Spring 2014: Complex Systems lectures by visiting researcher Jennifer Dunne

"Are Humans Just Another Predator? The Roles of Human Foragers in North Pacific Marine Food Webs" Thursday, Feb. 20, 7 p.m. Rasmuson Hall, Room 101

Most studies of humans and ecosystems present human impacts on ecosystems. However, our ability to understand and mitigate such impacts depends on the roles humans play in ecosystems. Food webs provide a useful way to quantify ecological roles of species including humans. By synthesizing 6,000 years of biological, archeological, ethnographic and other data from marine ecosystems in the North Pacific, in particular the Sanak Archipelago in the Eastern Aleutian Islands, we can characterize how Unangan/Aleut hunter-gatherers fit into complex marine food webs, how they compared to other predators and how their behaviors might have affected long-term ecosystem sustainability.

"Deep Time Perspectives on Complex Ecological Networks: A Half-Billion Years of Food Webs" Friday, Feb. 21, noon ConocoPhillips Integrated Science Building, Room 105

Extending ecological research back through deep time provides an important framework for understanding the macroevolutionary structure, function and dynamics of the ecosystems of today and tomorrow. While many paleobiological studies focus on species morphology, diversity and distributions, there are also opportunities to analyze complex species interactions. We have compiled detailed food webs for ancient ecosystems from approximately 500 and 50 million years ago. Using network structure analysis and current modeling techniques on extant food webs and other kinds of networks, we can compare the organization of these "paleofoodwebs" in current ecological networks and consider the implications for likely constraints on the structure and stability of these paradigmatic complex systems.

About the speaker: Jennifer Dunne's research is in analysis, modeling and theory of organization, dynamics and function of complex species interaction. Much of this work focuses on the basic architecture for the flow of energy and resources in ecosystems that play a central role in ecological and evolutionary dynamics, and seeks to identify fundamental patterns and principles of ecological network structure. She is extending the scope and impact of this research with interdisciplinary collaborations in archaeology, art, computer science, economics, evolutionary theory, microbiology, paleobiology, parasitology, physics and social science. She received a Ph.D. in Energy and Resources from UC Berkeley, held a National Science Foundation postdoctoral research fellowship in biological informatics, and has been on the faculty of the Santa Fe Institute since 2007.

February Archive