Simple models for complex systems: exploiting the relationship between local and global densities.

ABSTRACT: Simple temporal models that ignore the spatial nature of interactions and track only changes in mean quantities, such as global densities, are typically used under the unrealistic assumption that individuals are well mixed. These so-called mean-field models are often considered overly simplified, given the ample evidence for distributed interactions and spatial heterogeneity over broad ranges of scales. Here, we present one reason why such simple population models may work even when mass-action assumptions do not hold: spatial structure is present but it relates to global densities in a special way. With an individual-based predator-prey model that is spatial and stochastic, and whose mean-field counterpart is the classic Lotka-Volterra model, we show that the global densities and densitie

SUBMITTER: Pascual M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4270435 | biostudies-literature | 2011

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature