Programme BLAM 2026

Plenary on Thursday 16 April

Michael Bertram

Wildlife behaviour in a polluted world: tracking changes across ecological scales

Animal behaviour is remarkably sensitive to disruption by chemical pollution, with widespread implications for ecological and evolutionary processes in contaminated wildlife populations. However, conventional approaches applied to study the impacts of chemical pollutants on wildlife behaviour seldom address the complexity of natural environments in which contamination occurs. 

This talk will review the rapidly developing field of behavioural ecotoxicology, including the ongoing shift towards increased environmental realism, ecological complexity, and mechanistic understanding. It will identify research areas in ecology that to date have been largely overlooked within behavioural ecotoxicology but which promise to yield valuable insights, including within- and among-individual variation, social networks and collective behaviour, and multi-stressor interactions. 

Further, methodological and technological innovations will be discussed that enable collection of data on pollutant-induced behavioural changes at an unprecedented resolution and scale in the lab and the field. These innovations will then be highlighted through a study in which acoustic telemetry was used to investigate the impacts of exposure to pharmaceutical contaminants on river-to-sea migration in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar). 

In an era of rapid environmental change, there is an urgent need to advance our understanding of the real-world impacts of chemical pollution on wildlife behaviour. This talk will therefore provide a roadmap of the major outstanding questions in behavioural ecotoxicology and will underscore the need for increased cross-talk with other disciplines in order to find the answers.

Plenary on Friday 17 April

Manuela Gonzalez Suarez

From spider behaviour to bird functional diversity: How I became a generalist in science

It might be overly enthusiastic curiosity, or just a well trained short attention span, but I am happiest in science when tackling new questions and systems. Behind the apparent jumble lies a shared purpose: developing tools to reveal biodiversity patterns and address conservation challenges.

In this talk, I will share some of the research threads that have shaped my trajectory, from field-based ecology and conservation work with California sea lions, to modelling how roads and vehicles affect wildlife and building tools that integrate functional biodiversity more deeply into conservation.

Along the way, I will reflect on the opportunities, surprises, and challenges that come with building a generalist path in an increasingly specialised scientific world. And with any luck, I will convince you that a well trained short attention span can, in fact, be a scientific asset.

Thursday 16 April

09.00 Workshops

At the Department of Biology, Biology Building D

12.15 Lunch and registering

At Palaestra.

13.15 Opening

13.30 Plenar 1

Michael Bertram, from Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences –  Wildlife behaviour in a polluted world: tracking changes across ecological scales

14.30 Introduction and poster session 1 with coffee

1. Land-use effects on floral traits mediated by pollinators – Sophie Hecht
2. Hot houses – Temperature and nest metrics in the solitary bee Osmia bicornis – Katherine Mihalczo
3. Formation of biomolecular condensates by DivIVA from Streptomyces venezuelae – María Otero Sande
4. Hyperspectral imaging as cross-validation for entomological LiDAR signals – Leonard De Causmaecker, Timotej Zuntar
5. Understanding the molecular responses to mechanical stimulation in plants – Viktor Johansson
6. The evolution and function of mitochondrial signalling in bryophytes – Vivian Schmitt
7. Population genomics of sand lizards – Lucia Caroli

16.00 Oral presentation session 1

Full talks, 12 minutes talks + 3 minutes discussion

• Two Forms, One Function: Connectomes of the Head-Direction Circuit – Griffin Badalemente
• Insect visual and behavioural strategies for navigating dark and cluttered environments – Andre Scheepers
• Allometric Scaling of Visual Resolution and Sensitivity in the Bumblebee Bombus terrestris – Daniel Gutierrez
• Multimodal cue integration in dung beetles – Linnéa Jürgensen

17.15 Pub quiz

AF-Borgen

18.15–21.00 Dinner

 At AF-Borgen

Friday 17 April

09.15 Opening

09.30 Plenar 2

Manuela Gonzalez Suarez from University of Reading, United Kingdom – From spider behaviour to bird functional diversity: How I became a generalist in science

10.30–11.00 Coffee break

11.00 Oral presentation session 2

Full talks, 12 minutes talks + 3 minutes discussion

• Nigritella or Gymnadenia? The systematics of a controversial clade– Jöran Klink
• Crossing the biggest ocean in the world – the phylogeography of how plant genus Wikstroemia colonized the islands of the pacific – Ruben Cousins-Westerberg
• Sex in the Hawaiian Wikstroemia – a story about change– Lila Maladesky

11.45 Lunch break

13.00 Oral presentation session 3

Full talks, 12 minutes + 3 minutes discussion

• Between refugia and rescue - Local conservation genetics and continental phylogeography of Acer campestre – Eric Wahlsteen
• Effects of hybridization on genomic content and expression of transposable elements in the hybrid Italian sparrow – Alex Lawerence
• Pollinator-mediated floral evolution in pollination-generalised Viscaria vulgaris – Aarushi Susheel

14.00 Introduction and poster session 2 + coffee

1. Under Pathogen Pressure: Selective Sweeps and Local Adaptation – Lucia Ximena Alva Caballero
2. Plasmid stability in the ancestral strain of Bacillus subtilis – Sara Louro
3. RootSocks: incorporating roots into microfluidic chips – Julia Forsbacka
4. Behavioural and metabolic responses to chronic low-dose fluoxetine and copper exposure in Asellus aquaticus: implications for environmental risk assessment – Harmony Lautrette-Quinvero
5. Genomic rearrangement hotspots and Transposable elements in Microcystis – Eleni Theofania Skorda
6. Microbial nutrient limitation in soil warming experiment – Honorine Dumontel
7. Benchmarking AI-driven zooplankton monitoring with traditional methods – Isa Hendriks

15.15 Oral presentation session 4

Full talks, 12 minutes + 3 minutes discussion

• Seduced by Scent, Doomed by Fitness – Ips typographus’ Attraction to an Occasional Host – Jana Burchards
• Landscape-scale pesticide risk to pollinators: Exposure routes, community impacts, and mitigation strategies – Harriet Arnberg
• How is hoverfly survival affected by pesticide exposure? – Silvia Rönnau

16.00 Closing ceremony

18.00 Mingle and dinner

In the Ecology building.