OOS 4 - Dynamics of Population Spread and Range Expansion in an Era of Global Change

Monday, August 7, 2017: 1:30 PM-5:00 PM
Portland Blrm 257, Oregon Convention Center
Organizer:
Jennifer L. Williams, University of British Columbia
Co-organizer:
Tom E. X. Miller, Rice University
Moderator:
Tom E. X. Miller, Rice University
The spatial boundaries of populations are dynamic, particularly so in the current era of global change. Invasive organisms are spreading across novel landscapes; native species are shifting their ranges in responses to climate change; and restoration efforts are promoting the spread of recovering species into former habitat. At the heart of these ecological phenomena are demography and dispersal, the individual-level processes that unite all spreading populations. Long-standing ecological theory provides a framework for understanding and predicting how the interplay of demography and dispersal governs the dynamics of spatial spread. The broad relevance of spread dynamics in response to global change drivers has led to a surge of recent advances in theory, in cross-talk between theory and data, and in connections between ecological and evolutionary processes in expanding populations. This organized oral session will feature early- and mid-career scientists at the "leading edge" of this field that showcase these advances. The invited speakers bring together ecologists studying spread dynamics across taxa from contrasting vantage points: climate change-driven migration by native species or the invasive spread of introduced exotic species; studies in laboratory model systems, field systems or employing computational and mathematical modeling; and studies focused on the rapid evolution of demography and dispersal traits, and their influence on the ecological dynamics of spread. By casting a broad conceptual net, our intent is facilitate conversation between different corners of the discipline that will promote unified understanding and predictive capacity for population spread in the era of anthropogenic global change.
1:50 PM
 Demography and dispersal: Invasion speed for populations with age and sex structure
Allison K. Shaw, University of Minnesota; Michael G. Neubert, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution
2:10 PM
 Rapid adaptive evolution rather than spatial evolution drives range expansion of colonizing populations in novel environments
Megan L. Vahsen, Colorado State University; Marianna Szucs, Colorado State University; Charlotte Hoover, Colorado State University; Christopher P. Weiss-Lehman, University of Colorado; Brett A. Melbourne, University of Colorado at Boulder; Ruth A. Hufbauer, Colorado State University
2:30 PM
 Rapid evolution accelerates the expansion of plant populations in fragmented experimental landscape
Jennifer L. Williams, University of British Columbia; Bruce E. Kendall, University of California Santa Barbara; Jonathan M. Levine, ETH Zurich
2:50 PM
 Investigating interactions between range expanding and resident predatory fishes using multiple modes of inference
Karen M. Alofs, University of Toronto; Donald A. Jackson, University of Toronto
3:10 PM
3:20 PM
 The role of habitat heterogeneity and environmental gradients on population spread and invasion dynamics
Florian Altermatt, University of Zürich; Emanuel A. Fronhofer, Eawag: Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology; Nicolai Nitsche, University of Konstanz; Andrea Giometto, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne; Andrea Rinaldo, Università di Padova
4:00 PM
 The importance of abiotic and biotic interactions for determining range expansions at the alpine tree line
Rebecca Snell, Ohio University; Alexander Peringer, University of Kassel; Harald Bugmann, ETH Zurich
4:20 PM
 Slow response or no response? Distinguishing dispersal limitation and demographic inertia from non-climatic range limits during climate change
Janneke HilleRisLambers, University of Washington; Ailene K. Ettinger, Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University; Kevin R. Ford, US Bureau of Land Management; Ian Breckheimer, University of Washington; Steve J. Kroiss, University of Washington; Myesa Legendre-Fixx, University of Washington