General information

Invasive species are among the most interesting and important ecological phenomena. Modelling the dispersal of an invasive species is often constrained by three technical (or computational) problems: spatial scale, temporal scale and the complexity of inter-species interactions. The spatial scale problem arises because habitat quality may need to be assessed at scales of meters or even centimetres (eg. establishment of seedling plant), but an individual dispersal event may occur over hundreds or thousands of meters and the scene of the invasion might be the whole country. There is therefore a mismatch in the 'grain' or spatial precision needed to describe the habitat and habitat quality, dispersal events and eventual range of the species. The temporal scale problem occurs because the invasion may occur over decadal time scales, but during that period the landscape will also change, which may either speed up or slow down the process (increase or decrease the probability of a successful dispersal event). Also over decadal time scales occasional extreme weather events or atypical seasons may be important, for example the exceptionally nice summer of 2003 may have opened gaps in vegetation swards that invasive species can exploit before the native flora can recover. 2003 has also been a very good year for some types of butterfly, some of which may be able to colonise or re-colonise vacant sites. For some dispersal events it may be necessary to have a very high temporal precision, while at other times the temporal precision could be much lower. This applies to both the dispersal events themselves and also to the 'fitness' of the individual organism. Finally an individual organism will have complex interactions with other species; it may either 'out run' its competitors, prey, predators, parasites and diseases or it may encounter a new suite of species to interact with. It is possible that the recent advances in eScience and grid technologies may remove some of these technical constraints in modelling invasive species.

There are a large number of academics in the UK interested in dispersal processes. At the moment they tend to form 'communities' around the type of organism they model (for example aphids and other agricultural pests, riparian plants, mammals et . However, the technical/computational problems described above are common to almost all attempts to model any invasive species.

Programme

The workshop is being coordinated by Richard Wadsworth from CEH Monks Wood. Details of the programme are currently being worked out. We invite contributions from participants. Offers of contributions should be given in the on-line registration form; see below.

The purpose of the workshop will be to:

• Identify the extent to which escience and grid technologies are being exploited for modelling dispersal, and to learn from these experiences,
• Identify advances in other scientific fields that could be borrowed for use in modelling the dispersal of invasive species,
• Identify the key constraints to further advances in the simulation of dispersal (and the management) of invasive species.

The programme will consist of talks and breakout discussion groups followed by plenary summary discussions. The tentative time table is

Day 1: Monday 5th July

Day 2: Tuesday 6th July

Location

The main meetings of the workshop, and lunches, will be held at in Pavillion A of the Centre for Mathematical Sciences Cambridge (main entrance shown in photograph below).

Details of the location of the meeting, including travel plans, can be obtained here.

Accommodation is being provided in New Hall Cambridge; the conference dinner on the evening of 8th January will also be held in New Hall.

Follow-on

It is anticipated t the workshop may generate interest in some follow-on activities. We will discuss the sort of follow-one activities that can be arranged, such as visits to NIEeS to demonstrate some of the escience/grid technologies and to provide help with installation and usage.

Registration

There is no registration charge. Accommodation in College and meals for UK academic participants will be provided with no charge. Registration is essential and must be done using our on-line form.

Contact and further information

For information about registration, and all other types of queries, please contact the NIEeS office in the first instance.