6. December: William Morris

Demographic compensation and tipping points in climate-induced range shifts of tundra plants

Professor William Morris, Department of Ecology and Genetics, Uppsala University, Sweden

One potential consequence of climate warming is a shift in the geographical ranges of species. For immobile organisms such as plants, range contraction at the low-latitude or low-elevation range limit would likely be caused by local population decline and eventual extinction. I will report on a long-term study quantifying the demography of two tundra plant species across their latitudinal ranges in North America. While we see some demographic processes deteriorating as the southern range limit is approached, others improve, and this “demographic compensation” may be buffering the geographical ranges against effects of climate warming. However, we also see the possibility for rapid population collapse once a “tipping point” in warming has been exceeded. I will also report on on-going work in North America, and a new collaborative project across the range of one study species (Silene acaulis) in across its Europe range (from Spain to Switzerland to Sweden).

30. October: Travis Glare

Insect pathology at the Bio-Protection Research Centre, New Zealand

Professor Travis Glare

Bio-Protection Centre, Lincoln University 

In this talk I will discuss my group’s research on entomopathogenic microbes, particularly our model systems of the fungi Beauveria and the bacterium Brevibacillus laterosporus. Our research ranges from genomic studies on both groups, direct insect infectivity and toxicity, endophytic colonisation of plants, through to field application and product development. The research is conducted in the Bio-Protection Research Centre, a multi-partner virtual institute funded by the New Zealand government as a Centre for Research Excellence. I will also briefly describe the Centre, its aims and some of the research conducted on systems other than insect pathology and some travelogue of New Zealand.

8. October: Christian Damgaard

Measuring plant ecological processes with the pin-point method

Professor Christian F. Damgaard

Institute for Bioscience - Terrestrial Ecology, University of Aarhus

In order to develop process-based ecological models we need to develop the measurement framework of plant abundance.
The pin-point method is one objective method for measuring plant abundance and different statistical and simple modeling. Examples using pin-point data will be demonstrated.

20. September: Henrik de Fine Licht

Crop optimization in insect agriculture:
Mutualistic adaptations in fungi cultivated by leaf-cutting ants

Henrik H. de Fine Licht

Post doc. Insect Pathology and Biological Control, Section for Organismal Biology, Institute for Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen

Ca. 50 million years ago (MYA) fungus-growing ants began using plant material to cultivate basidiomycete fungi for food in underground fungus garden chambers. More recently, ca. 25 MYA a crown group of the cultivated fungi evolved inflated hyphal tips (gongylidia) as a specific symbiotic adaptation that the ants feed on. The evolution of these morphological adaptations in the cultivated fungi coincides with transitions in forage material collection, as the ants shifted from primarily collecting dry leaf litter and caterpillar feces to cutting fresh leaves and effectively becoming herbivores. The ability to utilize fresh leaves required a number of adaptations in the ants but also of the fungal cultivar to overcome physical and chemical plant defenses. Using comparative morphology, qPCR, RNA-seq and transcriptome analysis to reveal the evolutionary adaptations of the fungus Leucoagaricus gongylophorus cultivated by the leaf-cutting ant Acromyrmex echinatior, I find that the molecular signatures of gongylidia morphogenesis, physiological dependency, and plant degrading enzyme modifications are consistent with profound ant mediated coevolutionary selection on fungus-growing ant cultivars.

26 June: Alex Aebi

Biological control against the chestnut gall wasp: an anthropological and biological approach

Dr. Alex Aebi

Institute of Biology, University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland

Biological control is an alternative to pesticides and GMOs to control pest insect outbreaks. As any other technology, is comprises environmental risks. We applied and developed environmental risk assessment procedures for improved biosecurity in the implementation of biological control in Switzerland and Europe. Our model system is the invasive chestnut gall wasp Dryocosmus kuriphilus and its biological control agent, Torymus sinensis, an exotic parasitoid. This model system highlights the importance of sound biology knowledge and the need to study economical, legal as well as societal aspects for a comprehensive cost-risk-benefit analysis of the situation. The way the public perceives the problem, the role of actors such as regulators, scientist or chestnut growers in the construction of the problem may influence its outcome. Being able to throw biological as well as social aspects of the problem into the balance should help regulators in their decision process, and is a step in the direction of more participatory processes and attitudes in the administration of science.

31 May: Andy Hove

(M)eating the natives – trophic interactions with the invasive harlequin ladybird in Tilia spp. canopies

Andy G. Howe 

Ph.D. student, Department of Geoscience and Natural Resource Management, University of Copenhagen

The harlequin ladybird Harmonia axyridis (Pallas), biocontrol agent turned invasive species, has rapidly spread throughout Europe since 2002, and in its wake, population declines of several native ladybirds have ensued. This presentation will shed light on trophic interactions involving the harlequin ladybird including interspecific competition for aphids with native predatory bugs (Anthocoris nemoralis) and intraguild predation with these bugs. Furthermore, evidence is accruing that naturally occurring entomopathogenic fungi are exploiting this relatively new resource – recent results of this will be presented and discussed!

17 may: Victoria Lygum

Healing gardens and the therapeutic use of plants

Victoria Lygum
PhD Landscape Architect

For thousands of years gardens have been used for restorative purposes. Research studies indicate that stays in or even just a view to nature can support human health and well-being. Research in nature and health relations is presented from a landscape architectural perspective. This leads to an introduction of the concept of healing gardens. Following this, two very different types of healing gardens are presented. The first is described with a focus on scented plants whereas the second gives various example of how plants can be used in a therapeutic way.

3 May: Nina Lundholm

Revived microalgae from the past - population changes through time 

Nina Lundholm

The Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen

Marine anoxic sediments often have very well preserved and undisturbed sediment records with yearly layered sediments. The well-preserved assemblages in these sediments offer a unique opportunity to study long-term viability, and for species which remain viable many decades in the sediment it offers the possibility to study genetic variation over time, and potentially linking this to environmental change. This talk will present an overview of studies on cultures of microalgae established from individually isolated cysts from dated sediment cores obtained in Koljö Fjord on the west coast of Sweden. The cultures have been used to test for variability through time in morphology, gene sequences and physiology. Six polymorphic microsatellite loci have been developed for analyzing the population structure. Results from genotyping of strains revived from three discrete sediment layers spanning the past 100 years will be presented, revealing if there have been shifts in the population structure in the area. The genetic results will be compared to ecophysiological characters of selected strains from three different layers. Furthermore, the genetic variation will be linked to changes in environmental variables.

22 March: Eva Forsgren

Symbionts as modulators of honeybee health: Lactic acid bacteria and foulbroods

Eva Forsgren

Department of Ecology, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, PO Box 7044, SE-75007 Uppsala, Sweden

Lactic acid bacteria (LAB) are recognized beneficial host-associated members of the microbiota of humans and animals. Yet, LAB-associations of invertebrates have been poorly characterized and their functions remain obscure. It has recently been shown that honeybees possess an abundant, diverse and ancient LAB microbiota in their honey crop, defending them against microbial threats, such as the bacterial brood diseases American (AFB) and European foulbrood (EFB). We used inhibition assays on agar plates to investigate the effects from honey bee LAB on the growth of the causative agents of the two foulbrood diseases, Paenibacillus larvae and Melissococcus plutonius. Furthermore, we used honey bee larval bioassays to investigate the effect from LAB supplemented feed on AFB and EFB infection in vivo. We could conclude that the honeybee LAB microbiota has an inhibitory effect on both foulbroods preventing individual larvae from fully developed and lethal infections. Work to identify the active inhibitory compounds involved is in progress and will be discussed.

6 March: Stefan Vidal

The hidden world of endophytic fungi mediating plant-insect interactions

Stefan Vidal

Georg-August-Universität Göttingen, Department für Nutzpflanzenwissenschaften
Abteilung Agrarentomologie


Fungal endophytes (i.e. fungi that live internally within the tissues of their host plant without causing visible signs of infection) are ubiquitous associates of higher plants, found in virtually every organ from every plant species examined so far. In the past research concentrated on clavicipitaceous endophytic fungi that are vertically transmitted (via seeds) and systemically associated with grasses. These fungi are thought to interact mutualistically with their host plants mainly by the production of secondary compounds, including alkaloids, which benefit plants by increasing their competitive ability and resistance to biotic and abiotic stress factors. However, the vast majority of fungal endophytes form internal localized infections in foliage, roots, stems, and bark, and are horizontally-transmitted via spores. To date the interactions between these omnipresent unspecialized endophytes in their host plants and herbivores, feeding on these plants, remain largely unexplored.

We used a widespread and non-specialized genus of endophytic fungi, Acremonium spp., to test, whether these fungal endophytes interact with their host plants, and thus mediating effects on higher trophic levels. Using different host plant-endophyte-herbivore-systems we found consistent pattern with regard to these interactions: Colonisation of endophytes proved to be antagonistic towards herbivorous insects, but plants did not suffer from endophyte growth. Herbivorous larvae experienced higher mortality when feeding on plants colonised by the fungi, and negative effects translated even into the next generation. On the other hand, plants colonised by an endophyte were more attractive for adults, stimulating oviposition, resulting in a paradoxon of “mother’s don’t know best”. Explanation for this paradoxical behaviour will be discussed.

There is now ample evidence that endophytes induce changes in the metabolism of their host plants mediating herbivore preference and performance pattern. Potential applications for using these endophytes in plant protection strategies will be outlined.

8 february: Michael Stoltze

Nature and Biodiversity in Denmark - status and outlook 2013

How can Denmark reach the EU and UN goal of halting the loss of biodiversity before 2020? This lecture will focus on the results of the recent efforts to protect and restore nature and biodiversity in Denmark. What are the present challenges and what is the outlook?

About the speaker
Michael Stoltze is a biologist from UCPH with specialty in African caddis flies and PhD thesis about butterflies in Denmark. Since 2008 he has been an independent author, commentator, speaker, debater and photographer as owner of the company Natur og Idé ('Nature and Idea'). Michael Stolze is a writer and reviewer at the newspaper Kristeligt Dagblad and he edits the blog "Stoltze" about nature, climate and the environment for the newspaper Politiken. For a number of year, Michael Stoltze worked at Danmarks Naturfredningsforening (Danish Society for Nature Conservation) where he was engaged in conservation and politics of nature. In addition he has published a number of books and articles about Danish butterflies and the nature of Denmark.