Recent progress has finally positioned us to determine the relative importance of in situ processes and external influences integrated over space and time in controlling community dynamics. The symposium integrates traditionally separate subdisciplines to answer key issues in both applied and basic ecology.
Food webs are a central organizing theme in ecology.
Species comprising food webs live in a spatially heterogeneous world where habitats vary greatly in productivity, resource abundance, consumer behavior, and demography. Even local communities that appear discrete are open and connected in myriad ways to outside influences. Yet until recently, ecologists neglected how spatial patterns and processes affect web structure and dynamics. We focus on flows among habitats as a key influence on local productivity, and consumer-resource and food web dynamics. Recent work demonstrates that cross-habitat flux is a major and ubiquitous determinant of the dynamics and function of diverse systems .