Description
Network approaches are powerful tools to synthesize, connect, and visualise both ecological theory and data to improve understanding of real-world ecological systems and support management decisions. However, network approaches often lack context-dependence which limits their generalizability. I will present two case studies demonstrating how I have approached adding context to network graphs to increase the utility and interpretability of my work as a research ecologist. The first case study concerns a synthesis that categorizes and connects biological invasion hypotheses along a timeline of invasion to clarify conceptual links and contradictions between hypotheses. Separating hypotheses along the invasion timeline revealed that seemingly contradictory hypotheses can be complementary when considered in the appropriate invasion stage context. The second case study concerns the addition of non-trophic interactions and season to a boreal food web using interaction data from diverse sources. In this work, the additions of variation in interaction type and season created a more connected and holistic representation of boreal communities that cannot be captured by traditional food web methods alone. As complex and disparate types ecological data become increasingly available, context-rich network approaches provide a promising avenue for integrating diverse information and generating more ecologically realistic representations of ecological systems and processes.
| Topic | Topic 2: Possibilities for taking context into account in ecological synthesis |
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