VINCENT@buclln11.bitnet ("Vincent Bauchau - Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium") (04/28/89)
Dear networkers, The traffic on the list is still quite low, probably because we don't know what the other on the list are interested in. So let's take this opportunity to briefly introduce ourselves, as I do below. This can lead to a traffic burst if we do this all on the same day. To avoid this everyone should delay his/her posting if the traffic reaches a too high level in ordre to achieve some density-dependent regulation. I will keep a record of everyone's description and will send some summary statistics later on. -Vincent Bauchau Self-description Sex : male Affiliation : University of Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium Main interest : ecological factors in microevolution Favourite species: rodents (Mus, Apodemus, Clethrionomys) Methods : cytogenetics, CMR, morphometry, multivariate analysis.
lambin@bdc.ubc.ca (Xavier Lambin) (04/29/89)
Too bad for the traffic jam, I take my turn. Xavier Lambin, (male) University of Louvain-la -Neuve, Belgium and University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada. Main interest: evolution of mating systems, influence of social organization on population dynamics. Favourite species: rodents, (Apodemus, Microtus townsendii, agrestis, Myopus) Methods: capture-recapture, telemetry, direct observation ... xl
ogil@tank.uchicago.edu (Brian W. Ogilvie) (04/29/89)
Following Mr. Bauchau's lead, I'll introduce myself: Affiliation : University of Chicago, USA Main interest : history of evolution and related fields Favourite species: Homo sapiens Methods : textual analysis, interviews By the way, does anyone have a copy of Julian Huxley's _The New Systematics_ for sale? :-) -- Brian W. Ogilvie / ogil@tank.uchicago.edu "Cartesianism is the most popular 'popular science' ever invented." --Noel Swerdlow
UNASMITH@pucc.Princeton.EDU (Una Smith) (04/29/89)
Our laboratory is a new initiative between Princeton University and the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI), located in the USA and Republic of Panama, respectively. We are primarily interested in the dynamics of tropical forests, particularly moist- and rainforests. By dynamics we mean any feature of the forest that changes over time and space, whether within a particular species, or within the forest as a whole. ** There is quite a lot more of this note, elaborating on our ** ** research; please quit this message now if it bores you. ** We are now maintaining two permanent 50 Hectare research sites, one on Barro Colorado Island in the Panama Canal, and the other in a national reserve run by the Forestry Research Institute Malaysia (FRIM), on the Malay Peninsula. Because of the volume of data coming from our sites, we can explore questions that simply weren't practical before now. The flagship site, in Panama, has been immensely successful, and a number of similar cooperative projects have recently begun around the world. However, until very recently computer and personnel resources were two major bottleneck, so the lagtime between initial collection of the data and publication of results has become unacceptably long. Those papers that have been finished to date are for the most part authored by Stephen P. Hubbell, our group leader and the driving force behind the entire project. Our studies involve a complete census of all the free-standing woody plants (trees) with stem diameters of at least 1 centimeter every five years. The Panama site undergoes it's third census this coming winter. Each plant has been tagged with a unique number, and the entire 50 hectare plot has been surveyed and marked with flags every 5 meters. Besides identifying each tree to species, we know it's location to the nearest decimeter, and have been gathering data on gender, reproductive success, general health, micro-site climate and other environmental conditions, etc. There are 260,000 plants representing 306 species in the Panama site, and 330,000 plants representing some 900 species in the Malaysian plot. All this data is now in a computer database which I am re-designing, now that we know we'll have enough money to continue for a while. The re-structuring of the database and wrap-up of a large number of papers occupies about half of our newly established research group. The second half of our group is busy setting up a molecular biology laboratory where we will use techniques now familiar to most molecular geneticists but still very foreign to botanists in general and ecologists in particular. The primary emphasis is on finding genetic markers that can be used to establish parentage among the trees in our research sites. Because most tropical trees do not exhibit growth rings or other indicators of age, all but the most elementary demographic studies are impossible. We hope that the genetic tools we develop will also help us in studies of gene flow, short-term population trends, differential reproductive fitnesses, etc. If this note was much longer than you were expecting, I appologize. I've been reading parts of BIONET for over a year now without responding to any of the frequent requests to announce research interests.
APYEZRA@ubvmsc.bitnet (Ezra Zubrow) (05/02/89)
Self-description
Name : Ezra Zubrow
Sex : male
Affiliation : State University of New York, Buffalo
Main interest : population growth, migration, modeling evolution
Favourite species: Homo sapiens sapiens, Homo sapiens neanderthalis,
Homo habilis, and Homo erectus
Methods : demography, computer modeling, archaeology, physical
anthropology
In reply to the May 1, missive I am using the standard form.
I hope this isn't redundant to the other information I have sent the
group. If so, please disregard with my apologies.