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Cary Conference 2005
Schedule

Cary Conference 2005 will occupy three full days. All participants will be required to arrive the day before the start of the conference (Monday, May 2, 2005) and attend the entire conference. Proceedings will begin Tuesday morning (May 3) and run through Thursday evening (May 5). All conference sessions and meals (except the final banquet) will take place at the Institute of Ecosystem Studies in Millbrook, NY.

The conference program will include plenary presentations by invited speakers, small group discussions, poster presentations, and a keynote address. Each of the three days of our conference will follow a similar schedule, with six 20-minute talks in the morning followed by ten minutes for questions and answers after each talk. Talks will be followed by a catered lunch. Afternoons will begin with participants meeting in breakout groups on a range of relevant topics. Meetings of breakout groups will be followed by an hour and a half of free time. Evenings will begin with a poster session or keynote address, followed by dinner.

Day 1 – Effects of ecosystems on disease.
The first day will begin with three talks focusing on how and when disease dynamics could be impacted by diversity and species composition within communities of hosts, vectors, and pathogens. Particular attention will be paid to what components of diversity are critical in providing a functional effect on disease dynamics, and the relative effect of these different components (e.g., differences in host susceptibility vs. phenology/habitat). The second three talks in the morning session will consider how community, ecosystem, and landscape processes could influence disease dynamics, particularly through their effects on vector, host, and/or pathogen diversity and species composition.
    Conceptual model of talks for Day 1     Detailed schedule for Day 1

Day 2 – Effects of disease on ecosystems.
The second day will focus on the effects of diseases on communities, ecosystems, and landscapes, including potential feedbacks. The first three speakers will explore under what conditions disease can influence a suite of characteristics of ecological communities – diversity, species composition, and species interactions. These presentations will be followed by three talks that examine the circumstances in which pathogens could influence nutrient cycling, carbon sequestration and fluxes, and landscape structure or disturbance regimes. In particular, we will explore how well ecosystem dynamics can be understood simply by changes in host populations versus by considering the overall community context. This may depend on the process or ecosystem under consideration.
    Conceptual model of talks for Day 2     Detailed schedule for Day 2

Day 3 – Predicting and managing emerging infectious diseases with ecology.
On Day 3, we will turn our attention to determining whether our knowledge of the ecology of factors that determine disease emergence could allow us to predict and manage disease emergence. The first four speakers will consider how ecological factors, including climate change and land-use change, could influence disease emergence through their effects on changes to disease systems. These talks will be followed by two presentations addressing how emerging diseases of agriculture and of humans could be managed through an understanding of these causative ecological factors.
    Conceptual model of talks for Day 3     Detailed schedule for Day 3

On the afternoon of Day 3, there will be a panel discussion entitled, "Beyond the Fire Brigade: Using Ecological Approaches to Better Anticipate and Respond to Emerging Epidemics". The "fire brigade" metaphor (Enserink 2004) recognizes the pervasive situation in which health agencies (e.g., CDC, WHO) mobilize to quench the 'fires' of unanticipated outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases. The purpose of the panel is to ask medical and veterinary professionals to reflect on benefits and limitations of the ecological approach that will have dominated the preceding discussions.