Dynamical Systems And Population Persistence

Providing a self-contained treatment of persistence theory that is accessible to graduate students, this monograph includes chapters on infinite-dimensional examples including an SI epidemic model with variable infectivity, microbial growth in a tubular bioreactor, and an age-structured model of cells growing in a chemostat.

Population dynamics is an important subject in mathematical biology. A cen tral problem is to study the long-term behavior of modeling systems. Most of these systems are governed by various evolutionary equations such as difference, ordinary, functional, and partial differential equations (see, e. g. , [165, 142, 218, 119, 55]). As we know, interactive populations often live in a fluctuating environment. For example, physical environmental conditions such as temperature and humidity and the availability of food, water, and other resources usually vary in time with seasonal or daily variations. Therefore, more realistic models should be nonautonomous systems. In particular, if the data in a model are periodic functions of time with commensurate period, a periodic system arises; if these periodic functions have different (minimal) periods, we get an almost periodic system. The existing reference books, from the dynamical systems point of view, mainly focus on autonomous biological systems. The book of Hess [106J is an excellent reference for periodic parabolic boundary value problems with applications to population dynamics. Since the publication of this book there have been extensive investigations on periodic, asymptotically periodic, almost periodic, and even general nonautonomous biological systems, which in turn have motivated further development of the theory of dynamical systems. In order to explain the dynamical systems approach to periodic population problems, let us consider, as an illustration, two species periodic competitive systems dUI dt = !I(t,Ul,U2), (0.

This book comprises selected papers of the 25th International Conference on Difference Equations and Applications, ICDEA 2019, held at UCL, London, UK, in June 2019. The volume details the latest research on difference equations and discrete dynamical systems, and their application to areas such as biology, economics, and the social sciences. Some chapters have a tutorial style and cover the history and more recent developments for a particular topic, such as chaos, bifurcation theory, monotone dynamics, and global stability. Other chapters cover the latest personal research contributions of the author(s) in their particular area of expertise and range from the more technical articles on abstract systems to those that discuss the application of difference equations to real-world problems. The book is of interest to both Ph.D. students and researchers alike who wish to keep abreast of the latest developments in difference equations and discrete dynamical systems.

This research monograph provides an introduction to the theory of nonautonomous semiflows with applications to population dynamics. It develops dynamical system approaches to various evolutionary equations such as difference, ordinary, functional, and partial differential equations, and pays more attention to periodic and almost periodic phenomena. The presentation includes persistence theory, monotone dynamics, periodic and almost periodic semiflows, basic reproduction ratios, traveling waves, and global analysis of prototypical population models in ecology and epidemiology. Research mathematicians working with nonlinear dynamics, particularly those interested in applications to biology, will find this book useful. It may also be used as a textbook or as supplementary reading for a graduate special topics course on the theory and applications of dynamical systems. Dr. Xiao-Qiang Zhao is a University Research Professor at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. His main research interests involve applied dynamical systems, nonlinear differential equations, and mathematical biology. He is the author of more than 100 papers, and his research has played an important role in the development of the theory and applications of monotone dynamical systems, periodic and almost periodic semiflows, uniform persistence, and basic reproduction ratios.

This book is the first one in which basic demographic models are rigorously formulated by using modern age-structured population dynamics, extended to study real-world population problems. Age structure is a crucial factor in understanding population phenomena, and the essential ideas in demography and epidemiology cannot be understood without mathematical formulation; therefore, this book gives readers a robust mathematical introduction to human population studies. In the first part of the volume, classical demographic models such as the stable population model and its linear extensions, density-dependent nonlinear models, and pair-formation models are formulated by the McKendrick partial differential equation and are analyzed from a dynamical system point of view. In the second part, mathematical models for infectious diseases spreading at the population level are examined by using nonlinear differential equations and a renewal equation. Since an epidemic can be seen as a nonlinear renewal process of an infected population, this book will provide a natural unification point of view for demography and epidemiology. The well-known epidemic threshold principle is formulated by the basic reproduction number, which is also a most important key index in demography. The author develops a universal theory of the basic reproduction number in heterogeneous environments. By introducing the host age structure, epidemic models are developed into more realistic demographic formulations, which are essentially needed to attack urgent epidemiological control problems in the real world.

This book offers an introduction to the use of matrix theory and linear algebra in modeling the dynamics of biological populations. Matrix algebra has been used in population biology since the 1940s and continues to play a major role in theoretical and applied dynamics for populations structured by age, body size or weight, disease states, physiological and behavioral characteristics, life cycle stages, or any of many other possible classification schemes. With a focus on matrix models, the book requires only first courses in multivariable calculus and matrix theory or linear algebra as prerequisites. The reader will learn the basics of modeling methodology (i.e., how to set up a matrix model from biological underpinnings) and the fundamentals of the analysis of discrete time dynamical systems (equilibria, stability, bifurcations, etc.). A recurrent theme in all chapters concerns the problem of extinction versus survival of a population. In addition to numerous examples that illustrate these fundamentals, several applications appear at the end of each chapter that illustrate the full cycle of model setup, mathematical analysis, and interpretation. The author has used the material over many decades in a variety of teaching and mentoring settings, including special topics courses and seminars in mathematical modeling, mathematical biology, and dynamical systems.

In recent years, there has been a tremendous amount of research activity in the general area of population dynamics, particularly the Lotka-Volterra system, which has been a rich source of mathematical ideas from both theoretical and application points of view. In spite of the technological advances, many authors seem to be unaware of the bulk of the work that has been done in this area recently. This often leads to duplication of work and frustration to the authors as well as to the editors of various journals. This book is built out of lecture notes and consists of three chapters written by four mathematicians with overlapping expertise that cover a broad sector of the research in this area. Each chapter consists of carefully written introductory exposition, main breakthroughs, open questions and bibliographies. The chapters present recent developments on topics involving the dynamic behavior of solutions and topics such as stability theory, permanence, persistence, extinction, existence of positive solutions for the Lotka-Volterra and related systems. This fills a void in the literature, by making available a source book of relevant information on the theory, methods and applications of an important area of research.

This book is an introduction to mathematical biology for students with no experience in biology, but who have some mathematical background. The work is focused on population dynamics and ecology, following a tradition that goes back to Lotka and Volterra, and includes a part devoted to the spread of infectious diseases, a field where mathematical modeling is extremely popular. These themes are used as the area where to understand different types of mathematical modeling and the possible meaning of qualitative agreement of modeling with data. The book also includes a collections of problems designed to approach more advanced questions. This material has been used in the courses at the University of Trento, directed at students in their fourth year of studies in Mathematics. It can also be used as a reference as it provides up-to-date developments in several areas.