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4.01.06 - Quantitative forest ecology

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2018-03-05

Do large trees tend towards high species mingling?

Blog post by Arne Pommerening

We could recently show that large forest trees have a tendency towards high species mingling in many forest ecosystems. We also found that local local species richness promotes size hierarchy.

See http://blogg.slu.se/forest-biometrics/2017/12/10/behind-the-paper-do-large-trees-tend-towards-high-species-mingling/  for the paper and the background story.


2018-02-01

Hands-On Workshop on Individual/Agent-Based-Modelling

Umeå, Sweden; 20-21 August 2018.

Agent/Individual-based modelling (ABM, IBM) techniques have emerged as crucial tools for analysing and understanding self-organisation processes in various ecosystems as well as in social sciences. ABM/IBM is a methodology for relating the micro-level behaviour to the macro- or system-level behaviour and shares certain similarities with game theory. In combination with new methods of spatial statistics ABM/IBM have become an intriguing method for studying spatio-temporal patterns among other things. 

An important part of individual-based models are interaction processes between individuals or agents, e.g. trees, humans or animals. For describing and modelling interaction, IBM modellers mostly use kernel functions. This concept has its origin in various fields of natural sciences such as in the ecological field theory and in shot-noise fields of physics. These interaction functions describe how biological processes such as growth, survival and reproduction of an individual depend on its own size and the size of and distance to other individuals. In the workshop, we will also consider and discuss birth- and death processes including the way how they are related with interaction.

A practical workshop of 1-2 days will be held at Umeå where beginners and more advanced modellers in the realm of agent/individual-based modelling mix and meet. The objective of the workshop is to share knowledge, experience and tips and tricks in this important field of modelling and to advance our understanding of how to apply this concept to various fields of ecology.

Details athttps://www.slu.se/statistics/workshops