News from the Oceania Pollinator Initiative
Upcoming meetings & events
Past research meetings
Southern Connection Congress
Dates: 21 - 25th January 2013
Location:
University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.
Southern Connection links scientists interested in the natural sciences across the Southern Hemisphere. To date topics have included biogeography, ecology, conservation, ecophysiology, invasions, ethnography, phylogenetics, phylogeography and Earth and ocean processes. The aim is to learn from shared and divergent biotas and cultures, and their histories in different lands and oceans, in order to contribute solutions to sustaining species and ecosystem services.
Symposium 23: Pollination systems-Diversity and disturbance in the Southern Lands
Contact: Caroline L. Gross
Pollination services are a key ecosystem function. In this symposium, the variety of pollination services in the lands of the southern hemisphere is explored against that theme of vulnerability and resilience. Disturbances are many and include habitat fragmentation, changing climates, introduced plants and floral visitors – all of which can reduce effective population sizes in some species and create opportunities for others. In the face of these things, pollinator networks are a tool to gauge the irreplaceability of partnerships and they provide rules for the reassembly of species into ecosystems that require repairing. The intricate details of the plant-pollinator relationship are key knowledge requirements for the conservation ecology of natural and managed landscapes and the aim of this symposium is to explain the biology and ecology of pollination systems in the Southern Lands.
Symposium on Pollination at the XXII International Congress on Sexual Plant Reproduction
Date: 13th February 2012
Location:University of Melbourne
OPI strategy meeting
Oceania Pollinator Initiative Meeting was held on February 13th at the University of Melbourne.
Attendees: Caroline Gross, Linda Newstrom-Lloyd, Saul Cunningham, Glenda Wardle, Tony, Laura Vary.
The group discussed ways of enhancing collaboration through the website.
Symposium presentations: Pollination for Sustainable Ecosystems
Chairs: Caroline Gross and Linda Newstrom-Lloyd
- Pollination ecology for sustainable ecosystems: three key issues for action
Gross, CL (Australia) - Diverse native assemblages contribute to sustaining pollinator services
Wardle GM, Popic AJ and Davila YC (Australia) - Insect pollination of crops in Australia: understanding the present and navigating the future
Cunningham SA (Australia) - Bee pollination of vegetable crops in enclosures
Dag A (Israel) - Florivory reduces seed set of nectar rich Crotalaria cunninghamii in arid Australia
Popic AJ, Wardle GM and Davila YC (Australia) - Improving pollinator security in New Zealand
Newstrom-Lloyd L (New Zealand) - Pollen parent effects on fruit attributes of Actinidia chinensis (kiwifruit) seedlings
Seal AG, Dunn JK, De Silva HN, McGhie A and Lunken RCM (New Zealand) - Using pollinator networks for the restoration of endangered ecological communities
Vary LB and Gross CL (Australia)
Postgraduate Workshop in Pollination Ecology
Dates: 17-20 October 2010
Location: Mt Hyland Wilderness Retreat, northern NSW
A group of Australian pollination ecologists gathered for several days of research presentations, discussions, field trips and demonstration of pollination biology techniques. A small but enthusiastic group included: scientists: Caroline Gross (University of New England), Glenda Wardle (University of Sydney) , Susan Hoebee (University of La Trobe), Ross Goldingay (Southern Cross University, Brisbane) and students: Penny Nelson (University of New England ), Steve Chivers (UNE), Tony Popick (U Sydney), Scott Groom, (Flinders Univ, South Australia), .and Emma MacIntosh (University of Sydney).
Eastern Spinebill in Grevillea beadleana
The group
Techniques: video equipment and methods, Susan Hoebee talked about genetic work using microsatellites, good discussion about gene flow, two fantastic walks on to the top of Mount Hyland, and one to Guy Fawkes National Park where the photo of the Eastern Spinebill was taken in the canopy of a flowering Grevillea beadleana.
INTECOL 2009
Date: 16th-21st August 2009
Location:
Brisbane, Australia
Pollination – The Ecology of Ecosystem Services, Pollinator Declines and Monitoring. Co-chairs Dr Caroline Gross (UNE) & Dr Linda Newstrom-Lloyd (Landcare Research NZ).
Pacific Science Intercongress
Dates: 2nd-6th March 2009
Location: Tahiti
Pacific Science Intercongress. Papers presented in Ecosystems, Biodiversity and Sustainable development. We held an OPI meeting as a side event at this conference.
Ecological Society of Australia conference
Dates: 1st-5th December 2008
Location: Sydney, Australia
Ecological Society of Australia. Symposium organizers, Drs Glenda Wardle, Yvonne Davila and Simone Simpson, Pollination Interactions. Contact Yvonne Davila [y.davila@usyd.edu.au] and Simone Simpson [ssimposn@une.edu.au] for more information.