Speaker
Description
Population growth is often mediated by density-dependent regulation, which can impact different life history traits, such as reproduction, development, or survival. The way and extent that density dependence alters these traits can substantially change population dynamics, which may have important consequences for control efforts. We develop an ordinary differential equations model including density dependence in various life history traits – reproduction of juvenile mosquitoes, development of juveniles to adults, and mortality of adult mosquitoes. We then examine how these various incorporations of density dependence affect the success of population reduction strategies mediated by the endosymbiont bacteria, Wolbachia. We use a combination of analysis and numerical simulations to show that when density dependence impacts the development of juvenile mosquitoes, Wolbachia-based control strategies may have the unintended effect of increasing population size. In contrast, when density dependence only impacts mortality or reproduction, Wolbachia-based control behaves as expected, reducing the mosquito population. Our results demonstrate that understanding how and to what extent density dependence alters various mosquito life history traits is crucial to unraveling the impacts of control efforts.
