Author Archives: Eleni Matechou

News

Research by Eleni and colleagues mentioned by the Independent

As part of a series of articles on International Bee Day 2021, The Independent mentioned work by Eleni on modelling bumblebee citizen science data. In particular, the article referred to results published in 2018, which suggested that even some common species of bumblebee are now in decline.

Recent analysis, using the new and freely available RShiny app, developed by research student Fabian Ketwaroo, suggest that the number of queens emerging from hibernation each year for species  Bombus pascuorum and Bombus hortorum continue to be stable in recent years compared to 2011, when BeeWalk data were first collected.

At the same time there is some indication of positive news for species Bombus lapidarius, also known as the red tailed bumblebee, as the number of queens emerging from hibernation is on the rise in recent years, with 2019 seeing a similar number of queens to 2011. (see plot above, showing the number of queens emerging each year in comparison to 2011).

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Conferences/Meetings/Workshops

Eleni gave invited talk during an BI-IBS event

Eleni was invited to present some of her work on modelling bumblebee citizen science data during a meeting organised by the British and Irish Region of the International Biometric Society on Advanced Topics in Spatial Sampling.

Eleni’s talk showcased a new Bayesian model, developed and implemented into a freely-available RShiny app  by research Fabian Ketwaroo and demonstrated it when modelling two species of UK bumblebees.

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Uncategorized

Invited talks at the RSS Conference 2020

Oscar and Alex presented their work at the (virtual) RSS conference 2020 during the invited session on “Challenges and advances of spatial modelling in ecology” organised by Rachel.

Oscar’s talk, titled “The Importance of spatio-temporal modelling in Ecology” described the importance spatio-temporal models to understand the relationship between species in a common area. Oscar explains the problem caused due to the wolf eradication in Yellowstone National Park in 1920’s and how the landscape changed from this eradication to the reintroduction in 1990’s.

Alex’s talk, titled “Interaction point processes in spatially explicit capture-recapture models” described his work on a spatial capture-recapture model incorporating interactions within and between individuals of two species. The model relies on the theory of interaction point processes. As inference for these processes cannot be performed using standard techniques due to the intractability of the likelihood, specific MCMC methods have to be used. The model is applied to a capture-recapture data-set of leopards and tigers collected in India.

 

 

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Conferences/Meetings/Workshops

RSS meeting on eDNA: Challenges and Opportunities now virtual

The meeting, initially planned for May 2020, will now take place virtually on the 16th of October.

The timetable for the day is

9.30-10  Kerry Walsh, Environment Agency: “Challenges and opportunities: A regulator’s perspective.”

10-10.15 discussion/change over

10.15-10.45  Naomi Ewald, FreshWater Habitats Trust: “Analysis of eDNA data to inform conservation priorities: case studies of long term species monitoring and short term before-after surveys.”

10.45-11 discussion/change over

11-11.30 morning break

11.30-12 Francesco Ficetola, University of Milan:  “Environmental DNA to track long-term changes of mountain ecosystem.”

12-12.15 discussion/change over

12.15-12.45 lunch break

12.45-13.15 Jim Griffin, University College London: “Modelling environmental DNA data; Bayesian variable selection accounting for false positive and false negative errors.”

13.15-13.30 discussion/change over

13.30-14 Doug Yu, University of East Anglia: “Managing wildlife with eDNA data: salmon, leeches, insects, and forests.”

14-14.30 discussion/close

 

Participants can register on the RSS website.

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