Host-virus-predator coexistence in a grey-box model with dynamic optimization of host fitness.

ABSTRACT: Lytic viruses are believed to affect both flow patterns and host diversity in microbial food webs. Models resolving host and virus communities into subgroups can represent both aspects. However, when flow pattern is the prime interest, such models may seem unnecessary complex. This has led to proposals of black-box models using only total community sizes as state variables. This simplification creates a coexistence problem, however, since predator and virus communities then compete for the same, shared, prey = host community. Mathematically, this problem can be solved by introducing feedbacks allowing community-level properties to adapt. The different mathematical alternatives for such feedback represent different ecological assumptions and thus different hypotheses for how the balance bet

SUBMITTER: Thingstad TF 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6864060 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature