Centre for Ecology and Evolution - UCL

Centre for Ecology and Evolution

CEE Autumn Mixer Event

Friday 28th September 2018
13:00 to 19:00

Linnean Society, Burlington House,
Piccadilly, London, W1J 0BF
Agenda

13:00          Registration opens

13:00          Lunch

14:00          Speed Talks – Session 1

15:30          Tea and Coffee

16:00          Speed Talks – Session 2

17:30          Wine reception and informal networking

19:00          Event ends

Registration
The event is free of charge and is open to all staff and students who are affiliated to a CEE
Member Institution. In order to help with numbers for the event and catering we ask that all
attendees register via the Eventbrite link located on the CEE website:
www.ucl.ac.uk/cee/events
The CEE Autumn Mixer Event is kindly supported by the Linnean Society.
All guests are asked to sign-in at the reception desk and follow the Linnean Society’s
housekeeping guidelines.

Programme
13:00 Lunch
13:55 Welcome by CEE Directors
14:00 Speed Talks – Session 1: Chaired by Prof. Anjali Goswami (NHM)
      Zerina Johanson - Natural History Museum

              Evo-devo of a unique shark dentition
      Within Chondrichthyes, the Holocephali (chimaeroids) are sister group to sharks and
      rays (Elasmobranchii). The evolution and development of the dentition of sharks and
      rays is increasingly well understood, but the more plate-like chimaeroid dentition
      develops in unusual ways and with a unique mineralogy. These features are best
      understood in living taxa; whether they characterize fossil holocephalans is poorly
      known.
      Emily Bailes - Royal Holloway, University of London
      Investigating the transmission of bee viruses at flowers
      Parasites and disease have been identified as an important of driver of bee declines.
      However, we still have a lot to learn about the intra and interspecific transmission of
      bee viruses. One likely route for transmission is when bees forage on flowers. Here,
      we discuss some of our recent work to understand this route of infection.
      Andrew Leitch - Queen Mary, University of London
      Genome size and polyploidy – selection pressures under nitrogen and phosphorus
      limitation
      Angiosperm genome sizes (GS) range c. 2,400-fold, but typically have small values
      despite multiple rounds of polyploidy in the ancestry of many lineages. Potentially there
      is selection against large genomes. We explore whether a source of selection is
      nutrient availability, particularly phosphorous (P) and nitrogen (N), since large
      genomes are costly to build in terms of N and P needed to make nucleic acids. To test
      the hypothesis that plant biomass production is dependent on interactions between
      GS, chromosomal ploidal level and N and P availability, we analysed the impact of
      different nutrient regimes on plant growth at the world’s longest continuously running
      ecological experiment, Park Grass (Rothamsted, UK), established 1856. We show
      that biomass is indeed influenced by ploidal level and C-value, and that when N and/or
      P are in abundance, there is a selection for species that are polyploid and have a
      larger C-value. These results are consistent with the long-term Rengen Grassland
      experiment published by Šmarda et al. (2013). We have extended these analyses to
      consider the Silwood Park (UK) field experiment, set up over the last 24 years. These
      plots were also established to see the effects of fertilizer on species composition, but
      with a design that allows the effects of rabbit, insect and mollusc herbivory on biomass
      to be taken into account. Here we show that rabbits cause the relative abundance of
      species with large genomes to increase. We examine how N and P selection
      pressures may have impacted the evolution of angiosperm genomes over the last 200
      million years.

Laura Martinez-Suz – Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
      Which factors control the main nutritional mutualism of dominant trees in Europe?
      Dominant trees in Europe rely on ectomycorrhizal fungi for their survival and growth.
      An intensive belowground sampling of 40,000 mycorrhizas in forests across 20
      countries in Europe shows that environment and tree host characteristics have a
      strong influence in these plant-fungal mutualism. Changes in mycorrhizal fungi
      showing specific functional traits might have an impact on forest condition.
      Krijn Michael - Royal Veterinary College
      Functional morphological analysis of terrestrial feeding in amphibious fish
      As part of the transition from water to land, the first tetrapods had to develop means of
      feeding in a terrestrial environment using aquatic feeding tools. The details of
      morphological changes occurring during the water-to-land transition are slowly
      becoming more evident from fossil records. However, remarkably little work has been
      done on the morphology and function of the feeding apparatus of amphibious fish,
      particularly in a terrestrial setting. Here we describe the function and morphology of the
      feeding apparatus of three amphibious fish and their implications for understanding the
      transition towards life on land.
      Alex Pigot - University College London
      Global warming and the timing of biodiversity exposure to novel climates
      As global warming accelerates, species will increasingly be faced with unfamiliar or
      novel climatic conditions. The potential for populations and ecosystems to adapt to
      these changes will depend not only on the magnitude of warming but also on the
      timeframe over which these novel conditions emerge. But how long has biodiversity
      got? In this talk I will present recent work examining the projected timing of biodiversity
      exposure to novel climates and its implications for ecosystem resilience and species
      extinction.
      Samraat Pawar - Imperial College London
      Metabolic constraints on complex ecosystems
      The rate of energy use (metabolic rate) of individual organisms sets the rate of
      interactions between organisms. I will present ongoing work on how metabolic
      constraints on interactions within (intraspecific interference) and between species
      (search and consumption rate) constrain three key rates of complex communities:
      assembly, functioning (productivity and carbon fixation), and recovery from external
      perturbations.
15:30 Break
16:00 Speed Talks – Session 2: Chaired by Dr Seirian Sumner (UCL)
      Ryan Felice - Natural History Museum
      From head to tail: the developmental origins of vertebrate phenotype
      Embryonic developmental processes are key to generating phenotypic variation, the
      raw material of natural selection. By studying these processes across a diversity of
      organisms, we can link together genetic, phenotypic, and macroevolutionary
      explanations for the diversity of life. I present two examples: First, how developmental
      and phenotypic modularity has shaped skull evolution in dinosaurs and birds. Second,

an investigation into the genetic and embryonic processes that govern the fusion of
vertebrae in structures like the sacrum and tail.

Steve Portugal - Royal Holloway, University of London
The inception of a killer: development physiology of avian brood parasites
Avian brood parasites forgo the costs of nesting by laying their eggs in the nests of
other birds. This behaviour has evolved independently in a number of bird lineages, yet
these species share many similar physiological traits that optimise this breeding
strategy, such as shorter incubation periods and thicker eggshells. Avian brood
parasites do vary in the strategies they adopt to get rid of the hosts eggs and/or chicks;
some evict, some kill, and others grow fast and outcompete the young of the host.
We’ll be talking about what goes on inside the egg during development that helps
prepare the young of brood parasites for their first major task in life - getting rid of the
hosts young.
China Hanson – Queen Mary, University of London
Hot bacteria in the cold Arctic: why are they there and what does it tell us about marine
microbial biogeography?
Thermophilic bacteria are present in Arctic marine sediments as dormant endospores.
Clearly, this environment is not suitable for their growth, so they must be passively
dispersed from elsewhere. But where? Can we use their distribution and diversity in
marine sediments to backtrack their source habitats? What does this reveal about the
ecological and evolutionary mechanisms contributing to marine microbial
biogeography?
Anne Visscher – Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
Extremophily in Aizoaceae seeds
Strategic Priority 1 of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew includes the objective to
discover the drivers and processes underpinning global plant and fungal diversity.
Regarding research on plant species adapted to extreme environments, there is a
particular focus on succulent desert plants, involving both vegetative and reproductive
(seed) stages. One example is a research programme on the tolerance of seeds from
succulent Aizoaceae species to extremely hot and dry conditions, which may also
break seed dormancy. This talk will cover recent findings, ongoing work and future
plans related to extremophily in Aizoaceae seeds.

Chris Richards - Royal Veterinary College
Frogs: built for jumping (and for everything else)
Frogs show many features that seem ideally suited for jumping, but are at odds with
alternative means of transport such as walking or swimming. My talk will discuss some
of the musculo-skeletal features enabling frogs to excel at multiple behaviours in spite
of their "specialisations" for jumping.
Julia Day - University College London
Evolution and Ecology of African fish radiations
To study adaptive radiation, which is thought to be an important process in generating
morphological and ecological diversity, insular settings provide natural laboratories, as

these environments are conducive to facilitating diversification and lead to high levels
      of endemic species richness. However the majority of diversification occurs on
      continents, but understanding the processes generating biological diversity in this
      setting is more complex. In this talk I will present several studies, focusing on African
      fishes, investigating the patterns and processes of lineage and phenotypic
      diversification at both scales to determine if there are any general patterns
      emerging.
      Cristina Banks-Leite - Imperial College London
      Causes and consequences of community turnover in tropical ecosystems
      In this talk I’ll discuss some of my past and present work which focuses on
      understanding the drivers of species loss and community turnover in tropical human-
      modified landscapes, and how altered communities influence ecosystem functioning.
      Gwilym Lewis – Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew
      There`s far more to legumes than just peas and beans
      Legumes are the third most speciose flowering plant family after the orchids and
      daisies and second only to the grasses in world economic importance. The family
      contains several giant forest emergent tress, many woody lianas and even some
      aquatics, in addition to a wide variety of herbs and shrubs. Many fix atmospheric
      nitrogen via bacteria in root nodules. Legumes are hugely diverse in flower and fruit
      morphology. A recent community published classification of the family based on
      molecular data recognises six legume subfamilies, an increase of three over the
      previous arrangement.
17:30 Wine Reception
19:00 Networking
      Further networking will take place in the Clarence Public House, located a short walk
      from the Linnean Society at 4 Dover Street, London, W1S 4LB. Information about the
      venue can be found at the link below:
      www.nicholsonspubs.co.uk/restaurants/london/theclarencemayfairlondon

Directions

The address of the venue is: The Linnean Society of London, Burlington House, Piccadilly,
London, W1J 0BF, UK (020 7434 4479). The Linnean Society is one of five learned
societies around the courtyard at Burlington House. On entering through the archway the
entrance is through the first door on the left.

A map of the surrounding area and venue can be found below:

Piccadilly Circus and Green Park underground stations are equidistant from the Linnean Society.
Piccadilly Circus station is on both the Bakerloo and Piccadilly lines and directly connects to Kings
Cross, Paddington and Heathrow. Green Park is on the Jubilee, Piccadilly and Victoria Lines and
directly connects to Victoria, Kings Cross, Euston, London Bridge and Waterloo.