Conveners
Ecology, food webs, coexistence
- Wataru Nakahashi (Waseda University)
The development of ecotoxicological models over the last couple decades has significantly contributed to interpreting how contaminants impact organisms and cycle through food webs. However, there is increasing evidence that organisms experience interactive effects of contaminant stressors and food conditions, such as resource stoichiometry and nutrient availability. *Stoichiometric...
The gut microbiome is implicated in a growing array of diseases, spanning asthma, allergies, obesity and autoimmunity. The need for interventions that return aberrant dysbiotic communities to symbiotic partners is clear. Yet, despite known sensitivities to diet, a conceptual framework through which to design rational interventions remains elusive.
We adopted an ecological perspective in...
Mutualisms are reciprocally beneficial interactions between heterospecific organisms. Theoretical studies have predicted that genetic diversity in mutualistic systems should decrease over time because of innate positive feedback structure of the interaction. Negative feedback due to asymmetry in the exchange of benefits can maintain the diversity and stabilize multi-strain mutualistic systems,...
In recent times, unprecedented rates of biodiversity loss have resulted in a pressing need for greater understanding of key processes maintaining biodiversity. These processes are often studied in island communities because they exhibit low complexity relative to their mainland counterparts, which helps to simplify experiments, data analyses and mathematical models. Much previous work on...
Male juveniles of several species of salmonids spawning in fresh water streams migrate to the ocean and return to their natal stream when they mature (migratory tactic); others stay and mature in the stream (resident tactic). Large individuals become residents and small ones become migrants. This is an evolutionary outcome according to the status-dependent strategy model, which assumes that...
Batesian mimicry is a common phenomenon in nature, and it has been reported in various taxa. In Batesian mimicry, there are two species that have a similar colouration. One species is toxic or unpalatable, we call it “model-species”. The other is nontoxic or palatable, we call it “mimic”.
While many mathematical models focused on the evolution of mimicry, only a few mathematical models...
