Math in the Natural Sciences

Math and the Environment

What are the Lotka-Volterra Interspecific Competition Logistic Equations?

The Lotka-Volterra Interspecific Competition Logistic Equations are concerned with the predator-prey relationships between species in the environment, and are based on differential equations (for more on differential equations, see “Mathematical Analysis”). Such predator-prey theories were developed independently by then-Austrian (now Ukrainian) chemist, demographer, ecologist, and mathematician Alfred James Lotka (1880–1949) and Italian mathematician Vito Volterra (1860–1940) in 1925. They refer to interspecific competition, or the competition between two or more species for some limiting resource, such as food, nutrients, space, mates, nesting sites, or anything in which the demand is greater than the supply.



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