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SUMMARY:Scaling up from individual interactions to biodiversity dynamics -
  Florian Jeltsch (Universität Potsdam)
DTSTART:20230915T102000Z
DTEND:20230915T110500Z
UID:TALK203404@talks.cam.ac.uk
DESCRIPTION:Biodiversity loss is one of the most pressing challenges of ou
 r time\, requiring immediate action. Yet our understanding of the underlyi
 ng dynamics remains limited\, as prevailing ecological concepts\, analysis
  and modelling approaches often overlook the underlying complexity. The ur
 gency of the biodiversity crisis requires a paradigm shift in ecological t
 hinking from simplistic approaches to a science that focuses on the fundam
 ental agents of change\, i.e. individual organisms\, and their interaction
 s. To develop ecology into a predictive science\, it is necessary to eluci
 date the causal mechanisms that link individual variation and individual i
 nteractions to emergent properties in multi-species communities\, ecosyste
 ms and their interactions with human impacts.&nbsp\;\nIn this talk\, I wil
 l discuss the need for and challenges of such a paradigm shift and illustr
 ate it with examples from individual-based computer simulations: In a firs
 t example\, I will show how mobile sensory networks emerge from individual
  interactions of insectivorous bats and under which conditions they provid
 e foraging advantages. In the second example\, I take the scale even furth
 er and show how resource competition between small mammal individuals affe
 cts community dynamics and thus determines the overall effect of landscape
  fragmentation on biodiversity. Zooming down to the energetic level of ind
 ividual performance provides additional insights into the importance of br
 idging the individual and community levels.&nbsp\;\nThese examples already
  show that scaling up from individual interactions to the level of biodive
 rsity is both necessary and possible. However\, a real paradigm shift towa
 rds a more mechanistic understanding of biodiversity change will require a
  further combination of empirical studies\, ex- and in-situ experiments\, 
 novel approaches in eco-informatics\, advanced metadata analysis\, artific
 ial intelligence and deep learning\, and analytical\, numerical and agent-
 based modelling.
LOCATION:Seminar Room 1\, Newton Institute
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