Lab news and our phrases
HISTORICAL
A little less conversation, a little more action (remembering Elvis)
I have learned to forgive (Denis Marrufo and Ilka Ortegón)
Don´t let me down (Lennon and McCartney)
Show me the way (Peter Frampton)
Nobody said it was easy... Questions of science
(Víctor and MaJo...inspired by Coldplay)
Sad October (2014)... México hurts (Victor)
Ground control to major Tom...
(Victor trying to connect with some students) (D. Bowie)
PHRASE OF THE MOMENT
Fell on Black days... but Uprising
(Soundgarden) (Muse)
News
2023
August-December
A Ms about plant hybridization in the Cnidosculus genus was accepted and published in Ecology and Evolution. Thanks to Miguel Angel Munguia (CINVESTAV) for his invitation
Very great news! Sandra Díaz won first place for her undergraduate thesis (best undergrad thesis, section "Conservation Biology") Award granted by the Education and Science Ministry of Yucatán. Congrats Sandy!!
A Ms about the incompatibility system in the (very strange) tropical tree G. floribundum led by Sara Paquini was accepted at Biological Sciences. Good work Sara!
A Ms about an invasive (parasitic) plant was accepted at Biological Invasions. Thanks to JGF, MaM (INECOL), and JTG (UADY) for their collaboration.
Victor finished a new course about basic principles of science methodology for graduate students. Interesting projects.
Victor and Pau are completing their undergraduate Evolution course. So exhausting!
The Ms from the undergrad thesis of Brian Suárez was published in Plant Species Biology. Excellent work Brian!
July
Victor came back for his sabbatical. Thanks, INECOL, but especially to Dr. José (PP) García-Franco
2022
October-December
Victor has published an outreach article about how invasive species acquire sex at Eco-lógico.
Good news Víctor Parra Tabla renewed his membership as national researcher for 10 more years! (SNI-III)
The secon Ms of Alex Dr. thesis has been accepted at Plant Ecology, congrats Alex!
The Ms of Jesús Aguinaga is now out! in Arthropod-Plant Interactions very nice
The Ms of Edith is now out! in Arthropod-Plant Interactions nice
August
More great news!, Sandra Díaz won second place for her Undergad thesis, and Brian Suárez the third place for his MsC thesis (VII Mexican Ecology meeting). Cheers Sandy and Brian, great work!
The Jesús Aguinaga's MsC thesis has been accepted (also) at Arthropod-Plant Interactions, great work Jesús!
A MS of our dear Edith Villa has been accepted at Arthropod-Plant Interactions, nice work Edith!
The Ms of Martha is now out! in APIS, great
April-July
Victor will be on sabbatical at INECOL (from July 2022 to June 2023), thanks to Dra. María Luisa Martínez and Dr. José García-Franco for their kind welcome, lots of ideas to work on!
Great news!, Alex won third place for his oral contribution at the VIII Mexican Ecology Meeting.
Comming back from the VIII Mexican Ecology Meeting, great participation of our students. Congrats Sandy, Brian, Alex, and Jesús, nice job! (Oaxaca, what a nice place!)
Victor is starting a new summer course, hoping that students will enjoy studying the evolutionary ecology of biotic interactions.
The first Ms of the Alex Dr. Thesis has been accepted in Journal of Ecology; congrats Alex!
January-March
Sandra Díaz another brilliant student defended (online)is BsC thesis (Biology); excelent work Sandy!
Good news four our department, our dear friends were recognized as national researchers (SNI) Luis Abdala-Roberts (Level III, super!), Joe Ramos (Level II) and Pau Sosenksi and Diego Carmona (Level I). Cheers all!
A MS of our dear friend Martha Reyes-Hernández has been accepted at Arthropod-Plant Interactions, nice colaboration Martha!
A second MS about beetle diversity from our long-term experiment on the effects of tree diversity has been accepted in Neotropical Entomology, once again nice work Javi!
2021
August-December
Victor and Pau are completing their second undergraduate (33 students) and postgraduate (18 students) courses entirely online. It's so exhausting!
We close our first cycle of web seminars on biodiversity, conservation and evolution, with a wonderful talk by Melissa Hernandez. We had a stimulating discussion about the loss of pollinators in North America. Thank you Melissa
Alberto Gabriel Gutiérrez successfully defended his BsC thesis (Biology), he evaluated the effect of native mycorrhizae on wild cotton; great Alberto!
Thai Khan gave us a nice talk about mangroves in our web seminar, thanks Thai we hope to see you soon
We follow with our web seminar, a great talk of Teresa Quijano about "herbivory in wild cotton" . Thanks Tere, we look forward to hearing about your Dr exam soon
Finally, our paper review about the effect of invasive plants on plant-pollinator networks, is out in New Phytologist, great colaboration with Gerardo Arceo-Gómez. We apreciate very much the kind invitation of Jana Vamosi
A nice MS about beetle diversity from our long-term experiment on the effects of tree diversity has been accepted in Neotropical Entomology, nice work Javi!
March-April
Josué Magaña is the second student to defend virtualy his BsC thesis (Biology); nice job Josué, congrats!
Nice seminar by Dra. Mariana Chávez, researcher of the CICY about landscapes genomics, thanks Mariana!
This friday (April 16th) we have in our webseminar to our friend Dr. Sergio Ramos, Posdoctoral fellow from the Department of Biological Sciences University of Pittsburgh, USA. The title of his talk was "An experimental approach to understanding evolution in plants mediated by interactions with pollinators and herbivores". Thanks Sergio great talk!
Very sad news, our dear friend and brilliant ecologist Victor Rico-Gray has passed away, we will remember him forever.
January-February
A review of the effect of invasive plants on plant-pollinator networks, was accepted in New Phytologist (Tansley´s reviews) Great colaboration with Gerardo Arceo-Gómez
Our article about the effects of invasive species on the polen transfer in sand dune communities is out in Journal of Ecology, great multinational colaboration with Conchita Alonso (Spain), Gerardo Arceo, Tia Lyn-Ashman and Robert Raguso (USA) and our team (México). Thanks dear friends!
David Cupul is the first Victor´s student to defend virtualy his BsC thesis (Biology); nice job David congrats!
A basic but a nice paper about the pollination biology of Cienfuegosia yucatanensis has been published in colaboration with Conchita Alonso from the CSIC-EBD (Spain) at Botanical Sciences
Victor and Paula are finishing their first virtual course; 39 students but we guess it was a nice work
2020
September-October
A mini review of our work of the coastal dunes ecology and invasive species has been published at the Ecoblog-Mx (Sientific Mexican Ecological Society), thanks to Mariana Álvarez for her kind invitation.
Delta hurricane (Cat. 4) approaching to the península of Yucatán. What else?
Very good news, Paula Sosenski and Diego Carmona got their first grant from CONACyT, congrats guys! I am sure the results of your projects wil be exciting!
Because the Covid19, we are having a very new experience: Victor is starting his undergraduate (45 students) and graduate (18 students) courses totally online. We'll see!
July-August
In these sad days we received good news, our MS about co-flowering sand-dune community assembly has been accepted at Journal of Ecology. Great colaboration with Cristopher Albor and Gerardo Arceo; nice work guys!
April-May
A very nice MS about the effect of plan domestication on herbivory has been accepted at AoB Plants, nice colaboration with our friends from CINVESTAV, thanks to Miguel Munguia for his kind invitation.
A MS of our experimental long-term experiment about tree diversity effects on insect diversity, multitrophic interactions, has been accepted at Journal of Animal Ecology. This one about the effects of tree diversity on the abundance, diversity, and stability of foraging birds. Nice work Yanely!
A MS in colaboration with our friends from the CIDIR-Oaxaca has been accepted at Acta Botánica Colombiana. In the MS we studied the floral phenology of an endemic epifit plant. Thanks to Judith and Demetria
March
Sad month!
We did it! two very interesting MS´s about plant-plant interactions in the coastal dunes were submited just in time, the Covid19 is here!
Janaury-February
Our conceptual MS of pollen-pollen interactions has been accepted in Annals of Botany, excellent collaboration with Tia-Lynn Ashman (Pittsburgh University), Conchita Alon (EBD-Seville) and Gerardo Arceo-Gómez (ETSU). Thanks dear friends!
2019
November-December
Our beloved former doctoral student Adriana Castro past away this year. Great researcher and excellent person.
Our project about the ecology and conservation of coastal sand dunes continues "bearing fruits". A MS about the effect of climate change on the distribution of key-stone plant species of the sand dunes from the península of Yucatán, has been accepted at the Revista Mexicana de Biodiversidad. Good work Natalia!
Victor is finishing and exhausting semester. An undergrad evolution course with 28 students and a postgrad course of philosophy of science with 32 students. Need vacations urgently!
Our grade students, Brian, Rigel and Jesús (MsC) and Alex (Dr) got good notes in their projects. Good effort!, we go for the excellence.
The MS of pant-flower insect visitors networks along an invasion gradient in sand dune communities has been published at PLoSE ONE
July-October
Finally! our MS about pant-flower insect visitors networks along an invasion gradient in sand dune communities has been accepted at PLoSE ONE
Comming back from the meeting of the Mexican Ecological Society, great work of our students. We enjoyed a great lecture by our friend Robert Raguso and we have an excellent participation, posters (Brian, Natalia and Cristopher), oral presentations (Alex, Yanelly, Paula, Edith, Cristopher and Víctor)
The Alex paper about the effect of alien pollen on native species has been selected for the "highligths section" of American Journal of Botany, yes Alex!
More good news, during our summer vacations, the MS from the Alex MsC thesis has been accepted at American Journal of Botany, great collaboration with Paula Sosenki and Gerardo Arceo, congrats Alex! and ¡Viva Colombia!
Great news before our summer vacations, a very nice MS about global DNA methylation in Angiosperms has been accepted at New Phytologist, great work of Conchita Alonso and Monica Medrano, thaks for your invitation to participate in this excelent paper!
April-June
Astrid Valladares, from the San Carlos University, Guatemala, visited our lab; you are very welcome any time Astrid!
A nice MS,in which we are trying to understand the defenses of the wild cotton has been accepted at American Journal of Botany, Luis is an "unstoppable machine"
An exciting MS about global patterns of heterospecific pollen transfer has been accepted at Scientific Reports, great work Gerardo! and thanks for inviting us to collaborate
Great news!, the BsC thesis of our student Brian Suárez was recognized as the best thesis (Biology, 2018-UADY). Congratulations Brian, great job!
A short review about the role of the secondary metabolites in the pollination attraction has been published at eLS, nice work Paula!
The MS from the Cristopher's MsC thesis has been accepted at Journal of Ecology. Home run Cris! Congrats and more MS's are comming
January-March
Starting a new year with good news, a MS about herbivory in wild cotton has been accepted at Journal of Ecology, nice work Luis and nice collaboration with our friends from Neuchatel Univeristy (Switzerland)
Martha finished her postdoctoral stay, great friend and excellent scientist. Now she is a professor at the UAG. Good luck Martha!
2018
March
Finally!, our first MS of our project about ecology and conservation of coastal sand dunes has been accepted at Plant Ecology and Diversity
A nice paper about the ecology of insect pollination in high diversity communities has been published in Quercus; an excellent document for the non-specialist, thanks Conchita!
January-February
A new MS about the consequences of the spatial variation and plant density on the tri-trophic interactions in R. nudiflora has been published in American Journal of Botany. I guess rigth now we have around 25 papers about Ruellia nudiflora (our Drosophila melanogaster),
Very good news, Dr. Diego Carmona is now a new member of our Lab, welcome Diego!
A MS in colaboration with our friends Xoaquin, Felisa, Berny and Kailen about leave's chemical composition and its spatial variation in R. nudiflora was published in Scientific Reports.Nice work Luis and Xoaquin!
2017
October-November
Good news, the first MS of the Silvia's thesis has been accepted at Biotropica, very good Silvia!
Rigel defended successfully his BsC thesis (Biology), nice work Rigel!...and "..your lips move but I can't hear what you're saying.." (Pink Floyd + Rigel), cheers!
Tere is going to visit Xoaquin Moreira's Lab (Biological Mission of Galicia, Spain) following with our excellent colaboration, enjoy it Tere!
Finally!, after 3 years waiting our electronic book about the ecology and functionality of the "Ria Lagartos" ecological preserve, has been published, cheers all!
A MS in colaboration with our "vets friends" has been accepted at Parasitology Research,(they think that they are redeeming me)... nice work Sarahí!
September
Victor visited Carlos Herrera and Conchita Alonso's Lab at Seville (Spain), exciting visit, amazing friends, and nice ideas for the future!
Maybeth defended successfully her MsC thesis, she was working on our project of forest diversity, congrats Maybeth!
The lab received very good news, our friends Luis Abdala and Miguel Munguía were promoted at the level II of the National System of Researches, José Ramos was confirmed at the level I and Victor at the level III; great!
Celebrating Blanca, she is ready to fly to Seville, next week she will be starting a stay with Conchita Alonso and Carlos Herrera. Good luck Blanca! you will be in very good (and friendly) hands!
July-August
Very good news, the first MS of the Blanca's thesis has been accepted at Journal of Ecology, congrats Blanca! excelent work!!
Brian, Judith,Blanca, Rigel, Daniel, Cristopher, Christian, Diego and Víctor presented several contributions (posters, oral presentations) at the meeting of the Sociedad Científica Mexicana de Ecología (SCME), in León, Guanajuato. Great work guys!
Victor was invited as a speaker in the symposium of Herbivory, in the meeting of the SCME, thanks to Juan Nuñez for his kind invitation and for let us to present part of our investigations of the multi-trophic interactions in Ruellia nudiflora (in colaboration with a lot of friends, and students, but this time especially with Blanca Mejia)
The new researcher position (Cátedra CONACyT) for our lab was assigned to Dr. Diego Carmona; you will be welcome in our lab Diego!
A MS in colaboration with Daniela Martínez and Miguel Munguia from CINVESTAV-Mérida about the genetic structure of Manilkara zapota was accepted at the Journal of Tropical Ecology, thanks Daniela and Miguel!
Blanca, Silvia and Diego successfully presented part of their work in the annual meeting of the Association for Tropical Biology and Conservation (ATBC); congrats guys, nice contributions!
Thanks to Paula and Diego for the re-organization of our weekely "Eco-evo-cons seminars"
April-May
Excellent news, CONACyT has approved a second researcher position (Cátedra CONACyT) for our Lab.
Blanca got a scholarship to carry out an academic stay at the EBD-CSIC (Seville, Spain) starting in September of this year; she will be working with Conchita Alonso. Congrats Blanca!
Víctor was invited as a speaker of the Talks in Ecology at the ENES-UNAM in Morelia, Michoacán. Very nice people with interesting research in progress. Thanks to Nancy Contreras for her kind invitation, to the students for their interest and also to Mauricio Quesada and his students for an interesting talk..
A new MS about the plant-floral visitor network structure a Cucurbitaceae crops has been accepeted at Arthropod-Plant Interactions. Great colaboration with MaJo (IT-Tizimín) and Gerardo (Tato) (East Tennesse University).
February-March
Functional diversity project news: Tia-Lynn Ashman (Pittsburgh University) and Gerardo (Tato) Arceo (East Tennesse University) visited us. Great discussions, We will see you soon again!
Functional diversity project news: Our field-season started with a very nice company! We are excited, but worried about the lack of rainfall, actually we did not have winter at Yucatán Will we observe flowers and pollinators? an interesting task is waiting for us.
Cristopher Albor (now a MSc's student at INECOL) has join us; he will be working in our project of functional diversity. Welcome Cris!
Rigel, Diego, Brian, Kevin, Tato, Daniel, Tia-Lynn, Cristopher and Paula (Victor: the shadow)
Paula Sosensnki visited Robert Raguso's Lab at Cornell; the collaboration is going on!
January
Good start of the year, a new MS of Ipomea wolcottiana has been accepted at Plant Biology... (25 years-old data!), congrats Tato and Fabián.
2016
December
Closing the year with a MS accepted at American Journal of Botany, The 22 Ruellia nudiflora's paper, congrats Luis et al.,
October
Functional diversity project news: We had our first meeting with our external partners and friends Conchita Alonso (CSIC-Seville), Robert(o) Raguso (Cornell, NY) and Gerardo (Tato) Arceo (East Tennesse University); thanks Conchita, Tato and Robert(o), exciting visit, We hope to see you soon again!
Diego, Robert, Tato, Alex, Rigel, Cecy, Hino, Natalia, David, Víctor, Brian, Christian, Kevin, Conchita, Paula, Daniel, Blanca and Juan
Paula Sosenski has just arriving to our Lab, welcome Paula!
A new Ms about functional diversity and plant-pollinators interactions has been accepted at Flora, thanks to Conchita Alonso!
September
We have a posdoc position available: starting on January 2017
Functional diversity project news: Our second field season of the year has already begun!, volunteers are welcome
The second Ms of the Luis Esquivel´s BsC thesis has been accepet at J. of Arachnology, good work Luis!
Functional diversity project news: We had our first meeting with the people in charge of Ria Celestún and Ría Lagartos Preserves, great participation of our students
Yanely May, Alex Suárez (from Colombia), Ceci Navarro and Jesús Hinojosa were accepted as a MsC students in our Lab, very welcome all of you!
July
Paula Sosenski was selected as associate researcher (Cátedra Conacyt) in our Lab, congrats Paula!
Natalia Ovando has been accepted as Dr student in our Lab, welcome Natalia!
Victor finished his summer course (Evolutionary ecology of biotic interactions) for undergrad students
Cristopher was accepted as MsC student at the INECOL, well done Cris, we will miss you.
May-June
Excelent news we got financial support from CONACyT to continue with our experiment about forest diversity and multitrophic interactions
Samuel Campos got his MsC degree congrats Samuel! .
Blanca got the second place at the Foro de Posgrado, for her oral presentation, great job Blanca!
Luis and Victor visited Betty Benrey and Ted Turlings labs at University of Néuchâtel (Switzerland), nice people, exciting visit and hoping for future collaboration
Laura defended successfully her BsC thesis, now she is Biologist, congrats Laura!
Excellent news, CONACyT has approved a researcher position (Cátedra CONACyT) for our Lab.
A Ms about hummingbirds and their flowers at the Reserva Ría Lagartos (Pamela´s BsC thesis), has been accepted at Hutzil, great job Pamela!
Christian is coming back to Guadalajara (UdG), we hope to read his BsC thesis soon, have a nice trip Chris.
Virginia and Ricardo, two of our students defended successfully their BsC thesis (Agroecology), excellent work guys!
March-April
Our remodeled Molecular Ecology lab is ready.
Finally! a Ms about about the effects of tree diversity on spiders communiy was accepted at Biotropica, congrats Luis Esquivel!
Good news Pamela is now studing her MsC at the Netherlands and Tere got a job in Germany! good luck guys!
January-February
A MS using (very) old data of the spatial variation of pollen loads in a endemic monoecius plant has been accepted at Plant Biology, nice study inspired by Carlos Herrera´s work
A new Ms of our UC-Mexus colaboration project has been accepted at Journal of Ecology, great work Luis and Xoaquin!
Cirstopher Albor has joined us as a research assistant, welcome!
New semester: Victor is starting a BSc course (Evolution) with 50 studentes...(ever they run out?)
2015
November-October
A new MS about herbivory in R. nudiflora along a climatic gradient has been published at Oikos
The MaJo´s paper published at Biotropica is at the editor blog
A new MS of the Conchita Alonso´s project was accepted in a special issue of "Ecology and Evolution of Pollen Performance" at American Journal of Botany, and was marked at the highligths of the journal; great work Tato and thanks to Conchita for her kind invitation
The Naty's paper has been published in Annals of Botany, great, but also a nice Luis Salinas' photograph is on the cover, yes!
August-September
Good news, our request to join to the TreeDivNet (a global network of tree diversity experiments) was accepted, thanks to Luis Abdala-Roberts for his effort
Paty Téllez defended successfully her MSc thesis, congrats Paty!
The second MS of MaJo's Dr thesis has been published at Biotropica, nice work MaJo!
A new MS of our big experiment about the effect of tree genotypic diversity and species diversity on the arthropod community and biotic interactions has been accepted at Agricultural and Forest Entomology, great job Luis!
The MaJo´s paper has been published at PloseOne
New semester: Victor is starting a BSc course (Evolution) and a MsC course (Science and Sustainability) heavy months are comming!
The second edition of the book (Advices for young people interested in science; in Spanish) has been released
August.- Ilka´s second paper from her Dr. thesis has been accepted at Evolutionary Ecology, well done Ilka!
May.- It was published the article by Miguel, Jeff, Victor and Arturo at Ecology Letters (ranked as a number one journal in Ecology), cheers!