A Statistical Social Network Model for Consumption Data in Food Webs

We adapt existing statistical modeling techniques for social networks to study consumption data observed in trophic food webs. These data describe the feeding volume (non-negative) among organisms grouped into nodes, called trophic species, that form the food web. Model complexity arises due to the extensive amount of zeros in the data, as each node in the web is predator/prey to only a small number of other trophic species. Many of the zeros are regarded as structural (non-random) in the context of feeding behavior. The presence of basal prey and top predator nodes (those who never consume and those who are never consumed, with probability 1) creates additional complexity to the statistical modeling. We develop a special statistical social network model to account for such network features. The model is applied to two empirical food webs; focus is on the web for which the population size of seals is of concern to various commercial fisheries.Comment: On 2013-09-05, a revised version entitled "A Statistical Social Network Model for Consumption Data in Trophic Food Webs" was accepted for publication in the upcoming Special Issue "Statistical Methods for Ecology" in the journal Statistical Methodolog

Depleting the signal: Analysis of chemotaxis-consumption models -- A survey

We give an overview of analytical results concerned with chemotaxis systems where the signal is absorbed. We recall results on existence and properties of solutions for the prototypical chemotaxis-consumption model and various variants and review more recent findings on its ability to support the emergence of spatial structures

Depleting the signal: Analysis of chemotaxis-consumption models—A survey

We give an overview of analytical results concerned with chemotaxis systems where the signal is absorbed. We recall results on existence and properties of solutions for the prototypical chemotaxis-consumption model and various variants and review more recent findings on its ability to support the emergence of spatial structures

EFFECT OF HARVESTING QUOTA AND PROTECTION ZONE IN A REACTION-DIFFUSION MODEL ARISING FROM FISHERY MANAGEMENT

A reaction-diffusion logistic population model with spatially nonhomogeneous harvesting is considered. It is shown that when the intrinsic growth rate is larger than the principal eigenvalue of the protection zone, then the population is always sustainable; while in the opposite case, there exists a maximum allowable catch to avoid the population extinction. The existence of steady state solutions is also studied for both cases. The existence of an optimal harvesting pattern is also shown, and theoretical results are complemented by some numerical simulations for one-dimensional domains

Existence and uniqueness of positive large solutions to some cooperative elliptic systems

In this work we consider positive solutions to cooperative elliptic systems of the form −∆u = λu−u2 +buv, −∆v = µv −v2 +cuv in a bounded smooth domain Ω ⊂ RN (λ, µ ∈ R, b, c > 0) which blow up on the boundary ∂Ω, that is u(x), v(x) → +∞ as dist(x, ∂Ω) → 0. We show existence and nonexistence of solutions, and give sufficient conditions for uniqueness. We also provide an exact estimate of the behaviour of the solutions near the boundary in terms of dist(x, ∂Ω).Ministerio de Ciencia y Tecnologí

Pattern Formation in a Bacterial Colony Model

We investigate the spatiotemporal dynamics of a bacterial colony model. Based on the stability analysis, we derive the conditions for Hopf and Turing bifurcations. Furthermore, we present novel numerical evidence of time evolution of patterns controlled by parameters in the model and find that the model dynamics exhibit a diffusion controlled formation growth to spots, holes and stripes pattern replication, which show that the bacterial colony model is useful in revealing the spatial predation dynamics in the real world

Characterising food web responses to climate change using a combination of traditional and molecular tools

Freshwater ecosystems are considered hot spots for biodiversity and provide a wide range of ecosystem services for human beings. A variety of natural and anthropogenic stressors are now threatening the stability and prosperity of these ecosystems. In particular, climate change and pollution are the main stressors impacting all freshwater ecosystems on Earth. In this mix of multiple stressors, climate change is already having profound impacts, and is predicted to result in large-scale population collapses, species range shifts, and local species extinctions, as well as altered ecosystem properties. Scientists have spent considerable efforts in recent years investigating how these perturbations might impact food web structures and dynamics to predict potential future scenarios, but much of this work has been hindered by the slow pace of data generation using traditional techniques. Thus, there is a need to adopt and develop new approaches that can answer questions and generate data at a much higher pace. Molecular tools can address this issue by generating millions of DNA sequences in a short period of time with the potential to build food webs in a very reliable way. Therefore, a detailed understanding of food webs and their interactions is critical to predict what effects climate change will have in the near future, and we need to find faster and cheaper ways of building the necessary evidence base. This will ultimately improve our ability to forecast how communities and ecosystems will respond to global change and anticipate which species (and systems) are more likely to deteriorate under these new conditions. In this thesis, I have used a combination of traditional and molecular tools to characterize the diet of a widely distributed generalist predator. DNA sequencing revealed a higher number of links compared to traditional microscopy, but protocols need to be refined to accurately quantify each link. In addition to this, I carried out two sets of laboratory experiments to quantify warming impacts on freshwater invertebrate interactions. Functional response experiments showed increased feeding rates with warming, while qPCR was not able to detect changes in DNA retention time in predator gut contents.Open Acces