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Encontro Anual cE3c 2018: Conferências Plenárias abertas ao público a 9 e 10 de julho!

22/06/2018. Texto por Marta Daniela Santos.

A edição de 2018 do Encontro Anual do cE3c realiza-se na Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, nos dias 9 e 10 de julho, e recebe como oradores plenários Raúl Bonal (Universidade de Extremadura, Espanha), Isabel Gordo (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal) e Nuno Lacasta (Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente).

Atualmente na sua quarta edição, o Encontro Anual do cE3c ‘Frontiers in E3’ regressa este ano à Faculdade de Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa, depois de em 2017 ter visitado a Universidade dos Açores, na Ilha de São Miguel, fomentando uma maior proximidade entre os colegas sediados nos Açores e em Lisboa. 

Embora o Encontro Anual seja um evento reservado aos investigadores do centro, que durante estes dois dias se dedicam a apresentar e discutir entre si os projetos mais recentes e a explorar colaborações, as Conferências Plenárias são abertas a todos os interessados. A entrada para as Conferências Plenárias é livre, sujeita à lotação da sala.

 

9 DE JULHO (SEGUNDA-FEIRA): sala 8.2.30 (Edifício C8, piso 2)

 

9h30 – 10h10: Understanding oak-animal ecological interactions for implementing biological pest management in dehesas/montados: new technological applications, por Raúl Bonal (School of Forest Engineering and Environment; Forest Research Group INDEHESA; University of Extremadura, Spain).

 

 

One of the major human challenges is to produce enough food for an increasing population in an environmentally friendly way. The so-called “ecological intensification” responds to this challenge and consists in taking profit of the services offered by certain organisms with quantifiable effects on the agroecosystems. In this talk I will explain how we are following this approach to increase the productivity of oak dehesas/montados with a livestock management aimed at reducing the impact of oak pests.

To apply ecological intensification in agroecosystem management it is essential to have a profound knowledge of the ecological interactions and trophic networks. We have assessed by long-term field monitoring and experimental approaches the negative effects of oak pests (i. e. acorn borer insects –mainly weevil larvae Coleoptera Curculionidae- and leaf-feeding caterpillars) on acorn production. Many species are, however, vulnerable to trampling and/or intraguild predation by large herbivores –wild ungulates and livestock- in those life-stages that they spend immobile the ground (i. e. larvae within prematurely dropped acorns or pupae among leaf-litter).

Intraguild predation by large-herbivores reduces acorn infestation rates by weevils and the presence of livestock also changes the abundance and community composition of leaf-feeding Lepidoptera. A grazing scheme that concentrated large herbivores on different sectors of the farms when insects are more vulnerable to predation could thus serve to reduce acorn predation rates by Curculio weevils. Moreover, using molecular markers to assess gene-flow among trees, we assessed that the dispersal abilities of weevils are limited, what would reduce the intensity of recolonization of those trees in which weevils numbers had been artificially reduced.

In our ongoing project we are going a step forward to upscale the significance and applicability of these results. We are relating multi- and hyper-spectral images taken by drone with fine measures of pest insect abundance, defoliation and acorn infestation rates in focal study trees. In addition, we are remotely tracking livestock (cows, pigs, goats and sheep) using GPS collars. Doing so we aim to re-analyse the relationship between pest abundance and livestock presence using the same georeferenced system at the scale of whole dehesa/montados rangelands. Our final goal is to develop a potential grazing scheme (intensity and calendar) as a tool to mitigate oak pests.

 

14h00 – 14h40: Epistasis and the Fate Resistant Bacteria Across Environments, por Isabel Gordo (Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência, Portugal).

 

 

The fate of antibiotic resistant strains depends heavily on their fitness effects in a given environment. It also depends on which genetic background a resistance mutation arises and on how fast potential costs of resistance can be ameliorated. While in the 20th century antibiotics were very successful, the remarkable ability of bacteria to evolve turned the past success into a 21st century challenging problem. Multiple resistant bacteria are much more common than desired and lowering their levels or even eradicating them is a current demand. Many resistance mechanisms are conserved across bacteria as their are changes on the essential functions that sustain their fitness. Thus by studying the fundaments of these special pool and how they compensate for specific changes that alter core functions one can understand bacterial growth. The key environment for one of the most studied bacteria is the human intestine. I will present results that can contribute to understand why multiple resistance is such a pain and propose a path towards lowering it.Hopefully such knowledge can give us a future head start "to replace the harmful microbes by useful ones" (E. Metchnikoff. Optimistic Studies, 1908).

 

10 DE JULHO (TERÇA-FEIRA): sala 8.2.30 (Edifício C8, piso 2)

9h30 – 10h10: Climate Change Policy in Portugal, por Nuno Lacasta (Agência Portuguesa do Ambiente).

To be announced.

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