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KARL-FRANZENS-UNIVERSITÄT GRAZ UNIVERSITY OF GRAZ September 09 – 12, 2015 ABSTRACTS Sponsored by TABLE OF CONTENT KEY NOTE TALKS 3 PRICE GIVING CEREMONY 7 TOPICAL SESSIONS 9 Behavioural Biology – invited talks 9 Behavioural Biology – oral presentations 10 Behavioural Biology – posters 19 Developmental Biology – invited talks 27 Developmental Biology – oral presentations 28 Developmental Biology – posters 31 Ecology – invited talks 34 Ecology – oral presentations 35 Ecology – posters 41 Evolutionary Biology – invited talks 47 Evolutionary Biology – oral presentations 48 Evolutionary Biology – posters 63 Morphology – invited talks 71 Morphology – oral presentations 72 Morphology – posters 77 Neurobiology – invited talks 84 Neurobiology – oral presentations 85 Neurobiology – posters 89 1 Physiology – invited talks 104 Physiology – oral presentations 105 Physiology – posters 107 Zoological Systematics – invited talks 115 Zoological Systematics – oral presentations 116 Zoological Systematics – posters 119 Last-Minute submissions 123 SATELLITE SYMPOSIA Cichlid Science 2015 – invited talks 124 Cichlid Science 2015 – oral presentations 125 Cichlid Science 2015 – posters 144 PhD Meeting Evolutionary Biology – invited talks 151 PhD Meeting Evolutionary Biology – oral presentations 152 PhD Meeting Evolutionary Biology – posters 154 Neuroethology/Behavioural Neurobiology – oral presentations 156 Social behavior and selfregulation in insects – invited talks 159 Social behavior and selfregulation in insects – oral presentations 160 Social behavior and selfregulation in insects – posters 163 Workshop tierexperimentelles Arbeiten – invited talks 166 2 KEY NOTE TALKS KN-01 - INTRODUCTORY LECTURE Die Geschichte der Grazer Zoologie H. Römer1 1University of Graz, Institute of Zoology, Graz, Austria No abstract availabe. KN-02 – 125th ANNIVERSARY CEREMONIAL ADDRESS 125 Jahre Deutsche Zoologische Gesellschaft (DZG) – von der Zootomie zur Epigentik und Kognitionsforschung F.G. Barth1 1University of Vienna, Department of Neurobiology, Vienna, Austria No abstract available. KN-03 Seeing in the dimmest habitats on Earth The eyes and vision of nocturnal and deep-sea animals E. Warrant1 1University of Lund, Lund Vision Group, Department of Biology, Lund, Sweden We humans have evolved to see well in bright daylight. Our excellent senses of colour, and our acute spatial and temporal resolution, are among the best found in the vertebrate world. But this is only true during the day. On a moonless night, when light levels may be more than 100 million times dimmer, we are quite helpless. At light levels where we are nearly blind, our cats are out stalking prey, and moths are flying agilely between flowers on our balconies. While we are sleeping, millions of other animals are relying on their visual systems to survive. The same is true of animals inhabiting the eternal darkness of the deep sea. How is such formidable visual performance possible? In my lecture will try to answer this question by exploring the remarkable eyes and visual systems of nocturnal terrestrial animals, deep-sea fishes and the elusive giant squid. _________________________________________________________________________________ ABBREVIATIONS: KN, key note talk; IT, invited talk; OP, oral presentation; PP, poster presentation 3 KN-04 Recent shifts in European pollinators and why we should care K. Biesmejer1 1Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Leiden, & University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, NL Sorry, talk is canceled! KN-05 Socially induced phenotypic plasticity in locusts S. R. Ott1 1University of Leicester, Department of Neuroscience, Psychology & Behaviour, Leicester, United Kingdom Locusts are grasshoppers (Acrididae) that can transform between two extreme phenotypes known as phases. This capacity has evolved in adaptation to the unpredictable precipitation patterns in their arid habitats. Locusts normally occur at very low population densities in a cryptic solitarious phase that avoids conspecifics. Sporadic rains provide opportunities for explosive population growth. The recurrence of drought then drives large numbers of locusts onto dwindling islands of verdure. This crowding triggers a rapid behavioural transition towards increased mobility and mutual attraction that is followed by slower changes in morphology and physiology. The end result is the gregarious phase, which is tailored to a life in dense mobile swarms. Our work has focussed on the proximate causes and consequences of phase change in the Desert Locust, Schistocerca gregaria. The sole direct drivers of behavioural gregarisation are sensory stimuli from conspecifics. We have evidence that these stimuli activate specific sets of serotonergic neurones in the thoracic central nervous system. Serotonin then initiates a rapid transition to gregarious behaviour through activation of protein kinase A. The consequences of phase change extend to associative learning: the two phases use different rules to associate novel odours with toxic food. Acute crowding leaves existing food-odour associations intact but specifically blocks the acquisition of new aversive ones. In the field, this simple mechanism enables an adaptive updating of an odour's value from aversive to appetitive. Finally, I will consider the relationship between behavioural plasticity and 'animal personality' in the context of the evolution of phase change. 4 KN-06 The role of gene flow in the diversification of animals W. Salzburger1 1University of Basel, Zoologisches Institut, Basel, Switzerland More than one and a half centuries after the publication of Charles R. Darwin’s The Origin of Species, the identification of the processes governing the emergence of novel species remains a fundamental question to biology. Why is it that some groups have diversified in a seemingly explosive manner, while other lineages have remained unvaried over millions of years? What are the external factors and environmental conditions that promote diversification? And what is the molecular basis of adaptation, evolutionary innovation and diversification? Providing particularly clear evidence of the power of natural selection, adaptive radiations serve as outstanding systems for studying the mechanisms of evolution. The first wave of genomic investigation across major archetypal adaptive radiations is starting to shed light on the molecular basis of adaptive diversification. Notably, these efforts have not yet identified consistent features of genomic architecture promoting diversification. However, access to a pool of ancient adaptive variation via genetic exchange emerges as an important driver of adaptive radiation. KN-07 Functional genomics of marine and freshwater sticklebacks F. C. Jones1 1MPI Tübingen, Friedrich Miescher Laboratory, Tübingen, Germany Colonisation of new freshwater habitats has resulted in the repeated adaptive divergence of freshwater sticklebacks from their ancestral marine ecotype. We use these powerful biological replicates of the evolutionary process to identify and functionally dissect the molecular mechanisms underlying adaptive divergence and reproductive isolation. I'll describe how we are using whole genome sequencing and population genomics of stickleback species pairs to identify high-resolution sets of loci underlying parallel adaptive divergence. Many loci fall in non-coding parts of the genome, suggesting non-coding regulatory elements may be particularly important in adaptation. We use a range of methods to functionally dissect the phenotypic effect of these loci. These include transgenic methods to test for divergence in the regulatory potential of marine and freshwater adaptive haplotypes, and powerful new genome editing techniques to knock-out and knock-in adaptive loci. Our ultimate aim is to understand the fitness effects of these loci in natural populations. To do this we study the fitness and survival of naturally occurring recombinant individuals in contact zones between marine and freshwater forms. The ability to identify and functionally dissect adaptive loci in sticklebacks provides powerful insights into the molecular mechanisms underlying adaptation in natural populations. 5 KN-08 – PUBLIC LECTURE IN GERMAN LANGUAGE Rabenpolitik: Verständnis und Nutzen von sozialen Beziehungen in komplexen Gemeinschaften Raven politics: Understandig and use of social relationships in a dynamic avian system T. Bugnyar1 1University of Vienna, Department of Cognitive Biology, Vienna, Austria Complex social life has been proposed as one of the driving forces for the evolution of cognition. Aside a large group size and a high degree of fission-fusion dynamics, the formation and use of valuable relationships (social bonds) have been discussed as the main factors constituting social complexity in mammals. Yet it is debated, if this is also true for birds. Reporting on recent data from captive and wild ravens (Corvus corax), I argue that i) the quality of social relationships of these birds is comparable to that of primates and ii) that the relationship quality between individuals explains various patterns of their advanced conflict management (coalition formation, intervention in fights, post-conflict reconciliation and bystander-affiliation). In addition, I argue that iii) social bonds may be advantageous during foraging but iv) that they may come with the costs of increased aggression by third parties. These findings support the idea that the need for, and use of, bonding partners outside reproduction may be one of the factors driving the cognitive evolution