Merging adaptive behavior and population dynamics

• Vlastimil Krivan

Abstract
Experimental work clearly shows that changes in population numbers influence animal behavior. What is much less clear is, whether animal behavior, in turn, influences population dynamics. If yes, then we get a feedback loop between population dynamics and animal behavior that must be reflected in models of population ecology. If not then we can use the classical, density mediated models of population ecology. I want to study theoretically interplay between direct and indirect interactions in simple food web modules where individuals of one or more population(s) behave adaptively. In particular, I want to focus on a simple bacterial system described by a bacterial population growing on two or more carbon sources.