Contatto di riferimento: Ezio Venturino
Partecipanti: Prof. Ezio Venturino: Dipartimento di Matematica “Giuseppe Peano” Universit`a di Torino
Abstract: In this presentation we will review some recently tackled research issues to illustrate the role of mathematics in understanding various ecological situations. The investigations of applied nature have been carried out in strict contact with biologists, veterinarians and ecologists. Some possible topics that can be reviewed, that have a relevant economic impact, are outlined below: biological control of pests in fruit orchards using spiders; management of public parks; containment of a hog disease in the farms of the Cuneo province; mathematical models for Caprine Arthritis Encephalitis
Virus disease (CAEV) affecting goats. More theoretical lines of investigation are represented by the modelisation of herd behavior and ecoepidemics. Herd behavior and pack hunting models have applications to alien species invasion in Italy such as European and mountain hares competition, grey squirrel replacement of the native red squirrel. Ecoepidemics is the branch of mathematical biology that merges population theory and epidemiology, that date back to the twenties of the past century. Only in the early 1990’s epidemic models with demographics for the human population began to be investigated, allowing to consider also the effect of diseases on population systems. Intermingling populations in which also a transmissible disease is present are studied by ecoepidemic models. This analysis gives means to control the spreading of the contagious disease, or alternatively provides biological ways to eradicate a pest by artificially introducing a disease in it. However, because the dynamics of interacting populations is heavily influenced by the disease, the ultimate consequences of these operations at times could be far from the naive expectations. Models provide the administrators with correct guidelines for the effective applications of control policies.