Publikationsrepositorium - Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf

Theoretical models in ecology often assume well-mixed populations and thus that individuals interact with one another with the same probability regardless of their spatial location. This strong assumption results in mathematically very tractable models, often based on ordinary differential equations for the population size, that have taught us a lot about how populations change over time. However, these models do not account for the fact that populations are spatially structured, which favors interactions between nearby individuals.
In this presentation, I will present some of our recent work investigating the effect of space in shaping population dynamics. First, I will discuss how stochastic spatial models, from lattice models to systems of interacting particles, can provide more accurate descriptions of ecological populations and how to analyze them computationally and analytically. Then, I will use a specific example based on an asymmetric voter model to show how modeling spatial processes can reverse the outcome of species competition predicted by a well-mixed model.