Lower visibility of female scientists, compared to male scientists, is a potential reason for the under-representation of women among senior academic ranks. Visibility in the scientific community stems partly from presenting research as an invited speaker at organized meetings. We analysed the sex ratio of presenters at the European Society for Evolutionary Biology (ESEB) Congress 2011, where all abstract submissions were accepted for presentation. Women were under-represented among invited speakers at symposia (15% women) compared to all presenters (46%), regular oral presenters (41%) and plenary speakers (25%). At the ESEB congresses in 2001–2011, 9–23% of invited speakers were women. This under-representation of women is partly attributable to a larger proportion of women, than men, declining invitations: in 2011, 50% of women declined an invitation to speak compared to 26% of men. We expect invited speakers to be scientists from top ranked institutions or authors of recent papers in high-impact journals. Considering all invited speakers (including declined invitations), 23% were women. This was lower than the baseline sex ratios of early-mid career stage scientists, but was similar to senior scientists and authors that have published in high-impact journals. High-quality science by women therefore has low exposure at international meetings, which will constrain Evolutionary Biology from reaching its full potential. We wish to highlight the wider implications of turning down invitations to speak, and encourage conference organizers to implement steps to increase acceptance rates of invited talks.

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SUMMARYOne route to gain insight into the causes and consequences of ecological differentiation is to understand the underlying physiological mechanisms. We explored the relationships between immunological and oxidative status and investigated how birds cope physiologically with the effects of immune-derived oxidative damage. We successively implemented two experimental manipulations to alter physiological status in a model bird species: the homing pigeon (Columba livia). The first manipulation, an immune supplementation, was achieved by oral administration of lysozyme, a naturally occurring and non-specific antimicrobial enzyme. The second manipulation, an immune challenge, took the form of an injection with lipopolysaccharide, a bacterial endotoxin. Between groups of lysozyme-treated and control birds, we compared lipopolysaccharide-induced changes in reactive oxygen metabolites, total antioxidant capacity, haptoglobin, oxygen consumption, body mass and cloacal temperature. Lysozyme supplementation intensified the lipopolysaccharide-induced inflammatory response and generated short-term oxidative and metabolic costs. We identified significant interactions between immune supplementation and immune challenge in terms of reactive oxygen metabolites, haptoglobin and oxygen consumption. Our study provides alternative interpretations of differences in oxidative and immunological indices and demonstrates that these indices can also fluctuate and interact across very short time scales, reflecting something akin to current 'health status' or 'physiological condition'. These ephemeral effects highlight the need to broadly consider current physiological condition when drawing conclusions that relate physiology to ecology and evolution.Supplementary material available online at

The extent to which organisms can protect themselves from disease depends on both the immune defenses they maintain and the pathogens they face. At the same time, immune systems are shaped by the antigens they encounter, both over ecological and evolutionary time. Ecological immunologists often recognize these interactions, yet ecological immunology currently lacks major efforts to characterize the environmental, host-independent, antigenic pressures to which all animals are exposed. Failure to quantify relevant diseases and pathogens in studies of ecological immunology leads to contradictory hypotheses. In contrast, including measures of environmental and host-derived commensals, pathogens, and other immune-relevant organisms will strengthen the field of ecological immunology. In this article, we examine how pathogens and other organisms shape immune defenses and highlight why such information is essential for a better understanding of the causes of variation in immune defenses. We introduce the concept of "operative protection" for understanding the role of immunologically relevant organisms in shaping immune defense profiles, and demonstrate how the evolutionary implications of immune function are best understood in the context of the pressures that diseases and pathogens bring to bear on their hosts. We illustrate common mistakes in characterizing these immune-selective pressures, and provide suggestions for the use of molecular and other methods for measuring immune-relevant organisms.