日本語 / English
In the Anthropocene era, where human activities have a non-negligible impact on ecosystems, biodiversity and ecosystem conservation have become one of the most important issues in achieving sustainable human development. In this context, ecology, aiming to understand the structure, dynamics and function of ecosystems, should play an increasingly important role for human well-beings. However, we also know that answering to these expectations to the satisfactory level is no easy task, as ecosystems are large, dynamic and complex systems wirh plenty of context dependence in it and often hard to be captured with traditional approach that assumes low-dimensional or linear systems .
In these times, there is a new embryo in ecology. This is ecology using large scale, high resolution data. The development of new ecological monitoring technologies, such as environmental DNA, remote sensing, and acoustic observation, is making it possible to obtain large-scale, high-resolution ecological data that have been difficult to obtain in the past. Rapid developments in machine learning and other modeling methods, combined with advances in information technology that facilitate efficient data sharing, aggregation and use, are enabling us to capture complex relationships and patterns in ecosystems at a much larger scale and in greater detail. In the future, we can see the potential for rapid development of applications such as ecosystem forecast and control as one of the major fields of ecology.
This conference will be held under the theme of "Ecology in the Age of Big Data and Open Data" as a Joint Meeting of the 36th Society of Population Ecology and the 3rd eDNA Society. The epidemic of the new coronavirus has led to a rethinking of the meaning of human connections and their new forms. The primary goal of this first online conference for both societies is to fulfill more than ever the desired function of the conference, which is "to be a catalyst of intellectual exchange and collaborations". What will ecology, which seeks to understand the temporal and spatial distribution and evolution of biological populations, produce when it encounters eDNA technology that provides large-scale, detailed biodiversity information? What kind of future will be created when people from various fields such as science, government, industry, and education interact with each other across sectoral boundaries? If the convergence of diverse perspectives, values, approaches, and goals leads to the emergence of new perspectives, it will not only mark the success of the conference, but also the realization of the conference's theme, "Ecology in the Age of Big Data and Open Data".
We look forward to seeing you at the conference. We will support you to make the conference an exciting and unforgettable experience.
31 July, 2020
Dr. KONDOH Michio
Chairman, Organizing Committee