Das Graduiertenkolleg RESPONSE („Biological Responses to Novel and Changing Environments“; www.uni-greifswald.de/RESPONSE/) an der Universität Greifswald war Gastgeber des 21. Graduiertentreffens der Fachgruppe Evolutionsbiologie, welches in diesem Jahr als gemeinsames Treffen mit der Fachgruppe Ökologie ausgerichtet wurde. Die Organisation des Treffens lag in Händen von Klaus Fischer, Lisa Lehnen, Pierick Mouginot, Elisabeth Reimer, Michael Schöner und Amanda Wiesenthal. Die Veranstaltung begann am Abend des 06.03.2016 mit einer „Icebreaker-Party“ in der Jugendherberge Greifswald, welche regen Zuspruch fand und viel Gelegenheit zu ersten Gesprächen und gegenseitigem Kennerlernen bot.

Das wissenschaftliche Programm des Treffens startete am Morgen des 07.03.2016 und endete am 09.03.2016 um 12.00 Uhr. Schwerpunktthema der Veranstaltung waren „Responses to Environmental Change“. Zum Themenkomplex Lokalanpassungen hielt Prof. Luc de Meester (KU Leuven) einen exzellenten Hauptvortrag mit dem Titel „Rapid local genetic adaptation to environmental change and its impact on communities and ecosystems – water fleas in action“. Der zweite eingeladene Redner war Prof. Jean Clobert (CNRS Moulis), welcher einen ebenso hervorragenden Vortrag zum Thema „Dispersal, global warming and the pace of life“ präsentierte.

Mit insgesamt 106 Teilnehmerinnen und Teilnehmern von 24 verschiedenen Institutionen aus dem In- und Ausland war das Treffen ausgesprochen gut besucht. 28 Nachwuchswissenschaftler/innen nutzten die Gelegenheit, ihre Forschungen in Kurzvorträgen zu präsentieren. Hinzu kamen 18 Poster, welche während der Poster-Session am Montagabend ausgiebig studiert und diskutiert wurden. Bemerkenswert war das durchweg sehr hohe Niveau der Beiträge. Am Dienstagnachmittag bestand die Gelegenheit, an einer Exkursion teilzunehmen, was von ca. 50 Teilnehmenden wahrgenommen wurde. Wir besuchten zunächst das Kieshofer Moor, wo wir Seeadler und Kraniche beobachten konnten. Anschließend ging es weiter zur Boddenküste, wo sich viele verschiedene Wasservogelarten zeigten. Am Abend stand dann ein gemeinsames Abendessen in der Brasserie Hermann auf dem Programm.

Programm 21. Graduiertentreffen der DZG-Fachgruppen Evolutionsbiologie und Ökologie

Topic: Phenotypic Plasticity
Date: 14-18 September 2015, Greifswald

Our RESPONSE Summer School (September 14^th to 18^th 2015) was a big success: During the five days of the “International Summer School on Phenotypic Plasticity” RESPONSE PhD candidates, associated doctoral researchers, and young scientists from other universities were able to broaden and deepen their knowledge on phenotypic plasticity.

On the first day the participants of the summer school were in the center of attention. On this Young Investigator’s Meeting the participants could present and discuss their research projects, the progress they made, but also the problems they were faced with, e.g., during their field work. One important experience was that many people were faced with similar problems but all were able to solve them. Most of the RESPONSE candidates will now start with the first data analyses, so the date for this Young Investigator’s Day and the whole Summer School seemed to be perfect. The audience was also very impressed by the talk of Dennis Meuthen who is conducting a PhD thesis about causes and consequences of antipredator phenotypic plasticity in a cichlid fish at the University of Bonn. Another guest, Rita Fragueira, came from Strasbourg to participate in the Summer School. A barbecue during which all participants and the invited speakers could get in contact and share their experiences completed the evening. Noteworthy, the program and the barbecue had mostly been organized by the PhD students themselves.

On Tuesday we were happy to introduce several experts in the field of Phenotypic Plasticity. The first keynote speaker was our spokesman Klaus Fischer who talked about “Adaptive phenotypic plasticity and plasticity as an adaptation”. Klaus Fischer started with a definition and a historical review of the term “phenotypic plasticity”. He also covered important issues such as how phenotypic plasticity corresponds to reaction norms, how it is induced, and whether these traits have to be seen as adaptive or as adaptations.
Robby Stoks from the Katholieke University of Leuven continued with a talk entitled “Evolutionary and plastic responses of freshwater invertebrates to climate change: realized patterns and future potential”. He gave a very interactive talk where different potential responses to climate change were presented and exemplified with case studies. Moreover, he introduced methods to determine genetic and plastic change.
After a lunch buffet Luis Gimenez and Gabriela Torres, two researchers from the Bangor University in Wales talked about “Phenotypic links in marine invertebrates”. Both are currently conducting research on the island of Helgoland where they use crustaceans as model systems to analyze maternal effects, developmental plasticity, and carry-over effects. Their talks provided us with deeper insights into the effects of environmental conditions on marine biology.
The highlight of the day was Fernando Valladares from the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales, Spain, and his talk in which he raised the question “Why do not all plants exhibit maximal phenotypic plasticity”. Fernando Valladares talked about plasticity and acclimation, showed that it is not individuals but traits that are plastic, explained the global impacts of phenological changes, the limits and costs of plasticity, and what this means for ecological models.
In the evening we met at the restaurant “Fischer-Hütte” in Wieck, the old fishermen’s village of Greifswald.

During the next three days the participants of the summer school were trained in specific courses. The first course dealt with “Approaches to quantify phenotypic plasticity (calculations, indices)” and was held by Jürgen Kreyling, Sebastien Puechmaille & Fernando Valladares. On the second day Martin Haase taught the young researchers how to measure “Geometric Morphometrics” in theory and in the lab. In the evening we met in the restaurant “Alter Fritz”, which was at the same time the farewell party because on the next day Michaël Beualieu and Kristin Franke held the last course where the students learned methods for “Measuring protein expression” in theory and in practice.
We look back to a week of intensive training by which we gained a lot more knowledge. Once again we got to know each other better and could increase our social networks.

Programme of the International Summer School 2015

From Sunday, 26^th until Tuesday, 28^th April, 2015 our first RESPONSE Introductory Workshop took place in Haus Kranich, Zinnowitz on the island of Usedom. With 35 participants, including all doctoral researchers, four associated doctoral researchers, all PIs and most of the Co-PIs we had a very successful and constructive meeting. Additionally, the invited guest speakers Luis-Miguel Chevin, University Montpellier, and Jacintha Ellers with her PhD student Oscar Franken, both University Amsterdam, joint this workshop.

The workshop started with a cordial welcome by the spokesperson Klaus Fischer. Afterwards, the coordinator Michael Schöner introduced the city of Greifswald and the Ernst-Moritz-Arndt University to the audience and Klaus Fischer gave a talk on causes and consequences of environmental change. The highlight of the first day was the talk of Jacintha Ellers about trait plasticity in species interactions and the driving force of plasticity for community dynamics under global warming. The end of the official part of this first day was another talk of Klaus Fischer who this time presented the aims and organization of the GRK 2010 RESPONSE. The evening ended with an Icebreaker Party where all participants used the opportunity to get to know each other better.

The second day of the workshop was divided into two parts. During the morning session Gabriele Uhl gave an overview about statistics, which was complemented by Jürgen Kreyling’s talk how to design experiments and a presentation of Martin Schnittler about data handling with Microsoft Excel. Sébastien Puechmaille completed this methodological introduction with a presentation on data archiving and analyses especially with R. After the lunch break all doctoral researchers of Cluster A (genetic adaptation, phenotypic plasticity) presented and discussed the aims and scope of their research projects. The invited speaker Luis-Miguel Chevin finally talked about adaptation, plasticity and extinction in a changing world. The evening became quite sportive with a table tennis tournament. However, to “Beat the Silverbacks” was more difficult for the young researchers than they initially had thought and in the end Gerald Kerth won the match.

On the last day the doctoral researchers (this time of Cluster B: Migration) continued to present their research proposals. In the afternoon Christian Müller and Gerald Kerth talked about safety rules during lab and field work and Christian Müller gave another talk about the legal and ethical instructions on animal experiments. Finally, Jacintha Ellers, Gerlien Verhaegen and Mario Trouillier were elected for the executive board of RESPONSE.