Organized Oral Session
Christopher Moore, PhD
Assistant Professor of Biology
Colby College, Maine, United States
Allison Shaw
Associate Professor
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, United States
Allison Shaw
Associate Professor
University of Minnesota - Twin Cities, United States
The study of whole organism movement has developed modern frameworks for understanding individual movement across space. Recent thought has begun to push the boundaries of understanding movement beyond individuals to sets of interacting organisms and species. Interacting species can influence individual movement either before or after the interaction, and movement can occur individually or jointly. Mutualism is a species interaction where whole organism movement plays a central, but overlooked role. Although we do recognize the importance of movement in the subset of mutualisms where one partner received a transportation benefit (e.g., seed dispersal, pollination, spore dispersal, and endosymbiotic mutualisms), the role of movement often ends there. Furthermore, movement in mutualism entails much more than the transport of gametes or propagules, as partners attract and affect movement trajectories following the interaction. In this session, our goal is to stimulate discussion of general principles of movement across mutualistic systems. Our objectives are to bring together ecologists that study diverse mutualistic systems and have them present on the role of movement in their systems, speculate on the importance of movement in their systems, and discuss empirical and theoretical priorities; especially for the inescapable environmental “changes that are gonna come”. The importance of this session is twofold. First, the fields of mutualism and movement have effectively developed in isolation of one another, and this session will bring together ecologists who study mutualism to openly share and discuss commonalities of their work as it pertains to movement. Second, studying how organisms respond to environmental change is arguably the most pressing issue of applied ecology. Movement is centrally important to how organisms will respond to environmental change, such as climate warming or habitat fragmentation, and understanding how mutualism and other facilitative interactions will affect movement is critical. We believe a session on this topic will have great interest among meeting attendees because of the inherent attractiveness of mutualism and movement, the synthetic nature of the topic, and the diversity of the speakers and study systems.
Presenting Author: Emilio Bruna – University of Florida
Presenting Author: Bethanne Bruninga-Socolar – University of Minnesota
Co-author: Rachael Winfree, Ph.D. – Rutgers University
Co-author: Elizabeth E. Crone – Tufts University
Presenting Author: Eleanor M. Caves, PhD – University of California, Santa Barbara
Co-author: Eleanor M. Caves, PhD – University of California, Santa Barbara
Presenting Author: Annika S. Nelson – Virginia Tech
Co-author: Mariana Gelambi – Virginia Tech
Co-author: Estefania Morales – Universidad Técnica Nacional, Costa Rica
Co-author: Susan R. Whitehead – Virginia Tech
Presenting Author: Kasey N. Kiesewetter – University of Miami
Co-author: Kasey N. Kiesewetter – University of Miami
Co-author: Michelle E. Afkhamii – University of Miami
Presenting Author: Elizabeth G. Pringle, Ph.D. – University of Nevada, Reno