JOINT MATHEMATICS COLLOQUIUMUNIVERSITY OF IDAHOWASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITY |
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Abstract |
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| The ongoing naturalization of frost/shade
tolerant Asian bamboos in North America may cause adverse environmental
consequences involving introduced bamboos, native rodents and
ultimately humans. A specific concern is that the eventual
masting by an abundant bamboo within Pacific Northwest coniferous
forests could produce a temporary glut of food capable of driving a
population irruption of a common native seed predator, the deer mouse
(Peromyscus maniculatus), a hantavirus carrier. To address this
concern, we conducted feeding trials for deer mice with bamboo and
native seeds. Adult deer mice consumed bamboo seeds as readily as
they consumed native seeds, and females produced a median litter of 4
pups on a bamboo diet. We used our empirical results to
parameterize a modified Rosenzweig-MacArthur consumer-resource
mathematical model to project the population-level response of deer
mice to a hypothetical pulsed supply of bamboo seeds. The
qualitative dynamics of the model, a system of nonlinear ordinary
differential equations, predicts rodent population irruptions and
declines similar to reported cycles involving Asian and South American
rodents but unprecedented in North American deer mice. This is
joint work with Melissa Smith and Richard Mack.
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