Symposium number: 24

Title: THE PHYSIOLOGY OF LIFE-HISTORIES: COMPARING TROPICAL AND TEMPERATE ZONE BIRDS

Principal organizer: Martin Wikelski
Princeton University, 303 Guyot Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
email: wikelski@princeton.edu

Second organizer: Jeff Brawn
University of Illinois, Dept. of Animal Biology, 505 S. Goodwin Ave, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA

First keynote speaker: Martin Wikelski & Michaela Hau
Princeton University, 307 Guyot Hall, Princeton, NJ 08544, USA
Title of frist keynote paper: Do physiological traits limit the diversification of avian life histories?

Second keynote speaker: Jeff Brawn
University of Illinois, Dept. of Animal Biology, 505 S. Goodwin Ave, Urbana, IL, 61801, USA
Title of second keynote paper: What Do we really know about the demography of tropical birds?

Contributed talks

Symposium description: Most of the variance in avian life-history spreads along a slow-to-fast gradient, with low reproductive rate, slow development and long life span at one end and the opposite traits at the other. In general, alternative combinations of life-history variables are lacking, indicating that the diversification of life-history is constrained. The actual mechanisms underlying these constraints, nevertheless, are largely unknown. We suggest that only a multi-disciplinary approach combining analyses of proximate and ultimate constraints on avian life-history diversification will be able to tackle this long-standing problem in ecology.
As this is truly a global phenomenon, with birds in the tropical areas tending towards slower life cycles, we shall bring together a diverse group of researchers to address the physiology of life-histories on different continents in diverse biotas. On the one hand, the symposium will try to synthesize what is currently known about the survival and population dynamics of bird populations at different latitudes and in different habitats. On the other, it will suggest that physiological mechanisms limit the scope of life-history diversification, particularly endocrine control mechanisms that can create incompatible physiological states. Overall, the symposium will aim for a synthetic outcome that links the proximate and ultimate factors affecting life-histories.

back to list of symposia

Home | Scientific Programme | Officers | Venue | Accommodation | Tours | Past Congresses