BES Facebook pageBES Symposium 2009: Facilitation in Plant Communities
University of Aberdeen, Scotland, UK
20 - 22 April 2009
This was the first ever international meeting dedicated to the rapidly expanding field of facilitation (positive plant-plant interactions) in plant communities. The Symposium will provide an excellent opportunity to assess the current “state-of-play”, but importantly it will also look outwards from our usual research areas to expand this field and break new ground.
Sessions covered: Facilitation in communities – the current state of play and future challenges; Facilitation and mutualism – a comparison of mechanisms, concepts and approaches; Facilitation: biodiversity impacts and conservation implications; Facilitation in a changing world.
The Symposium not only provided a chance for the growing international body of plant facilitation researchers to meet and discuss some of the current fundamental questions of facilitation ecology, but also was of relevance to anyone with an interest in plant community or population ecology. Facilitation has become one of the topics in plant ecology in the last 10 years, and this is a chance for all ecologists to learn more about these fundamental and vital processes. It was a great opportunity to hear about the ecology of a wide range of ecosystems from around the world.
One of our main aims was to make this a genuinely international meeting, with lots of opportunity to meet fellow researchers with common interests and to discuss new (or even old) ideas. Importantly, not all talks during the Symposium were from invited speakers. There was a chance to offer abstracts for talks and posters although, because of limited time during the meeting, only a small number of the very best offered abstracts as talks.
Speakers
Lorena Gomez Aparicio - Department of Geoecology, Biochemistry and Environmental Microbiology (IRNAS - CSIC), Spain
The use of facilitation in ecosystem restoration
Judith Bronstein - Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology, The University of Arizona, USA
The evolution of facilitative interactions: lessons from the study of mutualism
Fabio Bulleri - Universitą di Pisa; Dipartimento di Scienze dell 'Uomo e dell 'Ambiente
The role of facilitative interactions in coastal environments: moving from patterns to processes
Ray Callaway – University of Montana, USA
Facilitation in plant communities – the current state of play and challenges for the future
Lohengrin Cavieres - Universidad de Concepcion and Institute of Ecology and Biodiversity, Chile
Community level consequences of facilitation in high elevation habitats of the southern Andes
Phil Grime - University of Sheffield, UK and J.D.Fridley and A. Askew
The role of facilitation in species-rich calcareous grassland
Marcel van der Heijden - Sustainable Agriculture Research Station ART, Federal Department of Economic Affairs, Switzerland
Facilitation in plant communities: the role of mycorrhizal fungi
Wim van der Putten - NIOO-KNAW, Centre for Terrestrial Ecology, The Netherlands
Who is facilitating: plants, or their natural enemies?
Alfonso Valiente-Banuet - Instituto de Ecologia, UNAM, Mexico
Phylogenetic community ecology and plant facilitation
The main poster session was on the first night, coinciding with the welcome mixer. However, posters remained up throughout the meeting, with ample opportunity to discuss them during coffee and lunch breaks.
