TITLE ANNUAL MEETING 2016 11–14 DECEMBER ACC, LIVERPOOL, UK british ecologicalsociety.org 1 © Google Maps 2016 11–14 DECEMBER ANNUAL ACC, LIVERPOOL, UK MEETING 2016 CONTENTS ORAL PRESENTATIONS 30 MONDAY 12 DECEMBER 30 TUESDAY 13 DECEMBER 38 LOCAL AREA MAP 2 WEDNESDAY 14 DECEMBER 45 CONTENTS 3 POSTER PRESENTATIONS 52 BES WELCOME 4 MONDAY 12 DECEMBER 52 WELCOME TO LIVERPOOL 5 TUESDAY 13 DECEMBER 57 FIRST TIME AT OUR ANNUAL MEETING 6 INDEX OF PRESENTERS 62 ACC LAYOUT 8 ATTENDEE INFORMATION 72 FLOORPLAN 9 MEET OUR TEAM 75 MEETING OVERVIEW 10 BES FUN RUN 76 ORAL SESSION OVERVIEW 12 SOCIAL EVENTS 78 PLENARY LECTURES 14 PHOTOGRAPHIC COMPETITION WINNERS 83 THEMATIC TOPIC SESSIONS 18 INFORMATION FOR FAMILIES 84 WORKSHOPS OVERVIEW 22 FUTURE MEETINGS 86 CAREERS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME 26 AGM 88 POLICY AT BES 27 AWARD WINNERS 92 PRESENTER INFORMATION 28 SPECIAL INTEREST GROUPS 94 WELCOME It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to the 2016 BES Annual Meeting here in Liverpool. Banish any lingering post-Brexit blues with our fantastic and truly international programme of talks, posters, workshops, events and plenaries! If the exciting science and great networking opportunities The Annual Meeting is certainly one of the most important somehow fail to cheer, then there is always our legendary events for the Society – last year’s meeting in Edinburgh Christmas jersey competition on Wednesday. was one of our biggest ever and this year’s meeting will be just as successful I’m sure. But the BES is far more than just Festive fun aside, the heart of our meeting is top quality this meeting, so do come along to the BES stand to meet the ecological science and this week you will have an opportunity staff and hear about all the vital work that has been going on to hear from researchers at the forefront of the field. Our between the annual Christmas jumper competitions! The BES plenary speakers this year, Daniel Pauly, Anne Chao and Hugh Policy team has been working hard during what has been a Possingham, bring world-leading research excellence to the particularly interesting year in the policy sphere, making the conference, and, being from Canada, Taiwan and Australia, case for the best approaches to protect our natural environment set the tone for a truly international event. Alison Hester is after we leave the EU. Look out for the talks in our policy- giving her personal reflections on a Year in Ecology and Mike focused sessions throughout Monday – it’s a very important Begon will be reminding us that it is 150 years since the term time for our ecological science to be linked in with the policy ecology was coined – we will be celebrating that anniversary agenda. On a rather different policy angle, we have set up an with a special cake at the welcome mixer! And of course there Equality and Diversity working group to look at ways of making is our usual packed programme of fantastic thematic and open the BES and all its activities as fair and inclusive as possible, talk sessions, as well as two poster sessions (accompanied by so do get involved and let us know what we could do better in Liverpool gin apparently!), so a huge diversity of superb science that regard. One important recent initiative is our appointment to get your brain buzzing! of a Fundraising and Development Manager for the Society, The grey matter can get more exercise at our series of Paul Bower. Although we are enjoying our current success, workshops. We are running a career planning workshop for we need to ensure the BES and the activities it supports can early career researchers and a workshop on writing and sharing be sustained, so we are looking to the future. Paul is charged computer code, both on the Sunday before the main meeting with diversifying and securing our income in a rapidly changing starts, as well as our usual interest-packed programme of world – no pressure Paul! workshops on Monday and Tuesday lunchtimes. One of them But we couldn’t do any of the BES activities, either now or in is on “Making Brexit work for ecology and the environment” the future, without our members and volunteers, so this is an which should certainly offer some food for thought! Do let us opportunity to say a big thank you to all the people involved in know if there are workshop topics you would find particularly organising and supporting our journals, our grants and awards, useful so we can set these up for next year. our policy and education work and our SIGs, and of course our An important part of our annual meeting is meeting new meetings. So enjoy Liverpool and don’t forget to put next year’s colleagues and making new friendships, as well as renewing Annual Meeting in your diary – from 11 -14 December 2017, old ones – and some of us, including myself after over 30 years we will be in the gorgeous city of Ghent, described by Lonely of attending BES meetings, are certainly starting to feel rather Planet as “Belgium’s best kept secret” (yes it’s in Belgium!). old! The social programme has improved over those intervening The joint Annual Meeting is being organised by the BES, NecoV years though, and we now lay on lots of events, including and the Gesellschaft Für Ökologie, held in association with the the welcome mixer, the awards ceremony and gala dinner European Ecological Federation, so do come and be part of this (no haggis this year mercifully!), and a “fun run” (oxymoron cross-border collaboration! surely!). There are also the Special Interest Group (SIG) social I look forward to chatting to as many of you as possible during events – particularly good for meeting other ecologists in similar the meeting, so do please say hello and offer your comments research fields, and you can team up with them at the welcome and thoughts on how the BES can be even better. You can’t miss mixer too. Don’t forget to share your conference experiences me – I’ll be the one in the tasteless Christmas jumper clutching on twitter at #BES2016; you can also use that hashtag to tweet a glass of Liverpool gin!! questions at the plenary sessions, something else that has changed since my first BES meeting! Follow Sue on Twitter: @profSueHartley 4 BES Annual Meeting 2016 WELCOME (BACK) TO LIVERPOOL It’s 32 years since the BES last held its Annual Meeting in Liverpool. Far too long, and we’re glad to have you back – especially as we’d like to think that Liverpool has been a hot- bed of ecology throughout that time. Back then, it was the wonderful Tony Bradshaw (along with We hope, alongside these various organised events, you’ll one of us) who organized the meeting (the BES itself did find time to see more of what Liverpool itself has to offer – rather little – not like now!). Tony was in the vanguard, and either more briefly during the meeting itself or by coming arguably the epitome of the drive to break down the barriers early or staying on afterwards. There are our Three Graces between ecology the pure science and ecology the crisis on the waterfront, part of the UNESCO-designated Liverpool discipline, addressing many of the most profound problems Maritime City World Heritage Site, which also includes the confronting us. Today, we maintain these two intertwining Albert Dock; the largest collection of Grade 1 listed buildings threads, working on plants, animals and microbes, in marine, in the UK; two great football teams; our Georgian Quarter; freshwater and terrestrial environments, and, as Tony did, at the old-wood and etched-glass grandeur of our many the interface between ecology and evolution. Victorian pubs; a host of internationally important museums and art galleries (including the Tate’s northern outpost); The scientific programme at this meeting reflects both that and, as the song In My Liverpool Home has it “if you want desire to fully integrate pure and applied ecology, and also the a cathedral, we’ve got one to spare” (the song also points diversity of topics and systems being covered. In particular out that we speak with an accent “exceedingly rare” – but it is notable that several of the Thematic Topics running hopefully you’ll catch on). And we shouldn’t forget the many throughout the meeting have been organised by researchers symbols of the musical revolution that changed popular based in Liverpool, many of which reflect our strengths in culture forever in the 1960s. Strawberry Fields, Penny Lane, various aspects of microbial and disease ecology, and also John’s and Paul’s childhood homes, a Cavern Club (sadly not in understanding the evolutionary and ecological impacts of The Cavern Club) and even Eleanor Rigby’s grave are all here environmental change. for you to visit. The social programme surrounding the meeting has a similarly We’re immensely grateful to the BES staff for making the Liverpool flavour, with plenty of opportunities to discuss the hosting of this meeting so very easy for us. So, it’s a pleasure finer scientific points of the conference over a pint or two of to say, from the BES itself, from Liverpool’s ecologists, and some of the local beers. To help you with this, the various BES from the famously-friendly people of Liverpool – welcome! Special Interest Groups have kindly organised a vibrant social programme that makes use of the rich diversity of drinking Andy Fenton and Mike Begon establishments in the local area (Shannon’s Index off the scale!).