May 2014
Seminar series highlights: Nathalie Pettorelli and John Hutchinson
As mentioned previously on the blog, Andrew Jackson and I started a new module this year called “Research Comprehension”. The module revolves around our Evolutionary Biology and Ecology seminar series and the continuous assessment for the module is in the form of blog posts discussing these seminars. We posted a selection of these earlier in […]
How to get the benefits of mobility – even when your movement is constrained
There are a long list of reasons why mobility in an academic career is considered highly desirable, both by individuals and the institutions which fund them. Scientists move around to take up jobs in a tight and international job market, communicate their work to the wider scientific community, work with new people, learn new techniques, […]
Biodiversity face off
Between the 1st and 2nd of May several members of the Trinity Centre for Biodiversity Research got their game faces on for the inaugural Intervarsity BioBlitz Challenge. For the first time the Trinity fox and co were pitted against the best biodiversity on offer from the DCU, NUI Galway and UCC campuses. The stakes were high […]
Mooching in Madagascar
I recently returned from a short stint of fieldwork in Madagascar. The purpose of our trip was to run some behavioural tests of echolocation in tenrecs but things didn't exactly go according to plan. Therefore we had plenty of time to explore and experience some of the wonders of the 8th continent. Here's a few of our […]
Bumblebees are not deterred by ecologically relevant concentrations of nectar toxins
In a previous blog post I wrote about my work on “toxic nectar.” This paradoxical phenomenon occurs when potentially deterrent or toxic plant secondary compounds, usually associated with defense against herbivores, are found in floral nectar rewards. Throughout my PhD I’ve spent countless hours in the lab performing experiments on toxic nectar, discussed this work at […]
How Do We Solve A Problem Like Invasive Species?
There are many threats to our environmental security: climate change, habitat loss and degradation, pollution. All are damaging the environment and impacting on our long-term survival. One threat that seems to have been often overlooked by the public, however, is the effect of invasive species. Invasive species are non-native species that adversely affect the invaded […]
Kakapo Conservation
In centuries past, if you were to go into the hills of New Zealand on a summer’s night you may have heard a strange noise; a honking boom that resonated all around you. After 20 or 30 cycles of this boom you’d hear a high-pitched rasping ‘ching’ sound. This boom and rasp would come from […]
Flatland
Why are there no elephants in the mountains? Well, mainly because it’s costly to climb when you’re an animal of that size. A previous study estimated that a 4 tonne elephant would have to eat for 30 minutes to compensate for a 100m climb. Ideas man Graeme Ruxton and his co-author David Wilkinson develop this […]
Silence of the Tenrecs
I’ve been studying tenrecs for almost two years. I’ve read about them, watched video clips and handled hundreds of dead specimens. However, within that time I only met two live individuals, both of which were captive zoo animals. That’s all changed. I’m now well acquainted with a variety of tenrec critters. It turns out they’re […]