Evolution of parasites - Colegiul National Emil Racovita (Cluj - Roumanie)

This article studies how the populations P of a certain type of parasite and H of their hosts evolve in continuous or discrete time. Parasites deposit eggs on their hosts and, when the eggs hatch, the host dies. At each stage (unit of time), the number of eggs deposited depends on the probability that a parasite and a host will meet. It is assumed that this probability is proportional to the product H×P of the populations. So, in the case of discrete time, the dynamics is given by a system of recurrence equations, allowing us to calculate approximate solutions. In continuous time, this corresponds to a non-linear system of differential equations, and it is shown that the trajectory is determined explicitly by an equation linking P and H, depending on the initial data.

In our article, we present two approaches to solving our problem: an experimental approach and an analytical approach.