Roger Cropp, Griffith University

Thursday 31 May, 12:00-1:00,
IMAS seminar room, Sandy Bay

Abstract:
We consider the usual equations of population dynamics and turn these into a model ecology with a key limiting nutrient whose mass is conserved. We introduce a natural resource exploitation rule that the population per capita growth rates must satisfy. The resource may be inorganic nutrient or nutrient bound in other organisms.

A question of compelling interest in contemporary ecological modelling is whether species go extinct or remain extant in simulations of climate change and resource extraction. Classical ecological theory focuses on any interior equilibrium point and its local stability.  We propose instead to consider equilibrium points on the boundary of the ecological state space, whose local stability is often more readily computable.

Biography:
Roger Cropp is a lecturer and Director of the Atmospheric Environment Research Centre at Griffith University. His research interests lie in the role of plankton ecosystems in climate, in particular the response of plankton ecosystems to inputs of iron
deposited in aeolian dust, the production of dimethylsulphide by plankton, and the uptake of persistent organic pollutants into marine ecosystems. Modelling these processes requires the establishment of a rigorous framework that ensures ecological veracity and facilitates mathematical tractability.