IceLab seminar with György Barabas

Come to IceLab to hear a seminar exploring modelled ecological communities.

Speaker: György Barabas (Department of Physics, Chemistry and Biology, Linköping University)

Title: Trait-Based Higher-Order Interactions and Species Coexistence

György Barabas will serve as the external discussant for Aswin Gopakumar’s mid-term PhD seminar, held on February 11th at 9am in NAT.D.280.

Following the midterm seminar, György Barabas will give a talk in IceLab.

Drop in to IceLab (find using mazemap) or join via Zoom: IceLab Living Room Zoom 612 568 7586.

ABSTRACT: A higher-order interaction between three species means that the presence of a third species modifies the interaction between the first two. A trait-based higher-order interaction is the same except between phenotypes instead of species. In this talk I discuss the ecological and evolutionary effects of trait-based higher-order interactions on species coexistence in model communities. I use one-dimensional traits, such as root depth in the case of soil nutrient competition or height in the case of competition for light. On the surface, a confusing array of possibilities emerge which can be summed up as "adding higher-order interactions may have a positive, negative, or no effect on coexistence". However, I argue that by analyzing the relative widths of the pairwise and higher-order interaction kernels, we will understand which outcome to expect in any given scenario.