There has been an increasing interest in incorporating explicit spatial structure into ecological models. This research will investigate the effect of spatial structure on the dynamics of populations at the edges and borders of their ranges. The investigators will develop analytic and numerical approaches using methods from theoretical physics. They will study the spatial patterns that develop at different types of population margins, and how these patterns change when margins are either expanding or retreating. They will investigate how the range of a population in one dimension (as along a stream or a coastline) might differ from that of a two-dimensional population in an identical environmental gradient. The investigators will also study the effect of biotic factors, e.g. pathogens, on marginal populations, and whether margins can act as host refugia.
The goal of this project is to increase general understanding of the dynamics of population margins, as well as to stimulate and direct the detailed study of such margins. In the past decade, the spatial analysis of populations has been greatly facilitated by rapid technical advances in mapping, remote sensing, and computation. A strong theoretical basis for the spatial structure of population margins is an essential guide for the interpretation of such data.
