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This will be hands on informal workshop/practical on analyzing CTFS (Centre for Tropical Forest Science) data. Read the paper Chisholm et al., 2014, Temporal variability of forest communities: empirical estimates of population change in 4000 tree species, Ecology Letters, before coming to the workshop.

Large-scale data sets and sophisticated quantitative techniques are improving our understanding of forest dynamics globally. This talk will focus on the results of two Center for Tropical Forest Science cross-site analyses addressing two key questions: (1) What drives variation in tree species diversity in time and space? and (2) How does tree species diversity relate to ecosystem function? I will then continue on the species diversity theme by giving an overview of two new theoretical models we are developing: the first seeks to explain plant species diversity on small islands; the second provides estimates of undetected species extinction rates in Singapore and across the world in recent centuries. I will conclude with a discussion of the future of quantitative ecology research in Asia.

Darwin was troubled by elaborate male traits observed in many species that are seemingly maladaptive for survival, the peacock's tail being the most iconic of all. He wrote "The sight of a feather in a peacock's tail, whenever I gaze at it, makes me sick" because it challenged his theory of evolution by natural selection for adaptive traits. The extreme length of the tail may render a peacock more vulnerable to predation and therefore maladaptive for survival. He hypothesized that peahens may find the tail attractive thus enhancing male mating success. This idea led to the theory of sexual selection, wherein, traits that directly enhance mating success may be selected for, either through male-male competition for mates or through female-mate preference for elaborate male traits.

Male and female elephants in the proboscidean evolutionary radiation have had tusks and show extreme exaggeration in size and form. However, tusk in the Asian elephant (Elephas maximus) is sexually dimorphic as it is expressed only in the males, hinting at a possibility that opposing selection (sexual selection advantage to males and natural selection disadvantage to females) may have been the processes behind this pattern of tusk expression. Intriguingly, tuskless males (male dimorphism with respect to tusk) also occur at fairly high frequencies in some Asian elephant populations.

I hypothesized that sexual selection and artificial selection
(selective removal of tusked males from wild populations) on elephant tusks as possible mechanisms leading to the observed patterns of tusk dimorphism. I used mathematical models of population genetics, population dynamics, demography data and behavioural observations of wild Asian elephants in Kaziranga National Park, Assam, in an attempt to understand the evolution of tusk dimorphism in elephants.

Animals provide a diverse array of habitats for microorganisms to colonise, and virtually all animals form symbiotic relationships with one or more microbial species. One group of “host” animals that houses a particularly diverse and abundant community of bacteria and other microorganisms is the marine sponges. Microbes comprise as much as 40% of “sponge” volume and can contribute significantly to host metabolism. The remarkable diversity and host specificity of these symbionts, coupled with the presumed ancientness of the sponge-microbe association, makes sponges an important system for the study of marine host-microbe interactions. I will present my group’s research on the microbial ecology of sponges, emphasizing how recent advances in DNA sequencing technologies have provided exciting new insights into how these complex associations are maintained. I will also touch upon some of our recent research into the microbiota of other host organisms, including the critically endangered New Zealand kakapo parrot and aspects of the human microbiome.

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Current extinction rates are far higher than natural background extinction rates, largely due to anthropogenic threats. However, our ability to recover species from the edge of extinction is also better than it ever was. Using examples from around the world, I will review the main threats facing the world’s most threatened bird species and assess the most important methods to stem the tide of extinction. I will also assess how much preventing extinction costs, and show that it is remarkably cheap.

Social insects are remarkable for their efficient social organization which is achieved through a fine balance between cooperation and conflict. The cooperative social unit, a colony, is put to a crisis when the queen is lost, which is rescued only after a new queen takes over the colony. My thesis is focused on the potential reproductive conflicts associated with queen succession in the primitively social wasp *Ropalidia marginata*, and proximate behavioural mechanisms contributing towards resolution of this conflict. We started by characterizing the natural phenomenon and then went
on to experimentally induce conflict to create situations that might lead to the queen succession in these colonies. We could show that, although
there is a lack of apparent conflict over reproduction, there is underlying reproductive conflict which can be uncovered by careful
experimental manipulation, and can be resolved by the colony members. This work has provided valuable insights to understand the maintenance of
functional integrity of the colony organization in this species.

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