2nd meeting of the Network for Neotropical Biogeography

Theme: Integrating Neotropical Research

Venue: Montgomery Botanical Center, Coral Gables, Miami, Florida, USA

Date: January 14^th, 2013 (immediately after the 6th Biennial meeting of the International Biogeography Society)

Organizers: Christine Bacon and Alexandre Antonelli (http://antonelli-lab.net)

Rationale: Tropical America (the Neotropics) offers a splendid opportunity for studying evolution and biogeography. The region’s outstanding biodiversity, its comparatively well-known geological history, the relative ease of travelling and conducting fieldwork (with Spanish as a lingua franca), and the rapid increase in highly competent Latin American biologists and well-equipped institutions, all contribute to making the Neotropics a great research arena for a new generation of students and established researchers alike.

Despite an increasing amount of interest there is limited coordination and interactions among independent research groups. This is unfortunate given the scientific and spatial dimensions of Neotropical research and the scarce funding available. This one-day meeting aims at improving this situation by bringing together representatives for as many research groups as possible working on Neotropical biogeography and evolution – regardless of methodology, data source, spatial/temporal scale, or organismal group studied. Talks will therefore be welcome from the fields of molecular phylogenetics, paleontology, ecology, etc.

Each research group will be given a time slot (e.g., 20 minutes) to present their current and planned activities, which will be followed by discussion for feedback and possible interactions with the other participants (e.g. joint fieldwork, material exchange, scholarships, etc). The presentations can be done by each group’s PI and/or group members.

There is no need to submit an abstract; but you must send a title (preferably the project title) and the number of other attendees from your lab group to confirm your participation to Christine Bacon as soon as possible, and by October 31^st, at the latest. Please await a confirmation for the symposium before booking any extra hotel nights or flights, as the maximum number of participants is restricted to 60 (due to space constraints).

Transportation will be arranged between the IBC 2013 partner hotel (Newport Beachside Resort; http://www.newportbeachsideresort.com/) and the meeting site (Montgomery Botanical Center; http://www.montgomerybotanical.org/).

The meeting fee will be calculated depending on the number of registered participants but will be kept as low as possible. A separate fee will apply for the dinner (a Cuban fiesta to not miss!).

Feel free to distribute this announcement to anyone who could be potentially interested!

Questions and comments can be directed to Christine Bacon (christinedbacon [at] gmail.com).

(From www.phylogenomics.se/News)

Onsdagen den 26 september klockan 15.15 håller Sebastian Höhna, Stockholms universitet, ett seminarium med titeln / On Wednesday September 26 at 15.15, Sebastina Höhna from Stockholm University will give a seminar with the title:

Estimating non-constant species diversification rates and patterns under incomplete, systematic species sampling.

Sammanfattning / Abstact:
The macro-evolutionary process of species diversity is commonly modeled using a birth-death branching process. Here I consider the class of processes where each species alive at time t has the same speciation rate lambda(t) and the extinction rate mu(t). The questions I aim to answer are: Did the rates change over time? How did the rates change over time? Where there times of mass-extinction and/or rapid radiations?

Recent extensions include specific rate functions (e.g. exponential decreasing/increasing) and random species sampling. In this talk I will present the likelihood equations for any time-dependent rate function (e.g. with one or several modes) and systematic species sampling (e.g. one species per family). I will show the estimates of the speciation rate and extinction rate over time for the complete order of mammals. Additionally, I will present a second approach for the derivation of the likelihood which can be used for fast simulation of reconstructed phylogenetic trees for:

a) a fixed time of the process,
b) a fixed number of sampled species and
c) a fixed number of sampled species and time of the process.

Lokal  /  Place: Cramerrummet (rum 306)  /  Cramér room (room 306), hus /  house 6; Kräftriket. Karta/Directions: http://www.su.se/english/about/campus/maps/kraftriket