Research

Adaptive behaviour and population dynamics
Understanding the effects of adaptive behaviour in simple and complex food webs is important in the search for mechanisms that maintain ecosystem structure and biodiversity in general. Our research focuses on mathematical modelling of the interplay of adaptive animal behaviour and population dynamics. Behavioural aspects such as changes of prey behaviour under predation risk, adaptive habitat selection, and optimal foraging, including trade-offs in host-parasitoid interactions, have been shown to strongly affect dynamics, stability, and persistence of populations. Through evolutionary game theory and theory of differential equations and inclusions, we define and search for evolutionarily stable strategies and study consequences of such adaptive behaviour on population dynamics. Also, theoretically derived behavioural strategies serve us as null hypotheses for adequate optimal foraging and habitat selection experiments.

Dynamics of structured populations
Thi constitutes the second major area of our research, supported mainly by extensive numerical simulations. We deal with population-dynamic and evolutionary consequences of sex-, size- and space-structured populations. Our research covers a range of topics including dispersal-driven metapopulation dynamics, impacts of mating strategies on population survival, and evolution of life history strategies or traits in size-structured and two-sex populations. The results cover a range of model organisms, with ramifications for conservation strategies, biocontrol programmes, and management of exploited resources.

Complex biological networks
Such networks emerge in ecology, evolution as well as biomedicine. Understanding their structure, functioning and regulation is a key issue of contemporary biology. We are currently developing new mathematical models of such networks, integrating various levels of complexity that have previously been studied in separation. Using large-scale computer simulations and bifurcation analyses of multi-species networks, we hope to disentangle major patterns that drive their dynamics. We focus mainly on the impact of smaller building blocks and individual interactions on the plausibility of various network configurations and resilience of these networks against invasion and extinction events.