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Spring Meeting 2025

Date:
Saturday, 22 March 2025
Cost:
Free
Event Category:
Location:
Online

Click here to register for free

This will be an online event held over Zoom open to members and non-members. It will be free but donations are welcome.

The full programme will be confirmed shortly so please keep an eye on this page.

 

Confirmed Speakers

 

Dragonflies on the Bog ~ Scott Shanks, Scotland Project Officer

Meet our newest team member and learn about our exciting new project targeting Scotland rare bog dragonflies.

 

Understanding predator-prey dynamics in a changing world: insights from damselfly and crayfish interactions ~ Szymon Sniegula, Institute of Nature Conservation

How do invasive alien predators shape the fitness traits of native prey across life stages? Can native prey adapt to the combined effects of biological invasions and climate change? This seminar explores the evolving predator-prey dynamics between the blue-tailed damselfly Ischnura elegans and several crayfish species, focusing on how non-consumptive effects (NCE) from native, alien, and invasive alien crayfish influence prey life history and physiology. By comparing the NCE of different predator types, we examine how seasonal time constraints and warming affect damselfly responses. Additionally, we investigate whether and in what direction macro- and microgeographic variation drive differences in antipredator strategies across egg, larval, and adult stages. This work highlights the importance of integrating ecological, physiological, and evolutionary perspectives for effective conservation in an era of global change.

 

Priority Sites in Devon ~ Dave Smallshire, author and Devon County Dragonfly Recorder

Priority Sites’ support viable populations of important species, as determined from detailed records of dragonflies. The process of identifying them will be described, followed by the results for Devon over the past 40 years.

 

European Red List: moving from assessment to conservation planning for Odonata ~ Geert De Knijf, Institute for Nature and Forest Research

The recent reassessment of the 142 Damselfly and Dragonfly species in Europe resulted in the categorization of no less than 29 species (or 21%) as threatened. Nearly all red list species are confined to Mediterranean streams and rivers, or small nutrient-poor waterbodies, such as bogs. The aim of the Assess-to-Plan (A2P) for the European Red List Odonata project is to strengthen the connection between the red list process (the assessment) and conservation action on the ground, through planning. Building from the reassessments and additional knowledge and views of +30 European experts, we developed a preliminary action plan for the species categorised as threatened, using the A2P and multi-species conservation planning approach developed by the IUCN Conservation Planning Specialist Group. Here we present the most important actions for both groups of species.

 

Dragonfly Conservation Europe ~ Roy van Grunsven, Dutch Butterfly Conservation

Research on dragonflies has a long history in Europe and in many countries, there are organisations studying dragonflies. There has been an informal network of European odonatologists with a biannual congress, ECOO. However, there was no formal organisation. In order to help put dragonflies on the agenda at a European level and promote collaboration between odonatologists in different countries, Dragonfly Conservation Europe was founded in 2024.

 

Conservation of Dragonflies Sentinels for Freshwater Conservation ~ Michael J Samways, Author and Professor at Stellenbosch University

Conservation of Dragonflies: Sentinels for Freshwater Conservation is a new publication for naturalists, citizen scientists, entomologists and conservation scientists, as well as practitioners and policymakers around the world.

Dragonflies are among the most familiar and popular of all insects, deeply embedded in human cultural history. They are iconic and tell us much about the environments in which we and they live. Their conservation is an important part of biodiversity conservation.

Purchase your copy from the NHBS store.

 

Dragonfly research in France; SOGAP and Project Dragon~ Martin Jeanmougin, Dragon Project Manager; Renaud Baeta,  ANEPE Caudalis, French association of Centre-Val de Loire, Sogap project manager; Valérie-Anne Lafont, Project Manager of the National Action Plan for Dragonflies, OPIE

Highlighting some of the fascinating research taking place across the channel. The SOGAP project focuses on monitoring French Habitats Directive River Species through exuviae surveys. Project Dragon, which began in 2023, is using opportunistic and standardised data to investigate species distribution and population trends, as well as potential causes and drivers of change and variation.

Programme

09:30 Welcome
09:45 Priority Sites of Devon
10:15 Understanding predator-prey dynamics in a changing world: insights from damselfly and crayfish interactions
10:45 Break
11:00 Dragonfly research in France; SOGAP and Project Dragon
11:30 Dragonflies on the Bog
12:00 Break
12:15 Q&A morning speakers
12:45 Lunch
13:45 European Red List: moving from assessment to conservation planning for Odonata
14:15 Dragonfly Conservation Europe
14:45 Break
15:00 Conservation of Dragonflies Sentinels for Freshwater Conservation
15:30 Q&A afternoon speakers
16:00 End

 

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