Spatial features of population dynamics arising from mutual interaction of different age groups in rodents

TL;DR

This paper models how seasonal environmental changes and asymmetric interactions between adult and subadult mice influence the spread of hantavirus, revealing complex population dynamics.

Contribution

It introduces a novel model incorporating age-specific interactions and seasonal effects to study virus transmission in rodent populations.

Findings

Asymmetric interactions cause subadults to be driven away from habitats.

Seasonal variations significantly impact infection dynamics.

The model predicts complex oscillatory behaviors in population and infection levels.

Abstract

We study the dynamics of the transmission of the hanta virus infection among mouse populations, taking into account, simultaneously, seasonal variations of the environment and interactions within two classes in the mouse population: adults and subadults. The interactions considered are not symmetric between the two age-organized classes and are responsible for driving the younger members away from home ranges. We consider the case of a bounded habitat affected by seasonal variations.