Comment on Increased mortality is predicted of Inachis io larvae caused by Bt-maize pollen in European farmland, Ecological Modelling, 2013

TL;DR

This paper critically examines a mathematical model estimating increased mortality of Inachis io larvae due to Bt-maize pollen, providing an exact solution that challenges previous assumptions about long-term behavior.

Contribution

It offers an exact solution to the differential equation modeling pollen loss, revealing different asymptotic behavior than previously claimed.

Findings

Exact solution to the pollen loss differential equation.

Revised understanding of long-term pollen loss behavior.

Challenges previous model assumptions.

Abstract

In this comment, we analyze the mathematical model by Holst et al that estimates the increased mortality of Inachis io larvae caused by Bt-maize pollen in European farmaland. In particular, we focus our attention on the part of Holst et al's work that models the Bt-maize pollen loss on plant leaves by a differential equation. We provide the exact solution of the differential equation, showing that the behaviour of the solution, when the time goes to infinity, is different from what claimed in Holst et al's work.