Adrian Glover,  Deep-Sea Systematics and Ecology Group, Department of Life Sciences

Wednesday 28 January 11:00

Sir Neil Chalmers seminar room, Darwin Centre LG16 (below Attenborough studio)

The deep oceans contain a vast and untapped wealth of minerals useful to humans. In geological terms, there is much known with regard the distribution of these minerals at different types of deep-sea environment. The first polymetallic (or manganese) nodules were recovered by the Challenger expedition in 1873, in the deep Atlantic. In the 1960s, the first estimates were made of the total mineral wealth of the oceans, and the first surveys undertaken. In 1978, the first fully integrated mining trials recovered several hundred tonnes of nodules from the central abyssal Pacific at depths of 5500m; in the preceding year, hydrothermal vents were discovered on the Galapagos rift. Since then, an average of 5 hydrothermal vent fields have been discovered every year, and 19 exploration licences for deep-sea minerals in both abyssal nodule and deep-sea vent environments have been issued by the United Naitons International Seabed Authority, 5 of these in 2014 alone. The United Kingdom government is sponsor to 2 exploration licence claims in the central Pacifc covering 267,000 square km, an area larger thant the UK itself.

Despite our accumulated knowledge of the mineral wealth of deep-sea ecosystems, our biological data remains extremely patchy. The central Pacific nodule regions have been well-sampled for nodules, but the majority of species are undescribed and fundamental questions such as the biogeographic distributions of animals unstudied. The diversity and ecological resilience of species to disturbance regimes are largely untested. At hydrothermal vents, critical data such as degrees of endemicity and gene-flow between vent fields is lacking.

The NHM is in a unique position to provide advice to industry and government, as well as academic research, in deep-sea mining from both the geological and environmental point of view. This has potential to be a key area in our Sustainable Futures strategy. In my research group, we have been working with an industrial contractor on the UK-1 deep-sea mining claim in the central Pacific for the last 18 months and are part of an EU FP7 deep-sea mining project. In this talk I will outline some of the history of deep-sea mining, the fundamental science at stake, our role in current projects, the importance of taxonomy, open data and bioinformatics and some of our plans for our forthcoming fieldwork (we sail for a 2-month trip on Feb 12).

More information on attending seminars at http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/news-events/seminars/

Pavel Pechácek & David Stella,  Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic

Friday 21 November 11:00

Sir Neil Chalmers seminar room, Darwin Centre LG16 (below Attenborough studio)

The males of the Brimstone butterfly (Gonepteryx rhamni) have ultraviolet patterns on the dorsal surfaces of their wings. Using geometric morphometrics, we have analysed correlations between environmental variables (climate, productivity) and shape variability of the ultraviolet pattern and the forewing in specimens of Palaearctic butterflies. Using principal component analysis (PCA) precipitation, temperature, latitude correlated with shape variation of the ultraviolet patterns across the Palaearctic region. We observed a systematic increase in the relative area of ultraviolet colouration with increasing temperature and precipitation and decreasing latitude. We conclude that the variation in shape of ultraviolet patterns on the forewings of male Brimstone butterflies is correlated with large-scale environmental factors.

More information on attending seminars at http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/news-events/seminars/

Arthropod specimens and genome skimming: Extracting a large panel of diet, symbiotic and phylogenomic information

Benjamin Linard, Department of Life Sciences, NHM

Wednesday 15 October 1100

Sir Neil Chalmers seminar room, Darwin Centre LG16 (below Attenborough studio)

Genome skimming (GS) is the shallow sequencing of the DNA extracted from pooled specimens. This approach was successfully tested on plants to extract simultaneously chloroplast / mitochondria / rRNAs and nuclear markers for phylogenomics and ecological studies. We previously produced insect specimen pools, initially to generate hundreds of complete mitochondria but also skimming the nuclear genomes of the specimens and their gut content. We will describe here the promising potential of GS when applied to arthropods.

In particular, we will show: (1) how trophic interaction between aphid preys, ladybirds (Coccinellini specimens) and associated symbiont can be skimmed from gut contents; (2) why a large panel of DNA markers (mitochondria, coding regions, repeats) are systematically leachable from insect pools through GS; (3) why applying GS to field collected material could extend our knowledge of insect genome evolution and uncover several ecological messages.

More information on attending seminars at http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/news-events/seminars/

Margaret Cawsey, Curator of Data, Australian National Wildlife Collection, CSIRO

Friday 4 July 11:00

Sir Neil Chalmers seminar room, Darwin Centre LG16 (below Attenborough studio)

Specimen-based collection records from museums and herbaria are often regarded as a more authoritative basis for research than observational assertions. Through the Atlas of Living Australia (www.ala.org.au), Australian collections have a centralised venue for sharing their biodiversity data on a large scale. *3.3 million collection records are brought together with a variety of tools that enable researchers to select, interrogate, map and analyse these data. Scientists are taking advantage of the increasing accessibility and large numbers of these records to enhance their research - illustrative examples are presented. Advantage also accrues to collections, in that the value of their data to researchers, policy-makers, environmental managers and the community at large is demonstrated by data download statistics. The Atlas also provides tools for researchers to communicate with curators, in effect permitting collections to crowd-source the expert identification of data errors, facilitating rapid correction.

(*3.1 million have locational coordinates)

More information on attending seminars at http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/news-events/seminars/

Nora Castañeda

International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)

Friday 27 June 11:00

Sir Neil Chalmers seminar room, Darwin Centre LG16 (below Attenborough studio)

Crop wild relatives (CWR) are increasingly used in breeding due to unique traits that are transferable thanks to their genetic closeness to cultivated species. Despite their importance, they are underrepresented in ex situ genebanks and threats such as land use and climate change may jeopardize their survival in their natural habitats. As part of the Project "Adapting Agriculture to Climate Change: Collecting, Protecting and Preparing the Crop Wild Relatives", we have prioritized taxa requiring urgent collection for ex situ conservation and mapped the distributions of near 1000 crop wild relatives, finding patterns of species richness globally.

More information on attending seminars at http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/news-events/seminars/

Ellie Adamson,   Department of Life Sciences, NHM

Wednesday 11 June 11:00

Earth Sciences (Mineralogy) Seminar Room, Basement, WEB 05

Freshwater habitats in tropical Asia are home to many interesting endemic freshwater fishes. Their diversification history is frequently explained in terms of eustacy and past river geomorphology.

This talk will discuss vicariant patterns in fishes across freshwater habitats from India to Wallace’s line, based on the distribution of their genetic diversity. In particular, I’ll focus on the biogeography of snakeheads and gouramis.

More information on attending seminars at http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/news-events/seminars/

Jairo Patiño, Department of Biology, Ecology and Evolution, Liege University

Friday 9 May 11:00

Sir Neil Chalmers seminar room, Darwin Centre LG16 (below Attenborough studio)

Oceanic island biotas are typically characterized by high levels of endemism and a suite of specific life-history traits known as island syndromes. Low levels of genetic diversity and limited dispersal capacities of island lineages have driven the view that oceanic islands are evolutionary dead-ends.

Here, we demonstrate the role of oceanic islands as dynamic platforms for the assembly of entire continental biotas in organisms with high dispersal capacities, using bryophyte species as a model. Based on an Approximate Bayesian Computation framework, we show that the patterns of genetic variation were consistently more similar with those simulated under a scenario of de novo foundation of continental populations from insular ancestors than with those expected if islands would represent a sink or a refugium of continental biodiversity.

The dominant pattern of continental colonization from islands reported here suggests that the Macaronesian archipelagos have played a key role as stepping-stones, transforming trans-continental migrants into new endemic species before they eventually ended their colonization road in a new continental environment.

For additional details on attending this or other seminars see http://www.nhm.ac.uk/research-curation/seminars-events/index.htm