Plants in a changing world

The global environment is changing, the climate is warming, there are more extreme weather events, human activity has altered geochemical cycles of nutrients and land use change reduces and fragments habitats. How will plants adapt? How can we conserve those at risk of extinction and how can we adapt our management of plant communities? These questions and more will be addressed at the 4^th Annual Meeting on Plant Ecology and Evolution.

The meeting will take place on Friday the 23th of March 2018 in the Botanic Garden Meise. We particularly encourage young researchers to participate, but everyone is welcome. The Annual Meeting is an open and friendly event where you can promote your research to a wide range of plant scientists. AMPEE is an initiative of the Royal Botanical Society of Belgium and the Botanic Garden Meise, who also collectively publish the journal Plant Ecology and Evolution.

The theme this year is “Plants in a changing world” with keynote lectures from Daniel Kissling (Associate Professor for Quantitative Biodiversity Science at the Institute for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Dynamics (IBED), University of Amsterdam) and Sandrine Godefroid (Botanic Garden Meise).

Register by the 14th March.

On Twitter #AMPEE4

9.00-9.40: Registration / Coffee

9.40-9.45: Opening welcome

Renate Wesselingh: General Secretary, Botanical Society of Belgium

9.45-10.15: Keynote: Building essential biodiversity variables (EBVs) through effective global coordination as well as local contributions

Daniel Kissling (University of Amsterdam)

10.15-10.30: TrIAS - Tracking Invasive Alien species : Building a data-driven framework to inform policy

Sonia Vanderhoeven (Belgian Biodiversity Platform)

10.30-10.45: Methods for open and repeatable checklist publication of plant data

Lien Reyserhove (Instituut voor Natuur- en Bosonderzoek, INBO)

10.45-11.15: Coffee break

11.15-11.30: Plant community response to environmental change depends upon land management legacies

Mike Perring (Ghent University / University of Western Australia)

11.30-11.45: Three-dimensional soil heterogeneity modulates the responses of plant community to drought in experimental mesocosms

Yongjie Liu (University of Antwerp)

11.45-12.00: Herbaria as functional trait databases

Sofie Meeus (Botanic Garden Meise)

12.00-12.15: Contribution of genetics for implementing population restoration of the threatened Arnica montana through plant translocation

Fabienne Van Rossum (Botanic Garden Meise)

12.15-12.30: The fate of African tropical flora under climate change

Gilles Dauby (Université Libre de Bruxelles)

12.30-13.30: Group photo & lunch

13.30-14.00: Plant reintroduction: a glimmer of hope for the conservation of critically endangered species

Keynote: Sandrine Godefroid (Botanic Garden Meise)

14.00-14.15: Diversification and high resolution phylogeography of African forests

Jérémy Migliore (Université Libre de Bruxelles EBE & Laboratoire d'Océanographie et du Climat , Paris)

14.15-14.30: Towards a pollination syndrome classification of angraecoid orchids: the case of Rhipidoglossum and the rostellum

João N. M. Farminhão (Université Libre de Bruxelles)

14.30-14.45: Floral developmental study in the Spermacoceae-alliance (Rubioideae, Rubiaceae), with focus on the tubular corolla and epipetaly

Wouter Van Assche (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven)

14.45-15.15: Launch of www.botanicalcollections.be

15.15-15.30: ninety-second lightening talks to introduce the posters

15.30-15.45: Presentation of the Van Rompaey, Errera and Crépin Prizes

15.45-17.00: Posters & Reception

Awards: Best poster, judged on design, clarity and novelty.