Dear all,
Please find details relating to the conference below:
Megafauna and ecosystem function: from the Pleistocene to the Anthropocene.
Tuesday 18 – Thursday 20 March 2014
St John’s College, University of Oxford, OX1 3JP
The Environmental Change Institute, the Oxford Martin School and the Oxford Centre for Tropical
Forests will host a three-day conference exploring the ecological and environmental consequences
of megafauna (large animal) extinctions. The conference will consider the environmental legacies of
the late Pleistocene extinctions, examine the effects of contemporary extinctions, and finally discuss
the science and controversies around “rewilding” and reintroduction of megafauna. As well as
invited plenary speakers there will be opportunities for submitted oral presentations and posters.
Abstract submission instructions:
Please submit all abstracts by email to emily.read@eci.ox.ac.uk
The deadline to submit abstracts is 20 December 2013. We request all invited speakers to submit
their abstract as soon as possible.
Volunteer oral or poster submission:
We request all those who would like to volunteer an oral or poster submission to submit details to
emily.read@eci.ox.ac.uk before the deadline of 20 December 2013. Abstracts will be considered
by a conference committee and either accepted or declined. Early submissions will receive an early
response where possible.
All conference attendees:
Potential attendees who would like to attend the event, but not present a talk or poster are
requested to submit a 1 - 2 paragraph description of their reasons for interest in the topic. This
should be sent to emily.read@eci.ox.ac.uk before 20 December 2013 to be evaluated by a
conference committee.
Registration fees:
The fee for early bird registration is £200 for standard registration, and £110 for concession
registration (concessions are only available to students, and local attendees who would attend only
part of the event). Early bird registration deadline is 24 January 2014
Registration and payment should be made at the following website:
https://www.oxforduniversitystores.co.uk/browse/product.asp?compid=1&modid=1&catid=2065
the deadline dates on this website will be updated to those given in this email.
If you are submitting abstracts for consideration, please only register and pay once you have
confirmation that your abstract has been accepted.
The conference registration fee includes daytime food (lunch, morning and afternoon coffee), it does
not include accommodation, nor evening meals. We cannot guarantee that accommodation
(separate fee) will be available.
Invited speakers are exempt from registration fees, accommodation and evening meal costs, but
would need to pay for their own travel.
L ate registration fees are £300 standard and £200 concession
Speakers
Invited speakers (almost all confirmed) and their tentative titles are listed below:
Todd Surovell
University of
Wyoming, USA
David NoguesBravo
University of
Copenhagen,
Denmark
Kate Lyons
Smithsonian
Institution, USA
Christopher
Johnson
University of
Tasmania, Australia
Ecological impacts of the Pleistocene
Megafauna extinctions in Australia
Jacquelyn Gill
University of Maine,
USA
Impact of North American Pleistocene
extinctions on tree cover
University of New
Mexico, USA
University of Oxford,
UK
Princeton University,
USA
University of
California at Santa
Cruz, USA
‘Recalibrating the Anthropocene: humans,
megafauna and global biogeochemical cycles.
Felisa Smith
Chris Doughty
Adam Wolf
Jim Estes
Blaire Van
Valkenburgh
UCLA, USA
Mauro Galetti
(tbc)
University of Sao
Paulo, Brazil
John Terborgh
Fiona Maisels
Stephen Blake
(tbc)
Duke University,
USA
Global Conservation
Program
Washington
University in St.
Louis, USA
Carnegie Institution,
USA
On Pre-Clovis and Pleistocene Overkill
Ancient DNA reveals past global population
dynamics links to climate-driven range
dynamics’
‘Megafaunal extinction and its impact on
mammalian community structure on multiple
continents’
Nutrient dispersal by megafauna.
‘Herbivore diffusion of seeds in contemporary
time in relation to climate velocity’
Marine megafaunal extinctions and trophic
cascades: what really happened to Stellar's sea
cow?
Assessing predator-prey levels in the
Pleistocene of North America
‘The impact of megafauna extinction on genetic
structure of some tropical plants’
The effects of defaunation on the structure and
function of tropical forests
Massive loss of forests elephants in central
Africa
Massive recent loss of African forest elephants
and impacts on forest structure and diversity
Paul Jepson
University of Oxford,
UK
‘Effects of soaring elephant numbers on South
African savannah habitats”
Re-wildling visions and controversy:
unsettling the conservation regime
Sergey Zimov
Pacific Institute for
Geography, Russia
‘Lessons and future prospects from a
Pleistocene rewilding in Siberia.’
Frans Vera
Oostvaardersplasse,
Netherlands
‘30 years of rewilding in the Netherlands: the
impact of herbivores on closed canopy forest’
Josh Donlan
George Monbiot
Cornell University
The Guardian
Yadvinder Malhi
University of Oxford,
UK
The potential for rewilding in North America
The case for megafaunal rewilding (title tbc)
Ghosts of lost giants: what it means to live in a
megafauna-depleted world, and what can or
should be done?
Greg Asner