Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 9, 2026

Protocol for Assessing the Relative Effects of Environment and Genetics on Antler and Body Growth for a Long-lived Cervid
Published on: August 8, 2017
Periodically varying externally imposed environmental effects on population dynamics
M Ballard1, V M Kenkre, M N Kuperman
1Consortium of the Americas for Interdisciplinary Science and Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA.
Abstract:
Effects of externally imposed periodic changes in the environment on population dynamics are studied with the help of a simple model. The environmental changes are represented by the temporal and spatial dependence of the competition terms in a standard equation of evolution. Possible applications of the analysis are on the one hand to bacteria in Petri dishes and on the other to rodents in the context of the spread of the Hantavirus epidemic. The analysis shows that spatiotemporal structures emerge, with interesting features which depend on the interplay of separately controllable aspects of the externally imposed environmental changes.
Related Concept Videos
Population Growth
Mutation, Gene Flow, and Genetic Drift
Ecological Disturbance
Genetic Drift
Causes of Social Behavior III: Biological and Environmental Influences
Modeling with Differential Equations

