New Frontiers in Understanding Predator-Prey Interactions in a Human-Altered World

Predator-prey interactions shape the behavior, ecology and evolution of virtually every animal on the planet, including humans, and play out in an increasingly human-altered world. Prey now often encounter novel predators, and vice versa, and both co-evolved and novel predator-prey interactions occur in environments altered in areas such as climate, habitat, or chemical background. This modified landscape also affects humans, whose increased disconnection from the natural world is reflected in a decreased appreciation of the role that predator-prey interactions play in both nature and human psychology. Understanding these interactions in a human-altered world is thus critically important, and research into this area increasingly integrates across multiple levels of study, from genes to physiology, neurobiology, and behavior to ecology, evolution and psychology. New tools are being brought into play, including both those associated with the "-omics revolution", and the use of modern tracking and sensor technologies to follow free-ranging animals in nature. Finally, studying predator-prey interactions has been central to the development of an exciting, overarching concept that involves the integration of contemporary evolution and ecology; how current evolution of key traits of predators and prey in response to environmental change affects ecological dynamics and vice versa.

The second Gordon Research Conference on Predator-Prey Interactions seeks to facilitate the coalescence of parallel research paths by bringing together leading investigators from diverse fields to collaborate in exploring the unique insights to be gained from an interdisciplinary focus on predator-prey interactions in a human-altered world.

The Conference will bring together an international group of researchers at different career stages who are all at the forefront of their diverse fields, and will provide junior scientists and graduate students the opportunity to meet and discuss their work with leading scientists. To complement the session presentations and help ensure active participation, all attendees are strongly encouraged to contribute a poster. Bringing together a diverse group of researchers in the collegial atmosphere of this Conference, with organized discussions, extensive opportunities for informal gatherings, and inclusive poster sessions, is designed to yield new synergies and interdisciplinary collaborations.