Resilience and interaction of networks in ecology and economics (RESINEE)

We will explore the structure and robustness of networks under different types of threat and degrees of decision making power for nodes in the network. These issues will be addressed in the context of specific problems in economics and ecology, making our proposal relevant to the design and control of complex systems in real-world contexts. The main questions we intend to answer are: How does the performance of networks behave under different threats? What management protocols can be employed to enhance this performance? What are the structural features which make a network resilient (robust) given certain patterns of attack or perturbation? Within economics, we will focus on characterizing efficient network design in the face of attacks, understanding decentralized protection strategies, and studying the robustness-contagion balance in financial networks. In ecology, we will design an integrated model of arid ecosystem collapse and we will work on targeted strategies in restoration ecology. The complex systems perspective, and the tools from physics and mathematics (specifically, co-evolutionary models of interacting agents) can be used to identify the similarities and differences among economic and ecological networks and the features contributing to overall stability and resilience. We will address these issues with a multidisciplinary team involving physicists, mathematicians, ecologists and economists, whose integration will shed light on wider questions going from the structure of natural networks to the design of man-made structures, and on the design principles can be inferred from them.