attracting and funding students from tropical countries to attend.

Directly after the meeting we headed up the road to the Glasgow Botanic Gardens where we had an excellent tour of the 11 tropical displays and the Kibble Palace by Paul Matthews the collections curator. The recently reconstructed Kibble Palace holds the national tree fern collection which provides a splendid setting for the leafy displays (click here to see photos). A buffet evening meal was served in the Kibble which included the delights of ‘wee haggis roles’ and ‘wild fruit tartlets’. Following this the majority headed back to the University to take part in the Ceilidh where much fun was had by all until the wee small hours…

“Climate change impacts on tropical ecosystems”

While not doubting the pulling power of Professor Chris Thomas’s keynote talk “Prospects for nature” I was slightly concerned by the 08.30 time slot given the Ceilidh the night before. Therefore I was delighted to find the room packed with standing room only (>60 people). Everyone was rewarded by a string of excellent talks covering a wide range of perspectives and highlighting the variety of scales change can, and is, occurring on within tropical ecosystems. The challenge of integrating this range of data across space and time is large, but is key if we are to be able to anticipate and manage future change (click here for abstracts).

Tour of the Glasgow Botanic Gardens and Buffet in the Kibble Palace

During the TEG meeting I reported the group’s activities over the last twelve months and we discussed ideas and plans for the future. Prior to the meeting in Glasgow the activities during 2006-2007 were: 1) the launch of the TEG web site, www.besteg.org, 2) the “1st TEG early career researcher meeting”, and 3) our poster presentation at the ATBC in Mexico. Proposals for the forthcoming year put forward at various stages of the meeting included: 1) visit to Kew botanic gardens, 2) possible workshops to look at “Dealing with biodiversity”, “Extracting information from tropical collections” and “Modern and palao-ecological linkages”, and 3) a special session at the BES annual meeting in London showcasing advances in “Phylogeography in the tropics”.

In addition, it was announced that the “2nd TEG early career research meeting” would be held in Oxford during March 2008 – so keep your diaries free. It was suggested that this meeting was linked with the “Student Conference on Conservation Science” (http://www.sccs-cam.org) to be held in Cambridge 25th to 27th March; in particular with regard to attracting and funding students from tropical countries to attend.

Directly after the meeting we headed up the road to the Glasgow Botanic Gardens where we had an excellent tour of the 11 tropical displays and the Kibble Palace by Paul Matthews the collections curator. The recently reconstructed Kibble Palace holds the national tree fern collection which provides a splendid setting for the leafy displays (click here to see photos). A buffet evening meal was served in the Kibble which included the delights of ‘wee haggis roles’ and ‘wild fruit tartlets’. Following this the majority headed back to the University to take part in the Ceilidh where much fun was had by all until the wee small hours…

1)Organiser: William Gosling
2)Keynote speaker: Chris Thomas (University of York) “Prospects for nature”
3)Attendence: Full for ALL talks (c. 50 people), standing room during talks by C. Thomas and J. Grace (>60 people)

Abstracts

THOMAS, C.D. (University of York, UK)
Prospects for Nature.
The distributions and abundances of species have already responded to recent climate change, with species- as well as population-level extinctions already recorded. Species associated with disappearing climates are likely to be at greatest risk, whilst uncertainty about biodiversity responses is greatest in regions that will experience novel climates. The worst-affected areas are in the tropics. Climate change mitigation and adaptation is required to avoid major ecosystem disruption and extinctions.

09:10 PAGE, S.E. (University of Leicester)
Climate change impacts on SE Asian ecosystems
SE Asian forest ecosystems are critical reservoirs of biodiversity and terrestrial carbon, but are highly vulnerable to changes in land-use and climate. Deforestation, fire and, for wetlands, drainage all produce increased carbon emissions and loss of ecosystem functions. Current and potential climate change and human related impacts will be discussed.

09:30 BIRD, M.1, WURSTER, C1, HUNT, C.2, BULL, I.3 (1 University of St. Andrews, UK, 2 Queens University Belfast, UK, 3 University of Bristol, UK)
Palaeoenvironmental evidence of climate change impacts in insular SE Asia.
Insular Southeast Asia – the ‘drowned’ ice age continent of Sundaland – is a region of high biodiversity, due partly to the unique and constantly changing matrix of dispersal pathways through the region. This paper will review the evidence for climate change impacts on ecosystems in the region during the Quaternary.

09:50 LEWIS, S. L. (University of Leeds, UK)
Global Environmental Change Impacts on African Tropical Forests.
As the environment changes forests show an intergral response to all changes. I review the major environmental changes that have occurred across Africa in recent decades, and how remaining forests have responded using a new network of 70 long-term permanent plots across the continent, and then review continent-specific future predictions.

10:10 BRNCIC, T.M1, WILLIS, K.J.2, HARRIS, D.J.3, WASHINGTON, R2 (1 Universite Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium, 2 Oxford University Centre for the Environment, UK, 3 Royal Botanic Garden Edinburgh, UK)
Palaeoenvironmental evidence of climate change impacts on lowland African rainforest
Evidence from lake sediments in central Africa indicates that there have been significant changes in rainfall over the last few millennia. To what extent is the present day composition of rainforest in this region a result of processes of the past? What is the resilience of rainforest to climate change?

11:00 GRACE, J. (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Combining carbon sequestration, biodiversity protection and economic development: a win-win-win situation.
In a project in Mozambique, farmers are paid to manage Miombo woodland as a carbon sink. In so doing, biodiversity is conserved and, through the development of micro-industries, economic development occurs. Data on the carbon fluxes are discussed, and the ecological and economic strengths and weaknesses are assessed.

11:40 MALHI, Y. (University of Oxford, UK)
Climate change impact on Neotropical ecosystems.
I will explore the scenarios and probabilities of climate change in Amazonia. Intact Amazonian forests may in general be quite resilient to significant drying, but fragmented and logged forests are vulnerable to increased fire occurrence. Maintaining sufficient forest area is an important strategy for the resilience of Amazonia to climatic drying.

12:00 MAYLE, F.E. (University of Edinburgh, UK)
Palaeoenvironmental evidence of climate change impacts on Neotropical ecosystems.
The Neotropics experienced marked climatic changes during the Quaternary. During glacial periods, lowered temperatures (5C below present) and CO2 concentrations (190 ppm) produced Neotropical forest communities floristically and structurally different from today. Precipitation varied markedly, over 20,000-yr cycles, causing floristic changes to forests, and biome shifts in ecotonal areas.

12:20 GOSLING, W.D.1, BUSH, M.B.2, HANSELMAN, J.A.2, CHEPSTOW-LUSTY, A.3 (1 The Open University, UK, 2 Florida Institute of Technology, USA, 3 Centre de Bio-Archéologie et d’Ecologie and Institut des Sciences de l’Evolution, France)
Glacial-Interglacial changes in moisture balance and the impact on vegetation in the southern hemisphere tropical Andes (Bolivia/Peru).
A palynological investigation of a >119 metre sediment core from Lake Titicaca suggests that precessional forcing (21,000 year cycles) has been the main driver of environmental change in the Andes through the last glacial-interglacial cycle (>140,000 years). Moisture balance change has controlled the extent of the highly biodiverse Polylepis woodland.