Master’s degree project in Animal Ecology

The degree project may comprise 30-60 credits and can be carried out in a research group at the department of Biology, or at an external institution e.g. at another faculty or elsewhere.

Prerequisites for the Master’s degree project in Animal Ecology

• 45 cr Advanced courses in Ecology including Population and Community Ecology (BIOR69), Evolutionary Animal Ecology (BIOR35), and one of the courses Ornithology (BIOR51) or Molecular Ecology and Evolution (BIOR25) 
• A Bachelor’s degree including 90 cr in Cell Biology, Genetics, Microbiology, Ecology, Botany and zoology and 7,5 cr in Statistics

Proposals for master degree projects in

Animal Ecology

Interested in a thesis work on damselflies?

We are looking for a biologystudent for a tandem thesiswork where a masters student from physics and a biology student will collaborate on a new monitoring technique for damselflies (Calopteryx splendens and C. virgo). The role of the biology student will be to set the agenda for which biological questions that should be addressed and what data that needs to be collected to study these, as well as practical field work together with the physics student. Topics that can be investigated are, for example, the spatial and temporal distributions of the different species and sexes of the damselflies, damselfly activity in relation to weather and temperature, and short-time scale interactions between species and sexes. Dispersal estimations from marking experiments can also be done.

The student should have courses in evolutionary ecology and entomology and be interested in working with novel techniques in an interdisciplinary field. The field work will be conducted during June-August, but a first meeting with the physics student should take place already during April. We do already have a physics student working on the project.

More information about the thesis work

Please contact Anna Runemark, Eriks Svensson, Mikkel Brydegaard or Sune Svanberg if you are interested in this proposal.

Natterjack toads, presence at breeding sites

Background

In Sweden, the natterjack breeds in two types of habitat. On the west coast (Bohuslän) (and a few sites on the east coast of Skåne) it breeds in rock pools. In the rest of the Swedish distribution (all in Skåne) it breeds in shallow pools, often on "light", sandy soils. These pools frequently dry out during the summer. Some do not even appear every year. The toads breed opportunistically and usually after heavy rains that fill these pools. Breeding can take place any time from the beginning of May to beginning of July, sometimes even earlier or later. During this period there may be several bouts of breeding, each for a few days. During breeding bouts males call from sunset until about midnight. Egg and tadpole development takes appr. 6 weeks. During this period the ponds must keep water or the recruitment fails.

In some dry years there is no breeding at all. However, to document this with certainty the toads must be monitored closely. This is because each breeding bout may last for a short time. Also, one has to separate breeding in the sense of calling males (that can be heard from a longdistance) from egg laying. Females may be more particular than males.

Serveral breeding pools may be found in a restricted area (<200 m). Several such sites may be found somewhat further apart.

Issue

This background raises several questions that are important in understanding the biology of this species. This is knowledge is important when planning and interpreting monitoring schemes. During one bout of breeding, do the same individuals participate all days or do different toads take turns? If there are several bouts, again, do the same individuals participate in all or do different toads participate during different parts of the season? Do individuals visit different breeding sites in the course of one season?

Practicalities

The planned project would study natterjacs in the Revinge area, 17 km east of Lund. In the last few years, breeding is known from 3 different areas (but not all in all years). Field work will be undertaken during May, June and July. It is necessary to visit the area during all evenings with any reasonable possibility for breeding. It is impossible now to say how many days this will mean. Probably there will at most be five bouts, each up to a week. Also part of the field work will consist of searching for spawn strings during day time. The supervisor will help with some of the field work. It is possible to reach the field station in the Revinge area by car or a bus (there are two connections per day). One can stay overnight at the field station. If one does not have a car, all breeding sites can be reached by bicycle from the field station on a 10 km round trip.

After the field season there will be a period of compilation and writing, either right after or during the beginning of the autumn term.

Please contact Jon Loman if you are interested in this proposal.

Moth dispersal and trappability in relation to altitude

Please contact Lars Pettersson if you are interested in this proposal.

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