2026 Seminar Series
Please find below details of our special seminars for 2026.
Speaker: Emeritus Professor John Terborgh | James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science in Duke University | University of Florida – Gainesville | James Cook University, Cairns, Australia
Abstract: More than 190 countries adopted the Kunming-Montreal Global Biodiversity Framework in 2022, thereby committing themselves to protecting 30% of their national territories by 2030. The goal presents an enormous challenge to many countries and progress to date has been uneven. My talk will develop three themes. First, it is important to understand that park creation is fundamentally an adversarial process. Most parks are vigorously opposed before they are signed into law, and many park proposals fail at this stage. Second, the process through which new parks are established has evolved beyond recognition over the last 100 years and currently involves collaborations between governments, scientists, and NGOs. Third, biodiversity conservation can be favored or hindered by the prevailing socioeconomic context. The current global context is highly problematical and unlikely to favor attainment of the 30 by 30 goal. Nevertheless, some of the current models for creating new protected areas draw heavily on participation by scientists and NGOs in ways that reduce the financial and political obstacles inherent in the political process.
Biography: John Terborgh is James B. Duke Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science in Duke University and has current affiliations with the University of Florida – Gainesville and James Cook University, Cairns, Australia. His work focuses on tropical ecology, particularly plant-animal interactions and trophic cascades. He has published more than 300 articles and 8 books and is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. He was awarded a Pew Fellowship In 1992 and became a MacArthur Fellow in the same year and later, in 1996, was awarded the Daniel Geraud Elliot Medal by the National Academy of Sciences. He has served on the boards of numerous conservation organizations and in 1999 founded ParksWatch, an organization dedicated to monitoring and publicizing the status of parks in developing countries. He remains active in research and conservation to the present.
Speaker: Yiwen Zhang, PhD Candidate|Environmental and Earth Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore
Abstract: Durable carbon dioxide removal (CDR) technologies are increasingly recognized as essential for meeting long-term climate targets, yet their deployment remains limited by economic, technical, and policy uncertainties. Drawing on a detailed case study, we apply Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) and Techno-Economic Analysis (TEA) to evaluate the full Enhanced Rock Weathering (ERW) supply chain, from feedstock processing and transport to field application and post-deployment monitoring. In North Queensland, spatially optimised cradle-to-farm LCA of basalt and mill ash on farmlands shows basalt delivers substantially higher and more robust net CDR, while mill ash becomes viable only under targeted, low-transport deployment. In Southeast Asia, cradle-to-credit modelling of ERW in agricultural supply chains indicates strong carbon-insetting potential, where logistics dominate emissions and MRV dominates costs. Stakeholder perspectives from both regions further highlight governance, market readiness, and supply-chain coordination as deployment priorities.
Brief Bio: Yiwen is a PhD candidate at the Asian School of the Environment and Earth Observatory of Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, and was a visiting scholar at the University of Cambridge. Her research focuses on enhanced rock weathering as a scalable carbon dioxide removal strategy, integrating life-cycle assessment, techno-economic analysis, and stakeholder perspectives to evaluate deployment pathways across Southeast Asia and Australia. She also conducts policy analysis on links between UN SDGs, ESG, and carbon markets with support from her industry experience. Her work bridges environmental and earth sciences, economics, and real-world implementation to support effective climate solutions.
Speaker: Dr Carsten Schradin | CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research), Strasbourg, France
Abstract: Animals are adapted to cope with harsh environments. Understanding these adaptations is crucial to assessing species resilience to global change. Harsh environments are characterised by persistent and long-lasting factors that threaten homeostasis and survival, such as reduced food and water availability, seasonal cold or heat. We review two decades of field studies exploring how African striped mice (Rhabdomys pumilio) are adapted to harshness in the Succulent Karoo semi-desert, which is characterised by hot, dry and food-restricted summers and moist, benign winters. Striped mice adapted to harshness via multiple behavioural and physiological mechanisms, which reduce energy consumption and increase water retention. These mechanisms include social flexibility, communal huddling, sun-basking, reducing activity, a broad range of blood glucose regulation, decreased levels of metabolic hormones and decreased resting metabolic rate. Together, these mechanisms lead to an overall reduction of daily energy expenditure during harsh summers. This harshness response contrasts with the physiological stress response, which is characterised by increased energy expenditure to overcome the stress via the secretion of catecholamines and glucocorticoids. In contrast, the harshness response is characterised by reduced levels of glucocorticoids and allows endurance of the harsh conditions. We conclude that the harshness response is fundamentally different from the stress response.
Biography: Carsten Schradin is a behavioral ecologist and eco-physiologist. He is the world leading expert in studies about striped mice and understanding the mechanisms and functions of intra-specific variation in social organization, especially in mammals. He teaches graduate students at the IPHC-DEPE, the University of Strasbourg, and highly gifted primary school children at the Hector Akademie. He has been a team leader at the DEPE for 8 years and established the BEEPSS seminar series.
Speaker: Dr Lindelani Makuya | CNRS (National Centre for Scientific Research), Strasbourg, France
Abstract: For many years researchers have regarded solitary living as the primitive ancestral state that needs no explanation, focusing their studies on pair and group living species. However, the evolutionary and ecological reasons of group living can not be understood when we don't understand its alternative which is solitary living. Our review on the costs and benefits of solitary living yielded that very few studies exist. The same holds for studies on physiological and behavioural mechanisms: While the neuroendocrinology of pair- and group-living is well understood, studies on solitary species so far only considered aggression. So far, it was assumed that social intolerance is the mechanism leading to solitary living, but my field study on bush Karoo rats showed that this is not always the case. Importantly, solitary living does not equate to an unsocial lifestyle. For example, solitary species often have a spatial structure where closely related individuals live closely to each other. Many solitary species have non-random but individualised social interactions with their neighbours which indicates the importance of social structure. Solitary living can thus be seen as not one social system but one of the over 1000 social systems. The evolution of sociality can only be explained when including studies on solitary living. Solitary living must be studied as an evolved trait that represents an adaptation to specific environments and that is regulated by specific physiological mechanisms. highlight the importance of studying the evolution, ecology and mechanisms of solitary living and how and why this differs between species and taxa.
Biography: Lindelani Makuya is a behavioural ecologist interested in social evolution, especially the adaptive value of solitary living in mammals. She completed her PhD at the University of the Witwatersrand in 2024. She is the research station manager and board member of the Succulent Karoo Research Station. She is currently a postdoc with the Centre National de La Recherche Scientifique (CNRS).