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| Workshops |
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| Introduction | |||
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| Upcoming Activities | |||
| Past Activities | |||
| Title: | Genetics and genomics of speciation | ||
| Date: | 26-29 March 2013 | ||
| Location: | Eawag Center of Ecology, Evolution & Biogeochemistry (CEEB) in Kastanienbaum/Luzern, Switzerland | ||
| Main organizer: | Ole Seehausen (ole.seehausen@eawag.ch) | ||
| Other organizers: | Roger Butlin, Åke Brännström, and Ulf Dieckmann | ||
| Number of participants: | 17 invited speakers; 17 participants | ||
| Program outline: | Talks by the seniors and posters by the younger scientists, specifically targeting current questions in speciation research and how genomic data can help address them, and intensive workshop sessions organized around several themes. | ||
| Summary: | The recent renaissance in speciation research was driven significantly by advances in molecular phylogenetics and population genetics, and the integration of these disciplines with evolutionary ecology, community ecology and biogeography. A growing data analysis machinery permits increasingly detailed reconstruction of gene flow and selection. The technological advances of the genomics era are beginning to open windows into genome-wide effects of divergent adaptation, and the functional basis of species divergence and incompatibility. Finally, whole genomes of some speciation model organisms are being sequenced and annotated. Speciation researchers are beginning to capitalize on these developments. However, most genomic species differences arise after speciation, and to understand the process, speciation has to be studied in the making. The impact of new technologies on the field is therefore strictly dependent on the quality of natural history and ecology. The integration of genomics with ecology is perhaps the most important challenge to speciation research in the next decade. In this workshop we reviewed recent advances in, and identified future needs for the integration of these disciplines in speciation research. Our goal was to identify ways by which their integration can advance our abilities both for testing theoretical models, and for informing further theory development. | ||
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| Title: | Behaviour and speciation | ||
| Date: | 6-8 February 2013 | ||
| Location: | Rica Holberg Hotel, Oslo, Norway | ||
| Organizers: | Glenn-Peter Sætre (g.p.satre@bio.uio.no), Jo Skeie Hermansen(j.s.hermansen@bio.uio.no) | ||
| Other organizers: | Åke Brännström, Ulf Dieckmann | ||
| Number of participants: | 7 invited speakers; 40 participants incl. students | ||
| Program outline: | Oral presentations and discussions focusing on key questions on behavioural aspects in speciation research. | ||
| Summary: | Many populations are thought to be reproductively isolated from other such populations (i.e. they are different species) by choice. That is, individuals from the differentiated populations are capable of mating with each other and produce fertile offspring but they do not do so due to a lack of sexual attraction; the populations are reproductively isolated by pre-mating barriers. This is but one example of the potential importance of behavioural mechanisms in hindering gene flow and hence in speciation. In this workshop we intend to explore behavioural interactions between differentiated populations in secondary contact and sympatry and address their importance in population divergence, convergence and speciation, focusing on both empirical and theoretical approaches. Relevant topics include: learning, genes and species recognition; the behavioural ecology of reinforcement; intra- and intersexual signalling and communication in hybrid zones. | ||
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| Title: | Species interactions and speciation | ||
| Date: | 16-18 January 2013 | ||
| Location: | Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden | ||
| Main organizers: | Åke Brännström (ake.brannstrom@math.umu.se), Ulf Dieckmann (dieckmann@iiasa.ac.at) | ||
| Number of participants: | 9 invited speakers; 28 of participants at own expense | ||
| Program outline: | The workshop included talks by leading figures in the field. These were integrated with discussion sessions. | ||
| Summary: | The traditional focus of speciation research has been on the processes that can create two species out of one. While these processes underpin the creation of biological diversity, it is important to recognize that they only meant to operate under specific, relatively simple ecological conditions. These conditions can be differences in the external environments to which the two species adapt, but in many cases the niches to which species are adapting exist only in the context of a community or ecosystem embedding. Ultimately, all ecological niches are constructed, rather than preordained. Understanding how community evolution endogenously creates new niches for other species to fill is therefore an important problem. Interest in this question has mounted during recent years. In this workshop we will bring together scientists with backgrounds in classical speciation research and community ecology for discussions of a common theme, thus aiming to bridge between these disparate approaches to understanding the complexity of ecological communities. | ||
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| Title: | Hybridisation and speciation | ||
| Date: | 23-26 October 2011 | ||
| Location: | Gregynog Hall, Wales, UK | ||
| Main organizer: | Roger Butlin (r.k.butlin@sheffield.ac.uk) | ||
| Other organizers: | Mike Ritchie, Jacek Szymura | ||
| Number of participants: | 10 invited speakers; 40 participants | ||
| Program outline: | The workshop followed a discussion format. It was initiated by a group of invited participants who argued in favour of 6 propositions (Currently there is no direct evidence that successful allopolyploid speciation is driven by ecological divergence, in contrast to the position for homoploid hybrid speciation, Where hybridisation occurs between lineages, it is more likely that existing evolutionary independence will be broken down rather than increased isolation being built up by reinforcement or other forms of selection, Hybridisation in contact zones promotes population divergence within species, which can lead to speciation, Hybridisation is a common source of adaptive alleles that contribute to speciation, Reliable demonstration of hybrid speciation is only possible for recent speciation events, Neither the intrinsic genetic incompatibility (the focus of lab crossing experiments) nor ecology driven divergence (the focus of study in natural hybridizing lineages) dominates speciation: it is a multifactorial process). Focused small-group discussions followed on these topics and on additional topics suggested by participants. These discussions were aimed towards the production of a manuscript. The Editor of Evolution had agreed to consider this manuscript for publication as a Perspective article and the intention was that all participants should be contributors to the article. In the event, we drafted and discussed sections of the article during the workshop. Other sections were prepared later by sub-groups of participants. | ||
| Summary: | Hybridisation, mating and offspring production involving genetically differentiated populations, and introgression, the passage of genes from one genetically distinct population into another, are key processes in many models of speciation. They may occur in defined regions following secondary contact or as a result of local adaptation, in hybrid zones, or more broadly across species distributions. There may be a stable balance between hybridisation and selection or hybridisation may initiate the collapse of differentiation or the origin of new species. Differential introgression offers crucial insights into the role of selection during the evolution of reproductive isolation. With a sophisticated theoretical foundation developed in the last 30 years, recent technological advances now offer particularly exciting opportunities to study the consequences of hybridisation and so to advance understanding of the process of speciation. | ||
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| Title: | Niche theory and speciation | ||
| Date: | 29-31 August 2011 | ||
| Location: | Lake Balaton, Hungary | ||
| Main organizer: | Géza Meszéna (geza.meszena@elte.hu) | ||
| Other organizers: | Liz Pásztor, András Szilágyi, Gabriella Magyar, Ake Brännström, and Ulf Dieckmann | ||
| Number of participants: | 16 invited speakers; 50 participants | ||
| Program outline: | The program was developed interactively with the invited lecturers considering the abstract below as a point of departure. The speakers were approached to establish their favorite subject to lecture on as well as to hear about. | ||
| Summary: | The workshop's aim was to integrate theories of generation and maintenance of species diversity. The Darwinian idea for the origin of species connects divergence to weakening struggle for existence. It is inherently related to Darwin’s view on reduced competition between species with different roles in the economy of nature. In modern terms, Darwinian speciation is necessarily based on niche segregation. In particular, adaptation to different conditions (“habitats”) and to different resources can be seen as two complementary ways of reducing competition. This way, the different modes of speciation can be seen as different realizations of the same underlying phenomenon. Over the last decade robust empirical evidence has been accumulating on the mechanisms maintaining species coexistence and on frequency-dependent selection, ecological divergence as well as on sympatric speciation. We have invited people working on both the empirical and theoretical aspects of niche segregation, phenotypic evolution and genetics of speciation to develop connections between the ecological and genetic theories of speciation. | ||
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| Title: | Evolution of divergence and speciation models of specific systems | ||
| Date: | 3-6 August 2010 | ||
| Location: | Hólar University College, Hólar, Iceland | ||
| Main organizers: | Bjarni K. Kristjánsson (bjakk@holar.is), Skúli Skúlason (skuli@holar.is) | ||
| Other organizers: | Sigurður S. Snorrason, Åke Brännström, and Ulf Dieckmann | ||
| Number of participants: | 14 invited speakers; 40 participants | ||
| Program outline: | Program consisted of 30 min. presentations by invited speakers followed by ample time for discussion. Other participants were offered to present posters and to make short verbal presentations in special sessions. Special discussion periods were organized every day in a relaxed environment to ensure creative progress and output. An effort was made to connect individuals well and link across fields and study systems. | ||
| Summary: | Historically, ideas and models of speciation have focused on either allopatric or sympatric divergence. Recent advances in theoretical, ecological, molecular and developmental approaches have opened new and more detailed avenues for the understanding speciation processes. Systems where intra-specific morphs and populations exist are particularly useful for the study of speciation. Speciation models and empirical studies of specific systems were examined and compared. Firstly, the function of ecology was examined for phenotypic and reproductive divergence, along with reproductive styles and mating biology. Secondly, it was explored how genetic and environmental (plastic) mechanisms work and interact during divergence, e.g. at early stages of divergence and in the evolution of reproductive isolation. Thirdly, theoretical models that have been constructed in relation to specific systems were examined. The workshop has focused on specific verbal and theoretical models and empirical examples, reviewing recent advances in this field and comparing different systems of organisms to explore if new and common theoretical and empirical patterns are being realized. | ||
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Responsible for this page: Darina Zlatanova
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