EEB Tuesday Lunch Seminar/student evaluation: Pollination in food webs: a mechanistic approach to multiplex ecological networks
Kayla Sale-Hale, EEB graduate student
Join us for our weekly brown bag lunch seminar.
Abstract
Ecosystem functions emerge from a diversity of interaction types. For example, pollinators facilitate productivity in natural and agro-ecosystems by exchanging reproductive services for food ("floral rewards"). Other food web interactions, such as herbivory on plants and parasitism of pollinators, also profoundly impact the dynamics of pollination mutualisms and subsequent crop yields. However, the ability to predict ecosystem functions is inhibited by a historical separation between studies of pollination networks and food webs. Here, I synthesize trophic and reproductive mechanisms into a common mathematical framework in order to study the structure and dynamics of pollination in food webs. I found that pollination mutualisms can improve the stability and productivity of terrestrial ecosystems by enriching biomass of upper trophic-level consumers.
Abstract
Ecosystem functions emerge from a diversity of interaction types. For example, pollinators facilitate productivity in natural and agro-ecosystems by exchanging reproductive services for food ("floral rewards"). Other food web interactions, such as herbivory on plants and parasitism of pollinators, also profoundly impact the dynamics of pollination mutualisms and subsequent crop yields. However, the ability to predict ecosystem functions is inhibited by a historical separation between studies of pollination networks and food webs. Here, I synthesize trophic and reproductive mechanisms into a common mathematical framework in order to study the structure and dynamics of pollination in food webs. I found that pollination mutualisms can improve the stability and productivity of terrestrial ecosystems by enriching biomass of upper trophic-level consumers.
Building: | Biological Sciences Building |
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Event Type: | Workshop / Seminar |
Tags: | Biology, Biosciences, Bsbsigns, Ecology, Research, Science |
Source: | Happening @ Michigan from Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, EEB Tuesday Lunch Seminars |