Seminar series
Second Semester 2011 (August to December)
Seminars will be held in the Department of Zoology, Seminar Room (Room 350, Biological Sciences 1, 3rd Floor) on Wednesdays from 12.05-1.00 pm unless otherwise stated.
Feel free to bring along your lunch for the lunchtime seminars. Light snacks and beverages will be provided after the afternoon seminars.
Enquiries: Dr Sarah Avitabile, Seminar Coordinator (sarah.avitabile@latrobe.edu.au)
Seminars
- Does teosinte, the ancestor of maize, benefit from recruiting parasitoid wasps?
Elvira de Lange, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland
25 January 2012
Abstract: Parasitoid wasps that use insect herbivores as hosts for their offspring find these hosts with the use of volatiles emitted by plants under herbivore attack. It has therefore been proposed that the volatile emissions are part of an indirect plant defense strategy to recruit parasitoids and other natural enemies of the attackers. The first part of my talk will focus on plant-herbivore-natural enemy interactions in general. In the second part, I will address a field study performed to test whether or not teosinte, the ancestor of maize, benefits from recruiting parasitoid wasps.
Biography: Elvira obtained her masters from Utrecht University in the Netherlands, where she specialized in phytopathology and chemical ecology. She is currently a PhD student at the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, in the laboratory of Prof. Ted Turlings.
- Preliminary PhD Presentations
The impact of planned landscape burning on bird communities in Box-Ironbark forests in north-central Victoria | Sarah Kelly
The Trans-generational Effects of Stress in the Zebra Finch (Taeniopygia guttata) | Nicola Khan
Wednesday 29 February 1205-1300
- The effect of different high intensity training regimes on performance, oxygen uptake and muscle adaptations in endurance trained runners
Thomas Gunnarsson, Visiting PhD student | University of Copenhagen
Tuesday 6 March 1205-1300
- Title: TBA
Mark Cairns | Healesville Sanctuary
Wednesday 7 March 1205-1300
- Preliminary Honours Seminars
Matt Zanini, Rob Barker, Emily Moore, Louise Menz
Friday 9 March 1500-1630
- Preliminary PhD Presentations
Invertebrate detritivores in fire-prone landscapes | Sebastian Buckingham
Effects of marsupial extinctions and their reintroduction on the biodiversity and ecosystem functioning of ground-dwelling invertebrates | Nicole Coggan
March 14 1205-1300
- Final Honours Presentations
Bridget Doyle, Michael Christie, Christine Giuliano, Daniel Nugent, Vanya Tsapepas, Simon Verdon and Katy Weller
Friday March 30 1400-1700
- Beware the rhino: human's insatiable desire for rhino horn may be the trigger for a novel parasitic mutualism between Black Rhinoceros and oxpeckers
Roan Plotz, PhD candidate
Victoria University, Wellington, NZ
April 4 1205-1300
Abstract: Ecosystems and communities are structured by interspecific relationships, but most are poorly understood. The apparently mutualistic oxpecker (Buphagus sp.) – multiple ungulate sp. relationship is part of African folklore yet tests produce conflicting conclusions (i.e., parasitic birds prefer blood over ticks and inconclusive evidence of sentinel behaviour). We quantified the complex relationship between the critically endangered black rhinoceros (Diceros bicornis) and red-billed oxpecker (B. erythrorynchus) that is mediated by specialized rhinoceros ecto- and endo-parasites and large predators of rhinoceros, particularly humans. We show experimentally that (1) oxpeckers acted as sentinels for rhinoceros against human predatory threat and so (2) rhino tolerated parasitic oxpeckers that (3) fed almost exclusively at the large haemorrhaging lesions on rhino caused by a parasitic filarial nematode (Stephanofilaria dinniki). Thus, we demonstrate that a novel parasitic-mutualism relationship between black rhinoceros and oxpecker is made possible by other parasitic and predator biodiversity relationships. Here strong evidence is provided that the virtual extinction of black rhino by humans (i.e., > 1 million c. 1900 to about 4, 000 today) might have initiated a rapid adaptive response by black rhino to oxpecker’s anti-human alarm calls. Biography: Roan is a PhD Candidate at Victoria University of Wellington, NZ, who has spent three years researching and tracking black rhino on foot in South Africa. Roan is a graduate of La Trobe University, completing a BSc (ConsBiolEcol) (Honours).
- Pollinator decision‐making in complex natural environments
Assoc. Prof. Adrian Dyer
RMIT University
May 16 1205-1300
Abstract: Bumblebees and honeybees see ultraviolet, blue and green ‘colours’, and process information with a brain containing less than 1 million neurons. The bee brain learns colours differently depending upon the specific conditioning procedure, leading to long term colour memory and the development of attention‐like processing. When bees learn fine colour discrimination tasks then speed accuracy ttradeoffs are observed both between individuals, and for groups learning tasks of different degrees of difficulty, suggesting high level ‘executive’ or cognitive decision making within the bees’ brain for understanding the implications of different problem solving strategies. Considering spatial vision, bees can learn complex spatial tasks like rule learning (above/below; left/right), and configuration, which can enable a highly conditioned bee to recognise human faces. Understanding this model system provides new insights into how insect pollinators find flowers in very complex environments. Biography: Adrian received his PhD from RMIT University in 2000. He then worked in Germany as Alexander von Humbolt Fellow (2002 and 2004) and Cambridge University in the UK (2005). He secured USAF funding to return to Australia and study at Monash University. In 2008 he was awarded an ARC QEII Fellowship and was recruited back to RMIT in 2011 as Associate Professor.
- Autocrine control of mammary epithelial function in tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii)
Stephen Wanyonyi
PhD candidate
Deakin University
May 16 1205-1300
Abstract: Due to its extreme lactation strategy, the tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii) provides unique opportunities to understand how physiological changes in the mammary gland are synchronised with the development of the suckling young. Tammar reproductive cycle is characterised by a relatively short gestation, giving birth to a fetus-like young with no capability for immune response and therefore relies heavily on immune factors present in milk for defence against infectious pathogens. In order to meet the specific immunological and nutritional needs of the suckling young at different stages of development, the nursing wallaby progressively produces milk of profoundly different composition from parturition to the time of weaning. During the talk I will be discussing how the level of cathelicidins, a family of antimicrobial proteins secreted in milk, progressively changes during lactation in relation to the potential microbial challenge of both the pouch young and the mammary gland of the mother. Cathelicidins are mainly secreted by neutrophils and are found in several tissues including gastrointestinal tract, respiratory system and the skin where they provide a barrier against microbes. In the talk I will discuss the expression of cathelicidins in tammar mammary epithelial cells and the potential role of the extracellular environment in regulating their secretion in milk.
Biography: Stephen is a final year PhD student in Prof. Kevin Nicholas’s laboratory at Deakin University. His research thesis focuses on the role of extracellular matrix (ECM) in mammary epithelial cell function. Stephen's career in science started in Nairobi, Kenya, where he worked at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) as a research technologist. After migrating to Australia he worked at the Metabolic Research Unit, Deakin University and later with the Comparative Genomics group as a research officer.
Biography: Stephen is a final year PhD student in Prof. Kevin Nicholas’s laboratory at Deakin University. His research thesis focuses on the role of extracellular matrix (ECM) in mammary epithelial cell function. Stephen's career in science started in Nairobi, Kenya, where he worked at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) as a research technologist. After migrating to Australia he worked at the Metabolic Research Unit, Deakin University and later with the Comparative Genomics group as a research officer.
- Mallee Hawkeye Project: biodiversity monitoring for improved fire management
Dr Sarah Avitabile
La Trobe University
May 23 1205-1300
Abstract: In response to the 2009 fires, the Victorian Bushfire Royal Commission recommended a significant expansion to the State’s long-term program of prescribed burning. In association with this, the Commission made recommendations for increased biodiversity monitoring and reporting. In response to this recommendation, DSE has set up a targeted monitoring project which aims to answer key questions about the effects of planned burning on biodiversity. These questions will be investigated in landscapes where planned burning occurs, including the Mallee. The Mallee Hawkeye project aims to address three core issues central to the broader aims of the state-wide Hawkeye project, and builds on the results from the Mallee Fire and Biodiversity Project:
1. Evaluation of the adequacy of growth stages as surrogates for other taxa
2. Identification of ecologically appropriate output and outcome measures of the impact of planned fire
3. The impact on biodiversity of burning at or beyond recommended inter-fire intervals.
This presentation will introduce the Mallee Hawkeye Project and outline our research questions. We will report on what has been achieved in our first year.
Biography: Sarah Avitabile is the Project Officer for the Mallee Hawkeye Project which is a collaborative project run by La Trobe and Deakin Universities with the Department of Sustainability and Environment. Sarah completed her PhD at La Trobe in 2010, on the effect of fire on the biodiversity of selected invertebrate groups, as a part of the Mallee Fire & Biodiversity Project.
- Models, multivariate analysis and Rick Astley
Assoc Prof David Wharton
School of Mathematics and Statistics
University of New South Wales
May 30 1205-1300
- The Prehistoric Transformation of the Indo-Pacific Lowlands: New Insights from Subfossil Insects
Dr Nick Porch
School of Life and Environmental Sciences
Deakin University
June 6 1205-1300
- Wolf spiders and signalling (Title to be announced)
Assoc Prof Eileen Hebets
School of Biological Sciences
University of Nebraska (Lincoln)
June 13 1205-1300