Networks underlies the relationships between living organisms. Network science is thus essential to study ecological systems and to address the consequences of ecological forces for the health of human, animal and plant populations.
Examples are many. At the miscroscopical scale, ecological networks of microbial communities alter the risk of host infection. Also, their disruption is associated to health problems, ranging from localized gastroenterologic disorders to neurologic illnesses. Reconstructing their topology is a necessary step toward understanding their function and predicting the outcome of their alterations.
At a larger scale, the interactions between diverse host and pathogen populations drive emerging diseases, such as pandemic influenza, coronavirus and vector-borne diseases. Unraveling this complex web is essential to improve pandemic preparedness, response and prevention.
Recent theoretical advances in the fields of network ecology and network epidemiology, are providing ground knowledge to face modern challenges in ecosystems health. Powerful quantitative tools – e.g. multi-layer networks, temporal networks, random matrix theory, interacting dynamical systems and physics of spreading processes – allow for modelling ecological and disease ecological systems at different scales, from microscopic biological interactions, to the level of populations and their spatiotemporal organization
Examples are many. At the miscroscopical scale, ecological networks of microbial communities alter the risk of host infection. Also, their disruption is associated to health problems, ranging from localized gastroenterologic disorders to neurologic illnesses. Reconstructing their topology is a necessary step toward understanding their function and predicting the outcome of their alterations.
At a larger scale, the interactions between diverse host and pathogen populations drive emerging diseases, such as pandemic influenza, coronavirus and vector-borne diseases. Unraveling this complex web is essential to improve pandemic preparedness, response and prevention.
Recent theoretical advances in the fields of network ecology and network epidemiology, are providing ground knowledge to face modern challenges in ecosystems health. Powerful quantitative tools – e.g. multi-layer networks, temporal networks, random matrix theory, interacting dynamical systems and physics of spreading processes – allow for modelling ecological and disease ecological systems at different scales, from microscopic biological interactions, to the level of populations and their spatiotemporal organization
The Organizers
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