Research Priorities

• Population networks - how can we account for local patch dynamics, spatial structure and migration patterns?

Researchers

• Chief Investigator: Phil Pollett
• Research Fellow: Ross McVinish
• PhD student : Jessica Chan
• PhD student : Dejan Jovanovic
• PhD student : Aminath Shausan
• PhD student : Andrew Smith

Selected Research Projects

• Stochastic Models for Population Networks

  Project leader: Phil Pollett (UQ)
  Researchers: Jessica Chan (UQ), Ross McVinish (UQ), Aminath Shausan (UQ) and Andrew Smith (UQ)

  We are studying populations that occupy several geographically separated habitat patches. Although the individual patches may become extinct locally, they may be recolonized through migration from other patches. We are developing models that account for the persistence of these populations and which provide an effective means of studying their long-term behaviour. We have given particular attention to populations for which extinction and colonization happens in distinct phases, often at different stages in the organism's life cycle. Deterministic and distributional approximation methods have been developed. We have also constructed models for spatially structured populations, exploiting recent developments in stochastic network theory; by recording the numbers of individuals in the various patches, we are able to incorporate local patch dynamics, spatial structure and migration patterns.

  Research outputs

  • ² McVinish, R. and P.K. Pollett (2012) The limiting behaviour of a mainland-island metapopulation. Journal of Mathematical Biology 64, 775-801.
  • ² McVinish, R. and P.K. Pollett (2012) A central limit theorem for a discrete-time SIS model with individual variation. Journal of Applied Probability 49, 521-530.
  • ² McVinish, R. and P.K. Pollett (2013) Interaction between habitat quality and an Allee-like effect in metapopulations. Ecological Modelling 249, 84-89.
  • ² McVinish, R. and P.K. Pollett (2013) The limiting behaviour of a stochastic patch occupancy model. Journal of Mathematical Biology (In-press, accepted 15/07/2012).
  • ¹ McVinish, R. and P.K. Pollett (2013) The deterministic limit of a stochastic logistic model with individual variation. Mathematical Biosciences 241, 109-114.
  • Additionally, this work was presented at the Workshop on Stochastic Networks (University of Auckland, Auckland, 12-13 April 2012).

  ¹ To be reported in connection with ARC Discovery Grant DP120102398 "Random Network Models with Applications in Biology".
  ² To be reported in connection with ARC Discovery Grant DP110101929 "New Methods for Improving Active Adaptive Management in Biological Systems".

Awards and Achievements

• PhD student Jessica Chan was awarded a University of Queensland Advantage Top-Up Scholarship (February 2012)
• PhD student Jessica Chan was awarded The University Medal (April 2012)
• PhD student Jessica Chan was a Faculty of Science finalist in the Three Minute Thesis Competition (August 2012)
• PhD student Jessica Chan received a UQ School of Mathematics and Physics Outstanding Tutor Award (October 2012)
• PhD student Aminath Shausan was awarded a prize for the best student talk at the 2012 QANZIAM Conference (October 2012)