title: Modelling and parameter inference of predator-prey dynamics in heterogeneous environments using the direct integral approach.
abstract: Most bacterial habitats are topographically complex in the micro scale. Important examples include the gastrointestinal and tracheal tracts, and the soil. Although there are myriad theoretical studies that explore the role of spatial structures on antagonistic interactions (predation, competition) among animals, there are many fewer experimental studies that have explored, validated and quantified their predictions. In this study, we experimentally monitored the temporal dynamic of the predatory bacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus, and its prey, the bacterium Burkholderia stabilis in a structured habitat consisting of sand under various regimes of wetness. We constructed a dynamic model, and estimated its parameters by further developing the direct integral method, a novel estimation procedure that exploits the separability of the states and parameters in the model. We also verified that one of our parameter estimates was consistent with its known, directly measured value from the literature. The ability of the model to fit the data combined with realistic parameter estimates indicate that bacterial predation in the sand can be described by a relatively simple model, and stress the importance of prey refuge on predation dynamics in heterogeneous environments.
authors.affiliation: Department of Statistics, University of Haifa, 199 Abba Khoushy Avenue, Mount Carmel, Haifa 3498838, Israel idattner@stat.haifa.ac.il.
authors.forename: Itai
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-5316-8964
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Dattner
authors.affiliation: Bio-statistical Unit, The Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer 52621, Israel.
authors.forename: Ezer
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Miller
authors.affiliation: Department of Agroecology and Plant Health, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Margarita
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Petrenko
authors.affiliation: Department of Oral Biology, Rutgers School of Dental Medicine, Newark, NJ, USA.
authors.forename: Daniel E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Kadouri
authors.affiliation: Department of Agroecology and Plant Health, The Robert H. Smith Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem, Israel.
authors.forename: Edouard
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Jurkevitch
authors.affiliation: Bio-statistical Unit, The Gertner Institute for Epidemiology and Health Policy Research, Chaim Sheba Medical Center, Tel Hashomer 52621, Israel.|Department of Epidemiology and Preventive Medicine at the School of Public Health, the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel-Aviv University, Israel.
authors.forename: Amit
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Huppert
mesh_terms: D000070060:Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus / Q000502:physiology*; D019117:Burkholderia / Q000502:physiology*; D020387:Food Chain; D008954:Models, Biological
keywords: estimation; heterogeneous environments; optimization; predator–prey model