Mathematical Biology Seminar: Vlastimil Krivan

Abstract

In my talk I will review some crucial steps, based on mathematical reasoning, that laid foundations of today's theoretical ecology. I will start with the Lotka-Volterra predator-prey model and will review some subsequent research. I will focus on research by F. G. Gause, a Russian biologist, who made some crucial extensions of the Lotka-Volterra model. In particular, I will discuss his idea about using differential equations with discontinuities, a concept that was developed  later on by A.F. Filippov. I will show, how such models arise naturally in ecology, and how they can be used to unify two major ecological fields: evolutionary and population ecology.