Nicholson-Bailey model
Encyclopedia
The Nicholson–Bailey model was developed in the 1930s to describe the population dynamics of a coupled host-parasite (or predator-prey) system. It is named after Alexander John Nicholson
and Victor Albert Bailey
.
The model uses difference equations to describe the population growth of host-parasite populations. The model assumes that parasites search for hosts at random, and that both parasites and hosts are assumed to be distributed in a non-contiguous ("clumped") fashion in the environment.
In its original form, the model does not allow for stable host-parasite interactions. To add stability, the model has been extensively modified to add new elements of host and parasite biology. The model is closely related to the Lotka–Volterra model, which uses differential equations to describe stable host-parasite dynamics.
Alexander John Nicholson
Alexander John Nicholson was an Irish Australian entomologist who specialised in insect population dynamics. He was Chief of the CSIR / CSIRO Division of Economic Entomology for 24 years and is credited with initiating the professional era in Australian entomology...
and Victor Albert Bailey
Victor Albert Bailey
Victor Albert Bailey, 18 December 1895, Alexandria, Egypt - 7 December 1964, Geneva, Switzerland was a British-Australian physicist. He was the eldest of four surviving children of William Henry Bailey, a British Army engineer, and his wife Suzana, née Lazarus, an expatriate Romanian linguist.He...
.
The model uses difference equations to describe the population growth of host-parasite populations. The model assumes that parasites search for hosts at random, and that both parasites and hosts are assumed to be distributed in a non-contiguous ("clumped") fashion in the environment.
In its original form, the model does not allow for stable host-parasite interactions. To add stability, the model has been extensively modified to add new elements of host and parasite biology. The model is closely related to the Lotka–Volterra model, which uses differential equations to describe stable host-parasite dynamics.
See also
- Lotka–Volterra inter-specific competition equations
- Population dynamicsPopulation dynamicsPopulation dynamics is the branch of life sciences that studies short-term and long-term changes in the size and age composition of populations, and the biological and environmental processes influencing those changes...