Symposium number: 19

Title: MACROECOLOGY

Principal organizer: Carsten Rahbek
Center of Macroecology, Zoological Museum, University of Copenhagen, Universitetsparken 15, DK-2100 Copenhagen O, Denmark
email: crahbek@zmuc.ku.dk

Second organizer: Katrin Böhning-Gaese
Institut für Zoologie, Abt. V, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Becherweg 13, D-55099 Mainz, Germany

First keynote speaker: Robert E. Ricklefs
Department of Biology, University of Missouri-St. Louis, 8001 Natural Bridge Road, St. Louis, MO 63121 4499, USA
Title of first keynote paper: Time, space, and the origin of macroecological patterns

Second keynote speaker: Katrin Böhning Gaese
Institut für Zoologie, Abt. V, Johannes Gutenberg-Universität Mainz, Becherweg 13, D-55099 Mainz, Germany
Title of second keynote paper: Extending macroecology beyond patterns of abundance, distribution and species richness

Contributed talks

Symposium description: Macroecology is a rapidly developing field of research, for which ornithology is eminently suited. At any one scale, observed patterns of diversity - or the variation in distribution of any biological trait - are dependent on processes operating at different scales. Most ecological studies in ornithology are carried out at local scales. Although broad-scale factors are recognised contributors to the patterns observed, there is a dearth of studies focusing on them. Hence the development of macroecology, a discipline concerned primarily with understanding the division of resources and space at multispatial and multitemporal scales.
Macroecological research is both empirical and theoretical, both inductive and deductive. It is concerned with the relationship between pattern and process. It seeks to discover and describe these patterns and to develop and test hypotheses to account for them. Being a young field, macroecology currently fosters a lively debate affecting the validity of its approaches and methods. Accordingly, the aim of the symposium is to highlight this field of research, to spread its grand theme and potential, to warn that much ground has still to be covered, and to inspire new directions of research based either on the vast amount of existing ornithological data and knowledge or through generation of new information.

back to list of symposia

Home | Scientific Programme | Officers | Venue | Accommodation | Tours | Past Congresses