Themes of Symposia and Round Tables
1 - Ecological energetics
Symposium organized by Esa Hohtola, Jan-Åke Nilsson. esa.hohtola@oulu.fi
Energy is the most commonly used currency underlying life history trade-offs in evolutionary ecology. The level of energy that can be expended on for example reproduction and survival depends on the difference between the rate of energy acquisition from the environment and by the cost of running the basal activities of the body (BMR). The relation between BMR and maximal sustainable daily energy expenditure (DEE), determining the amount of work possible, as well as costs and benefits of increasing or decreasing DEE and BMR will shape components of the life history such as start of egg laying and investment in clutch size, incubation, chick feeding, moulting and winter survival. Therefore, measurements of metabolic rates and daily energy expenditures have been instrumental when evaluating different strategies. One important avenue of research is to estimate the costs in energetic terms of different behaviours, physiological systems and immunological responses. By knowing more about the nature of such costs, we can make predictions about how behavioural and life history decisions may be constrained by environmental factors and the state of the individual. Furthermore, recent studies on repeatability and heritability of BMR suggest that metabolic rate is a trait that is consistent within an individual and which is open for natural selection to act on. Since metabolic rate seems to be greatly affected by the environment in general and specifically by ambient temperature, we can predict evolutionary changes in the level of metabolic rate as a consequence of the ongoing global warming with cascading effects on life history trade offs.
2 - Tracking small long‐distance migrants throughout their annual cycle
Symposium organized by Anders P. Tøttrup, Raymond Klaassen. aptottrup@bio.ku.dk
For more than 100 years, ringing of millions of birds has contributed greatly to our increasing knowledge of avian biology. However, for long‐distance migratory passerines spending up to half of their annual cycle in tropical non‐breeding areas our knowledge remains limited. Recent technological innovation has opened new avenues in migration research allowing small individual birds to be followed over great distances and for long periods of time. The first passerine was recently successfully tracked throughout its annual long‐distance journey from temperate breeding site to tropical non‐breeding area and back again, by a simple and inexpensive technology: light‐logging geolocators. In the present symposium, we focus on the huge potential of this technique, the mysteries it may unravel in the very near future and the pitfalls researches must avoid when analyzing data. Geologators have the potential to push migration research forward from the limitations of traditional banding (only two geographical positions and the rarity of recoveries) and satellite telemetry (low sample sizes). We foresee that these tiny geolocators will rapidly change how we study migratory birds, what we know about them, and provide fundamental knowledge on the annual movements of migratory passerine species.
3 - Lifelong individual development as an important component of life history
Symposium organized by Peter H. Becker, Kalev Rattiste. peter.becker@ifv-vogelwarte.de
To date the significance of lifelong ontogeny was underestimated or even neglected, mainly as adequate data were lacking to address this topic. Individual-based long-term studies, innovative field techniques and modern statistical approaches nowadays are providing respective data. Recent findings show that individual change over life is a ubiquitous phenomenon in both long- and short-lived bird species. But little is known about the extent to which rates of individual change vary between individuals, and about causes and consequences of such variation. Not only traits of reproduction but also survival and characteristics from physiology, timing, foraging and behaviour do change with age and have to be recognized by researchers in different fields of bird biology. Improvements early in the breeding career or senescence at advanced age have fundamental consequences on individual life trajectories, fitness and demography. Ontogeny in combination with selection shapes the part of the population that produces the next generations. The symposium aims to integrate measures of ontogeny and to address their role in life history. New exciting findings from longitudinal studies of natural populations will be presented with the intention to understand the constraints and adaptive processes of ontogeny in order to throw new light on the evolution of life histories of birds.
4 - Avian brood parasitism – a model system for co-evolution
Symposium organized by Petr Procházka, Bård G. Stokke. prochazka@ivb.cz
Avian brood parasites lay their eggs parasitically and leave parental care for their offspring to other individuals (hosts). Although facultative brood parasites may face different selection pressures compared to obligate brood parasites, both systems have been used to quantify costs and benefits as well as to search for the origin of this alternative reproduction strategy. These unique intra- and interspecific relationships have also advanced our knowledge of co-evolutionary interactions in general. The symposium will provide a platform to present the most recent results ranging from pinpointing determinants of conspecific brood parasitism through various adaptations and counteradaptations of brood parasites and their hosts across the whole breeding cycle. The participants of this symposium will have the opportunity to witness the exciting snapshots from the co-evolutionary process and contrast different strategies adopted by interspecific and conspecific brood parasites as well as the variation in defensive tactics of their hosts.
5 - Bayesian analysis in avian population ecology
Symposium organized by Beth Gardner, Marc Kéry, Andy Royle, Michael Schaub. lonepinepa@gmail.com
Bayesian statistical methods have become the centerpiece of much of the recent statistical advances in many branches of avian ecology. Bayesian methods offer many important advantages, for instance, they appear almost limitless in the modeling flexibility they confer to the ecologist. They allow to fit models of considerable complexity in a reasonably straightforward way, even models that were literally unthinkable only a decade or two ago. Importantly, the advent of the free modeling software WinBUGS has done much for the increasing adoption of Bayesian statistical modeling techniques by avian ecologists, leading to an increasing number of studies using the Bayesian statistical paradigm and the BUGS software. However, one the other hand, Bayesian methods may still appear mysterious and perhaps even suspicious to many avian ecologists. Reasons for that include the perceived subjectivity of the Bayesian approach or problems related to convergence assessment or prior sensitivity of the inference. This symposium aims to illustrate how Bayesian analyses are conducted in practice in avian population ecology. The speakers include some leading developers of Bayesian methods in ecological statistics and experienced users of advanced Bayesian modeling techniques. Talks will highlight and showcase many of the advantages to the ecological practitioner of Bayesian methods and computational techniques. However, the symposium aims to present a balanced view of current statistical modeling in population ecology. To this end, we also include one talk by the developers of an R package (called unmarked) for maximum likelihood (i.e., classical, non-Bayesian) analysis in population ecology. The aim of this talk is to illustrate some advantages of traditional statistical methods for the practitioner. This, together with the discussions, will give symposium attendees a rich and varied insight into some central topics of modern ecological statistics in avian population ecology.
6 - Impacts of environmental change on birds in alpine environments
Symposium organized by Dan Chamberlain, Niklaus Zbinden. dan.chamberlain99@gmail.com
Alpine biodiversity is under a range of human-induced pressures, including climate change, land management and disturbance. Alpine vegetation communities are likely to be especially vulnerable to climate change, and warmer average temperatures are forecast to lead to altitudinal shifts in vegetation zones, causing increased habitat fragmentation and ultimately the disappearance of key habitats with significant consequences for high alpine bird species. In addition, changes in grazing practices, land abandonment and increasing disturbance (e.g. through skiing) are also likely to significantly affect specialist alpine birds. In this symposium, we will include talks that review the evidence for impacts of environmental change on alpine birds, and identify those species that are likely to be most susceptible in the future. Whilst spatial modelling of survey data will be a key focus, the symposium will also include topics on demographic mechanisms underlying population change, and applied management of alpine areas for birds of conservation interest. Furthermore, the symposium will attempt to identify key future research areas in alpine ornithology and all speakers will be encouraged to put forward key remaining research questions within their specific topics.
7 - Impact of forestry on populations of threatened bird species, conservation strategies and methods
Symposium organized by Janis Priednieks, William Sutherland. jpriedn@lanet.lv
The main aim of the proposed symposium is to exchange knowledge based on recent studies of the impact of forestry on threatened bird species in different parts of Europe and discuss ideas on the best conservation strategies and management methods to improve the conservation status of species of concern. The Baltic States and Central European countries still hold remarkable populations of threatened forest bird species now extinct in large parts of Europe. However, the pressure of forestry intensification has grown rapidly during the last decades preventing implementation of sufficient conservation measures. It seems that at least in the Baltic States, such species as Capercaillie, Black Stork and some others are decreasing significantly. Woodpeckers (e.g. White-backed Woodpecker and Middle Spotted Woodpecker) seem to be still in favourable status, probably due to a high percentage of deciduous forests and retention trees left in clear-cuts. The examples and experience from Western European and Scandinavian countries, which have long histories of intensive use of forest resources followed by many studies of the causes of decline, can support the development of scientifically based conservation strategies. We expect that success and failures of different conservation methods will be presented and discussed. For example, micro-reserves used for the protection of nesting sites of the Black Stork, eagles and some other species in the Baltic States seem to be quite an effective conservation measure for dispersed species breeding in forests.
8 - Dispersal meets Biogeography – How dispersal affects range dynamic processes
Symposium organized by Jan Engler, Maria Delgado, Debora Arlt. JEngler@gmx.de
The study of the causes and consequences of dispersal is essential to understand ecological and evolutionary patterns in modern spatial ecology, from the individual level to changes in range-wide population dynamics. It is widely recognized that dispersal is a complex process involving genetical, behavioral and physiological traits. However, some methodological problems may represent a significant problem for understanding general dispersal patterns because e.g. study sites are often restricted in space and rarely linked to natural population boundaries. So far, much focus on the dispersal process has been given at small spatial scales, mainly from the level of individuals to the level of populations. Although the role of dispersal for range wide processes on a broad scale has been recently considered, both disciplines (dispersal ecology and biogeography) are still considered separately. However, it is not longer necessary to separate between local ecological processes and general biogeographical patterns, especially for highly mobile species like birds. Birds as model organisms for investigating questions regarding dispersal issues have a long tradition. Even so, they are a two-edged sword. On the one hand their high mobility tends to biased results in local studies because they typically go astray and leaves out our a priori considered study area. On the other hand, their high mobility is ideal for investigating the role of individual dispersal propensity on broader range dynamic scales. This symposium will handle some actual topics investigating dispersal in birds, with a special emphasis in studies that build a bridge between ecology and biogeography. In five talks (including one key note), we will get into recent advances and methodological problems of investigating avian dispersal. Finally, in a conclusive discussion we aim to highlight the next steps of ongoing research in this highly important field of ecology.
9 - Predictive modeling in ornithology - recent problems, novel solutions and future challenges
Symposium organized by Jan Engler, Kathrin Schidelko, Darius Stiels, Morgane Barbet-Massin, Dennis Rödder. JEngler@gmx.de
The global understanding of bird distributions and diversity gain much attention since computer capacities increase and digitalized distributional and environmental data become widely accessible. Macroecology connects ecology and biogeography and benefits well from this recent technical evolution resulting in many new analytical approaches. The analysis of species niches through predictive modeling is an increasingly investigated field in macroecology. The modeling of birds’ niches is by no means a simple game, e.g. because of the general high mobility of birds or due to seasonal movements of migrating species. Nevertheless, several important insights into the ecology, evolution and biogeography of birds can be gained when handling the new techniques with caution or integrating them with other ecological methods. The main goal of this symposium is to introduce ornithologists into the new technique of Species Distribution Modeling (SDM). Moreover, we want to go beyond simple applications and present recent problems and new technical advances with a special emphasis to the European avifauna in different talks. In a conclusive general discussion we will bring together different approaches and highlight the next steps of ongoing research in this inspiring and challenging field of ornithology.
10 - Non-native birds in Europe: driving forces, mechanisms and consequences
Symposium organized by Diederik Strubbe, Pim Edelaar, Darius Stiels. diederik.strubbe@ua.ac.be
Invasions of non-native species are considered one of the main threats to biodiversity, and understanding the factors and mechanisms that facilitate the establishment and spread of invasive species is paramount for the management of the problems they can pose. Birds are particularly well represented among non-native species, and although their impact on native communities is often assumed to be rather limited, they can be substantial. In Europe, a very high proportion of the birds that were introduced have successfully established breeding populations and in some regions, non-native species account for a considerable part of the total bird species richness. Despite this widespread occurrence, knowledge on the driving forces behind the introduction of non-native species in Europe, the mechanisms that allow them to establish self-sustaining populations and their ecological and economic consequences are only beginning to be unravelled. This symposium aims to synthesise the recent developments in avian invasion ecology, and to outline promising avenues for future research. Specifically, the symposium will discuss the factors shaping species introductions, as recent findings indicate that both species characteristics (e.g. life-history) and socio-economic, historical and political factors determine the set of species that are introduced. Introduction, however, is only the first step in the invasion process, and attention will be paid to the mechanisms enabling non-native birds to persist and/or spread beyond their initial point of introduction. Disentangling the complex interactions between species characteristics, environmental conditions, human modification of the environment, and introduction effort is crucial for discriminating between invaders with minor expected effects and those that are likely to pose a greater threat. This information is also crucial for assessing the interplay between climate change and biological invasions, as warmer temperatures could enable alien species to expand into regions in which they previously could not survive. Lastly, the symposium will also focus on the ecological consequences of avian introductions. Alien birds are known to cause biodiversity loss through, among others, competition and hybridization, and this Symposium will also touch upon the growing discussion of managing exotic birds, as control efforts or eradication programmes aimed at non-native birds often meet resistance from the public.
11 - Ecological immunology of birds
Symposium organized by Indrikis Krams, Peeter Hõrak. indrikis.krams@biology.lv
The aim of the proposed symposium is to exchange the knowledge based on recent studies in the field of ecological immunological. Since “immunocompetence” can be defined as the ability of a potential host organism to prevent or control infection by pathogens and parasites, ecological immunology deals with the basis of adaptations of organisms to their environments. Therefore the progress of this branch of knowledge may be very important for ecologists, zoologists and conservationists. The emerging evidence shows that immunocompetence in birds can be limited by resources and that life-history decisions can have consequences for immune defence. We expect to discuss whether investment in bird life-history components are negatively correlated with immunocompetence and whether immunocompetence is positively correlated with fitness. We would like also suggest a discussion on mechanisms of immune defence, its evolution in birds in the light of rapid environmental change, and also a synergy between ecological immunology and disease ecology to translate variation in within-host processes into between-host dynamics. Finally, we would like to discuss the advances in techniques to measure immunocompetence and how they can be applied by ecologists and ornithologists.
12 - Charismatic species as a tool in nature conservation: the White Stork as an example
Round Table organized by Leszek Jerzak, Jose I. Aguirre, Piotr Tryjanowski. l.jerzak@wnb.uz.zgora.pl
The White stork is a charismatic species and an excellent bioindicator of ecosystem helth. Two migratory populations inhabit Europe: the western and the eastern one; the result of a great natural “experiment” at the time of the last glaciation. What are the similarities and differences between these two populations living under slight different conditions? The presentations will cover subjects like physiological condition (parameters), food quality and foraging sites, behaviour, parasites, pathogens, and colonization of new territories. The symposium aims to enhance our understanding of the following very important topics: 1) Theoretical considerations – the ways of microevolution; 2) practical considerations – environmental management beneficial for the White Stork as an “umbrella species”, safe migrations routes and wintering areas. The meeting will be a presentation of the current knowledge about the White Stork – important for the development of a comprehensive strategy for the protection of the species on the breeding grounds, during migration and in the wintering areas (for all countries concerned).
13 - Information use and adaptive habitat selection
Symposium organized by Mikko Mönkkönen, Blandine Doligez, Jukka Forsman. mikko.monkkonen@jyu.fi
Breeding habitat selection has crucial fitness consequences as it determines the biotic and abiotic environment where offspring is born and raised. Consequently, habitat selection can be expected to be an adaptive behavioural trait and under strong natural selection. Yet, conventional ecological theory assumes that habitat selection takes place via unspecified innate processes. The recent and topical concept of information use in animal decision-making provides a fruitful theoretical background for studies of informed habitat selection. In particular, it has been shown that animals commonly acquire information by observing and relying on the presence, behaviour or performance of conspecific and heterospecific individuals, i.e. social information, to fine-tune their behavioural decisions (?) to local environmental conditions. Results obtained so far have clearly revealed that individuals make a particularly high use of (social) information for breeding habitat selection, but also that such informed habitat selection processes have fundamental effects on population dynamics, community structure, and species coexistence. The proposed symposium will review and highlight the current state-of-the-art on the role of social information use in the habitat selection of birds and its consequences at different levels. The themes developed will investigate how birds (i) acquire both intra- and interspecific information on the most important factors affecting individual reproductive success and (ii) use it for making optimal habitat selection decisions. We will first focus on the information use within species. Studies conducted in kittiwakes (Rissa tridactyla) and wheatears (Oenanthe oenanthe) (first two talks) demonstrate how nest and food cache location, reproductive performance of conspecifics and population density or aggregation level are used as cues for a profitable nest site/colony location. These studies show that the ultimate cause behind these behaviours is the selection of a good quality breeding territory in terms of high food resources and low risk of parasitism and predation. We then proceed to interspecific information transfer, first demonstrating the use of heterospecific social information in habitat selection in waterbirds (e.g., Tachybaptus ruficollis, Himantopus himantopus) and shrikes (Lanius spp.), and secondly showing that breeding site selection decisions can be blindly but adaptively copied across species boundaries, in a passerine community (tits and flycatchers). Finally, we will outline the pathways for future research on this topical emerging field of information use in breeding habitat selection in birds.
14 - New insights in population dynamics from multi-state mark-recapture models
Symposium organized by Henk van der Jeugd, Ali Johnston. h.vanderjeugd@nioo.knaw.nl
Over the last decade, the use of multi-state mark-recapture models has grown considerably. Nevertheless, these models are still relatively unknown among non-specialists. In this symposium, we hope to bring these models under the attention of biologists primarily interested in conservation, ecology or behavior, by showing a number of applications of these models from recent studies, each application focusing on a different population dynamical topic. We will start with a general introduction and then present three examples in which each of the three major parameters in these models, i.e. survival, state transition and recapture probabilities, carries the biologically interesting information. Although originally the emphasis was to study mainly variation in survival rates, there are now also studies where variation in transition rates (for example dispersal between breeding colonies) or even variation in capture rates are the focus. Nevertheless, these methods of analysis are still being developed further and the final talk will therefore give an example of the methodological work that is carried out to study the consequences of the differences between assumptions in the models and the real world.
15 - Bird collisions - more than meets the (human) eye
Symposium organized by Christoph Kulemeyer, Mark Desholm. kulemeyer@ifaoe.de
Birds see the world through other eyes than their human observers. Most birds have exceptional colour vision, an extended field-of-view, but generally lack binocular sight. Birds can see polarized light and may even percept magnetic fields through their eyes. Within ornithology, sensory ecology is a relatively new discipline focusing on what information birds obtain about their environment, how it is processed, and whether the information is of functional/adaptive significance to the individual. When it comes to assessing how birds are affected by human-built structures that protrude into the open airspace (aircrafts, power lines, wind turbines) or possess invisible or reflective properties (windows), birds’ sensual and behavioural capacities have far too rarely been taken into account. Predictive studies on avian collision risk tend to focus more on stochastic processes than on sensory properties and individual behavioural responses. This symposium aims at bringing together ornithologists working on the problem of bird strike from various perspectives, and at different spatial scales, to discuss new directions in the development of preventative strategies.
16 - Why are hormone concentrations so variable within and between species?
Symposium organized by Wolfgang Goymann, Leonida Fusani. goymann@orn.mpg.de
Why concentrations of hormones so variable within and between individuals of one species and between different species? For example, testosterone concentrations of individuals of a songbird species may span a difference of 100-fold within a single life-cycle stage. The “Challenge Hypothesis” has been a cornerstone to understand the variability of androgen patterns and their dependence on behaviour and the natural history of vertebrates, but in many species it fails to explain situational androgen patterns. Which environmental and intrinsic factors are important in the modulation of hormonal traits and what is the adaptive value of this variability? In the symposium we would like to look at examples of differences in hormone levels and try to understand the patterns of this variability. In the general discussion we would like to discuss which future efforts are required to better understand the variability and its adaptive significance.
17 - Africa matters! A sub-Saharan perspective of Life History and Ecology of Palearctic migrant birds
Symposium organized by Ulf Ottosson, Kaspar Thorup, Soladoye Iwajomo. ottosson@pt.lu
As we all know, millions of birds breeding in Europe actually spent the least part of its life in Europe, instead most of the time is spent on migration or in its African winter quarters. Many species wintering in sub-Saharan Africa has a negative population trend but the situation is far from clear cut. In Africa we know that a, in some areas very high, population increase, has influenced a change in the environment with large areas being transformed from forests and bush to farmlands. Changes that may have lead to decreased food availability and/or increased competition, for food, with African resident species. More used as farmland may have the same effect on the birds as desertification which for the birds can mean an increased migratory distance especially during spring migration and problems for fattening. Until recently work on the non-breeding biology of European migrants has been very scanty, almost non-existent and, even worse, studies on the interactions, actually most often lack of interactions, between migrants and African Resident birds. To get information about the ecology and life history strategies used by “our” birds is.
18 - Assessing new threats to birds in agricultural landscapes and implication for conservation strategies in Europe
Round Table organized by Oskars Keišs, Kees Kofijberg, Jean Secondi. oskars.keiss@lu.lv
The focus of the symposium would be the problems in protection of disperse species Corncrake would be given as one typical case where conservation is tricky. There is quite a lot of money spent to maintain its habitat in France (and other West European countries) for instance, but the French population is only about 0.02 % of the whole estimated world population. There is still knowledge gaps about migratory behaviours and local adaptation but also uncertainty about the evolution of the Eastern European core populations. Agriculture policy development – intensification and abandonement in the Baltic States, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, could destroy a lot of suitable habitats. Protection of it only using Natura 2000 network is not possible, if agri-environmental schemes are not supporting majority of population outside Natura 2000 in Eastern Europe. That is an example where lack of knowledge may incidentally protect what is worth protection or divert money for low priority questions. There maybe other species relatively rare in Western Europe because their habitat has disappeared but are common in the Eastern part. That could be the focus of the symposium.
19 - Selection for urban life -from the individual to the community
Symposium organized by Davide M. Dominoni, Juan Diego Ibáñez-Álamo. ddominoni@orn.mpg.de
Urban habitats concentrate half of the human population living on Earth today, and are expanding faster than any other type of land cover. As a consequence of this, an increasing number of species are confronting the marked changes related to this extreme environmental modification, and birds are no exception. Indeed, birds are common models used to investigate how species cope with urbanization because of their ecological traits and quality of their data. Most of the pioneering studies in this field have been focused on the community and population responses to urbanization such as changes in species richness and composition of avian assemblages. Recently, an increased interest in the individual responses to the selection pressures associated with towns and cities such as noise pollution, human disturbance, alteration of predation risk or food availability, led to considerable progress of our knowledge. However, our understanding of how urbanization shapes behavioural and physiological traits of birds is still limited, as limited is the understanding of how selection at the level of the individual may explain the population dynamics and structure observed in urban habitats. This symposium offers an excellent opportunity to review and summarize previous knowledge on the effect of urbanization on birds at the individual, population and community scale, as well as provides a good framework to debate and discuss about the future of this research.
20 - Flagship at risk – large-scale monitoring of Black Stork (Ciconia nigra) populations
Round Table organized by Tamás Enikő Anna, Piotr Zieliński. et@blackstork.hu
The range of the Black stork extends to three continents — Europe, Asia and Africa. The total population size is estimated at 20–25 trousand breeding pairs. The largest proportion both in terms of population size and number of range countries is present in Europe. In Europe as a whole it is classified as Rare and listed as SPEC2 stressing Europes global responsibility for wellfare of this species. Very few detailed studies exist on the population dynamics of the Black Stork in a larger geographical scale. However, there are more and more reports that in some countries, particularly in Eastern Europe, the situation of the Black Stork is quickly deteriorating. According to most researchers the habitat of a major part of the species’ northern breeding population are highly threatened by intensification of forestry, legal gaps in protection, unsuitable management practice and different kinds of disturbance, particularly in the largest populations in Central and Eastern Europe. Facilities of human welfare also cause lots of other problems to migrating birds. Other major threat remains the decrease of availability and quality of feeding grounds in the entire range of the species. Vaste range is both the strength and the weakness of this magnificent bird species: the Black stork is not considered globally threatened, however it is considered locally endangered or thereatened in most of its range. The particular aspect of this problem lies in the fact that none of the single range countries, neither the most „stork rich”, nor the most resources rich feel responsible for the entire population. Our biggest future challenge is both to level out resources for research between the West and the East, the North and the South and to level out research intensity between studies in the breeding range and those on migration and wintering grounds. Solving the problem of population dynamics demands large-scale studies with many groups of researchers involved. And this demands unification of methods. We hope that EOU conference in Riga would help us in comparing the status of the black stork in many countries and would greatly accelerate identifying potential causes of some populations decline.
21 - The applicability and usefulness of bio-logging for terrestrial ornithological studies
Symposium organized by Olivier Duriez, Giacomo Dell'Omo, Yan Ropert-Coudert. olivier.duriez@cefe.cnrs.fr
The use of animal-attached data-recording systems (commonly referred to as bio-logging) originated and boomed in the marine realm, principally for studies on diving seabirds. This marine origin is due to both the near-impossibility of monitoring ecophysiological parameters on individuals while they are at sea, and the relatively large size of most diving seabirds that allow them to accomodate sometimes bulky devices at a « limited » cost. Yet, the recent advances in electronic miniaturization means that many volant, terrestrial species can potentially be used in bio-logging studies, in parallel to the already well diversified, more classical, telemetry studies involving radio or satellite tracking. The fourth bio-logging symposium, to be held in Hobart in March 2011, is nonetheless overwhelmly concerned with marine studies, to the point that none of the 4 main themes proposed is explicitely dealing with terrestrial subjects. The aim of this EOU symposium is to present an overview of the existing data recording systems and their variety of sensors, as well as how they can be applied to address questions pertaining to different scientific fields onto terrestrial birds. The symposium would ideally serve as a round table where current users present the pros and cons of bio-logging, discuss guidelines and analytical methods, data sharing among others.
22 - Bad practice in field biology – what should be done?
Panel Discussion organized by Tomasz Wesołowski, Rob G. Bijlsma, Andy Gosler. tomwes@biol.uni.wroc.pl
Rigorous science reporting requires: 1) full descriptions of methods permitting repetition of research; 2) careful documentation of observations/experiments; 3) critical assessment of bias in the data; 4) evaluation of how representative our data sets are for a wider set of conditions; and 5) giving credit to earlier work. These conditions are often not met in current publications, methods are frequently underreported, data are replaced by test statistics, and relevant references to older literature are lacking. Furthermore, the tendency to inadequate reporting is increasing, which threatens the status of field biology as a legitimate science. The aim of this panel is 1) to diagnose those factors that lead to the lowering of reporting standards, 2) to discuss possible remedies, and 3) if a consensus can be achieved, to agree on a minimum set of standards of presentation required by ornithological journals. All are welcome to attend, but we hope that the session will be of particular interest to Editors and members of editorial boards of ornithological journals are specially welcome, whether or not they agree with our perception.
