November 18-30 two courses for PhD students and young scientists are taking place at the Lovén Centre with the theme marine evolutionary biology. The first course took place at Kristineberg and this week there is one course taking place at Tjärnö. The courses are popular, and the participants have travelled to Sweden from all over the world.
The Linnaeus Centre for Marine Evolutionary Biology (CeMEB) is hosting the two courses. The 20 students at the Lovén Centre Kristineberg during last week had in common that they, in their research, are studying organisms’ adaptation to changes in the environment. They work with very different organisms and the studies ranges from cellular mechanisms to behavioral studies. At Kristineberg they had lectures and discussions that gave them an opportunity to exchange experiences and thoughts on changes in the environment and adaptation thereafter, and how this best can be studied. What species will survive in the future? Stressors such as elevated ocean temperature, hypoxia and ocean acidification were some of the factors discussed. The participants were divided into groups and during Friday each group presented a proposal for a future research question. The winning group will be able to return to Kristineberg and do additional experiments.
This week, another CeMEB-course is taking place at Tjärnö. The theme is marine genomics and has to do with how you with new techniques can study evolution and changes from a genetic perspective. Genomics is the science about organisms’ total set of genes and how it can be studied. The techniques that are connected to this, at the moment expanding research field, enables to answer the question on how the total gene set is affected by changes in the environment. Or how we already today can read the impact on different marine organisms in certain exposed areas? The course gives the students a theoretic and practical overview of the tools and methods that are available today to study evolution on a genetic level.
– It is very fun and inspiring that so many skilled international students with projects related to the marine environment has come here to attend these two CeMEB-courses at the University’s marine stations. Hopefully they will return with new knowledge, contacts and suggestions for projects where they can use the latest techniques in genomics to, with the highest resolution possible, study changes in the ocean. Many of these students will for sure be tomorrows preeminent researchers in marine questions, says Anders Blomberg, course leader for the course at Tjärnö and vice deputy for CeMEB.
There has been a big interest for the courses and the participants have travelled from Norway, Denmark, Finland, Germany, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, USA, Brazil and different parts of Sweden. Both courses are financed by the Royal Academy of Sweden.
The Linnaeus Centre for Marine Evolutionary Biology, CeMEB, is a Centre within the University of Gothenburg that studies evolution in the ocean. CeMEB gathers researchers from many different areas and contributes to new knowledge of species adaptation to changes in the environment.
Teachers at the course at Kristineberg:
Sam Dupont (University of Gothenburg)
Pierre de Witt (University of Gothenburg)
Piero Calosi (Plymouth Marine Laboratory)
Narimane Dorey (University of Gothenburg)
Geraldine Fauville (University of Gothenburg)
Teachers at the course at Tjärnö:
Christopher Wheat (Stockholm University)
Carl André (University of Gothenburg)
Anders Blomberg (University of Gothenburg)
Kerstin Johannesson (University of Gothenburg)
Marina Panova (University of Gothenburg)
Mark Ravinet (University of Gothenburg)
Pierre De Wit (University of Gothenburg)
Sara Bourlat (University of Gothenburg)
Mats Töpel (University of Gothenburg)
PHOTO: students and teachers at the course at Kristineberg