Symposium
Lucas Medeiros, Institute of Marine Sciences
Postdoctoral Scholar
UC Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz, California, United States
Stephan Munch, Southwest Fisheries Science Center
Program Lead
NOAA Fisheries
Santa Cruz, California, United States
Vadim Karatayev
University of Kansas
Guelph, ON, United States
Tanya Rogers, Southwest Fisheries Science Center
Research Fish Biologist
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, United States
The fact that species interactions can drive population fluctuations over time was one of the earliest ecological discoveries that bridged theory and empirical data (Volterra, 1926; Gause, 1934). Over the years, different studies have proposed that population fluctuations resulting from transients, cycles, or chaos may be a common property of several laboratory and natural ecological systems. Nevertheless, the bulk of theoretical and empirical work on the dynamics of ecological systems has remained confined to an equilibrium view of the world, under which populations are essentially at a steady state and fluctuate only as a result of noise. This symposium aims to expand our view of population dynamics by showcasing recent and important findings into the causes and consequences of fluctuations in different ecological systems. Regarding causes, talks in this symposium will explore how different factors (e.g., species diversity, species interactions, environmental forcing, population structure) may drive non-equilibrium population fluctuations. Regarding consequences, talks will cover how such non-equilibrium fluctuations may impact ecological stability and the persistence of populations, ultimately affecting our ability to conserve, forecast, and manage ecological systems. Most talks in this symposium will build on an integration of theory and data. Thus, talks will present state-of-the-art modeling and statistical methods to unravel population fluctuations as well as different ways to analyze experimental or observational data. Some of the empirical systems covered in the talks will be plant-herbivore communities, laboratory microbial communities, aquatic food webs, and plankton communities. We hope that this symposium generates discussions of how findings can be synthesized and of how novel theoretical and empirical approaches can shed light on longstanding questions about population fluctuations.
Presenting Author: Karen Abbott, Department of Biology – Case Western Reserve University
Presenting Author: Tanya Rogers, Southwest Fisheries Science Center – National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration
Co-author: Bethany J. Johnson – University of California Santa Cruz
Co-author: Celia C. Symons – University of California, Irvine
Co-author: Stephan B. Munch, Southwest Fisheries Science Center – NOAA Fisheries
Presenting Author: Dan J. Wieczynski – Duke University
Coauthor: Jean-Philippe P. Gibert, PhD – Duke University
Presenting Author: Jeff Gore, Department of Physics – Massachusetts Institute of Technology