Trade-off between Allee remediation and disease transmission for adaptive survival: A mathematical model on...

Breeding success and mate acquisition are major drivers of ecological balance. The mate-finding Allee effect (henceforth, MFA) is a serious threat to the persistence of low-density species in different taxa. Several species have already gone extinct due to the Allee effect, and many more are still affected. Now, the matter of concern is whether the remedial measure of the Allee effect will improve the species' survival portfolio. Unfortunately, limited articles address the MFA, but the remedial concept as a key model parameter has been ignored in the existing studies. When disease is present, improving mating efficiency increases transmission risk unintentionally. In existing literature, Allee remedial refers to ecological, behavioural, or management interventions. It mitigates the negative impacts of the Allee effect and improves the persistence of Allee-exposed species. Here, we define a new mathematical framework in the presence and absence of disease for Allee-exposed species. We rebuild the functional form of the Allee effect, which captures the remediation at low densities. The proposed model integrates a three-compartmental SIR model, focusing on the hypothesis of Allee remediation and how Allee remediation interacts with Allee-exposed species. Our observation reveals that Allee remediation can be a trade-off for species survival for Allee-exposed species in the presence of disease. We also find that not only Allee remediation but also crowding plays an important role in species survival. We believe this work gives in-depth knowledge about the Allee effect and its remediation, which can help ecologists and eco-epidemiologists to make decisions about their intervention strategy.