Working Group

Mathematical models, microbes & evolutionary diversification

PI(s): Samantha Forde (University of California-Santa Cruz)
Ivana Gudelj (University of Bath)
Start Date: 1-Sep-2007
End Date: 31-Aug-2009
Keywords: biodiversity, mathematical modeling, experimental evolution, evolutionary theory

As a part of its 125th anniversary, Science published a special issue containing 125 questions facing the scientific community over the coming decades. Motivation for the proposed working group is based on one of these highlighted problems: What determines species diversity? The working group will bring together mathematicians and life scientists to enhance our understanding of this major question in evolutionary biology.

Species diversity can be generated by external factors, such as interactions between organisms, or by internal factors, such as variation in metabolic pathways or complexity within the cell. The proposed working group will use an interdisciplinary approach to studying internally- and externally-generated diversity with the goal of understanding some of the mechanisms that underlie diversification. Our working group emerges from a recent international workshop entitled Mathematical Models and Experimental Microbial Systems: Tools for Studying Evolution at the University of Bath, which brought together experts in mathematics, theoretical evolutionary ecology and microbial experimental evolution. A number of exciting problems have been identified by a core group of scientists from the workshop and thus there is great momentum currently in place to establish a set of new models that will lead to a significant progress towards a general understanding of evolutionary diversification.

Related products

PublicationsPresentations
  • Forde and Gudelj will be running a symposium entitled 'Mathmatical models and microbes as tools for understanding diversity' at the annual meeting of the Ecological Society of America in Aug 2009. Six of the participants in the working group will be presenting research during the symposium, some of which has come out of collaborations established through the NESCent working group.