98th ESA Annual Meeting (August 4 -- 9, 2013)

August 03 - 09, 2013

IGN 10

Constraints in Ecology

All levels of ecological organization, from individuals to ecosystems, have constraints that place limits on the behavior of the system. These constraints range from biological constraints such as physiological constraints (critical temperature limits, maximum photosynthetic activity), evolutionary constraints (gestation length, litter/clutch size), and stoichiometric constraints (C: N ratios) to environmental constraints (temperature, precipitation) and statistical constraints. Biological constraints at one scale can influence the behavior of systems at different scales, both from a top down and from a bottom up perspective. Constraints can provide information about the variability inherent in the system and can also provide inference into central tendency. Statistical constraints can identify the potential limits of a distribution and the most probable form of the distribution. Observing the form of an empirical pattern relative to the statistical limits and central tendency of a distribution can allow inference into what processes could be driving the pattern. Understanding what the important constraints are at each level of the ecological hierarchy and how those constraints scale can indicate what processes are more likely to be important at different scales. This session will discuss the multiple roles of constraints in ecology, from defining possible states of a distribution with statistical or ecological constraints, to using constraints to make informed predictions about how species might respond under different conditions. A constraint-based approach to ecology offers a powerful framework for approaching ecological questions.