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Conference abstracts, posters
Presentations
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Review of submissions/applications
Comment, Blog
http://www.aai.org/about/Publications/Additi
onal/Docs/AAI_Dos_Donts.pdf
http://herkules.oulu.fi/isbn97895142938
01/isbn9789514293801.pdf
Prof. Dr. Werner Ulrich
Chair of Ecology and Biogeography
Faculty of Biology and Environmental Protection.
UMK Toruń
Review of the doctorial proposal of Łukasz Banasiak
Opinion
Header
Aim
General remarks
…
There are no formal rules for
Specific remarks to content, style, literature, possible
this type of text.
plagiarism. etc.
…
Conclusion
Concluding, in my opinion the doctoral proposal of Łukasz Banasiak achieves the level
defined by art. 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 of the Polish law on scientific degrees and titles (Dz. U. Nr
65/03 pos. 595/; March 2003). I propose to pass the proposal to subsequent steps.
Toruń, 23.07.2013
Werner Ulrich
Any scientific text has a logical structure!! Each sentence should be
the consequence of the previous sentences! Avoid redundancies!
Conference abstracts
The study of diversity patterns of ground beetles on lake islands
M. Zalewski & W. Ulrich*
The question how abiotic and biotic factors influence regional patterns of species diversity is central to
macroecology. However, high quality data sets that allow for the study of important patterns of species
diversity simultaneously are still scarce.
Here we present first results of a holistic research program aimed to infer and to model species
interactions of a metacommunity of Carabidae on 15 lake islands and two mainland sites of a Mazurian
lake (Northern Poland)[1,2]. Our results about core and satellite species (Fig. 1) and associated
abundance distributions and patterns of co-occurrence (Tab. 1) strongly indicate that current models of
niche division, species segregation and co-occurrence aimed to model regional diversity might dismiss
important aspects if they do not explicitly refer to differential patterns of dispersal.
Table 1. Ground beetles found at the 17 study sites, island area, the number of
traps used, observed species (Sobs), rarefied species number and its standard
deviation, estimated total species number, and the number of individuals
found.
Tables descriptions should be self-explanatory and
highlight the major results.
Sexp
Individuals
Island
Area
ha
No.of
traps
Sobs
Rarefied S
ST.Dev.
Jackknife I
Jackknife II
Poganackie Kępy I
0.01
2
10
16
2
13
13
55
Poganackie Kępy II
0.9
3
18
23
2
22
24
149
Poganackie Kępy III
2.1
6
25
26
2
30
31
206
Dębowa Górka
6.84
9
25
33
2
29
31
6
29
39
3
34
37
996
9.9
15
40
45
3
48
54
1895
6
20
33
2
24
27
Mainland I
Gilma
Mainland II
505
476
Wyspa Helena
0.92
6
19
30
2
23
25
325
Wyspa Kormoranów
2.3
9
23
52
3
27
29
3450
Lipka
4.19
9
9
32
2
10
10
459
1410
Mała Ilma
0.2
3
30
42
3
33
34
Sosnowy Ostrów
20.09
21
23
37
2
30
33
829
Świtałowy Ostrów
2.08
3
31
44
3
34
34
1704
Terra Dobia
0.03
2
14
20
2
16
16
91
Ilmy Wielkie
1
3
16
20
2
20
21
102
Kępa Wronia N
0.15
2
24
30
2
28
28
342
Kępa Wronia S
0.15
2
19
28
2
21
21
258
This work was supported by grants of the Polish Scientific committee to WU
(Nr. 3 P04F 034 22) and to MZ (6 P04F 035 14).
References
[1] Zalewski M. 2000. Colonization, extinction and species richness of ground beetles (Carabidae, Coleoptera) on
Islands of Mazurian lakes. Thesis, Warsaw.
[2] Zalewski M. 2004. Do smaller islands host younger populations? A case study on metapopulations of three carabid
species. J. Biogeogr. 31: 1139-1148.
*Werner Ulrich, Department of Animal Ecology, Institute of Ecology and Environmental Protection, Nicolaus
Copernicus University Toruń, e-mail: [email protected]
Total
107
71
88
97
13252
Presentations and lectures
A concise and meaningful
title
Full list of authors;
All authors have to
agree in the latest
version of the
presentation
Logos or affiliations
of the contributing
institutes
Thank you for your attention
Acknowledgments
We thank Ela Zalewska, Tadeusz Plewka, Paweł Koperski, and Ichiro Tayasu for technical
help, and Helena Hercman, Magdalena Maruszkiewicz, Paweł Leśniak and Paweł Zawidzki
for advice on isotopic analysis.
Funding
This work was supported by grants from the Polish Science Committee to WU (N N304
372839) and to MZ (NN 304 354538). The present study was conducted using a Joint Usage
/ Research Grant of the Center for Ecological Research, Kyoto University.
The background
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Blue on texture
White on blue
White on blue
Red on blue
Red on blue
Blue on blue
Blue on blue
White on green
White on green
Red on green
Red on green
Blue on green
Blue on green
Use an outlook that is readable at 10 m distance!!!
What looks nice on a computer screen might become unreadable at a larger screen
The font size
The font style (14 font)
This is a 20 font test sentence
This is a Calibri
This is an 18 font test sentence
This is Arial
This is a 16 font test sentence
This is Arial Narrow
This is a 14 font test sentence
This is Times Roman
This is a 12 font test sentence
This is Courier
This is a 10 font test sentence
This is Greek
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This is Times Roman
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This is Courier
This is a 10 font test sentence
This is Greek
The logo is hard to read
Logo of the host
institution (hard to read)
Thanks
Short
acknowledgments and
funding agencies
Don’t use too much artwork not related to the content!!
Don’t use extensive graphical gadgets!!!
Too much gadgets become boring after a few minutes!!!
How to perform a biological study
Literature
Theory
Planning
Defining the problem
Identifying the state of art
Formulating specific
hypothesis to be tested
Study design, power analysis,
choosing the analytical methods,
design of the data base,
Data
Observations, experiments
Meta analysis
Analysis
Statistical analysis,
modelling
Interpretation
Comparing with
current theory
Publication
Scientific writing,
expertise
Scientific publications of any type are classically divided into eight
major parts
Title
Affiliations and author contribution
Abstract and keywords
Introduction
Materials and methods
Results
Discussion
Acknowledgments
Literature
Electronic supplements and corroborating material
Internet data storages
(Press releases, video podcasts, video clips, animation)
Title, affiliations, author contribution, running head
A short and meaningful title that may contain already an essential result.
Bad: Species co-occurrences and neutral models
Good: Neutral models predict patterns of the spatial co-occurrence of epigeic spiders
in an agricultural landscape
Author contribution: NG outlined the project and provided the data set.
WU analysed the data and wrote the first draft. MP contributed
phylogenetic and trait data. All authors contributed equally to the final
text.
Running title: Neutral models and species co-occurrences
Optionally, you have to provide a press release, video podcasts, and a cover photo.
Abstract
The abstract is a short text containing the major hypothesis and results. The abstract
should make clear why a study has been undertaken.
Abstract. Current ecological theory predicts an allometric
relation between the number of species with restricted
range size (endemics) and area (the endemics–area relation
EAR), a pattern similar to the common species–area
Check list:
relation (SAR). Using SARs and EARs we can estimate
1. What s interesting
species loss after habitat loss. A comparison of the
2. Major theoretical background predictive power of both approaches (using a patch
3. Short methods
occupancy model and data from European butterflies)
4. Major findings
revealed that the EAR approach is less reliable than the
5. Major implications
SAR. Contrary to current theory it appeared that EARs are
relations in their own right that describe spatial
distributions of endemic species. They do not simply follow
from the underlying SAR. The implications of these results
for the applicability of SARs and EARs in biodiversity
forecasting are discussed.
Introduction
First of all: try to tell a story!!!
The introduction should shortly discuss the state of art and the theories the study is
based on.
Describe the motivation for the present study.
Do not review the literature extensively but discuss all of the relevant literature
necessary to put the present paper into a broader context.
Shortly review and explain the hypotheses to be tested
Explain who might be interested in the study.
Explain why this study is worth reading!
Show that you are familiar with the current literature and the state of art.
Do not repeat textbook knowledge!!
Be careful with the literature you cite.
Do not cite questionable sources!!
Particularly be carful with the citation of internet pages.
Do not cite unpublished work.
Do not use formulations and text excerpts of others (including internet sources) without
citation!!
Build your text in a logical way and clarify each step in the argument. Take care of logic!!!!
Methods
A short description of the study area (if necessary), the experimental or observational
techniques used for data collection, and the techniques of data analysis used.
Indicate the limits of the techniques used.
•
•
•
•
•
Place necessary study site descriptions into the electronic appendix.
Be as short as possible but be precise!!
Do not describe standard methods.
When using software provide the parameter settings.
Do only describe non-standard statistical methods.
• Provide information on missing data.
• Provide information on measurement errors and methodological drawbacks.
• Provide always error descriptors for central tendencies!!
Never use the same data for hypothesis development and hypothesis testing!!!
Methods
Study Area
From 2005 to 2010, we studied the initial vegetation succession in the artificial catchment
Chicken Creek in north-eastern Germany (Lusatia region). Constructed in 2004/
2005 as headwaters of the Chicken Creek stream, this 6-ha study site is part of the
reclamation of an open-cast lignite mine. Sand or loamy material originating from
Pleistocene sediments was used for construction of the 1– 3-m top layer of the catchment
(details in Gerwin et al. 2009).
Place all necessary details in additional electronic supplements.
Results
This section should contain a description of the results of your study.
Here the majority of tables and figures should be placed.
Do not double data in tables and figures.
Do not interpret or discus the results.
3. Results
Table 1 shows the major results. Amino acid concentration was measured twice and
did not correlate with metabolic rate (Fig. 1). Probably the low temperature limited
metabolic rate because there was a significant correlation between temperature
and metabolic rate (r = -0.5465, F = 3.5, P(no correlation) = 0.456; not shown).
Average amino acid concentration was low and is shown in Fig. 2. Metabolic rates
are given in Tab. 2 and Fig. 3.
3. Results
Metabolic rate (Supplement A) did not correlate (r = 0.36; P > 0.3) with the
generally low (Supplement B) amino acid concentrations but was negatively linked
to ambient temperature (r = -0.55, P < 0.05; Fig. 1 ).
Discussion
This part should be the longest part of the paper.
Discuss your results in the light of current theories and scientific belief.
Compare the results with the results of other comparable studies.
Again discuss why your study has been undertaken and what is new.
Discuss also possible problems with your data and misconceptions.
Give hints for further work.
Do not repeat results!
Refer to each part of the introduction.
Again take care of the logic!!!!
Each sentence of a paragraph should be the logical consequence of
the previous sentence.
Acknowledgments
Short acknowledgments, mentioning of people who contributed material but did not
figure as co-authors.
Mention the fund giving institutions
Acknowledgements: I thank Nicholas Gotelli for helpful and encouraging comments on
the manuscript. Miss H. Pearson kindly improved my English. This work was in part
supported by a grant of the Polish Scientific Committee, KBN No. P04-034-22.
Acknowledgments
This study is part of the Transregional Collaborative Research Centre 38 (SFB/TRR 38,
“Structures and Processes of the Initial Ecosystem Development Phase in an Artificial
Water Catchment”), which was financially supported by the German Science Foundation
(Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft [DFG], Bonn) and the Brandenburg Ministry
of Science, Research, and Culture (Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur
[MWFK], Potsdam). We thank the Working Group Z1 of the SFB/TRR 38, who helped us to
perform this study, and the Vattenfall Europe Mining AG for providing the research site. H.
S. Fischer gave an introduction into autocorrelation analyses. E. Nauck implemented the
figures in LaTeX. Thanks to the Technische Universitat München Graduate School for
financing one research trip to Torun´. W.U. was partly funded by the NCN grant N304
372839.
References
Kotze DJ, Niemela J, Nieminen M. 2000. Colonization success of carabid beetles on Baltic
islands. J. Biogeogr. 27:807–19
Ikeda, H., Nishikawa, M. & Sota, T. (2012) Loss of flight promotes beetle diversification
Nature Communications, 3, 648.
Zalewski M. et al. 2012. Ground beetles on islands: on the effects of habitat and dispersal.
Ann. Zool. Fennici 49: 139-151
Each journal has a different style.
Software like Mendeley or Endnote help formating according to journal styles
Mendeley as a tool for free literature exchange
Research gate
Figures
Bad
Use colours only if necessary.
Empty space must not be
more than half of the Figure.
Use large fonts for axes
descriptors.
Do not inlcude text into the
Figure.
Too much empty space
Unclear charts
Too small fonts
Good
Figure captions have to be self explaining.
Figure 1: Isotopic ratios (A, B) of δ 13C
(black dots) and δ 15N (open circles) and
the respective variances (C, D) were
neither significantly (all P > 0.1) linked to
the numbers of islands colonized (A, C)
nor to the total abundance (B, D, number
of individuals). Data for 35 species with at
least five individuals studied.
Tables
Not optimal
Better
The submission process
Open access or not?
Be careful when
selecting
possible referees
and editors!!
Don’t choose
friends and
regular coauthors
In the cover letter you show why this
submission is worth of being
published in exactly this journal
Don’t be
afraid of
colour
pictures
Good journals require all the
necessary raw data to be placed in
electronic supplements.
No publication without the full set
of raw data to reproduce the
major results.
After the first decision
How to answer referees?
Ecography
Editor in Chief
Dr. Carsten Rahbek
Dear Dr. Rahbek:
Thank you very much for the reviews and your willingness to accept a revised version of our
paper ECOG-00188 entitled “Longitudinal gradients in the phylogenetic community
structure of European Tenebrionidae”. Below we answer to the suggestions and comments
of the referees and the handling editor, Dr. Wiegand.
Handing editor
I have now received two excellent reviews of your manuscript ECOG-00188 “Longitudinal
gradients in the phylogenetic community structure of European Tenebrionidae
(Coleoptera) do not coincide with the major routes of postglacial colonization” submitted
to Ecography. As…
We have included the suggested analysis and the new Figure. Please see our detailed
answers to each comment/suggestion below.
- References … Cooper et al. 2008 citation is missing from the list. Please, check for
additional errors as well.
We now included Cooper et al. and checked the reference list once again.
- Table 1 … please, explain in the table caption what χ2 metric represents in your case
Done.
- Table 2 … please, give R2 values for the presented relationships to show their strength
We included these values in Tabs. 2 and 3.
- Figure1 and Figure 2 … place these figures in the appendix, please, and use a map or
other convenient graphics instead
Here we do not agree with the referee. Both figures contain important information and
are central to our interpretation. In our view they are clear. However, we leave this point
and the question whether to include a map to the decision of the editor.
We hope that our revised version matched the requirements of Ecography.
Sincerely
Werner Ulrich
Simone Fattorini
Review
Review of XXX: Simulation of virtual population models
Yes, there are submissions that beam us back even before the golden age of theoretical ecology. In
these dark times mathematicians thought that all ecologists were stupid and ecologists believed that
old Isaac is the ultimate goal. But then Robert MacArthur appeared and told us that we are not stupid
and that random numbers rule the world. Later on at least we younger guys believed in the
Tallahassee mafia and its guru Dan Simberloff told us not to trust in basic statistics and any rules. Since
then we rack our brains about the best null and swap and swap and swap…. After destruction new
hope and the metapopulation lurked behind the Finish islands. Today we are back to the basics where
neutral fractality is fractal neutrality and species do not exist but Fokker –Planck and Price equations
rule the world. Today ecologists speak Spanish and read Kimura and Hubbell (they rarely read Gould
and Krebs).
Luckily all these complications do not worry the present author and she decided to stay in the dark
times of equilibrium functions to demonstrate the surprised ecologists of that times her new toy in
form of a manual of some internet game (by the way, don’t you know the Ecobeaker package for
undergraduate pupils, it’s much better). And we learn that animals may have one or more offspring.
Surely, otherwise we won’t exist (didn’t you hear anything about resource allocation and William
Hamilton?). We also learn that simulations provide standard deviations (I prefer randomization and
bootstrapping of real population data). And we learn from the title that the author wants to simulate
virtual models (or virtual populations or virtual virtuality?). Oh yeah, this needs real second life virtual
computers!
In conclusion, I strongly advice reading a concise history of ecology before publishing anything. Beam
me up, Scotty.
Blog
http://zmihor.blogspot.com/