Bulletin of Mathematical Biology

, Volume 66, Issue 3, pp 583–594 | Cite as

Seasonally limited host supply generates microparasite population cycles

  • Christopher J. Dugaw
  • Alan Hastings
  • Evan L. Preisser
  • Donald R. Strong
Article
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Abstract

Cycles in biological populations have been shown to arise from enemy-victim systems, delayed density dependence, andmaternal effects. In an initial effort to model the year-to-year dynamics of natural populations of entomopathogenic nematodes and their insect hosts, we find that a simple, nonlinear, mechanistic model produces large amplitude, period two population cycles. The cycles are generated by seasonal dynamics within semi-isolated populations independently of inter-annual feedback in host population numbers, which differs from previously studied mechanisms. The microparasites compete for a fixed number of host insect larvae. Many nematodes at the beginning of the year quickly eliminate the pool of small hosts, and few nematodes are produced for the subsequent year. Conversely, initially small nematode populations do not over-exploit the host population, so the surviving hosts grow to be large and produce many nematodes that survive to the following year.

Keywords

Nematode Population Population Cycle Entomopathogenic Nematode Host Size Infective Juvenile 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Copyright information

© Society for Mathematical Biology 2004

Authors and Affiliations

  • Christopher J. Dugaw
    • 1
  • Alan Hastings
    • 2
  • Evan L. Preisser
    • 3
  • Donald R. Strong
    • 4
  1. 1.Department of MathematicsUniversity of California DavisDavisUSA
  2. 2.Department of Environmental Science and PolicyUniversity of California DavisDavisUSA
  3. 3.Graduate Group in Population BiologyUniversity of California DavisDavisUSA
  4. 4.Department of Evolution and Ecology and The Bodega Marine LaboratoryUniversity of California DavisDavisUSA

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