Thematic Sessions

Thematic Sessions aim to create a high profile forum for the discussion of timely, innovative and/or important questions, provide local flavour within the programme, and showcase integration with disciplines outside of ecology (including other natural sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities).

This year, we were particularly interested in considering proposals that represent collaborative research that spans national boundaries, both within and across Europe and the tropics. This will be particularly relevant in 2019, in light of the changing political landscape in Europe. We hope to reaffirm European scientific collaborations and promote further collaborative endeavour between European researchers and those in tropical countries, as well as to facilitate and support collaborations within the tropics.

A view from the top: using drones in tropical ecology and conservation
Geertje van der Heijden (University of Nottingham)
Doreen Boyd (University of Nottingham)

Bringing tropical epiphytes to the forefront of ecological understanding: advances and challenges
Agustina Ventre-Lespiaucq (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos)
Marcos Méndez (Universidad Rey Juan Carlos)

Embedding participatory and co-development approaches in landscape management and planning processes
Jaboury Ghazoul (University of Edinburgh and ETH Zurich)

High-throughput methods to detect, survey, and monitor tropical mammals
Andreas Wilting (Leibniz Institute for Zoo and Wildlife Research, Germany)
Douglas W. Yu (University of East Anglia, UK)

Karst biodiversity in the Tropics
Alexandre Monro (Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew)
Alice Hughes (Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden, Chinese Academy of Sciences)

Multidisciplinary, large-scale projects for understanding human-modified tropical ecosystems
Sarah Luke (University of Cambridge, UK)
Kevin Darras (University of Göttingen, Germany)

Nutrient limitations in tropical forests – do expectations match results? – From soil microbes to plant productivity
Kelly M. Andersen (University of Edinburgh, School of Geosciences, UK)
Laëtitia Bréchet (PLECO, Antwerp University, Belgium)

Realising the potential of ecoacoustics for conservation
Tom Bradfer-Lawrence (University of Stirling, Scotland)
Daisy Dent (University of Stirling, Scotland)

Seed Dispersal: Evolutionary consequences to plants and animals
Omer Nevo (Institute of Evolutionary Ecology and Conservation Genomics, University of Ulm, Germany)
Kim Valenta (Department of Evolutionary Anthropology, Duke University, NC, US)

Tropical mountains: ecological trends across elevation
Andy Griffiths (University of Edinburgh)
Andy Nottingham (University of Edinburgh)

Understanding and monitoring forest changes using satellite data
Charlotte Wheeler (University of Edinburgh)
Yaqing Gou (University of Leicester)

Mixing trees and pasture – Moringa species improvement, and Silvo-pastoral systems
Stephen Cavers (Centre for Ecology and Hydrology)
David Odee (Kenya Forestry Research Institute)
Jill Thompson (Centre for Ecology and Hydrology)
Andrew Barnes (Scotland’s Rural College)

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