Title: Spatial population dynamics with adaptation to a heterogeneous environment
Speaker: Judith Miller (Georgetown University)
Abtract: We model the joint evolution of a population density and the mean, and sometimes variance, of a quantitative trait (that is, a continuous random variable such as flowering time in plants) subject to selection toward an optimum value that varies in space. To do so, we study a family of deterministic models originating from the Kirkpatrick-Barton (1997) reaction-diffusion system. We use analysis and numerics to identify conditions under which the models predict range pinning due to an influx of locally maladapted individuals from the center of a species' range to its borders (“genetic swamping”) versus invasions represented as travelling waves. We highlight issues of solution existence, as well as differences between the predictions of the Kirkpatrick-Barton model and those of related models incorporating features, such as non-Gaussian dispersal kernels and patchy habitat, that are often represented in nongenetic invasion models.
Seminar URL: https://research.math.osu.edu/pde/
