Bridging the gap between theory and empiricism in ecology

PRINCIPAL ORGANIZER:

Priyanga Amarasekare

Department of Ecology and Evolution

University of Chicago

T: (773) 834-7647

E-mail: amarasek@uchicago.edu

Co-organizer:

Michael Neubert

Endorsed by the ESA Theoretical Ecology Section

Description:
The feedback between theory and data has been integral to every significant conceptual advance in ecology. The puzzling but compelling patterns unearthed by empiricists have been the fodder for theorists intent on explaining the patterns, and tests of these theories by empiricists have in turn provided the insights necessary to delve deeper into a more satisfying understanding of the patterns. This symposium will explore a range of topics at the forefront of current ecological thinking – disease dynamics, invasion ecology, spatial dynamics, multi-species interactions – in all of which a tighter integration of theory and data is necessary, both from a basic scientific point of view and well as from a more applied one. The goals are to: (1) highlight recent conceptual advances in these important areas; and (2) illustrate avenues for translating theory into testable hypotheses and how data, both experimental and observational, may be used to test and refine the theory.