Allison K. Barner

Assistant Professor, Colby College

Predicting extinction cascades using species interaction networks

April 5, 2023 - 12:00 PM Eastern Time

Location:

E100 Innovation Hall (viewing party)

Virtual Location:

Zoom

Talk Abstract:

Network studies have long explored the relationship between network structure and stability. In particular, network robustness measures the resistance of a network to node extinction. In other words, how likely is it for a failure at one node to spread and cause a catastrophic and cascading collapse of the network? Although these are well-explored dynamics in theoretical and simulated network studies, rarely have predicted extinctions in networks been compared against real-world observed extinctions. In this talk, I'll discuss a project to generate predicted extinction cascades in Gulf of Maine coastal food webs and a series of observational and experimental tests of these predicted extinctions, bringing together theory, simulation, and empirical studies in a highly perturbed ecosystem.

Speaker Bio:

Research interests: community ecology; ecological complex systems; global change biology; rocky intertidal ecosystems