We would like to invite you to the ESA 2015 session OOS 37 (quite a few of us from the lab will be in attendance).

Implications of positive interaction studies to the future of ecological

research. The session is on Wednesday, August 12th from 8:00-11:30am.

The goal of this session is to highlight the current state of

facilitation research and describe the future projections including

available gaps in the literature. Broadly, this session provides a

synthesis of positive interaction studies across different ecosystems with

topics ranging from niche expansion, coexistence, evolutionary adaptation,

and global change. This set of studies showcase the growing importance of

positive interactions for ecological processes and biodiversity

coexistence. We also guarantee that it will be entirely entertaining. We

will be on social media to share and explore questions in real time. We are

encouraging presenters to share in advance as well.

 

 

Speakers

8:00 AM – A role for soil microbial communities in plant-plant facilitation

Cristina Armas, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; Yudi M.

Lozano, Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas; Sara Hortal,

University of Western Sydney; Susana Rodríguez-Echeverría, Centre for

Functional Ecology; Francisco I. Pugnaire, Consejo Superior de

Investigaciones Científicas

8:20 AM – Positive interactions expand habitat use and the realized niches

of sympatric species

Sinead M. Crotty, Brown University; Mark D. Bertness, Brown University

8:40 AM – Facilitation in plant communities: Driver of evolutionary

adaptation?

Christian Smit, University of Groningen

9:00 AM – The future of gradient studies in examining plant-plant

interactions for the next 100 years

Chris Lortie, York University

9:20 AM – The consequences of plant–plant interactions at the community

level: A niche-based approach

Christian Schöb, University of Zurich; Sara Hortal, University of Western

Sydney; Alison J. Karley, The James Hutton Institute; Luna Morcillo,

Universitat d’Alacant; Andrian C. Newton, The James Hutton Institute; Robin

J. Pakeman, The James Hutton Institute; Jeff R. Powell, University of

Western Sydney; Ian Anderson, University of Western Sydney; Rob W. Brooker,

The James Hutton Institute

9:40 AM – Break

9:50 AM – The competition cascade: Indirect facilitation emerges as a key

driver of species richness under neutral, niche or individual difference

Eliot J. B. McIntire, Natural Resources Canada

10:10 AM – Positive species interactions and climate change at global scales

Qiang He, Duke University; Brian R. Silliman, Duke University

The session is on room 314 of the Baltimore Convention Center. We hope to

see you there!

 

Abstracts

http://eco.confex.com/eco/2015/webprogram/Session10663.html