Tag Archives: topic:dynamical systems

Spatial parasitoid community dynamics

Biological Sciences: Martha Hoopes (Mount Holyoke College)
Math and Statistics: Janice Gifford (Mount Holyoke College)
Math and Statistics: Ji Young Kim (Mount Holyoke College)

There is a long history of examining host-parasitoid dynamics in ecology and particularly of looking for factors that help to stabilize the dynamics of these interactions. The consideration of spatial dynamics and additional species interactions has suggested several ways in which dispersal, aggregation, and competition or hyperparasitism can contribute to stabilization. Theory has significantly outstripped empirical studies in this area, but confronting the theory with data leads to very complicated analyses. We have a 28 generation data set exploring the dynamics of a specialist galling midge and a community of parasitoids and hyperparasitoids in a factorial experimental design. We crossed two plant community sizes with caged and uncaged treatments (as well as a cage control) in five blocks across two sites. Even the simplest parametrical statistical analysis of this dataset is somewhat complex because it forces confrontation with response variables that indicate stability (outbreak number and type, cycling) but also because the data are field data and are unavoidably messy and nested. These difficulties in analysis present rich opportunities for student challenges. More complex analyses offer insight into ways to combine statistics with dynamic population and community models. Students work on dissecting galls and identifying larvae, data management, statistical analysis, and modeling. Differential equations in dynamical systems, time-series analysis, and multivariate non-parametric statistical analyses that are robust against contamination are some of the mathematical techniques necessary for this project.