Upcoming courses
The University of Western Australia
Linking plant biodiversity with nutrient and water availability
Hans Lambers
Levels of biodiversity vary with resource availability and ecosystem productivity in complex ways. Plants compete for essential resources like nutrients and water, and their morphology and physiology determine niche complementarity and inter-species interactions like competition and facilitation. This course will feature many examples from the West Australian biodiversity hotspot.
Plant functional diversity – assessment and applications
Erik Veneklaas
Species richness of communities is often associated with high levels of diversity in form and function, however morphological and physiological traits also show strong co-variation. This course looks at how to characterize plant functional types and functional traits, and how such information links with biodiversity studies
Universidade Estadual Paulista – UNESP
Biodiversity of Fungi
André Rodrigues
The fungal tree of life harbors a unique diverse nature of this group of organisms. Fungi are important organisms for several key ecosystem processes that undoubtedly help to sustain life on earth. Taxonomical knowledge of this extremely diverse group of organisms is essential not only for mycologists but also for anyone that works with applied aspects as well as for ecologists. Thus, this course focuses on the following questions: (i) How diverse is the kingdom fungi? (ii) How does
modern taxonomy contribute to the knowledge of these organisms? (iii) Why do I care about fungi? As a mycology student, you will be presented with an overview of the Fungal Kingdom and the several tools used for studying this fantastic group.
Dynamics of Complex Ecological Networks: Integrating community ecology and stable isotope analysis
Antonio Leão Castilho
Stable isotopes ratios are widely used in diverse ecological areas, integrating multidisciplinary approaches. Climate change is known to be reflected on the stable isotope ratios present in atmospheric gases and water, as well as in plants and animals. Ecological processes often reflect on stable isotope ratios that will establish typical “isotopic signatures” which can allow for a geographical discrimination. The main goal of this discipline is to present an innovative approach, which integrates analyses of stable isotopes by isotopic ratio mass spectrometry and complex ecological network to study community dynamics and processes in Coastal Ecosystems.
Fundamentals in Phylogenetic Systematics
Fernando Barbosa Noll
It is a course related to the study of evolutionary relationships, which has an interface with different areas, such as molecular, biology and disease dissemination, zoological, botany, systematics, among others. The following
contents will be covered: History of systematics, Ontology of comparative biology, Schools of phylogenetic thought; Homology and parsimony, Hypotheses reconstructing phylogenies: primary homology, coding, secondary homology; Reciprocal illumination between topologies and character hypotheses; Rooting, Ordering and complex transformation series, Optimization, Tree search, Consensus, Learning TNT, Coding morphological characters, Coding behavioral and ecological characters, Fundamentals of DNA analysis, Diagnosing problematic results. Weighting, Support, New Tech Searches; Working with TNT.
Fundamentals in Molecular Systematics
Vitor Fernandes O. Miranda
This course will focus on molecular data (mainly DNA) for phylogenetic systematics. The topics will include theoretical and philosophical concepts of phylogenetic systematics, DNA extraction and sequencing, homology and methods employed with a focus on molecular data, choosing the best DNA sequence(s) for the study, alignment tools, tree construction, parsimony, Maximum Likelihood, Bayesian inference, tree and clades support. The course will cover practice the computing tools
(programs and platforms) related to phylogenetic methods applied for molecular data.
Biodiversity in the genomics and bioinformatics era
Alessandro Mello Varani
The in-depth analysis of the growing number of sequenced prokaryotic and eukaryotic genomes is providing important contributions to our understanding of the biological world. In particular, several new insights into the biodiversity and evolution of life of our planet is emerging from the genomics and metagenomic sequencing projects. This course will focus on the use of the main bioinformatics and (comparative) genomics approaches which can be employed for the study of prokaryotic and eukaryotic genomes to understand the evolution of life on Earth and interactions with our Biodiversity.
Genomes and Biology
Maurício Bacci Jr.
Analysis of genome modifications underlying speciation process.
Organellar genome assembly and analyses
Saura Rodrigues Silva
Assemblage of chloroplast (plant) and mitochondrial (animals) genomes using available data in public databases and comparative analyses
Floral attractants in pollination ecology
Elza Guimarães
This course deals with chemical and visual floral traits that participate in plant-pollinator communication. It also focus on floral resources that may act as primary attractants mediating plant-pollinator interaction.
Phenology and seasonality in the tropics
Leonor Patricia Cerdeira Morellato
The course presents how time influences ecological interactions and ecosystem dynamics
The evolution of reproductive behaviors in Neotropical frogs
Cynthia P. A. Prado
The course focuses on the diversity and evolution of reproductive modes in Neotropical frogs
The University of Edinburgh
Evolutionary ecology of tropical forests and savannas
Kyle Dexter
Tropical forests and savannas are experiencing environmental change at an unprecedented pace. In order to predict the future, it is critical to understand the past. One of the main approaches for understanding the past in the field of biology is to use phylogenies to determine the relationships of species with different environmental preferences and functional traits. This course will examine how phylogenetics and evolutionary studies can inform on how plant species responded to past environmental changes and what this means for the future of tropical vegetation under global change.
Ecosystem function and biogeography of savannas
Caroline Lehmann
Savannas represent the second
biogeography of savannas
largest land-cover class in the tropics, yet receive scant research attention compared to tropical forests. Savannas provide numerous ecosystem services critical to biodiversity and human livelihoods, and it is imperative to understand their ecosystem function. This course will cover the biology and ecology of savannas as well as delving into variation in savannas across the globe and how they fit into earth system models.
Socioecology of tropical woodlands
Casey Ryan
Humans inhabitat woodlands and savannas across the globe, and the idea of a pristine woodland can be considered a fallacy. In order to understand the biology of woodlands and savannas, humans and their actions must be taken into account. This course will delve into approaches to study the role of humans in ecosystems, and results from such studies in tropical woodlands.
Carbon cycling and modeling from local to global scales
Mat Williams
The most significant atmospheric pollutant produced by humans is carbon dioxide, and increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide concentrations underpin current global climate change. As such, a huge and necessary amount of research attention is focused on understanding how carbon cycles through ecosystems and at the
global scale. This course will explore carbon cycle models and how they can be used to understand and predict the effects of humans on ecosystems and biodiversity.
Universidad de Sevilla
Biodiversity and evolution of complex networks of interactions between species
Pedro Jordano
The workshop will provide the students with a robust introduction to the analysis of ecological networks and the study of their main properties and evolutionary characteristics. It will combine both theoretical fundaments and practical sessions on data analysis in R for the visualization and analysis of complex ecological networks. The goal is to provide students with an up-to-date background on novel techniques and approaches for the study of ecological interactions
Experimental techniques in plant reproductive ecology
Juan Arroyo, Montserrat Arista, Pedro L. Ortiz
This practical course will provide the students with the basic techniques to characterize the reproductive systems of plants. The course will deal with the following topics: floral biology, mating systems, self-incompatibility systems, pollinator attendance and selection on floral traits. The course will be held over 5 days in the field where the students will work on typically Mediterranean species. The analysis of the data will be carried out in the laboratory and the student will have to present a report on the results obtaines.
Phylogenetic approaches to biodiversity
Marcial Escudero
This workshop will train students with a robust introduction to phylogenetic analyses and phylogenetic comparative methods. It will include theoretical sessions to understand the fundamentals of statistical phylogenetics and practical sessions to analyse sequence DNA data for phylogenetic reconstruction and modelling trait evolution on the inferred phylogenies. This workshop aims to provide students with up-to-date phylogenetic tools and skills for the evolutionary study of biodiversity.
Cornell University
Phylogenetics and the Tree of Life
Corrie Moreau
This module will serve as an introduction to the “tree of life” (phylogeny), Topics will include methods for discovering its structure, how phylogenies are used in macroevolution, and its importance in evolutionary biology and other areas of science, including coevolution, biogeography, conservation, molecular evolution, development, and epidemiology.
Strategies for associating genotypes to phenotypes
Leonardo Campagna
This module will focus on the general strategies that can be used to uncover the genetic basis of phenotypes, especially those related to speciation and the generation of biodiversity. The course will focus on the molecular methods used to sample the genome, the statistical tools behind the associations between genotypes and phenotypes, and the different functional genomic tools that can be used for validating findings
Levels and function of biodiversity and chemodiversity
Andre Kessler
This module will provide an introduction to levels and ecological functionality of biodiversity and will link these to the chemical diversity that mediates the interactions between organisms. The module will examine how diversity on multiple organizational levels can be studied and how it affects the outcome of biological interactions from the cellular to the ecosystem level
Florida International University and University of Miami – Center of Excellence in Tropical Biology (CETroB)
Tropical Ecology
Mauro Galetti
Tropical Ecology
Monitoring of biodiversity and ecosystem services
Christopher Baraloto
This course provides a foundation for careers in environmental science involving the measurement of key biodiversity indices and associated ecosystem services. Students will learn about commonly-used indices and methods to establish and monitor biodiversity, especially in tropical regions. We will also explore analyses of the many types of data that can be collected, gaining practical experience in manipulating and interpreting raw data across different systems.
Systematic Conservation Planning
Clinton N. Jenkins
Introduction to modern analytical methods for systematic conservation planning. Covered will be the theory of systematic conservation planning, data preparation, inclusion of potential costs and benefits to conservation (e.g., physical, biological, social), and practical application using leading software (e.g., Marxan)
Ecology and Conservation of Neotropical Rivers
Elizabeth Anderson
The course will cover scientific concepts in tropical river ecology.
Through a series of lectures, field visits and workshops, we also will review challenges to conservation of tropical rivers and discuss ways to translate scientific research into guidelines for their conservation and management. Participants will carry out research projects to acquire hands-on experience with field techniques, monitoring and management tools.
Tropical Botany
Oscar Valverde, Christopher Baraloto
The objective of the course is to provide advanced students and/or professionals with a detailed coverage of the systematics, phylogeny, morphological diversity, economic botany and conservation of tropical seed plants.