2021: Prague Conference

had to be cancelled due to the current COVID 19 Pandemic

Please visit the conference web site for details: www.soctropecol-conference.eu

Conferences

Our annual conference provides an international platform for the exchange of current scientific ideas and helps promote the establishment of collaborations between members and attending guests.

Virtual General Assembly 2021

Dear members of the gtoe,

Due to the cancellation of the annual meeting in Prague 2021, the 34th general assembly of the gtö will take place on 02. February 2021 via Zoom. We are also happy to announce that we will have a virtual plenary talk by Katerina Sam, Czech Academy of Sciences and University of South Bohemia, prior to the general assembly.

The specific link will be circulated one week prior to the event.

Program for the 34th general assembly

14:00 - 15:00 (MEZ, UTC +1) Talk by Katerina Sam, Czech Academy of Sciences and University of South Bohemia, Czech Republic

15:00 - 17:00 (MEZ, UTC + 1) Virtual general assembly

Please also consult our 46th news letter for details on the agenda.

The talk will highlight Dr. Sam's experimental research on on plant - herbivore - predator food webs from tropical to temperate forest ecosystems

 

Fifty shades of green alias where do the predators keep the plants flourish?

It is well recognized that predators can enhance plant growth by reducing herbivore abundance. Yet the strength of such trophic cascades has been found to be quite variable both within and between communities. Moreover, effects of various taxa were usually summed within the effect of “predators” thus it remains unclear which predators and where might control trophic cascades. Even less know is the indirect effect of presence of predators on the changes in feeding behaviour of herbivores and its impact on pl ants. We hypothesise that birds, bats and ants are important predators of arthropods, which further affect plant growth directly and indirectly. However, their relative importance may differ along large (latitudinal) gradients due to changes in their richness and abundance and productivity of the environment. For similar reasons, we also expect that the importance of predators differs in forest canopies and understories, as productivity and trophic levels are predicted to be higher in the canopies. To find out where top - down forces control food webs, we run predator exclosure experiments along latitudinal and vertical gradient(s). We exclude ants, birds, and/or bats separately and in combinations from saplings and from branches in forest canopies and run smaller experiments in laboratories to identify the direct and indirect effect of predators on lower trophic levels. We further investigate various plant defences, which are inevitably shaping the interactions via bottom up control and we fit our findings into a big picture of a global meta-analysis of similar studies during which predators were excluded. We discuss that stable arthropod populations are maintained by natural enemies of various importance along gradients and that disruption of communities of natural enemies often, but not always, result into significantly increased abundances of insect, increased herbivorous damage and into changes in leaf traits.

We look forward to welcoming you. 

Your gtoe team

 

Cancellation of the "European Conference of Tropical Ecology" in Leipzig due to Corona pandemic

Dear members of the gtoe,

We are very sorry to inform you that we have to cancel the nex European Conference of Tropical Ecology scheduled to be hold  in Prague. Please see more details below in a letterfrom the President of the Society for Tropical Ecology, Pierre-Michel Forget.

Announcement of the president of the Society for Tropical Ecology: Download as PDF

Kind regards,

gtoe team

 

 Past Meeting: European Conference of Tropical Ecology 2019

Joint Meeting of the Society for Tropical Ecology (gtö) and the British Ecological Society Tropical Ecology Group (BESTEG). #UTE2019

Joint BES/gtö Symposium – Unifying Tropical Ecology: Strengthening collaborative science

The European Conference of Tropical Ecology aims to connect researchers at all levels of their career and from all disciplines relevant to tropical ecology, and to promote scientific exchanges and cooperation in a friendly atmosphere...

Visit conference webpage

 

NEW - Student Travel Grants of the Society for Tropical Ecology

The Society for Tropical Ecology (gtö) will grant TRAVEL GRANTS of 200 EUR to participate in the annual meetings of the gtoe. With this contribution, the society would  like to provide support to participants in need of securing their travel cost. If you would like to apply for a travel grant, please register and submit an abstract at the conference webpage and also send the abstract, a short motivation letter, a budget calculation, your CV and one brief recommendation letter to the Travel Grant Selection Committee (email: travelgrant@soctropecol.eu,).

Deadline for submissions is the 15. February 2020. As soon as your abstract has been accepted by the conference organizers, the committee will select up to 25 students that will receive a travel grant. Students eligible to apply will need to:

• be a student member (BSc, MSc or PhD) of the Society for Tropical Ecology (gtö)

• be the first author of the conference contribution (poster or talk)

• be personally present at the venue

For any questions regarding the travel grants, please contact:

Dr. Simone Pfeiffer
e-mail:  spfeiff(a)gwdg.de 

We are also very happy to announce our future conference locations for the upcoming years!

  • 2021: Prague, Czech Republic
  • 2022: Leipzig, Germany (moved from 2020 due to the Covid19 pandemic)
  • 2023: Lisbon, Portugal

 

Carbon Neutral Conferences

The gtö-conferences are planned as Carbon Neutral Conferences. Carbon neutrality will be achieved by sequestrating the amount of CO2 which is released in the air mainly by energy consumption and mobility of the participants of the gtö-conference. With PRIMAKLIMA e.V. we have found a reliable partner to calculate the CO2-emissions caused by the conference. PRIMAKLIMA e.V. guarantees with a fulfillment factor of five to compensate the emissions from the conference by afforestation and forest conservation projects all over the world. Participants of the conference can take their personal share and contribute to mitigate global climate change by paying a voluntary CO2-fee of 15.00 €. We think this is a good investment.