Meeting 2 (October 18, 2007)

Discussion facilitator -- Dr. Helen Wearing

Here is the link to the paper selected by Helen: Eskola and Parvinen 2007. On the mechanistic underpinning of discrete-time population models with Allee effect. Theoretical Population Biology 72: 41-51.
Hope to see you all there!

Post-meeting note: Thanks for people who showed up today! The authors improved an existing model to mechanistically incorporate Allee effects. As opposed to phenomenologically modeling Allee effects, mechanistic parameters have physical meanings and can be measured in the field. They concluded that some sort of mating is necessary to have an Allee effect in their models. Another interesting part of this paper was that the model is a hybrid of continuous and discrete equations (although this paper is not the first one). We had mixed opinions about this paper; the math was not so interesting, and the biology is too simplified?! But the paper was good in the sense that it motivated an interesting discussion!

Meeting 1 (September 27, 2007)

Discussion facilitator -- Etsuko Nonaka
Use of integrodifference equations in modeling spread of organisms; main paper Kot et al. 1996 Ecology (77(7): 2027-2042).
Supplemental readings:

1. Veit and Lewis. 1996. American Naturalist (148(2): 255-274). -- an example of the application of integrodifference equations to invasion of house finch in USA.
   
2. Clark. 1998. American Naturalist (152(2): 204-224). -- another example. Application to migration of trees after glaciation.
   
3. Holmes et al. 1996. Ecology (75(1): 17-29). -- This is not about integrodifference equations, but about partial differential equations in ecology. However, many theories of spatial spread in ecology were developed using PDEs. Integrodifference equations are more recent techniques.
   

Post-meeting notes: We had a good turnout. We discussed the Kot paper for an hour and all felt that the discussion was fruitful (I hope). We left Adam's interesting question about the ecological meaning of the higher order conservation law regarding equation 16 to another opportunity. Also, we were not able to figure out the meaning of Figures 7 and 9 in the paper. If you need things to think about while you are taking a shower or lining up for food, maybe you can think about these things!!!
I forgot to mention this: Clark (1998) simulated tree migration using a truncated kernel, and he observed accelerating spreading rates. Kot et al, in the Discussion, stated that truncated kernels will NOT generate accelerating rate. Discrepancy....

Welcome to the Mathematical Ecology Journal Club at UNM

Hello all. We will use this blog site for our better communication!! Thanks for Justin for suggesting this idea! Here we can post our meeting plans, selected readings, topics, questions, opinions, response to papers, etc. by anybody. I will sent you all the information you need to use this site via email.