Day 1 Summary

5th November 2020

Thank you to everyone who has been involved with #TropiCon20 today. It has been amazing to see so many people getting involved, right from the beginning!

It’s only day one and we’ve already enjoyed 15 amazing presentations from around the world. According to our analytics, 212 of you have joined in the conversation with over 900 tweets and reaching a potential combined audience of > 400 000 people!

We started our conference with an amazing plenary from Jennifer Powers, who talked us through the ecology, plant hydraulics, and biogeochemistry of tropical dry forests. Thread: https://twitter.com/jennifer_pow/status/1324336652525948928

Alexander Shenkin then treated us all to a particularly beautiful talk on terrestrial LiDAR and showed how tree surface area could be disproportionate to branch size. As well as some excellent science, we recommend revisiting this thread simply to enjoy their colourful 3D tree models: https://twitter.com/ashenkin/status/1324343208076333058

Next, Catherine Waite told us about their research, using drones to assess lianas in the canopy. Their video of the Bornean canopy reminded us all how beautiful rainforests can be, even if it is stressful for the drone pilot! https://twitter.com/ce_waite/status/1324347906124619780

Bárbara Freitas then told us about their study of how automated detection of acoustics could be used to monitor bird species like the Príncipe Scops owl in difficult terrains. As well as having some beautiful owl photos, their presentation concludes that these methods are reliable and we can’t wait to see how they’re used in the future! https://twitter.com/brbbfreitas/status/1324351272250707970

Rahayu Adzhar talked to us next about threatened tropical savannahs and how satellite data could be used to monitor them more efficiently than by constant work in the field. Everyone loves more data! https://twitter.com/rahayu_adzhar/status/1324354783164002304

Sam Ross shared some amazing acoustics in his talk and explored the impacts of adverse sonic conditions (like heavy rain and loud cicadas) on the success of acoustic monitoring techniques. We loved listening to the loud sounds of nature behind his science! https://twitter.com/SamRPJRoss/status/1324358613595496451

Natalie Yoh’s presentation talked us through their work using acoustic data to identify bat species in Borneo, where high species richness and low call differentiation have previously made acoustic identification unreliable. By adjusting their methods they were able to achieve high sensitivity for all identification levels and allow inferences of how lesser-known species respond to threats! Plus, there’s a very cute video of a bat… https://twitter.com/TallyYoh/status/1324362629863919617

Dena Clink shared some of our favourite audio from the conference so far in her talk about gibbon acoustics. Her research on gibbon calls shows that affinity propagation clustering is best able to distinguish between individual gibbons but that this could also be a useful technique for monitoring any individually-distinct vocal animals. https://twitter.com/BorneanGibbons/status/1324366034334339073

Camille Desjonquères described a framework to combine passive acoustic monitoring and biogeographic information. They found that passive acoustic monitoring allows for high temporal coverage that better captures variability in species activity, especially in the tropics, increasing predictive power for shifts due to climate change. https://twitter.com/Desjonq/status/1324369633219063810

Sian Green gave a great presentation on how camera trap set-ups can affect the results. They found that video gave better classifications overall but that some animals were still easier to classify from a sequence of photos. Check out their presentation to play ‘spot the squirrel’ while learning some fascinating science! https://twitter.com/SianGreen92/status/1324373502439444481

Lindsay Banin then talked to us about cash crops in the tropics and their work to produce a mobile app which can empower cocoa farm resilience, alleviate poverty, and reduce environmental degradation in Ghana! https://twitter.com/l_banin/status/1324378234490937344

Suzette Flantua presented their research on the past connectivity of tropical alpine ecosystems by reconstructing elevational shifts and palaeotemperatures. They found that all mountain ranges underwent frequent changes between fragmentation and connectivity! https://twitter.com/SuzetteFlantua/status/1324381096927285249

Kat Griswold talked about their use and digitisation of fish otoliths to compare modern Caribbean reefs with their historical counterparts! They used the correlation of otolith length and area with body size to explore spatial and temporal changes of fish size distributions in low trophic taxa. https://twitter.com/griswold_kat/status/1324384943565426689

Erin Dillon then told us about their research tracing shark abundances over millennia using shark scales! By comparing shark surveys with sediment derived assemblages, they were able to establish a promising approach for understanding shark community dynamics over ecological timescales. https://twitter.com/erinmdillon/status/1324388826039508992

In our final presentation of the day, Angélica Resende discussed forest lost in the Amazon basin, as well as sharing footage of Brazilian forest fires. They examined the spatial distribution of vegetation studies and showed the wide extent of areas affected by logging, fires, and fragmentation. https://twitter.com/Gelresende/status/1324392474689851392

We’ve had so many amazing talks today and it has been fascinating to hear about all of your research! We would like to thank everyone for engaging so thoroughly with the presentations so far and for coming up with lots of questions. There have been a lot of exciting conversations happening today and we look forward to even more tomorrow.

We were also very pleased to be joined by Kevin Wallace’s four legged science assistant: https://twitter.com/Dr_Kev/status/1324352980984991747

Day 2 of #TropiCon20 begins at 12:00pm GMT on the 6th of November. We look forward to seeing you then for more great research!