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SUMMARY:EESS talk on "Plant-animal mutualistic networks: the architecture 
 of biodiversity"
DTSTART:20180306T121500
DTEND:20180306T131500
DTSTAMP:20260427T225852Z
UID:703b7742a2eaa44753e5bca19066823e2401e71fe4bb8a4599dbfd5e
CATEGORIES:Conferences - Seminars
DESCRIPTION:Dr Jordi Bascompte\, Professor\, Department of Evolutionary Bi
 ology and Environmental Studies. University of Zurich\nAbstract:\nThe mutu
 alistic interactions between plants and the animals that pollinate them or
  disperse their seeds can form complex networks involving dozens or hundre
 ds of species. These networks are highly heterogeneous\, nested\, and buil
 t upon weak and asymmetric links among species. From an ecological point o
 f view\, such general architectural patterns maximize the number of coexis
 ting species and increase the range of variability that these mutualistic 
 networks can withstand before one or more species goes extinct. Therefore\
 , mutualistic networks can be viewed as the architecture of biodiversity. 
 However\, because pylogenetically similar species tend to play similar rol
 es in the network\, extinction events trigger non-random coextinction casc
 ades. This implies that taxonomic diversity is lost faster than expected i
 f there was no relationship between phylogeny and network structure. From 
 an evolutionary point of view\, the indirect effects arising from these ne
 twork patterns may drive trait coevolution within species-rich assemblages
 \, so that even the most specialized species are more influenced by indire
 ct effects than by their direct partners.\n\nShort biography:\nJordi Basco
 mpte is Professor of Ecology at the University of Zurich. He has been rank
 ed by Thompson Reuters as one of the most highly cited ecologists in the d
 ecade 2002-2012. Among his distinctions are the European Young Investigato
 r Award (2004)\, the Ecological Society of America's George Mercer Award (
 2007)\, the Spanish National Research Award (2011)\, and the British Ecolo
 gical Society's Marsh Book of the Year Award (2016). Recipient of an ERC's
  Advanced Grant\, Jordi has served in the Board of Reviewing Editors of Sc
 ience and has been the Ideas and Perspectives Editor at Ecology Letters. A
 mong his books are Self-Organization in Complex Ecosystems (with R.V. Sol
 é) and Mutualistic Networks (with P. Jordano)\, both published by Princet
 on University Press.
LOCATION:GR A3 32 https://plan.epfl.ch/?room==GR%20A3%2032
STATUS:CONFIRMED
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