Immersion in ecological networks

The São Paulo School on Ecological Networks will be held in September. Involving intense field work, the school will be attended by renowned international specialists

By  Fábio de Castro

Agência FAPESP – This year, Brazilian and foreign students involved in studying ecological networks will have the opportunity to spend nine days meeting some of the world’s leading specialists in the area.

The São Paulo School on Ecological Networks will be held from September 16 to 23, and is sponsored by the Brazilian Ecological Science and Conservation Association (Abeco) and the post-graduate ecological studies programs of Universidade Estadual de Campinas (Unicamp) and Universidade de São Paulo (USP). The location has not yet been defined. The deadline for applications is April 15.

Coordinated under the auspices of the São Paulo School of Advanced Sciences (ESPCA), a modality launched by FAPESP in 2009, the event will be organized by Thomas Lewinsohn, president of Abeco and professor at Unicamp’s Animal Biology Department, in conjunction with Paulo Guimarães Jr. and Paulo Inácio Prado, both of the Ecology Department of USP’s Biosciences Institute (IB-USP).

The participants will be 40 select doctoral students or recent graduates (20 Brazilian and 20 from abroad) that will be meeting with the 10 most prominent scientists of the ecological networks area, half of which foreigners and the other half Brazilian.

“The course will deal with the universe of ecological networks in two main areas: analysis of the networks of interactions among species and spatial analysis, involving different ecosystems that integrate the same landscape. The visiting lecturers are award-winning young researchers who have become leaders in this area,” affirms Lewinsohn to Agência FAPESP.

Given the specificities of ecology, the event will have a special format, mixing the characteristics of an intensive theoretical course with immersion in biological field work.

“In ecology in Brazil and around the globe, we have a long tradition of holding field courses, in which participants carry out small research projects on the ecosystems under study. In this vein, we planned a hybrid course of pure theory and hands-on experience in the field,” he says.

The reason that a relatively small group of lecturers and students was chosen was to intensify interaction among the participants. “In this manner, the lecturers can have greater participation, actively discussing and orienting the research group’s project,” he explained.

According to Lewinsohn, the ecological networks area is very recent. Although its fundamentals have been established based on a large quantity of previously consolidated research, the area has had really strong development in the last decade. “In this context, the focus will be directed to two fronts: interactions networks and spatial networks,” he adds.

The former analyzes the different levels of biological interactions, like those occurring between a plant and a pollinator, or between a parasite and host, for example.

“The idea is to look at how these complex networks of interactions are structured among species. It is an area that is increasingly gaining momentum and a vast field to be explored. At the same time, the methods of conducting deep analysis of these networks are diversifying within an interdisciplinary context with major contributions from statistics and physics,” explains the organizer.

Another of the course’s frontlines is the analysis of spatial networks, or the organization of different types of ecosystems with the same landscape or region.

“This thread is especially important throughout most of Brazil, where the original ecosystems are increasingly fragmented between agricultural matrices and in the case of São Paulo, between urban matrices,” says Lewinsohn.

This extremely complex spatial structure, if seen as a problem for networks, could be analyzed with tools similar to those being utilized in the analysis of interactions.

“With this, we multiply the chances of understanding how the ecological dynamic works in fragmented natural areas, in addition to making forecasts to study different strategies for management and conservation,” he affirmed.  

Work networks

According to Lewinsohn, candidates for the school’s 40 spots should present a letter explaining their background, work history, current line of research and why he or she would like to participate.

“The idea is to have post-graduates and recent doctoral graduates that are actively engaged in research, preferably involving one of the lines of investigation dealt with in the course,” he says.

For organizers, the expectation is that the school can considerably potentialize the work of participants and that they will be motivated to open new lines of investigation beyond those in which they are currently active.

“Our hope is that the course will generate many partnerships based on the very close contact that they will have in the field. We want to establish common work networks based on shared data. Before the school, we will urge all participants to bring databases that will be explored in ‘discussion clinics.’ Certainly, the interactions will extrapolate the school itself, generating ties that will allow for scientific exchange among these researchers in the future,” affirms the Unicamp professor. 

The Brazilian lecturers at the school will be: Jean Paul Metzger, IB-USP’s Ecology Department, Mauro Galetti, of Universidade Estadual Paulista’s (Unesp) Conservation Biology Laboratory, Lucas Faria, of Universidade Federal de Lavras’ Biology Department in Minas Gerais State, Luciano Costa, of USP’s Physics and Information Technology Department within the São Carlos Physics Institute  (IFSC) at USP, and Marcus Aguiar,  of Unicamp’s  Department of Solid State Physics and Materials Science within the Gleb Wataghin Physics Institute.
The foreign lecturers will be: Diego Vázquez, of the National Council of Scientific and Technological Research (Argentina); Jordi Bascompte, of the Doñana Biological Station and Superior Council of Scientific Research (Spain); Marie Josée Fortin, of the Departament of Ecology at the University of Toronto (Canada), Stefano Allesina; of the Departament of Ecology and Evolution at the University of Chicago (United States); and Tim Keitt, of University of Texas at Austin (United States).

More information about the school: www.abecol.org.br/redesecologia