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EEBST 2025
Our lab members had the pleasure of presenting several talks and posters at the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Symposium Türkiye (Hacettepe University; 9-11 July 2025). We were excited to share our ongoing research with the community and engage in fruitful discussions.
Oral Presentations
- Pollinator Assemblages as Drivers of Plant Range: Evidence from a Marl Steppe in Central Anatolia – presented by Gülseli Kırgıl
- Effect of Crown Fires on Temperate Mixed Forests of Northeastern Anatolia: A Modeling Approach – presented by Anıl Bahar
- Community Composition and Resistance Levels of Soil Bacteria and Fungi in a Mediterranean Forest Under Varying Wildfire Severities – presented by Bedirhan Avdancı
- Trojan Fir under Climate Warming: A Facilitator Species Facing Regeneration Limits – presented by Nurbahar Usta
Poster Presentations
- Afforestation Alters Epigeic Beetle Community in Central Anatolian Steppes – Cansu Baran & Eylül Evrenosoğlu
- Variability in Germination and Dormancy in Steppe Plant Communities – Berna Yavuz
- Modelling Wildfire Occurrence in Türkiye: The Role of Productivity and Human Influence – Mehmet Göktuğ Öztürk
- Wisdom from Ashes: Exploring Traditional Fire Knowledge and Use in Anatolia – Rüveyda Zehra Öğütverici
- Comparative Analysis of Leaf Flammability Traits in Forest and Shrubland Plants of Western Türkiye – Nursema Aktepe
- Gastrointestinal Helminth Diversity in Captive and Free-Ranging Mountain Gazelles in Hatay, Türkiye – Mina Cansu Karaer
We are glad to have represented our lab with such diverse contributions and thank all participants for their inspiring presentations and discussions.
Awards at EEBST 2025
Our lab is proud to announce that two of our members received significant recognitions at the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Symposium Türkiye (EEBST 2025).
M.Sc. Thesis Award – Mehmet Göktuğ Öztürk
Göktuğ was recognized for his Master’s thesis focusing on wildfire ecology and the drivers of fire occurrence in Türkiye, highlighting the roles of productivity and human influence.
Best Oral Presentation Award – Nurbahar Usta
Nurbahar received this award for her talk on the regeneration limits of Trojan fir under climate warming, presenting valuable insights into how a key facilitator species may respond to future climate scenarios.
We sincerely congratulate both for their outstanding achievements and their contributions to advancing ecological and evolutionary research.
Oral Presentation at EEBST 2025 – Prof. Dr. Çağatay Tavşanoğlu
Our principal investigator, Prof. Dr. Çağatay Tavşanoğlu, delivered an oral presentation at the Philosophy of Biology mini-symposium within EEBST 2025, titled “The Intellectual Evolution of Ecology: Paradigm Shifts and Current Trends.”
The talk explored key conceptual shifts in ecology over time and discussed current perspectives shaping the field today.
EEBST 2023
We attended the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Symposium (EEBST), held at Istanbul University, Istanbul, Türkiye, between 17 and 19 July 2023 (https://eebst.ekoevo.org/eebst-2023/).
Our alumni, D. Deniz Kazancı, presented her oral presentation titled “Drivers of among-population variability in fire-related traits in Turkish Red Pine (Pinus brutia Ten.)“, a presentation related to her Ph.D. thesis. We also had three posters by Çağatay Tavşanoğlu (“Comparison of flammability in two serotinous Mediterranean trees“), Mina Cansu Karaer (“In search of mountain gazelles: Examining diet, gastrointestinal parasites, and stress hormones“), and Esra Bayşahan (“Germination responses to incubation temperature in four herbaceous plants at low and high elevations in a Mediterranean mountain“).
EEBST has been held by the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Society (Türkiye) since 2014 every year. The next EEBST will be in Çanakkale, Türkiye in July 2024.
Here is the link for the abstract book of the symposium: https://eebst.ekoevo.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/06/Abstract_Book.pdf
New chapter on drivers of the exceptional biodiversity of Anatolia
A book chapter by our lab PI Çağatay Tavşanoğlu has been published in the book entitled “Evrimin Işığında” [In the Light of Evolution]: Tavşanoğlu, Ç. (2016) Anadolu’nun yüksek biyoçeşitliliği: Evrim bunun neresinde? [High biodiversity of Anatolia: the role of evolution] In: Akış, I., Altınışık, N.E. (Eds.) Evrimin Işığında [In the Light of Evolution], Yazılama Yayınevi, İstanbul, Turkey, pp. 207-225.
The book has been published in Turkish, and the chapter is about the drivers of the exceptional biodiversity of the Anatolian Peninsula. The chapter summarizes the biodiversity of Anatolia briefly and then explains drivers of this exceptional biodiversity for a temperate region country with long-term and recent climatic and geological processes.
The conclusion of the chapter is that the unique regional location of and the huge topographic and climatic diversity inside the Peninsula make Anatolia a gathering center, a diversification center and an ice age refugium for various taxa, which is responsible for the currently observed biodiversity.
The book is an outcome of the 4th and 5th Evrim, Bilim ve Eğitim Sempozyumu [Evolution, Science, and Education Symposium] that were held in İstanbul, Turkey in 2013 and 2015, respectively. The chapter by Çağatay Tavşanoğlu had already been presented in the 4th one.
The book is available from many bookstores in Turkey, but also from the Internet sales.
You can read the chapter from here: [pdf]
EEBST2016 was held at Hacettepe University
3rd Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Symposium, a scientific symposium organized annually by Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Society of Turkey, was held at Hacettepe University between 31 August and 1 September 2016.
Many lab members actively played a role in the organization, and the symposium was a success with 115 participants from nine countries. For more information about EEBST2016, please visit the symposium website: http://www.eebst2016.net/
“Why we should let raging wildfires burn” by Claire Asher
A recent story in BBC Earth was about the ecology of wildfires. Claire Asher, a freelance science writer, asked many exciting questions about wildfires in her feature article which had been answered by some experts on the field, including our lab PI, Çağatay Tavşanoğlu.
Subheading of the article actually summarizes the main topic of the story: “Humans often fight hard to control wildfires, but many ecosystems need destructive flames to function properly“, but more topics related to fire ecology such as fire regimes, fire adaptations, and post-fire recovery of vegetation can be found within the text of the article.
To read the full article click here.
Photo credit: BBC Earth
Ecology and Evolutionary Symposium Turkey 2015: registration open
The 2nd Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Symposium Turkey 2015 will be convening on August 6-7 2015 at METU, Ankara. Talks and poster presentations in all areas of evolutionary biology and ecology will be welcome. Presentations will be in English, and the Symposium will be open to international participation.
Resit Akcakaya (Stony Brook University), Sergey Gavrilets (University of Tennessee), Rasmus Nielsen (University of California, Berkeley), and Daniel Simberloff (University of Tennessee) are keynote speakers of the Symposium.
More information can be found at http://eebst2015.bio.metu.edu.tr/Home.html.
The deadline for abstract submissions is May 15 while the registration closes on July 15.
The Workshop on Genomic Methods in Ecology and Evolution
Three of our lab members, Çağatay, Deniz, and Elif participated in the Workshop on Genomic Methods in Ecology and Evolution, held on 7-8 Feb. 2015 in Mersin, Turkey.
The workshop organized by the Institute of Marine Sciences, Middle East Technical University, Mersin, and by the members of the Ecology and Evolution Network of Turkey. (more…)
Functional Ecology Lab 