Spatial Dynamics of Ecosystem Engineers: a coupled map approach

• Grant number: 15/21452-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: March 01, 2016
• End date: February 28, 2018
• Field of knowledge: Physical Sciences and Mathematics - Physics
• Principal Investigator: José Fernando Fontanari
• Grantee: Caroline Franco
• Host Institution: Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Ecosystem engineers are organisms that purposefully modify their environment or habitat aiming at increasing their survival and reproduction. Beavers, earthworms and humans are examples of this category. The key element in the population dynamics of ecosystem engineers is that the number of habitats, which can exist in three distinct forms or states - virgin, usable and degraded, is a dynamical quantity that influences and is influenced by the population of ecosystem engineers in a given moment. In this research project we will introduce a space dependence on the model proposed by Gurney & Lawton (1996), which will allow the engineers to move between the different regions that compose their environment. This can be achieved by re-writing the original, continuous time model as a coupled map where both time and space are discrete variables. The goal is to investigate the properties and stability of the space-dependent solutions of the coupled map recursion equations, with emphasis to the effect of the engineers' dispersion parameter.

Scientific publications

(References retrieved automatically from Web of Science and SciELO through information on FAPESP grants and their corresponding numbers as mentioned in the publications by the authors)

FRANCO, CAROLINE; FONTANARI, JOSE F.. The spatial dynamics of ecosystem engineers. MATHEMATICAL BIOSCIENCES, v. 292, p. 76-85, OCT 2017. (15/21689-2, 15/21452-2)

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

FRANCO, Caroline. The spatial dynamics of ecosystem engineers. 2018. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Instituto de Física de São Carlos (IFSC/BT) São Carlos.