Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics for FY2000

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This action funds an NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellowship in Biological Informatics for fiscal year 2000.The research and training plan is in the area of ecology and is entitled, " A Web-Based Combinatorial Approach to the Effects of Biodiversity Loss on Complex Ecological Networks." Ecological research into biodiversity loss is limited by what experiments can actually be conducted and by the underlying theory which is complex, making it difficult to separate the many interacting processes. This project applies global optimization techniques and network analyses to high quality food-web data to simulate effects of small to large biodiversity losses on complex communities. Systematic deletion of combinations of species in empirical and model food-webs are being used to generate theory that distinguishes effects of reducing species richness from effects of eliminating particular species' functions on ecosystems.