IGN 13
Ecological Analysis Using Network Science and Graph Theory

Thursday, August 8, 2013: 8:00 AM-10:00 AM
101C, Minneapolis Convention Center
Organizer:
S. Kyle McKay, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center
Co-organizer:
Julie L. Rushmore, University of Georgia
Moderator:
Alan Covich, University of Georgia
The complex, interconnected structure and function of ecological systems is apparent in their countless direct and indirect pathways of energy (e.g., a food web), mass (e.g., a movement corridor), and information (e.g., a social network). This Ignite ESA Session unites multiple fields of ecology through the lens of a single, rapidly-evolving, analytical framework: network analysis. With foundations in mathematics, economics, and computational science, the field of network analysis is rapidly developing to examine webs of interaction as diverse as the internet, neural networks, and scientific citations. Scientists have formally and informally applied network theory to ecological datasets for decades, but only in recent years have generic computational tools become sufficient for network analysis to emerge as a key technique for ecological investigation. This session examines basic and applied ecological problems in both naturally-formed and anthropogenically-altered networks of interactions. In particular, diverse examples are presented from disease transfer, social behavior, pollination, food webs, population dynamics, and species migration. By focusing on methodology, rather than system-specific conclusions, we are able to share information across a wide range of disciplines and look for emergent solutions to network-related questions.
Cancelled
 Environs: A system theory of environmental networks
Bernard C. Patten, University of Georgia
Cancelled
 Save room for the fish
Evan H. Campbell Grant, US Geological Survey
 Structure, dynamics, and distribution of mutualistic networks
Luis J. Gilarranz, Estación Biológica de Doñana, CSIC; Jordi Bascompte, Estación Biológica de Doñana, CSIC
 Prioritizing fish passage improvement in river networks
S. Kyle McKay, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center; John R. Schramski, College of Engineering, University of Georgia; Jock Conyngham, Environmental Laboratory, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers; Craig Fischenich, Environmental Laboratory, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers
 Network models: Applications for wildlife epidemiology
Meggan Craft, University of Minnesota; Damien Caillaud, The University of Texas at Austin; Jennifer JH Reynolds, University of Minnesota; Ben T. Hirsch, New York State Museum; Lauren Ancel Meyers, The University of Texas at Austin
 Predicting patterns of pathogen transmission and control in wild chimpanzees
Julie L. Rushmore, University of Georgia; Damien Caillaud, The University of Texas at Austin; Richard J. Hall, University of Georgia; Rebecca M. Stumpf, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; Lauren Ancel Meyers, The University of Texas at Austin; Sonia Altizer, University of Georgia
 Disease spread on transport networks of U.S. cattle
Michael G. Buhnerkempe, University of California - Los Angeles; Colleen Webb, Colorado State University; Michael Tildesley, University of Nottingham; Uno Wennergren, Linköping University
 Free, open-source tools for network analysis: A new R package, enaR
Matthew K. Lau, Northern Arizona University; Stuart R. Borrett, University of North Carolina Wilmington
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