Giovedì 10 maggio 2018 alle ore 18.00 nell’Aula Magna del Collegio Morgagni via San Massimo 33, Padova, il Prof. Sandro Azaele, University of Leeds, terrà un seminario dal titolo “Modelling spatial patterns in species-rich ecosystems” all’interno delle attività didattiche della Scuola Galileiana.

L’incontro è aperto al pubblico, fino ad esaurimento dei posti a sedere.

– Abstract –

There is a vast body of theoretical and empirical research about the general properties of several patterns emerging in ecological communities. For instance, we know since the early 1900s how the average number of species increases with area, but the understanding of the underlying mechanisms have progressed slowly and only recently. Specific patterns have been modelled in different frameworks, but we still lack an overarching theory which is able to explain core mechanisms and underlying interconnections. One of the challenges is that ecological systems usually display large fluctuations, and the calculation of spatial patterns in stochastic models is challenging even in simple models. After introducing the most important empirical ecological patterns, we will go through the most relevant models that have been suggested so far. We will then investigate a unifying stochastic theory, from which one can predict and link all the patterns we have alluded to above. Predictions are in agreement with empirical data. These results allow us to address some open problems, which will be discussed in the final part.