2018 All-Scientists’ Meeting Sessions and times are now confirmed. Locations may change, but will be updated on Sched.
**Please Note: If you sync you calendar, sessions will appear in your local time zone. This can be confusing until you arrive on site (when your local time zone will be the correct one).**
There is renewed interest in understanding feedbacks and circular interactions in biological systems. These feedbacks and interactions include vital processes such as cycling of nutrients, species-environment interactions (e.g., soil formation) etc. These 'self-reinforcing' circular interactions have been likened to autocatalytic reactions chemistry wherein one species produces the resources required by the next in a loop. A recent review (Veldhuis et al. 2018 Ecological Monographs) suggests that such interactions can arise through a mix of competition and natural selection, form the backbone of ecosystem organization and ecosystem properties such as nutrient cycling in fact emerge from these. How can we test this idea in real ecosystem?
