22nd Annual Student Research Conference
The Maternal Effect in Population Dynamics
Alexander M. Nord
Dr. Peter Rolnick (Retired), Faculty Mentor
The Maternal effect in inertial population dynamics theorizes that not only does the health of the mother affect her rate of reproduction but also the health and reproduction of the daughters. The Maternal effect model and traditional models of population dynamics are fitted to data taken from multiple populations of Paramecium aurelia tracked throughout various environmental impacts. The Maternal effect model also predicts that there are no periods between two and six generations long in population oscillations. This is checked by determining the period of many other oscillating species data in the literature. The effectiveness of standard models of population dynamics and the maternal effect model when fitted to the population curves of the Paramecium aurelia are compared, and the periods of pre-existing data from various oscillating populations are checked for the gap in periods, in order to determine the validity and effectiveness of the maternal effect model.
Keywords: Maternal Effect, Population Dynamics, Mathematical Modeling, Data Fitting
Topic(s):Biology
Mathematical Biology
Mathematics
Presentation Type: Oral Paper
Session: 45-4
Location: VH 1328
Time: 2:00