BES early career researcher grant writing workshop

August 18, 2016
WDG

BES-logo-generalEarly Career Researchers’ Grant Writing Workshop
7 November 2016
British Ecological Society, London
Our Early Career Working Group has organised a workshop on grant-writing for 30 early-career ecologists (early postdoctoral level) planning to submit an independent fellowship or grant proposal as named postdoc in the near future.
The workshop will include best practice and tailored support focused on converting a project idea into a grant or fellowship application. Participants will hear from ecologists in early and later career stages who are recipients of fellowships and experienced in reviewing & assessing applications, representing multiple research organisations and funding sources.
By the end of the workshop, delegates will have gained detailed insight into the grant writing process. and will leave feeling confident they have the knowledge and ability to submit an application.
Speakers:
Prof. Helen Roy (Centre for Ecology and Hydrology)
Dr Barbara Tigar (Liverpool Hope University)
Dr Iain Stott (University of Southern Denmark)
Dr Jennifer Rowntree (University of Manchester)
Dr Maria Olalla Lorenzo-Carballa (University of Coruna)
Programme:
– Plenaries from experienced grant recipients who are also experienced in reviewing & assessing applications
– Small discussion groups
– Activities to better understand the grant assessment/feedback process
– Opportunities to practice writing your lay summary and get feedback from mentors & peers
– Networking
– Lunch and refreshments
Cost:
£40 BES members
£55 non BES members
Register:
For guidance on how to book a ticket and to view the full programme, please see the document attached.
Link to the expression of interest form https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/BWJ67GF
Please see website for more info: http://bit.ly/2b1k7NT

Past environmental change on Samoa

February 16, 2016
WDG

Zoe and William just after the graduation ceremony (UvA)

Zoe and William just after the graduation ceremony (UvA)

Two students (Zoe van Kemenade and Tessa Driessen) have recently completed projects looking at past environmental change on Samoa working in the Research Group of Palaeoecology & Landscape Ecology at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Zoe’s project, part of her BSc Future Planet Studies (major Earth Sciences) at UvA, was entitled “A multi‐proxy analysis on the effect of climate and human activity on the environment of Samoa during the Holocene” and investigated charcoal, macro-fossils, and algae. Tessa’s project, “Biodiversity, fire and human dynamics on Samoa over the last 9200 years”, was completed as an internship during her MSc in Environmental Biology at Utrecht University (UU) that was co-supervised by Rike Wagner-Cremer. Tessa focused on the fossil pollen record to reconstruct past vegetation change. Both projects were conducted in cooperation with Jon Hassel and David Sear (both University of Southampton) who provided access to the Samoan sediments; for more on the Southampton Pacific Islands projects check out their blog Palaeoenvironmental Laboratory at the University of Southampton.

The results from both projects, and work by the University of Southampton team, will be presented at this years GTO conference (European conference of tropical ecology) in Gottingen next week.

William giving his personal view on the work of Tessa at her gradation ceremony (Utrecht University)

William giving his personal view on the work of Tessa at her gradation ceremony (UU)

 

Netherlands Annual Ecology Meeting 2016 – day 2

February 10, 2016
WDG

NAEM_0Netherlands Annual Ecology Meeting (NAEM) 2016
10 February 2016
Conference Centre “De Werelt”, Lunteren

Day 2 of the NAEM breakfast 07:30, first lectures at 08:30… Two keynotes today thinking about ecological stoichiometry the first by Stan Harpole (Martin-Luther-Universitat-Halle-Wittenberg) focused on resource ratio theory, and then Martin Wassen (Utrecht University) thinking about N and P limitations. I also attended, parts of, three sessions today “Linkages between fire, vegetation, soil and ecosystem services”, “Novel ecosystems”, and “Scaling from trait to environment and back”. My top talks for today were:

  1. Elmar Veenendaal (Wageningen University) Fire effects on tropical woody vegetation structure have been exaggerated?
    Working on long-term fire study plots (Kokondekro since 1932) suggest that for forest-savannah transition zones fire alone is insufficient to mediate a change between states; human manipulation of ecosystems is required as well to trigger the change.
  2. Frank van Langevelde (Wageningen University) Feedbacks between fire and patches of woody vegetation in tropical grassland savannah
    Examination of tree distributions and fire within the Kruger National Park shows that landscapes contain more clustered tree populations when fire frequency is higher.

Plus today I have done lots of talking and made many new contacts. I have lots of follow up emails to write and promised papers to send around! Overall this has been a super meeting for meeting people – perfect for expanding my network of Dutch based ecologists – in a nice location, with good food and beer. Looking forward to next year already.

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