SDG Detail

Networks in Ecology and Evolution

None

Project description

This course will introduce students to concepts and methods in Network Science, through their application to ecological systems, in particular communities of coexisting species and their interactions. The history of ideas on biodiversity from the perspective of food webs (�who eats whom� in an ecosystem) will be followed in the first part of the course by material on different types of networks, properties used to describe their topology/structure, and probabilistic models to generate such structure. In a �hands-on� part of the course, students will become familiar with existing data sets and algorithms for network visualization, computation of network metrics, and model simulation and inference. The role of evolutionary constraints in network topology will be discussed. The second part of the course will consider the relationship between structure and dynamics, including notions of stability and robustness, and the interaction of ecology and evolution in the assembly of communities of interacting species. Networks in epidemiology will provide examples of other ecological and evolutionary applications.