About the Seminar Series Environment & Biodiversity

In the seminar series “Environment & Biodiversity”, current research results from the fields of evolutionary biology, ecology, climate change effects, environment and biodiversity trends are presented. This seminar series is a public event and is suitable for both scientific staff and students, as well as for non-university guests. We cordially invite you to participate!


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Lectures in summer term 2024

The dates are in the ongoing planning process and will be posted successively on this page…

Friday, March 15, 2024

Guest Lecture Environment & Biodiversity Prof. Simon Haberle

Mid-Late Quaternary megafauna extinctions have long intrigued researchers seeking tounderstand the causes and consequences of these significant ecological events. What role didfluctuations in climate, shifts in vegetation composition, alterations in habitat distribution, andthe impact of human settlement play in megafauna extinction? One way to help us betterunderstand the role of environmental change in the extinction process is to usepalaeoecological techniques (pollen, spore and charcoal analysis) combined with well resolvedgeochronological estimates to reconstruct palaeoenvironmental conditions that occur before,during, and after past megafauna extinctions. Here I present two palaeoecological case studiesthat provide insights into megafauna extinction in Asia and Australia: (i) the largest everprimate and one of the largest of the southeast Asian megafauna, Gigantopithecus blacki, thatpersisted in China from about 2.0 million years until the late middle Pleistocene when itbecame extinct, well before the appearance of Homo sapiens on the landscape, and (ii) themultiple extinctions of megafauna that occurred across Australia around 50,000-40,000 yearsago that coincide with a time when people were present across the Australian landscape. Thispresentation underscores the importance of interdisciplinary approaches integratingpalaeoecological, geochronological, archaeological, and climatological perspectives to unravelthe complexities of past megafauna extinctions and inform strategies for mitigating futurebiodiversity crises.

Presentation language: Englisch

Research field: Natural History & Palaeoecology

Host: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Andreas Lang

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To the profile of Prof. Simon Haberle


Friday, April 12, 2024

Guest Lecture Environment & Biodiversity Peter Kaufmann, MSc und Tobias Seifert

Banner City Nature Challenge Salzburg 2024

Vom 26. bis 29. April 2024 nimmt Salzburg zum dritten Mal an der City Nature Challenge teil. Zusammen mit über 400 anderen Städten weltweit werden wir versuchen so viele Naturbeobachtungen wie möglich zu erfassen. Im vergangenen Jahr wurden in Salzburg 20.000 Beobachtungen von über 2.760 Arten gemeldet. Damit hat Salzburg erneut den zweiten Platz in Europa belegt.

Im Zuge dieses Vortrages werden die Highlights der letztjährigen Challenge präsentiert. Außerdem werden die Funktionen von Observation.org sowie der zugehörigen Apps (ObsIdentify) vorgestellt.

Citizen Science und Naturbeobachtung hat in Salzburg lange Tradition, sodass die Salzburger Biodiversitätsdatenbank derzeit knapp 2,5 Millionen Beobachtungen von Tieren, Pflanzen und Pilzen beinhaltet. Diese Daten wurden zu einem wesentlichen Teil von ehrenamtlichen Naturbeobachter:innen erfasst. Die Bedeutung dieser Daten und ihre Anwendung im praktischen Naturschutz und der Forschung werden anhand einiger Beispiele veranschaulicht.

Durch Teilnahme an der City Nature Challenge zeigen wir nicht nur wie artenreich Salzburg ist, sondern leisten auch einen wertvollen Beitrag zur Erforschung und Dokumentation der Natur Salzburgs.

Presentation Language: German

Host: Univ.-Prof. Dr. Ulrike Berninger, Assoz.-Prof. Dr. Jana Petermann

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Link to Haus der Natur


Friday, April 19, 2024

Guest Lecture Environment & Biodiversity Assoz.-Prof. Dr. Markus Möst

In recent years, the potential importance of interactions of rapid ecological and evolutionary changes occurring at contemporary time scales has been received considerable attention, in particular in the context of global change. While the current period of global change, often also termed Anthropocene, is definitely not short of rapid ecological changes, it is unclear how frequent rapid evolutionary changes can follow ecological change and how they interact. Two factors facilitating rapid evolutionary changes are large population sizes – allowing for a larger number of mutations – and hybridization among diverged taxa – generating new allelic combinations and/or introducing adaptive alleles into a population. We, therefore, study the Daphnia longispina complex, comprising ecologically diverged and hybridizing water flea species to understand the consequences of hybridization for the evolution of this complex and eco-evolutionary dynamics in lake ecosystems. We have made use of whole-genome time series obtained from Daphnia resting eggs deposited in lake sediments to reconstruct recent cases of secondary contact and interspecific hybridization following anthropogenic habitat disturbance through cultural eutrophication in European peri-Alpine lakes. Currently, we are establishing isofemale lines collected from various peri-Alpine lakes, and geno- and phenotype them to test the consequences of rapid evolutionary changes on eco-evolutionary dynamics in lab and mesocosm experiments in the context of global change.

Presentation Language: Englisch

Research field: Eco-Evolutionary Dynamics

Host: Assoz.-Prof. Dr. Stephen Wickham

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To the profile of Prof. Markus Möst


Friday, June 7, 2024

Guest lecture Seminar Series Environment & Biodiversity, Dr. Petra Sumasgutner

Raptors, owls and ravens have in common that they are avian predators or scavengers, and directly or indirectly interact with humans by competing for prey or by scavenging in anthropogenic landscapes. They also experience a relatively high level of (illegal) persecution, why they are often sensitive to human disturbances. They are relatively large bird species, and can easily carry biologgers that can record movement patterns and activity profiles in real time. My research group works internationally in such biologging projects, where we equip kestrels across Europe, eagles ranging from the urban landscapes of Durban South Africa (Crowned Eagles) to the alpine areas of Austria (Golden Eagles), Galapagos short-eared owls or Common ravens with GPS tags to mitigate human-wildlife interactions and to inform global conservation efforts.

Presentation language: Englisch

Research field: Behavioral and Cognitive Biology, Behavioural Ecology

Host: Dr. Beate Apfelbeck

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To the profile of Dr. Petra Sumasgutner


Friday, June 28, 2024, Room 413

Prof. Melanie Dammhahn

University of Münster, Germany

More information will follow soon

Research field: Behavioural Biology

To the profile of Prof. Melanie Dammhahn


 

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