ISPF UK-Amazonia Workshop Future range of Amazonian Biodiversity
Call for participants in a fully funded workshop (including travel, accommodation, food and workshop infrastructure) on modelling Amazonian biodiversity
Biodiversity can respond in three ways to human drivers such as invasive species, land use and climate change: adapt, move or go extinct. This is alarming because Amazonian species, including socio-economically important species such as açai and Brazil nut, already face unprecedented fires and droughts. This requires immediate action to assess how species will fare against combined threats and how to best manage them.
Our workshop will train the next generation of ecologists, conservationists and stakeholders on mechanistic range models - the most adequate to understand and predict biodiversity change. We welcome participants working with mechanistic models, Amazonian biodiversity, conservation practice, and stakeholders to learn how mechanistic range models are developed and applied. Participants from and/or working with traditional communities are welcome.
Mechanistic models explicitly simulate underlying processes (e.g., demography) and can also predict abundances. This is crucial for sustainable populations of Amazonian species under a changing world. Our workshop will train both UK and Brazilian participants on such cutting-edge tools, like metaRange and RangeShifter, and on Amazonian ecosystems.
Workshop Details
Workshop Details
Where: Manaus, Brazil. The workshop will be held at the Amazon Ecopark (https://www.amazonecopark.com.br/)
Date: 27 July 2025 - 2 August 2025
How to apply: Please, fill out and submit the application form. Deadline for application: 7th April 2025. Decision on selected candidates will be given until the end of April.
Who can apply: We will have an equal proportion of UK- and Amazon-based early career participants (e.g. PhD students and postdocs), as well as conservation practitioners, aiming at a diverse group of participants, giving preference to members of groups underrepresented in science and conservation.
We welcome female early-career researchers working with female-led local communities (e.g., açaí producers). Female participants will count with a gender and LGBTQIA+ safe space in all activities and with female mentors/role models in both computational and ecological work. We welcome candidates with species data to be integrated into the week’s activities.
Funding by the British council’s ISPF UK-Amazonia: accommodation, meals and workshop attendance will be fully covered by the workshop. Travel expenses will be covered up to 1 400 British Pounds per person attending from the UK and up to 360 British Pounds (~ 2 660 Brazilian Reais, but please check current exchange rates) per person attending from Brazil.
Timeline
Timeline
Overview
The workshop activities will take place during a whole week, from Monday to Friday.
Morning sessions will be between 8.30am - 12.00pm
Afternoon sessions will be between 1.30pm - 5.30pm
Both sessions will include coffee breaks and with a lunch break between morning and afternoon sessions. Some afternoon sessions can be made flexible for walking in nearby natural spaces. Dinner will be arranged either at the venue or at nearby restaurants.
English will be the official language, but Brazilian students can count on support in Portuguese from the training team and mentors.
Timeline
Sunday
Pre-workshop, arrival at the workshop venue (transfer from airport will be organised).
Monday
Morning: Introduction to workshop, 3-5 minutes self-introduction of participants.
Afternoon: Symposium 1 – presentations on Amazonian biodiversity and ecosystems; Breaking out participants into groups to brainstorm about potential projects for the week.
Tuesday
Morning: Symposium 2 – presentations introducing mechanistic modelling and designing of simulation experiments.
Afternoon: Exercises in R to implement own metapopulation simulation models.
Wednesday
Morning: Hands-on introduction to ready-to-apply mechanistic simulation models for range dynamics: installing and running metaRange and rangeshifteR models (as R packages).
Afternoon: Break-out groups to design simulation experiments using metaRange and/or rangeshifteR.
Thursday
Break-out groups to set up and run simulation experiments.
Friday
Morning: Symposium of results with plenary discussion.
Afternoon: Planning follow up activities and final considerations
Saturday
Post-workshop: Departure from workshop venue (transfer to airport will be organised).
Organisation and Training Team
Organisation and Training Team
Prof. Fabricio Baccaro (Brazil Lead), Federal University of Amazonas, Brazil
Dr. Adriane Esquivel Muelbert (UK Lead), University of Birmingham, UK
Dr. Juliano Sarmento Cabral (UK Lead Support), University of Birmingham, UK
Dr. Greta Bocedi, University of Aberdeen, UK
Prof. Justin Travis, University of Aberdeen, UK
Dr. Clarissa Alves da Rosa, National Institute of Amazonian Research, Brazil
Prof. Sabina Cerruto Ribeiro, Federal University of Acre, Brazil
Our team includes experts in mechanistic models and in Amazonian biodiversity and will support participants in applying mechanistic range models to their research questions.
Funding
Funding
This research was supported by British Council's Research Collaborations Programme Project No 1181095287, under the International Science Partnerships Fund (ISPF).
Contact
Contact
For any queries, please email Dr. Juliano Sarmento Cabral at j.sarmentocabral@bham.ac.uk and Prof. Fabricio Baccaro at baccaro@ufam.edu.br
