Interest in the temporal fluctuations of biological populations can be traced to the dawn of civilization. How can mathematics be used to gain an understanding of population dynamics? This monograph introduces the theory of structured population dynamics and its applications, focusing on the asymptotic dynamics of deterministic models. This theory bridges the gap between the characteristics of individual organisms in a population and the dynamics of the total population as a whole. In this monograph, many applications that illustrate both the theory and a wide variety of biological issues are given, along with an interdisciplinary case study that illustrates the connection of models with the data and the experimental documentation of model predictions. The author also discusses the use of discrete and continuous models and presents a general modeling theory for structured population dynamics. Cushing begins with an obvious point: individuals in biological populations differ with regard to their physical and behavioral characteristics and therefore in the way they interact with their environment. Studying this point effectively requires the use of structured models. Specific examples cited throughout support the valuable use of structured models. Included among these are important applications chosen to illustrate both the mathematical theories and biological problems that have received attention in recent literature.

This book provides an introduction to age-structured population modeling which emphasizes the connection between mathematical theory and underlying biological assumptions. Through the rigorous development of the linear theory and the nonlinear theory alongside numerics, the authors explore classical equations that describe the dynamics of certain ecological systems. Modeling aspects are discussed to show how relevant problems in the fields of demography, ecology and epidemiology can be formulated and treated within the theory. In particular, the book presents extensions of age-structured modeling to the spread of diseases and epidemics while also addressing the issue of regularity of solutions, the asymptotic behavior of solutions, and numerical approximation. With sections on transmission models, non-autonomous models and global dynamics, this book fills a gap in the literature on theoretical population dynamics. The Basic Approach to Age-Structured Population Dynamics will appeal to graduate students and researchers in mathematical biology, epidemiology and demography who are interested in the systematic presentation of relevant models and mathematical methods.

This book is the first one in which basic demographic models are rigorously formulated by using modern age-structured population dynamics, extended to study real-world population problems. Age structure is a crucial factor in understanding population phenomena, and the essential ideas in demography and epidemiology cannot be understood without mathematical formulation; therefore, this book gives readers a robust mathematical introduction to human population studies. In the first part of the volume, classical demographic models such as the stable population model and its linear extensions, density-dependent nonlinear models, and pair-formation models are formulated by the McKendrick partial differential equation and are analyzed from a dynamical system point of view. In the second part, mathematical models for infectious diseases spreading at the population level are examined by using nonlinear differential equations and a renewal equation. Since an epidemic can be seen as a nonlinear renewal process of an infected population, this book will provide a natural unification point of view for demography and epidemiology. The well-known epidemic threshold principle is formulated by the basic reproduction number, which is also a most important key index in demography. The author develops a universal theory of the basic reproduction number in heterogeneous environments. By introducing the host age structure, epidemic models are developed into more realistic demographic formulations, which are essentially needed to attack urgent epidemiological control problems in the real world.

Providing many examples of how models can be implemented and interpreted, this book describes the biology of the life cycle and follows the transitions of individuals through stages in the life cycle. The focus is on models as tools.

At last both ecology and evolution are covered in this study on the dynamics of size-structured populations. How does natural selection shape growth patterns and life cycles of individuals, and hence the size-structure of populations? This book will stimulate biologists to look into some important and interesting biological problems from a new angle of approach, concerning: - life history evolution, - intraspecific competition and niche theory, - structure and dynamics of ecological communities.