26.10.12

Our Lab supports Open Access

Even if we have difficulties to afford it, at current prices...

Have a look at this video that explains, with cunning and humour, the why's and how's of Open Access Journals

Rats resistant to control


A still-ongoing study reported in BBC News and Science Daily shows that repeated control using rodenticides (such as Bromadiolone and Difenacoum) is causing the evolution of resistance in rats: up to 75% of rats in Bristol, Gloucestershire and Wiltshire (UK) had built up a resistance. Besides representing a telling example of real-time evolution, these results suggest that traditional approaches to pest control may - by ignoring evolutionary processes, backfire and promote further the invasion process (as bites become food for resistant rat individuals and  rodenticides harm their predators).

Rats are the most ubiquitous invasive species on insular ecosystems, being present in almost 90% of the world's islands. At the LSE, the PhD thesis of Lucía Latorre focuses on the impact and management of "invasion complexes", groups of co-occurring invasive species that establish positive or negative inter-relations (e.g., as predator and prey - such as black rats and feral cats). We'll keep you updated of her results.

16.10.12

In Brussels, for a meeting of the BiodiversityKnowledge Project

Luis Santamaría is in Brussels, for a meeting of the BiodiversityKnowledge Project.

The Laboratory of Spatial Ecology participates in the project, bringing in its expertise in collaborative adaptive management. At this point, we are actively engaged in the Marine Biodiversity case study, which incorporates a comparative use of the three methodologies outlines in the NoK protocol (expert assessment, systematic review and collaborative adaptive management).

11.10.12

Pablo Guitian joins us to complete the sampling of Coastal Juniper at Cabrera Archipelago

Pablo Guitian joined us last week to complete the sampling of the last populations of Coastal Juniper (Juniperus phoenicea turbinata) at Conillera Islet, Cabrera Archipelago, and desitgn the autumn-winter survey and experiments of project GENSABINA.

Conillera's terrein was about the roughest we encountered to date at the islands, but we enjoyed the great weather, the calmed sea - and the early bloom of a few individuals of Narcisus tazetta.

Asier and Pablo georeferencing Coastal Junipers at Conillera. Behind are the L'Esponga, Na Plana, Na Pobra and Na Foradada Islets and, far away, the highest peaks of Mallorca's Tramuntana Mountains.