Animal
The Session information is still subject to change.
A1 - Multiscale Musculoskeletal Mechanics and Modelling
Dr. Nicolai Konow
Janneke Schwaner
Session Description
Muscle is a hierarchical tissue that traditionally has been studied in “silos” focused at single scales of biological organization, but is better approach with 21st century convergence science. Convergence science takes multiscale approaches, both to understand function, and to uncover emergent properties of biological systems. To this end, researchers have recently assembled teams with diverse sets of expertise, ranging across -omics, molecular and myoprotein interactions, tissue architecture, neuromechanics, skeletal kinematics, and organismal movement performance, in order to discover the multiscale underpinnings of how muscle engenders movement. It is time for these groups to meet and exchange and communicate discoveries to each other and the broader research community.
A2 - Experimental Palaeobiology - Bringing Fossils "Back to Life"
Dr. Jamie MacLaren
Dr Narimane Chatar
Dr. Sophie Regnault
Prof Peter Falkingham
Session Description
The session topic will cover a variety of studies which (in their broadest sense) aim to draw conclusions on functional morphology, biomechanics, and physiology in extinct organisms, often by using data gathered from modern species to provide interpretations on the biology of organisms in the fossil record. This will include, but will not be limited to: anatomical descriptions and comparative dissection; comparative physiology; sensory mechanics; hard-tissue micrtostructural analyses; kinematics; multi-body dynamics; computational fluid dynamics; etc. Topics are intended to range across the mechanical and physiological spectrum, incorporating aspects of feeding, locomotion, sensory perception, physiology, etc.
A3 - Functional Morphology of Locomotion and Feeding: A Tribute to Peter Aerts
Dr. Pauline Provini
Sam Van Wassenbergh
Session Description
Uncovering the relationship between morphology and function is essential to understanding how animals, in all their diversity, cope with the physical limitations and opportunities of important life functions. This goal encompasses the long-standing research field of functional morphology. Obtaining a detailed functional morphological understanding is challenging because it often requires combining cleverly designed experiments with mathematical modelling approaches in a comparative framework. The research career of Prof. Peter Aerts is packed with examples of how such integration between experiments and modelling can succeed to answer open questions on the functional morphology and neuromechanics of locomotion and feeding. This session honours Peter Aerts' contributions in this field by bringing together cutting-edge research in the spirit of his major accomplishments.
A4 - Kinematics and Robotics - state of the arts kinematics and their transfer to robotics
Session Description
Kinematic analyses have been a fundamental part of biomechanics research. Using video material and landmarks on animal (and human) morphology, their positioning over time can be recorded and analyzed leading to insights of their respective capabilities in terms of e.g. gaits, speed, maneuverability and the respective underlying morphological features. With rapid technological development in video recording, image analysis and its automation as well as machine learning, not only do kinematic analyses increase in spatial and temporal accuracy, but are now manageable in 3D. With todays high resolution 3D kinematics, animal movements can be analyzed in higher complexity and what is more, such data also becomes more and more transferable onto robotic prototypes. Such robotic prototypes not only promise to improve robotic through designs optimized by nature but can help biomechanics studies to test hypotheses on adjustable models i.e. robot prototypes. This session aims to showcase the state of the arts in kinematics and welcomes all kinematic studies but especially those that try to transfer the gained knowledge to robotic or other prototypes.
A4 (2) - Innovative Methods and Techniques in Biomechanics
Session Description
The session aims to showcase cutting-edge advancements in hardware and software development for research in biomechanics. We invite talks and posters to present their latest pioneering techniques for data collection and analysis, welcoming a wide range of approaches from high-tech innovations to cost-effective solutions, to the biomechanics community.
Building on the presentations from the session we organised at SEB Conference Prague 2024, we encourage submissions across various topics in the field of biomechanics. These may include data-driven methods such as machine learning and AI tools, robotics and automation in kinematic studies; novel sensors and measurement techniques. We're also keen to see advanced imaging and quantification methods, as well as innovative software solutions for data management and analysis. We especially appreciate presentations demonstrating cost-effective and accessible solutions, time-efficient approaches to biomechanical studies, interdisciplinary collaborations, novel applications of existing technologies, and "life-hack" style innovations that challenge conventional methods and allow for wider participation. These could range from sophisticated AI applications to seemingly basic yet revolutionary techniques that address common challenges in new ways.
Researchers at all career stages, from students to established professionals, are encouraged to participate. This year's SEB featured presentations from undergraduate students, PhD candidates, postdoctoral researchers, and senior scientists, reflecting the need of the entire biomechanics community to discuss the more technical details of the field. We hope the discussion will inspire new collaborations that can drive the development of new powerful and accessible tools in biomechanics.
A5 - Phenotype and Evolution
Session Description
A5 (2) - General Biomechanics
David Labonte
Dr. Pauline Provini
Session Description
Biologists are concerned with life, and engineers study technology. Biomechanics is where both meet, as it is the study of the technology of living things - as biomechanists, we study the mechanical principles and function of biological systems, at any organisational level - including the molecular, cellular, meso- and organismal scale - and across all kingdoms - plants, animals, fungi, bacteria and what have you. This breadth is reflected in our name: we are open to and excited about contributions from colleagues that stem from a wide range of disciplines, including zoologists, botanists, molecular biologists, physiologists, kinesiologists, mathematicians, engineers, biomimeticists, computer scientists, chemists and much more.
At the SEB Annual Conference, we host Biomechanics presentations in podium and poster sessions, which cover a broad range of general biomechanical topics, including animal locomotion, feeding, functional morphology, muscle-tendon mechanics, biological materials, evolutionary biomechanics, biorobotics, etc. We also run special sessions, contributed and organised by members of our vibrant, broad and inclusive community. We are friendly, and we are welcoming - come and join us!
A6 - Comparative Endocrinology
Session Description
A7 - Stress as a Driver of Neural Plasticity: From Brains to Behaviour
Session Description
Exposure to stressors can have a variety of effects on animals, from activating acute neuroendocrine stress responses that help the animal cope with the stressor, to inducing longer-term changes in their physiology and behaviour. This session will focus on stress as a driver of brain plasticity, from developmental programming to neural plasticity in adults. Fishes are particularly useful study organisms for these questions, because not only do they have simpler brains and behavioural repertoires, but they also have a substantially higher potential for adult neurogenesis (the ability to generate new neurons during postnatal life) than other vertebrates. From dissecting the molecular mechanisms through which stress alters neurogenesis and neuron development to evaluating the impacts of stress on the behaviour of individuals within and across generations, this session will consider all aspects of stress as a modulator of brain and behaviour.
A8 - Animal Responses to a Changing World: What About Cognition?
Dr Lisandrina Mari
Alycia Valvandrin
Session Description
Cognition refers to the processes involved in acquiring, processing, and utilizing information from the environment, such as perception, learning, memory, decision-making, and problem solving, which guide behavioral decisions, essential for the survival of animals. In the context of anthropogenic changes, animals must navigate novel environmental cues and adjust their behaviors to cope with altered conditions, such as habitat modification and resource depletion. However, environmental stressors might impair their cognitive abilities and threaten their survival. At the population level, a decline in cognitive performance might drastically reduce the adaptive potential of species in response to environmental changes, highlighting the need for a broader understanding of how environmental factors influence cognition and how these changes might impact larger ecological scales.
The goal of this session is to emphasize the importance of incorporating cognitive perspectives into studies investigating the response of non-human animals (any taxa) to a wide range of environmental stressors. Since cognitive performance can only be quantified through behavioral experiments and observations, we will also encourage studies exploring the mechanisms underlying behavioral flexibility.
A9 (2) - Innovating for a Sustainable Future: Mitigating the Environmental Risks of High-Tech Solutions
Session Description
This session explores how cutting-edge technologies while advancing human capabilities, pose significant challenges in an evolving global landscape. High-tech innovations address environmental issues, creating environmental risks. Though solving many global challenges, technologies such as electric vehicles, contribute to environmental degradation through energy consumption, resource depletion, and e-waste. Participants will discuss the responsibility of tech leaders and policymakers in balancing innovation with sustainability, examining how green tech, renewable energy, recycling processes and sustainable methods can mitigate these risks. The session emphasizes the need for foresight and responsible innovation to ensure that technological progress aligns with environmental sustainability. Investigation regarding environmental impacts on aquatic and terrestrial environments is welcome.
A9 (3) - Pollution, Osmoregulation and Energy Use
Dr. Jehan-Hervé Lignot
Session Description
Pollution as an evolutionary driver is now recognised by several recent studies. It is still necessary to identify the physiological effects of anthropogenic pollution on key physiological processes that can modify local populations and induce molecular and phenotypic changes.
A10 - Riding The Wave: Insights Into Plastic and Evolutionary Animal Responses to Temperature Challenges
Session Description
Climate change is causing increased and variable thermal conditions in natural ecosystems and organisms must deal with these changing thermal conditions for survival. Climate induced thermal stress affects both endothermic and exothermic organisms across all biomes. Organisms can modify their behavioural, physiological, and morphological phenotypes via plastic responses to thermal conditions as well as the evolution of novel phenotypes. These changes potentially occur due to changes in gene expression, epigenetic state, physiological or cellular processes. To better understand how organisms respond to novel thermal conditions an interdisciplinary approach is needed. By linking natural systems where species have evolved adaptations to extreme thermal conditions to individual level variation that may facilitate adaptation to novel thermal environments in the near future, we can better understand the potential for organisms to deal with the increasing challenge posed by climate change. The aim of this session is to bring together researchers from evolutionary, physiological, and ecological backgrounds to better understand the capacity for organisms to adapt to new and changing thermal environments. Ultimately, by highlighting interdisciplinary research on how organisms have successfully adapted to extreme thermal environments and the capacity for species to adapt in the present, we may be able to predict future responses to climate induced thermal conditions.
A10 (2) - Vertebrate Cardiovascular and Respiratory Physiology
Dr Christian Damsgaard
Session Description
A continuous respiratory gas exchange is vital to all multicellular organisms, where any mismatch in supply and demand has large consequences on organismal function, including impairments of oxygen transport, carbon dioxide excretion and acid/base homeostasis. This session will bring together researchers investigating the integrative mechanisms of the cardiovascular and respiratory systems. The session will showcase the newest cardiorespiratory research that leverages molecular, physiological and comparative tools to understand how animals respond to environmental challenges, such as hypoxia, hypercapnia and extreme temperatures. By integrating knowledge from various subdisciplines within comparative physiology, this session aims to uncover physiological mechanisms that support both immediate responses to environmental change and long-term evolutionary adaptations of the vertebrate cardiovascular system.
A10 (3) - Metabolic Reprogramming Across Time Scales
Angela Fago
Dr Christian Damsgaard
Session Description
Regulation of metabolism is essential for survival in changing environments, characterized by fluctuating conditions, such as shifts in temperature, oxygen levels, or resource availability. On shorter timescales, animals must rapidly respond to maintain energy balance and physiological function, while over evolutionary periods, metabolic remodeling has supported major transitions in animal evolution, including the evolution of endothermy and the colonization of hypoxic habitats. Thus, metabolic reprogramming is central to how animals build resilience to both immediate and long-term environmental changes. This session will bring together researchers to present their latest advances in metabolic reprogramming across time scales, offering insights into how animals can survive extreme conditions in a rapidly changing world.
A11 - Open Water: The Biology of Pelagic Fishes
Session Description
Pelagic fishes have unique physiological adaptations to their open-water lifestyle, including enhanced swimming abilities, specialized buoyancy control mechanisms, efficient respiration and thermoregulation strategies, allowing them to grow and live in the vast and dynamic open ocean. Many pelagic species undertake large-scale migrations driven by spawning, feeding, and seasonal environmental changes. These species also display a wide range of social behaviours, with some being highly social and others more solitary. As well as playing a crucial role in marine ecosystems, being both predators and prey, pelagic fishes are economically vital to global fisheries. They are increasingly being impacted by human activities, such as overfishing, pollution and climate change. Due to their wide-ranging habitats, morphology and specific adaptations, pelagic fishes are often challenging to study in laboratory settings. This makes it difficult to understand their physiological and behavioural responses to global threats. Recent advances in experimental biology, including telemetry, biologging, environmental DNA and controlled experiments, have become essential for studying these fish and informing sustainable management practices. This session will bring together researchers working on the broad field of the physiology and behaviour of pelagic fishes, to present and discuss the recent advances in the field, including sub-themes such as cardiovascular physiology, metabolic physiology, and spatial ecology.
A12 - Biotic Interactions in Freshwater Ecosystems Under Anthropogenic Environmental Change
Dr. Nedim Tüzün
Sarah Hasnain
Session Description
Human induced changes in global physical and chemical processes are threatening all types of ecosystems. Freshwater ecosystems are particularly vulnerable, as they are often exposed to many anthropogenic stressors due to their social and cultural importance. While the direct impact of these stressors on freshwater organisms is well characterized, we still have limited understanding how these stressors influence biotic interactions, which form the basis for numerous ecosystem properties and processes. In order to predict how anthropogenic stressors impact the functioning of freshwater ecosystems, it is important to understand how these stressors alter biotic interactions.
This session will explore how anthropogenic stressors alter biotic interactions in freshwater systems. We are interested in studies investigating typical global change stressors (e.g. warming, eutrophication, salinization etc.), as well as less studied stressors (e.g. artificial light at night, plastic pollution etc.). The biotic interactions examined can include both inter- and intra-specific interactions, including competition, predation, herbivory, mutualism, commensalism, parasitism etc. Studied endpoints can range from demographic traits such as abundance and population growth rates to individual traits such as feeding rate, functional responses, antipredator behaviour, etc. We further invite submissions, empirical or theoretical, that translate effects of anthropogenic stressors on species interactions into impacts on populations, communities and ecosystems, and explore these questions within an eco-evolutionary framework. We aim for the representation of a wide variety of taxa, including species with complex life cycles (e.g. species with an aquatic larval stage and terrestrial adults).
A13 - The Environmental Causes and Consequences For Offspring of Parental Effects
Session Description
A14 - The Effect of Early Life Stress on Adult Phenotypes: Mechanisms and Fitness Consequences
Prof Pat Monaghan
Dr Valeria Marasco
Session Description
The overall topic is the mechanisms whereby early life stress influences the development of the adult phenotype in vertebrates. Early life is a critical period during which the adult phenotype can be influenced directly and indirectly by environmental circumstances. We plan to focus on experimental approaches in the lab or field, but we would not exclude observation work in the field provided appropriate control groups are included. It will also include consideration of an optimal level of stress exposure in order to provide resilience, and potential interactive effects of the adult environment on outcomes. Comparative studies will also be welcome. We aim to include work on a range of taxa and stressors, particularly food availability, social circumstances and perceived danger, stressors experienced directly and indirectly in early life, and outcomes measured at different biological levels. We are particularly interested in highlighting mechanistic processes of homeostasis that have not been well studied in this context, such as inflammation and immune function, cellular and whole organism aerobic metabolism, together with better studied neuroendocrine circuits, and in linking such processes with potential fitness consequences. We would also like to include a consideration of the effects of different forms of parental care (or other resilience factors) in buffering the developing organism from stress exposure in early life. Some of these points will be included in a discussion at the end of the session.
We will organise the session into four parts. The first three will be focussed on mechanistic processes 1) hormones 2) metabolism 3) inflammation and immune function 4) cellular effects, such as mitochondrial function and telomere attrition. Part 4) will focus on fitness consequences and include the final discussion.
The speakers we have suggested at this point come from a range of backgrounds and career stages. We have focussed at this point on overview topics but would aims to include focussed studies as well as overviews, and a good spread across career stages and geographical locations,
A14 (2) - Embryos In A Changing World
Session Description
Anthropogenically induced environmental changes are an increasingly urgent problem, as they are exposing organisms to stimuli and stress beyond what they are adapted to. There is an increasing recognition that certain life stages may be more vulnerable to stressors than others, potentially representing a bottleneck in the vulnerability of species to environmental change. The relative immobility of embryos leaves them susceptible to prevailing environmental conditions, which can have profound impacts at the individual to population level through, for example, increases in deformities and mortality, premature hatching, and mechanisms such as environmental sex determination. We welcome submissions covering topics relating to vulnerability and adaptations of embryos to environmental stressors (e.g., temperature, acidification, hypoxia, nutrition, toxicants, pathogens), and the impacts that these may have on individuals and populations.
A14 (3) - Growing In A Changing Environment: The Importance Of Integrating Development Into The Challenges Imposed By Dynamic Environments Of The Herpetofauna.
Session Description
Evolution, Ecology and Developmental Biology
A16 - Insights and Tools From Biologging For Conservation Physiology
Prof. Andrea Fuller
Emily Bennitt
Session Description
The topic will cover research undertaken using biologging approaches in freshwater, marine and terrestrial ecosystems, aimed at providing insights on animal physiology for conservation and management. It also will feature new technological developments in biologging technology.
A9 (1) - Going Beyond Death: Understanding Ecologically and Physiologically Relevant Impacts of Environmental Toxicants
Dr. Amelia Munson
Session Description
The environment is under increasing strain from human-derived impacts including chemical contamination and climate change. To understand the effect of these contaminants, toxicologists use the endpoint of death (i.e., LC50-median lethal concentration to cause death) to determine sensitivity under controlled static conditions. While a crude metric, it is so far the most indicative of impact within the environment and universal across all species. However, what is needed is a way to contextualize effects that are sub-lethal so that we can find another indicator that does not result in death across species and ecosystems. Death may be a straightforward way to understand environmental contamination but is there a key physiological mechanism that could indicate general impacts of contaminants within a contaminant class? Less restrictive behavioural and physiological endpoints could be used to better indicate ecosystem health before population collapses. In this session, we will present an exploration of research that strives to understand the true ecological and physiological impact of pollutants in the environment by studying changes to behaviour, physiology, and/or whole ecosystem function in the context of a rapidly changing environment.
