We operate an international seminar series on Theoretical Ecology via Zoom since September, 2020. With some exceptions, the hour-long events are held on every other Tuesday at 9 a.m. Pacific Time, which corresponds to 5 p.m. in London and 6 p.m. in Paris most of the time. Our invited lecturer speaks for cc. 20-30 minutes. The rest of the hour is for questions and discussions, which are often lively. The seminars are recorded and posted on our YouTube channel. We send out notifications before each lecture via email and Twitter. The webinar is organised by György Barabás (dysordys@gmail.com), Géza Meszéna (meszena.geza@ttk.elte.hu) and Chris Terry (christopher.terry@biology.ox.ac.uk). Any comment, or suggestion are welcome.
Zoom link (unless stated otherwise): https://liu-se.zoom.us/j/63158449287
YouTube channel with the lecture videos and teaching material, etc.
How to subscribe for email reminders?
Scheduled lectures
Mark McPeek (Dartmout): Can Mutualists Foster Coexistence Among Resource Competitors? Mechanistic Analyses Of Various Mutualisms
16 April, 2024
Almost all species in nature engage in mutualistic interactions with other species. However, ecologists have only recently begun to explore the role that mutualisms play in broader patterning of community structure among interacting species. Mutualisms are mechanistically a highly diverse class of species interactions, and so exploring their role in structuring communities will require developing mechanistic models for each mechanism. In this seminar, I will present recent work exploring whether two different types of mutualists can foster the coexistence of two plant species that themselves compete for a single limiting environmental nutrient. The two mutualisms to be considered separately are (1) a pollinator species that interacts with both plant species, and (2) a mycorrhizal fungus species that interacts with both plant species. Analyses of these models predict that pollinator and mycorrhizal mutualisms have very different likelihoods of fostering the coexistence of resource competitors. Understanding how different types of mutualisms influence community structure will require careful exploration of the mechanistic effects of each type.
McPeek, M. A., S. J. McPeek, and J. L. Bronstein. 2022. Nectar dynamics and the coexistence of two plants that share a pollinator and compete for one resource. Oikos 2022:e08869.
McPeek, M. A., and C. Hicks Pries. 2024. Modeling the complex circuitry of interactions that determine coexistence among plants and a mycorrhizal fungus across resource gradients. Ecology 2024:e4281.
Evan Johnson (Alberta): On the prevalence of cycles and chaos in natural ecosystems
30 April, 2024
In this talk, I will present prevalence estimates for predator-prey cycles and chaos in ecological time series. Previous assessments find a 6% incidence of cycles in a large dataset, whereas my procedure indicates that 8-25% of populations are cyclical. Chaos is probably rare (with a modal prevalence of 0%), yet uncertainty remains high (0-18%). I will discuss the obstacles to detecting ecological chaos.
Meike Wittmann (Bielefeld)
14 May, 2024
Géza Meszéna (Eötvös University)
28 May, 2024
William Campillay-Llanos (University of Talca, Chile)
11 June, 2024