Tuesday, August 4, 2009: 1:30 PM-5:00 PM
Mesilla, Albuquerque Convention Center
OOS 16 - Linking data and theory in dendritic ecological networks: From ecological processes to rapid understanding
The world is complex yet organized. Many challenges for ecosystem and species management, conservation, and human reliance on ecological services depend on our understanding of the relationship between organisms or ecosystem processes and spatial patterns and processes. Recent investigations of population dynamics and species interactions have used the tools of network theory to understand complex dynamics in a wide range of spatial and non-spatial networks. By focusing on the connections among species, individuals, habitats, and communities, we have advanced our understanding of how these complex systems function. Considerable work on complex systems has focused on ’node-based’ networks, such as food webs or metapopulations, where tools from network theory have been brought to bear to understand linkages among system components. However, in many areas of ecology, spatial networks with explicit branching geometry exist (e.g., stream architecture, transportation infrastructure, individual plants) and classical approaches from network theory are not applicable. Rapid progress on understanding complex systems will require simultaneously developing theory for the structure, dynamics, and function of dendritic ecological networks, and collecting empirical data explicitly designed to test this theory. By bringing together theoreticians and empiricists with shared interests in dendritic ecological networks, we seek to explore collaboratively a framework for a new view of ‘network ecology’. The schedule will first, present real world problems and patterns in dendritic ecological networks and second, introduce existing network tools and theoretical work specifically focused on dendritic networks. The session will conclude with a summary of crucial gaps between empirical data and observed patterns, and theoretical tools and generalizations in these networks. We will suggest directions for the next steps in understanding the structure and function of this class of ecological networks. We also plan an informal evening discussion session to follow after the presentations, wherein opportunities for enhancing the interface between data and theory for dendritic networks will be discussed.
Organizer:	Evan H. Campbell Grant, US Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center/ MEES Dept, University of Maryland, College Park
Co-organizer:	William F. Fagan, University of Maryland College Park
Moderator:	Winsor H. Lowe, University of Montana
1:30 PM	OOS 16-1		Management and conservation in stream networks Nathaniel P. Hitt, USGS Leetown Science Center, Craig Snyder, USGS Leetown Science Center, John Young, USGS Leetown Science Center
1:50 PM	OOS 16-2		Fish in the tips of dendritic drainages: causes and consequences of population fragmentation James F. Gilliam, North Carolina State University
2:10 PM	OOS 16-3		On explicitly spatial theoretical tools for dendritic world Rachata Muneepeerakul, Princeton University, Heather J. Lynch, University of Maryland, Evan H. Campbell Grant, US Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center/ MEES Program, University of Maryland, College Park, William F. Fagan, University of Maryland, Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe, Princeton University
2:30 PM	OOS 16-4		How dendritic ecological networks structure the distribution and movement of stream salamanders Evan H. Campbell Grant, US Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center/ MEES Program, University of Maryland, College Park
2:50 PM	OOS 16-5		Plants as branching networks: Effects on predator-prey interactions K. Cuddington, University of Waterloo
3:10 PM			Break
3:20 PM	OOS 16-6		Using simple models to predict population responses to spatio-temporal variability in dendritic stream networks Kurt E. Anderson, University of California, Riverside
3:40 PM	OOS 16-7		India's Inter Basin Water Transfer project: The impact of network manipulation on freshwater fish communities Heather J. Lynch, University of Maryland, Evan H. Campbell Grant, US Geological Survey, Patuxent Wildlife Research Center/ MEES Program, University of Maryland, College Park, Rachata Muneepeerakul, Princeton University, Ignacio Rodriguez-Iturbe, Princeton University, William F. Fagan, University of Maryland
4:00 PM	OOS 16-8		Dynamic Regimes in Agroecosystems: Evidence from the a tropical watershed in the Lake Victoria Basin Alex Awiti, The Aga Khan University, Faculty of Arts and Sciences (East Africa), Cheryl Palm, Earth Institute at Columbia University, Markus Walsh, Wold Agroforestry Center
4:20 PM	OOS 16-9		The geometry and scaling of leaf vascular networks Charles A. Price, Georgia Institute of Technology, Yuriy Mileyko, Georgia Institute of Technology, Joshua S. Weitz, Georgia Institute of Technology

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