OOS 43 - Transcending Tradition to Understand and Model Complex Interactions in Ecology

Thursday, August 6, 2009: 1:30 PM-5:00 PM
Brazos, Albuquerque Convention Center
Organizer:
Heather E. Lintz, Oregon Climate Change Research Institute
Co-organizers:
Ben Bolker, University of Florida; and Kathryn L. Cottingham, Dartmouth
Moderator:
Heather E. Lintz, Oregon Climate Change Research Institute
Challenges associated with identification, understanding, and modeling of interactions in ecological systems are present at every level of complexity from ecological genomics to landscape ecology. Interactions in ecology have a dual meaning. In a statistical sense they mean that the effect of one predictor variable depends in some way on the value of another. In an ecological sense, they refer to connections among different sets of ecosystem components such as resources and species or even genes and environments. Both types of interactions pervade ecological data sets, and their representation warrants attention. For example, the shape of an empirical response pattern is an emergent property of a system and can yield important information about underlying interactions. Yet, through our choice of analytical tools, we seldomly acknowledge the spectrum of shapes that can arise from complex data structure. Hence, we can lose touch with the behavior of contributing factors. Ecology intersects with the study of complex systems, and our toolboxes must grow to meet interdisciplinary needs.
1:30 PM
 Simulating population and stressor interactions with HexSim
Nathan Schumaker, U.S. EPA; Joshua J. Lawler, University of Washington; Julie Heinrichs, University of Calgary
1:50 PM
 Emergence and networks of interactions in ecology
David Green, Monash University; Suzanne Sadedin, Monash University
2:10 PM
 Alternative ways of categorizing and assessing interaction types for multiple resource limitation questions
W. Stanley Harpole, Iowa State University; Jacqueline T. Ngai, University of British Columbia; Elsa Cleland, University of California - San Diego
2:30 PM
2:50 PM
 The genomic ecology of plant responses to interacting elements of global change
Andrew D. B. Leakey, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Kelly M. Gillespie, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Fangxiu Xu, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Justin M. McGrath, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Elizabeth A. Ainsworth, USDA ARS & University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; Donald R. Ort, USDA-ARS and University of Illinois
3:10 PM
3:20 PM
 Rock-paper-scissors games, biodiversity, and ecological interactions
Tobias Reichenbach, The Rockefeller University
3:40 PM
 Using response surface experiments to study consumer-resource interactions
Michael McCoy, East Carolina University; James R. Vonesh, Virginia Commonwealth University; Karen M. Warkentin, Boston University; Ben Bolker, University of Florida
4:00 PM
 Random, top-down or bottom-up co-existence of parasites: Malaria population dynamics in multi-parasitic settings
Luis Fernando Chaves, Emory University; Mercedes Pascual, University of Michigan,Howard Hughes Medical Institute, Santa Fe Institute
4:20 PM
 Modeling growth consequences of induced defense responses in plants: Integrating herbivore-induced storage and resistance
Alexandra M. Thorn, University of New Hampshire; Colin M. Orians, Tufts University
4:40 PM
 Predictors of the decline of grassland birds: Multi-causal and multi-scalar
Shana M. Sundstrom, University of Calgary; Craig R. Allen, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
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