The Spatial Ecology Research Programme of the Division of Population Biology (University of Helsinki) in collaboration with the Ministry of the Environment, Finnish Biodiversity Research Programme Coordination (FIBRE) and the Finnish Museum of Natural History proudly presents and welcomes you to the symposium Global Biodiversity and its Monitoring: focus on insects. The symposium is free of charge and open to everybody. 

The aim of the symposium is to present views and solutions to issues related to human-caused changes in biodiversity and their monitoring. The focus will be on insects, especially on beetles, as their potential in monitoring is considerable but they have not received appropriate attention. The symposium will conclude a three day workshop to establish a Global Network for Monitoring Landscape Change using Carabid Beetles (GLOBENET) (http://www.helsinki.fi/science/globenet/index.html). 

Information: Johan Kotze (johan.kotze(at) helsinki.fi) & Jari Niemelä (jari.niemela(at) helsinki.fi) 
 
Programme: 
 

9.00-	Pekka Kangas (Ministry of the Environment): Opening of the symposium  Jari Niemelä (Univ. Helsinki): What is GLOBENET?  Tor-Björn Larsson (Swedish Env. Protection Agency): GLOBENET and EU
9.45	Mari Walls (FIBRE, Turku): What is FIBRE?
9.45-10.25	Michael Samways (Univ. Natal, S. Africa): Macroecology of carabids: a southern hemisphere perspective
10.25-11.15	break and press conference
11.15-11.55	Allan Ashworth (N. Dakota State Univ., USA): Response of beetles to global change in the past and in the future
11.55-12.35	John Spence (Univ. Alberta, Canada): Dancing the two-step of Eltonian homogenization: town and forest carabids of here and there
12.35-13.30	lunch
13.30-14.10	Tim New (La Trobe Univ., Australia): Have beetles a role in monitoring programmes in Australia?
14.10-14.50	Lyubomir Penev (Central Lab. General Ecology, Bulgaria): Parameters of carabid populations and assemblages used for monitoring: an attempt for a classification
14.50-15.10	break
15.10-15.50	Konjev Desender (R. Belgian Inst. Nat. Sci, Belgium): Prospects and problems in carabid monitoring
15.50-16.30	Pietro Brandmayr (Univ. Calabria, Italy): Diversity of carabid beetles, butterflies and some vertebrate taxa in the Mediterranean landscape
16.30-17.10	Patricia Wright (State Univ. New York, USA): Longterm monitoring and the effects of human impact on the rainforests of Madagascar
18.00-	wine reception hosted by the Finnish Museum of Natural History