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The GGBC Newsletter

January 2020

Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre

The GGBC is growing!

Slottskogens Djurpark and Västkuststiftelsen have joined the GGBC as partners as we enter our second funding period. We look forward to new and exciting projects with these two institutions, as we continue to grow and strengthen our biodiversity network in Western Sweden.

Upcoming events

Movie Night at Bioteket:
Marine Biodiversity and Villagers' Voices

Bioteket
26th Feb 16:15-19:00

Together with the Centre for Sea and Society, we invite you to an open house movie screening of “Marine biodiversity and villagers voices” and a follow-up discussion with filmmaker and producer Ian Bryceson.

No signup required & Ocean snacks will be served

Så Vilda: Sprouting Soon!

More than 2500 students from 40 schools around Gothenburg will soon be planting seeds from wild, native plants around the region. The project, aimed at kids aged 10-12 years, focuses on sharing the wonders of our local biodiversity, and will also be an opportunity to discuss pollinators and invasive species.

The FORMAS funded Så Vilda team includes GGBC members from Botaniska, the Gothenburg Natural History Museum, and the University of Gothenburg, all of whom are looking forward to kicking off the project during Easter weekend and the International Science Festival Gothenburg (Vetenskapsfestivalen).

More information can be found at Botaniska's homepage.
Follow the project on Instagram: @sa_vilda #savilda

BECC: Spring Theme Meetings

Open for all biodiversity researchers, but with priority to BECC members

Biodiversity theme
Rewilding: challenges and opportunities for biodiversity conservation
Date: February 28th
Time: 10:00-15.30
Venue: Hörsalen, Pufendorf Institutet, Biskopsgatan 3, Lund
Deadline for registration: Feb 21st
More information here.

Ecosystem services theme
Forest governance to meet global challenges

Date: February 24th
Time: 10:00-15.30
Venue: TBA, Lund
Deadline for registration: Feb 17th
More information here.

Applications Open: Six BECC-funded Post Doc positions at Lund University

Towards better assessments of nutrient constraints on soil carbon sequestration: including soil microbial and mineral mechanisms into terrestrial biosphere models

Exploring synergies between wild pollinators and climate-smart protein production – a mixed methods approach

Eco-evolutionary models of plant-pollinator communities – community response to landscape structure

Impacts of extreme drought on ecosystems in Eurasia and Sweden – the role of deep water reserves

How will seasonal clocks in wild and agricultural plants adapt to climate change?

Forest management practices for climate targets and environmental objectives – adaptive strategies based on novel combinations of ecosystem modelling, policy analysis and visualisation

Last application date 16th February

More information here

Other news

Human ancestors were already negatively affecting biodiversity

The human-caused biodiversity decline started much earlier than researchers used to believe. According to a new study published in the journal Ecology Letters by GGBC'ers Sören Faurby, Daniele Silvestro and Alexandre Antonelli together with co-author Lars Wendelin, the process was not started by our own species but by some of our ancestors.

The team points out in the study that the ongoing biological diversity crisis is not a new phenomenon, but represents an acceleration of a process that human ancestors began millions of years ago.

Read the paper here
And a write-up about the article by the BBC

News Coverage of Biodiversity is Increasing

The organizers behind Swedish Biodiversity Day have released data showing that biodiversity-related matters have been covered significantly more frequently in the Swedish media than in previous years.

Check out their Facebook page to read more about this positive trend

Unusual barnacles at the Aquarium

Check out this cool video of Pelagic Gooseneck Barnacles (Lepas anatifera) from the Aquarium and Maritime Museum. The barnacles floated ashore on the island Rossö and were transported to Tjärnö Marine Laboratory who kindly shared some of these extraordinary creatures with their colleagues in Gothenburg.

Member Research Highlights

outsideR: Install and run programs, outside of R, inside of R

Dominic Bennet, Daniele Silvestro, Alexandre Antonelli and co-authors published a new R-package that enables the use of external software or packages in phylogenetic pipelines. The package provides an interface to install and run modules from outside of R.

Read more here...

Multiple paedomorphic lineages of soft-substrate burrowing invertebrates: parallels in the origin of Xenocratena and Xenoturbella

Kennet Lundin and Klas Malmberg together with co-authors present a molecular phylogeny of one of the largest nudibranch subgroups (Aeolidacea), report on the rediscovery of a species not seen for 70 years in Scandinavia and use genetic data to confirm that a soft-substrata burrowing-related environment strongly favours paedomorphic evolution.

Read more here...

The ability of single genes vs full genomes to resolve time and space in outbreak analysis

Gytis Dudas and Trevor Bedford highlight the utility of sequencing whole genomes of pathogens and propose a simple intuitive metric for quantifying temporal resolution. i.e. the time scale over which sequence data might be informative of various processes.

Read more here...

Have you published recently using your GGBC affiliation? Email a link to Heléne Aronsson so GGBC can promote your paper.

GGBC FUN FACT

Since the start of their conservation project in 2003, Havets Hus has released over 100 Small-spotted Catsharks on the West coast of Sweden!

For more information about the sharks and when the next shark release takes place, visit their website

Contact information

Gothenburg Global Biodiversity Centre

Box 461, 40530, Gothenburg, SWEDEN