Stochastic dynamics in ecology

Project facts

Project promoter:
Complutense University of Madrid
Project Number:
ES07-0058
Target groups
Researchers or scientists
Status:
Completed
Initial project cost:
€59,620
Final project cost:
€21,001
From EEA Grants:
€ 21,001
The project is carried out in:
Spain

More information

Description

The incorporation of fuzzy logic helps to reduce the complexity of the environmental impact assessment and make the selection of criteria and the weights less arbitrary. These results will help to have a more realistic description of microorganism and populations dynamics, which will help to improve carbon cycle models and also to provide a better management of harvesting and conservation. The project expected to achieve a complete and predictive trait based model, which gives the uptake rates in terms of the individual characteristics and makes predictions of the optimal individual characteristics. Society will benefit for the results of the project. The Project Promoter (Universitat Jaume I) will be able to address legal problems in the environmental impact assessment such as the different legislative approaches in the various countries involved in the supply chain. Donor Partner, (University of Oslo) is an expert in company law, sustainability issues, and interaction between law and social norms. Norwegian university of Science and Technology has a deep expertise in stochastic effects in ecology.

Summary of project results

The project aimed had two main aims and included different activities: 1) University Complutense of Madrid in cooperation with the University of Bergen group: Developing improved trait based models of microorganism (finding the optimal number of porters in relation with the values of other traits). This will help provide accurate predictions of the implications of changes in the environmental conditions. It included the following activities: a) Computation of the scaling of porter number with size of microorganism from experimental data. Derivation of the scaling relations from maximization principles: optimal number of porters and optimal size of microorganism as a function of the nutrient concentration.. Discussion of the results for scaling or porter number with size, and from the derivations of the scaling of porter number and size of microorganisms from maximization principles. Exploration of consequences and future developments. Discussion for the development of models of salmon parasite infection. Two papers have been prepared on the work performed. 2) University Complutense of madrid in cooperation with the Norwegian University of Science and Technology: Understanding the effects of environmental noise in spatial correlations of populations in two species models. This will help understand the effects of competition and harvesting and allow to improve the design of environmental conservation policies. Included activities such as: Talk by Prof. Tufto at UCM and discussion of stochastic and genetic population models. Assistance to training courses, implementation of computer simulation of stochastic population dynamics. Derivation of analytical results of effects of competition and harvesting in two species population model. Seminar and discussions on the aforementioned issue. Discussion of the results on two competing species model and redaction of manuscript.

Summary of bilateral results

Besides strengthening the cooperation already established among University Complutense of Madrid and University of Bergen within the previous NILS programme, the project has attempted to produce results that shall be published in international peer-reviewed journals. The project allowed the consolidation of the research cooperation of University Complutense of Madrid with the groups at University of Bergen and at Norwegian University of Science and Technology. This will be the basis for future international projects to be prepared and submitted to other funding schemes. The group at University of Bergen provided their expertise in ecology, and the one at the NTNU their expertise in ecology and stochastic population dynamics, while the group at University Complutense of Madrid contributed with their expertise in modelling of physical and biological systems, and in particular with stochastic processes model.