Conference Recap: Swedish Oikos 2021

The Swedish Oikos Society held its virtual meeting on February 9-10, with 186 participants. The four keynote speakers were:

• Nina Wedell of University of Exeter, with “Sex, conflict and selfish genes,”
• Peter Reich of University of Minnesota, with “Some ‘baby steps’ towards a holistic approach to terrestrial ecology,”
• Elena Gorokhova of Stockholm University, with “Microbiome-mediated interactions in zooplankton” (shown above), and
• Craig Primmer of University of Helsinki, with “The genetic basis of age at maturity in Atlantic salmon: from genome scan to function, ecology, and conservation.”

Twenty additional presenters spoke about their research, including four invited young speakers: Clydecia Spitzer from Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Signe Lett from University of Copenhagen, Karolina Eriksson from Umeå University, and Johan Leander from Umeå University.

The conference used Zoom for video presentation as well as engagement with members of the audience. “Not only could the participants listen to interesting talks of very high quality, but we were also able to interact successfully through live questions and discussions,” said Johan Olofsson, President of the Swedish Oikos Society. “We are all longing for the next meeting to be a real physical meeting, but are also exploring how these virtual tools can be used in the future.”

“We from the board of the Swedish Society are really happy that we could carry out a high-quality conference, despite restrictions,” Olofsson said.