OOS 37

Implications of Positive Interaction Studies to the Future of Ecological Research

Ecology, the study of interactions, has developed dramatically as a scientific field over the last century. More recently, in the last 30 years, positive interactions have been increasingly more popular and used to explain intricate processes of ecological communities. Through a suite of mechanisms, two species can interact positively by reducing physical stress, competition, consumption or by increasing available resources and dispersal. Through these pathways, positive interactions can define an ecosystem through spatial structure, diversity, productivity and evolutionary trajectories. The goal of this session is to briefly highlight the current state of facilitation research and describe the future projections including available gaps in the literature. Positive interactions continue to be linked to core concepts in ecological theory including community assembly and evolutionary biology, particularly by increasing the phylogenetic diversity of communities. This can assist in maintaining global species richness by considering facilitation as a mechanism in sustaining genetic diversity. Moreover, facilitation is being use to explain emerging ecological fields, such as its use in restoring degraded landscapes through the utilization of nurse plants.