Parameter Estimation Techniques for Interaction and Redistribution Models of Species Interactions: A Predator-Prey Example

摘要

The use of parameter estimation techniques for partial differential equations is illustrated using a predator-prey model. These techniques will be general useful for any interaction and redistribution model in ecology, and can even be used to treat spatially and/or temporally varying diffusion and directed movement. When applied to field data from a ladybird beetle (Coccinella septempunctata) and aphid (Uroleucon nigrotuberculatum) interaction, parameter estimation algorithms can be employed to identify models that explain better than 80% of the observed variance in aphid and ladybird densities. Parameter estimation is an approach that can bridge the gap between detail-rich experimental studies and abstract mathematical models. By relating the particular best-fit models identified from our experimental data to other information on Coccinella behavior, it is concluded that a term describing local taxis of ladybirds towards prey (aphids in this case) is needed in the model.