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EEB Special Seminar: Elucidating ecological complexity with multilayer networks

Fernanda Valdovinos, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, University of Arizona
Monday, December 5, 2016
4:00-5:00 PM
1040 Dana Natural Resources Building Map
The vast complexity of ecological systems has long challenged the ability of ecologists to understand and predict ecosystem behavior. Fortunately, the emerging field of network science including ecological networks is providing evermore powerful tools to meet these challenges. Such tools, including insights into ‘multilayer’ networks comprised of different types of interactions, help rigorously synthesize more traditional ecological theories and massive amounts of data describing the great diversity of species and interactions encompassing ecological systems. My work pushes this frontier forward in order to better explain and predict the structure and dynamics of ecological systems, especially their responses to anthropogenic change. I do this by 1) integrating different types of interactions among species into ecological networks, 2) scaling up key mechanisms at lower scales concerning organisms and populations to larger scales concerning communities and ecosystems, and 3) testing theory resulting from 1) and 2) against empirical data. This strategy has enabled me to develop a novel consumer-resource approach to plant-pollinator networks that integrates two types of interactions essential to the dynamics of those complex systems; feeding relationships and reproductive services. My approach incorporates key mechanisms such as the adaptive foraging of pollinators within plant communities, the dynamic production and depletion of floral rewards, and the dilution of conspecific pollen by heterospecific pollen. My results suggest that these mechanisms stabilize plant-pollinator communities and resolve a prominent debate about how network architecture affects the dynamics of mutualistic systems. We tested a central prediction emerging from this theory and found it to be strongly corroborated by intensive field observations of bee foraging within an alpine plant community. My current research on mechanistic approaches to multilayer networks integrates additional types of interactions involving life-history, evolution, and even economics. Such work continues the tradition of ecological network scientists learning from, and substantially contributing to, exciting frontiers of complexity research spanning natural, social, and technological sciences.

Light refreshments served at 4 p.m.
Building: Dana Natural Resources Building
Website:
Event Type: Workshop / Seminar
Tags: Biology, Discussion, Ecology, Science
Source: Happening @ Michigan from Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, EEB Thursday Seminars