Everything Disperses to Miami: The Role of Movement and Dispersal in Ecology, Epidemiology and Environmental Science

University Of Miami, Coral Gables FL

Investigators

Abstract

Cantrell DMS-1205909 The investigators organize a meeting entitled "Everything Disperses to Miami: The Role of Movement and Dispersal in Spatial Ecology, Epidemiology, and Environmental Science" at the University of Miami in December 2012. The investigators invite seven leading experts to give plenary talks highlighting emerging mathematical and applied aspects of movement and dispersal in ecology, epidemiology, and environmental science, augmented by special sessions on the evolution of dispersal, epidemiology through the lens of ecology, non-local dispersal in ecology and epidemiology, the impact of global change in ecology and epidemiology, recent advances in nonlinear analysis and partial differential equations arising from models of dispersal, and recent synergies between state-of-the art empirical and theoretical advances in the study of dispersal. The meeting culminates with a panel discussion of new directions of research at the interface of mathematics and biology on the role of dispersal in ecology, epidemiology, and environmental science. The special sessions include a mix of junior and senior investigators as a means of encouraging the upcoming generation of new researchers to focus on issues related to movement and dispersal in ecology, epidemiology, and environmental science. The scientific outcome of the meeting is the basis for a special issue of the journal Discrete and Continuous Dynamical Systems - Series B, edited by the conference organizers, which will include an essay by the organizers giving an overview of the meeting, including most particularly the key emerging challenges identified in the panel discussion. The investigators organize a meeting entitled "Everything Disperses to Miami: The Role of Movement and Dispersal in Spatial Ecology, Epidemiology, and Environmental Science" (EDM) to promote research on the role of movement and dispersal in mathematical modeling in ecology, epidemiology, and environmental science, to further intellectual synthesis and integration therein, and to influence the direction of future investigation in these fields and by extension mathematical biology at large. Due to the range and complexity of the potential effects of dispersal, mathematical modeling is essential to the understanding of these effects. Movement and dispersal have long been recognized as crucial features of ecological systems. They influence the persistence and interactions of populations and drive range expansions, biological invasions, and colonization of empty habitats. More recently, as epidemiology has become increasingly understood through the lens of ecology, they have also come to occupy a central place in epidemiological modeling. Consequently, understanding movement and dispersal is indispensable for effective decision-making on numerous significant policy issues related to ecology, epidemiology, and environmental science, such as the conservation of biodiversity as habitats are altered by environmental change, the evaluation of risks of biological invasions by exotic or genetically modified organisms, the impact of human movement on vector-borne diseases, the effect of global movement in communicable diseases, and the development of strategies for controlling pests and disease vectors. The meeting brings together experts and young scientists to enhance the capacity of science to address these important questions.