ATBC 2008 - Wirth
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Symposium
Distorted Species Interactions at the Forest Edge
Organizers : Rainer Wirth (wirth -at- rhrk.uni-kl.de) and Inara R. Leal (irleal -at- npd.ufpe.br)
An ever-increasing proportion of the global forested landscape is in close proximity to edges and edge-mediated effects are now known to represent key forces affecting both organisms and ecological processes. In fact, there is evidence that edges may be/become prime causes for alterations or disruptions of species interactions (such as pollination, parasitism, predation, seed dispersal, interspecific competition, herbivory, or even multitrophic level interactions) in fragmented landscapes.
To give an example, recent publications have shown that herbivores, especially generalists, profoundly benefit from forest edges, often due to favourable microenvironmental conditions, an edge-induced increase in food quantity/quality, and (less well documented) disrupted top-down regulation. These alterations, in turn, may impact various components of ecosystem functioning.
Following this idea, we plan to organize a symposium at the 2008 ATBC Meeting focusing not only on plant-herbivore interactions but on all kinds of trophic and non-trophic species interaction at the edge of fragmented forests. We wish to hold a symposium that congregates researchers from different areas of interest with work from different ecosystems and (according to the conference motto) continents to compile recent key findings from their studies of fragmented tropical forests.
Considering that edges have pervasive effects on the assembly, collapse, and functioning of tropical forested ecosystems, we are confident that the symposium attracts great interest of many tropical biologists.
The prospective participants of the symposium have the opportunity to further explore how edge effects may be measured and quantified by attending the workshop Quantitative measurement of edge effects in fragmented landscapes by Robert Ewers and Raphael Didham.
Old and newly created forest edges along remnants of Atlantic rainforest in Serra Grande, Alagoas, NE-Brazil
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