Thursday, August 8, 2013: 8:00 AM-10:00 AM
101C, Minneapolis Convention Center
Co-organizer:
Julie L. Rushmore
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.
Prioritizing fish passage improvement in river networks
S. Kyle McKay, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers;
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