Wednesday, August 8, 2007: 8:00 AM-11:30 AM
A1&8, San Jose McEnery Convention Center
SYMP 10 - The assembly and disassembly of ecological networks: Restoration and conservation at multiple trophic levels
The past decade has seen rapid proliferation of research that has revitalized the study of food webs and ecological networks. New techniques and applications have been published at a very rapid pace, with hundreds of publications in ecological journals addressing network properties. It is now crucial to focus this new knowledge and propose experimentally testable theories and practical tools that could be applied in the conservation of ecosystems and the restoration of damaged ecological networks. This symposium will focus on the assembly of ecological communities (restoration) and the collapse of ecological networks (conservation) from a perspective encompassing multiple trophic levels. In particular, this session will highlight and synthesize recent developments in food web theory and practice that target the identification of (1) key species that play a fundamental role in maintaining ecosystems’ functions and services, and (2) key properties in the structure of links between species that are critical to the overall robustness and resilience of ecosystems. We define ecological networks to encompass food webs as well as mutualistic and parasitic webs. Contributions from other fields will be included, with particular emphasis on translating network measures from sociology and physics into ecologically meaningful criteria that can lead to the assessment of ecosystems’ health. Speakers will synthesize current knowledge and propose new research.
Organizer:Stefano Allesina, University of Michigan
Co-organizer:Mercedes Pascual, University of Michigan
Moderator:Mercedes Pascual, University of Michigan
8:00 AMSYMP 10-1Assembly and disassembly of ecological networks: Where are we now and where are we going next?
Stefano Allesina, University of Michigan, Mercedes Pascual, Univeristy of Michigan
8:20 AMSYMP 10-2Models for food-web collapse and loss of ecosystem services
Andrew P. Dobson, Princeton University
8:40 AMSYMP 10-3Food web structure and network motifs
Jordi Bascompte, Integrative Ecology Group, Estación Biológica de Doñana, CSIC Sevilla - Spain
9:00 AMSYMP 10-4Deep-time perspectives on the robustness of ecological network structure and dynamics
Jennifer A. Dunne, Santa Fe Institute and Pacific Ecoinformatics and Computational Ecology Lab
9:20 AMSYMP 10-5Using dominator trees to catch secondary extinctions in action
Antonio Bodini, University of Parma, Stefano Allesina, Univeristy of Michigan, Michele Belingeri, University of Parma
9:40 AM Break
9:50 AMSYMP 10-6Quantifying important species: Key positions in interaction networks
Ferenc Jordan, Hungarian Natural History Museum
10:10 AMSYMP 10-7Does the most popular consumer strategy, parasitism, matter to food webs?
Kevin D. Lafferty, USGS Western Ecological Research Center
10:30 AMSYMP 10-8Dynamics of complex ecological networks: Can basic understanding be applied?
Neo D. Martinez, Pacific Ecoinformatics and Computational Ecology Lab, Richard J. Williams, Microsoft Research Ltd., Ulrich Brose, Darmstadt University of Technology, Jennifer A. Dunne, Santa Fe Institute, Eric L. Berlow, University of California at Merced
10:50 AMSYMP 10-9A landscape theory for food webs
Kevin S. McCann, University of Guelph, Neil Rooney, University of Guelph, John C. Moore, Colorado State University

See more of Symposium

See more of The ESA/SER Joint Meeting (August 5 -- August 10, 2007)