Net-Biome 1st Joint Call Final Conference, Brussels

The final results of MOVECLIM were presented at the Net Biome 1st Joint Call Final Conference in Brussels on April 5th 2016.

At the European Parliament, Net Biome Consortium. Crédit photo: Paolo Borges

The Program of this event is presented below:

Tuesday, 5^th April:

Place:   BIP facilities, Rue Royale, 2-4 Koningsstraat, Room AGORA.

08:00 - Reception of the participants (Gisela Nascimento).

Welcome coffee followed by a permanent “on site” coffee service for the day.

08:15 - Welcome to the participants and introduction to the work for the day.

(Josiane Irissin-Mangata – Chair for the meeting)

08:30 - Presentation of the FRAG&BINV project and discussion.

(Stéphane Garnier)

08:50 - Presentation of the ISLAND-BIODIV project results and discussion.

(Paulo Borges)

09:10 - Presentation of the MOVECLIM project and discussion.

(Claudine Ah-Peng)

09:30 - Presentation of the POMARE project and discussion.

(Sylvain Petek)

09:50 - Presentation of the SafePGR project and discussion.

(Pierre-Yves Teycheney)

10:10 - Presentation of the SEAPROLIF project and discussion.

(Mehdi Aderoud)

10:30 - Presentation of the VABIOME project and discussion.

(Michel Dron)

10:50 - Presentation of the Video made by Philippe Baret (Short version?).

11:00 - Open discussion on research on biodiversity needs in overseas and added value for the EU. Identification of main needs and split in small groups (if possible).

12:00 - Articulation with NB-CSA for the final conference. (To be confirmed)

13:00 - Lunch Break.

         Served “on site”, organized by the NetBiome-CSA management team.

14:00 - Follow up of the morning discussion on research on biodiversity needs in overseas.

15:30 - Wrap-up of the meeting.

         (Vanessa Weck-Gaspard)

16:00 - Articulation with NB-CSA for the final conference.

16: 30 - Joint Call Steering Committee Meeting.

         (Only members of the NB-JC Steering Committee)

In parallel PI may start to work on presentation about the shared view regarding the added value of the call, which will be finalized on Thursday morning.

18:00 - End of the day´s work.

Free evening

Wednesday, 6^th April, morning.

Place:   BIP facilities, Rue Royale, 2-4 Koningsstraat, Room AGORA

9:00 - NB-CSA and NB-JC Joint preparation of the Final Conference that will take place at the European Parliament.

         Finalization of the presentations to be made in the afternoon

            About the call main results

            About research needs, topics and added value

12:00 - End of the morning’s work

Wednesday, 6th April, afternoon.

Place: European Parliament, Room to be defined.

15:00 - Presentation and discussion of the NetBiome-ERA-NET 1^st Joint Call and of the NetBiome-CSA project.

Hosted by MEP Ricardo Serrão Santos.

The format and content of the NetBiome-ERA-NET 1^st Joint Call presentation, as well as who will present it and how it will be articulated with the NetBiome-CSA will be discussed and decided at the meeting of April 5^th.

18:00 - End of NetBiome-ERA-NET 1st Joint Call Final Conference activities.

This final meeting in Brussels was a good opportunity to gather and report on our projects within the Net Biome consortium and especially with the different funding agencies.

As a reminder some figures on this call:

About the 7 projects funded:

The factsheet on the Net Biome  consortium:

During the discussions at the meeting, one main topic was the becoming of the Net Biome network and the possibility of future calls, which could be launched by BIODIVERSA3 on the biodiversity of ORs and OCTs.

The last day of this event occurred at the European parliament, the program of the day was as followed:

In the course of the presentations, Pierre Yves Teycheney and Claudine Ah-Peng were invited to talk about their experience as funded projects members and coordinators. They highlighted the need of the European Commission to pursue its support to the biodiversity Research within and between the ORs and OCTs. 

Crédit photo: Claudine Ah-Peng

Crédit photo: Paolo Borges




Press release and Presentations at the European Parliament

Read more ...

XX Simposio de Botanica Criptogamica, Porto, 22-25 July 2015

The Cryptogamic Botany Symposium is a biennial gathering of experts dedicated to the study of fungi, algae, lichens, bryophytes and ferns and the most important scientific meeting of this theme in the Iberian Peninsula. This Symposium aims to present and discuss the progress made to date, highlighting the growing importance of the study of the cryptogamic flora for ecosystem management and sustainability of land resources, biotechnological applications and development of methodologies for predicting the effects of local, regional and global environmental change. XX Cryptogamic Botany Symposium took place in Oporto, Portugal, on the 22th to the 25th of July 2015.

List of the Moveclim's team contributions:

Poster communication:

- Coelho, MCM., Pereira, F., Ah-Peng, C. & Gbriel, R. 2015. Water retention in Azorean native vegetation: the role of bryophytes. XX Cryptogamic Botany Symposium, 22-25th July, Porto, Portugal.

Oral communications: 

- Gabriel, R., Bardat, J., Flores, O., Gonzalez Mancebo, J., Hedderson, T., Strasberg, D., Aranda, SC., Coelho, MCM., Henriques, DSG., Hernandez Hernandez, R., Lovanomanjanahary, M., Wilding, N. & Ah-Peng, C. 2015. Project MOVECLIM: Studying bryophyte macroecological patterns along elevation transects across archipelagos. XX Cryptogamic Botany Symposium, 22-25th July, Porto, Portugal.

- Henriques, DSG., Gabriel, R., Borges, PAV. & Ah-Peng, C. 2015. Bryophyte beta diversity along elevational gradient in Terceira Island, Azores. XX Cryptogamic Botany Symposium, 22-25th July, Porto, Portugal.

Text: Marcia Coehlo 

Read more ...

Scientific helicopter expedition to the top of the island of Tahiti, July 2015

A two-days field trip was organized by Jean-Yves Meyer from the Délégation à la Recherche (French Polynesian Department of Research) in collaboration with the local nature protection group « Te Rau Ati Ati aTau a Hiti Noa Tu » to Mont Orohena, the highest summit of the Tahiti reaching ca. 2250 m, which is also the highest peak of all the South Pacific islands.

Pete, Rava and Darko in a steep humid ravine (Photo: Jean Yves)

A team of eight people (including Ravahere Taputuarai, Henri Jay, Teva Maireau, Théo Guilloux and Maxime Chan from « Te Rau Ati Ati ») was dropped by the helicopter on the 24th of July 2015 to spend two days and one night, in order to complete the inventory of all Pteridophytes (ferns and allies) and Bryophytes (mosses, liverworts and hornworts) for the Moveclim Project, but also to collect moths and spiders with two visiting research scientists: Darko Cotoras, a Chilean post-doc sponsored by the California Academy of Science, and Pete Oboyski, the curator of the insect collection at the University of California at Berkeley. The helicopter trip was covered by a journalist from the daily magazine « Tahiti Infos » which is freely distributed as paper copies and also accessible online (http://www.tahiti-infos.com/Des-scientifiques-sur-le-toit-du-fenua_a132998.html) and on the press page of this blog.

Teva and Darko collecting on the summital ridge (Photo: Jean Yves Meyer)

The collected ferns and moss specimens will complement the data obtained along the elevation gradient of Mt Aorai (between 600-2000 m) during the past 3 years. Field surveys were made on the main exposed ridges covered by dense shrublands and in some deep, wet and forested gulches on very steep slopes requiring sometimes a rope. Although no micro-climatic sensor was installed on Mt Orohena due to the very difficult access, temperature (measured with a mercury thermometer) decreased down to 3°C at night!

Team at camp (Photo: Jean Yves)

Summital peak, ridges and gulches (Darko Cotoras)

This expedition was the last one to be conducted in Tahiti for the Moveclim project, which will remain a great scientific and human adventure for the French Polynesian coordinators.

Jean Yves in the forest (Photo: Darko Cotoras)

Content: JYM
Photographs: JYM & DC

Read more ...

Island Biology 2016 Conference, July 2016, Azores

Attendance to this conference is a must for any island biologist:

The “Island Biology 2016” (18-22 July 2016, University of Azores at Angra do Heroísmo, Terceira, Azores) conference has already an official webpage : http://www.islandbiology2016.uac.pt/

Please Visit the webpage and  Pre-Registration is possible at http://www.islandbiology2016.uac.pt/#page3

Pico island, 23-26th july 2015, Post conference fieldtrip

The Invited speakers confirmed so far are:

- Paulo  A. V. Borges: Welcome Talk: “Long-term ecological research in Azores: what we have learned so far”

- Daniel Simberloff that will give a Plenary Conference on the MacArthur & Wilson legacy

-Isabel Sanmartin that will give the Talk: “Bayesian statistical approaches to island biogeography: progress and challenges”

- Jens Olesen that will give the Talk: “Ecological Networks on Islands”

-Pedro Cardoso: NEW CHALLENGES “Applications of Artificial Intelligence to Island Ecology and Biogeography”

-Robert Whittaker that will give the Talk: “Island Biogeography: novel approaches”

Read more ...

Final Moveclim meeting in Canarias- 9th-15th June 2015

The final meeting of MOVECLIM will be held in La Palma island (Canarias) organized by Juana Maria Mancebo Gonzalez, Raquel Hernandez Hernandez and Julio Leal Pérez from the University of La Laguna (Spain).

We are looking forward to meeting there! Many thanks to the organizers!

Read more ...

Post doc advert in the Azorean team

AZOREAN BIODIVERSITY GROUP (cE3c)

POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS – DEMONSTRATION OF INTEREST

The Azorean Biodiversity Group (cE3c – Centre for Ecology, Evolution and Environmental Changes) will open several Post-Doc positions during 2015 and 2016. The number and timing of these positions will depend on the availability of competitive candidates. We are looking for outstanding, highly motivated scientists working on the following research areas:

- “Island Macroecology and Conservation”.

In recent projects we have generated some very large and comprehensive biodiversity datasets for many field sites in Azores (projects BALA, EDEN, ISLAND-BIODIV, MOVECLIM, ATLANTISMAR, IMPACTBIO). We aim now to perform a synthesis project to bring together these datasets for combined spatial based analysis. The kinds of questions we are interested in are looking at the effect of global changes on biodiversity and ecosystem services and comparing the importance of different environmental drivers of alpha and beta diversity between trophic levels and at different spatial scales.

The research should contribute to the solution of urgent environmental problems and H2020 challenges. The researchers will work in Azores (Univ. of Azores), to carry out long-term research (36-72 months), and amounts to c. 1650 EUR per month, which includes contribution towards social security and liability insurance. Seed money will be available to facilitate the establishment of these research lines and it is expected that the candidates apply to national and international funds to conduct long-term research within Azorean Biodiversity Group (cE3c).

Candidates profile:

-          Excellent doctorate degree, completed preferentially no more than 6 years prior to the application;

-          Ability to manage large datasets and have the skills to perform complex ecological modelling using R in a macroecological research framework;

-          Compelling independent past scientific achievement and publications in international peer-reviewed journals (quality of key publications specified in the application: applicant’s contribution in cases of multiple authorship);

-          Potential to obtain a leading position in island research and Macroecology (originality, degree of innovation in key publications);

Knowledge of the Portuguese languages is not mandatory, but it is expected that non-Portuguese applicants learn Portuguese during the duration of the fellowship.

We wish to receive applications that include the candidate CV and one-page concept describing how your past research will fit the above-listed research topics.

Read more ...

Net-Biome 1st Joint Call Mid-Term Conference

The NetBiome mid-term conference took place in Gosier (Guadeloupe) in October (20-21). Project coordinators were present as well as local executives, members of the French funding agency and experts from the initial evaluation panel.

The first day of the meeting was devoted to presentation and discussion about the seven projects funded by the NetBiome call. Coordinators presented the development and current status of their project. Although the process was not an evaluation, presentations were followed by intense discussion about the main achievements, on-going work and plans, as well as the possible difficulties that could be encountered before the end of the project.


MOVECLIM was presented by Olivier Flores.The achievements of the project so far were overall very well perceived and evaluated by the specialist scientists. Among positive aspects, one that was found particularly relevant was that strictly similar protocols were applied by different research teams to sample biodiversity across distinct archipelagoes. The main difficulties that were identified was the delay due to the change in one of the partner and the remaining efforts to be done to identify unprocessed samples and consolidate the datasets. Informal discussions raised great perspectives for a possible continuation of the research programme initiated by the MOVECLIM consortium.
 

Two clearly identified reasons of the relative success of the program are that one post-doc, while being actively implied in the research, was committed to its coordination, and that the program builds on existing similar experience and data in the field.

The following day, the meeting welcomed new attendants interested in the possibility of seeing a second funding call (NetBiome CSA). This day was devoted to exchange and discussion in the form of several workshops. They addressed various topics such as biodiversity indicators specially designed for islands for instance.

During the rest of week, attendants of the NetBiome conference participated to the International Conference on Biodiversity and Climate Change (www.guadeloupe2014.com, 22-25/10). A short subject was shot about MOVECLIM and displayed on the regional news (see the Communication page).

Read more ...