1st Announcement & call for abstracts
The 21th Sede Boqer Symposium in memory of Merav Ziv
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev, Sede Boqer Campus
June 18, 2020
Adaptive responses to human-induced rapid environmental changes
Human activities such as urbanization and intensive agriculture have led to rapid changes in organisms, including adaptive behavioral responses, hybridization and even speciation. These responses to human-induced rapid environmental changes (HIREC) vary in relation to ecological context, sex, life history and phenology of the organisms. One important aspect of HIREC is pollution. While the effects of chemical pollution in the soil, air and water have been studied for decades, recently other sources of pollution, such as light, noise and odor pollution have been documented to have dramatic effects on communication and behavioral patterns in a wide range of taxa. Nevertheless, due to existing genetic variation or phenotypic plasticity within a population some individuals may cope better with human-imposed environmental changes than others. Thus, anthropogenic disturbances may favor certain traits within a population and the establishment of modified or new behavioral patterns.
In this symposium we aim to shed light on possible adaptive behavioral responses of various organisms to human-induced rapid environmental changes (and in particular, to various forms of pollution) and discuss their effects on individual fitness and population genetic architecture.
Guest Speaker: Prof. John Swaddle, College of William & Mary, Williamsburg, VA
https://jpswad.people.wm.edu/
Merav Ziv Symposia website: http://in.bgu.ac.il/en/bidr/SIDEER/MDDE/MZ/Pages/default.aspx
