Date of Award
May 2020
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Mathematics
First Advisor
Daniel Gervini
Committee Members
David Spade, Gabriella Pinter
Keywords
least-squares, Lotka-Volterra, parameter estimation
Abstract
The population of two types of bacteria found in the Gulf Coast of Florida, V.chagasii and V. harveyi, can be described by the Lotka-Voltera competition model. Using data gathered in experiments conducted by Bury and Pickett (2015), we take a different approach to find parameter estimates using numerical methods in R. In particular, we find a numerical solution to the coupled set of ODEs and minimize the sum of squared errors in order to obtain the optimal parameter estimates that will fit the data best. In order to get a sense of accuracy of these parameter estimates, we use bootstrap estimation to compute the component wise standard deviations and construct confidence intervals for the estimates.
Recommended Citation
Harter, Jessica Ann, "Fitting of Lotka-Volterra Model for Coupled Population Growth Data Through Least-Squares Estimation of Parameters" (2020). Theses and Dissertations. 2380.
https://dc.uwm.edu/etd/2380