Oct 08, 2020

Zhisheng Shuai

University of Central Florida, Department of Mathematics

3:00 pm in Zoom (Meeting ID: 917 7737 6704)

Network average and network heterogeneity: A perspective from spatial ecology and epidemiology

A new index for network heterogeneity is introduced to characterize the coupled population dynamics in a heterogeneous environment, while the network average represents their spatial aggregation under biased or unbiased movement. Applications to ecological and epidemiological models reveal that network heterogeneity tends to favor the persistence threshold values such as population growth rates and basic reproduction numbers, thus promoting population persistence. A specific application of theoretical results to highway networks in California and Florida provides a new perspective to COVID-19 severity in these two states.