Biogeography workshop, June 15-19, Barcelona, Spain

[soledad.esteban]

Dear colleague,
 
There are still some places available for the course  "HISTORICAL BIOGEOGRAPHY: FUNDAMENTALS AND APPLICATIONS", June 15-19, 2015.
INSTRUCTORS: Dr. Lone Aagesen (IBODA, CONICET, Argentina) and Dr. Claudia A. Szumik (Miguel Lillo Foundation, CONICET, Argentina).

PLACE:  Facilities of the Centre of Restauració i Interpretació Paleontologica, Els Hostalets de Pierola,  Barcelona (Spain).

WEBPAGE AND REGISTRATION: http://www.transmittingscience.org/courses/biog/historic-biogeography/
 
PROGRAM:
 
Topic 1. Historical Background:
- The connection to cladistics. Basic concepts of cladistic methods. Optimality criteria in systematics and its connection to biogeography. How to manage space.
 
Topic 2. Raw Data:
- Distribution maps. Errors in databases. Georeferencing and how to measure the error of data points.
 
Topic 3. Areas of Endemism:
- Basic concepts. Formal and informal approaches to identify areas of endemism. The importance of quantitative methods and how different methods relate to what is being evaluated.
- Optimality criterion in analyses of endemicity. Some suggestions for renaming the concept of areas of endemism. The need for a zero model. Introduction to the programs NDM/VNDM (Identification of endemism areas). Optimality, ambiguity, support, consensus in the framework of areas of endemism.
 
Topcic 4. Vicariance Events:
- Distinguishing between studying the history of taxa and studying the history of earth. Short review of different approaches for studying taxon history (ancestral areas, Diva, Brooks parsimony analysis, coevolution).
- Short review of different approaches for studying the history of earth (Brooks parsimony analysis, principal components).
- Hovenkamp’s critique of historical biogeography and his suggestions for improvement. The importance of implementing a spatial component. Optimality criterion for identifying potential barriers. Optimality, ambiguity, support, and consensus in the framework of vicariance events.
 
Software available at http://www.lillo.org.ar/phylogeny/.
 
Organized by: Transmitting Science, the Institut Catalá de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont and the Centre de Restauració i Interpretació Paleontologica de Els Hostalets de Pierola.

For more information you can write to cou...@transmittingscience.org.
 
Please feel free to distribute this information between your colleagues if you consider it appropriate.
 
With best regards
Soledad De Esteban-Trivigno, PhD.
soledad...@icp.cat

Researcher at the Institut Català de Paleontologia Miquel Crusafont (ICP)

Edifici Z -ICTA-ICP-  C/ de les Columnes s/n.
Campus de la Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona
E-08193 Cerdanyola del Vallès. Spain
www.icp.cat