A physicist walks into a biology department… – Robin Snyder

Date: Mon. November 14th, 2011, 12:30 pm-1:30 pm
Location: Rockefeller 221

I present two recent projects in theoretical ecology and point out the connections to math loved by physicists. The first concerns life in a variable environment: when should an organism buffer itself against environmental variation and when should it try to take advantage of environmental variation? The second concerns the viability of mussel populations in a marine reserve network when shifting ocean currents cause fluctuating dispersal between reserves.