Open AccessTarget the Source: Optimal Spatiotemporal Resource Allocation for Invasive Species Control
Author(s) -
Baker Christopher M.
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
conservation letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.153
H-Index - 79
ISSN - 1755-263X
DOI - 10.1111/conl.12236
Subject(s) - invasive species , computer science , resource allocation , control (management) , resource (disambiguation) , range (aeronautics) , resource management (computing) , optimal control , population , ecology , environmental resource management , environmental science , mathematical optimization , biology , artificial intelligence , engineering , mathematics , distributed computing , computer network , demography , sociology , aerospace engineering
Determining how to cost‐effectively allocate resources for managing invasive species is a notoriously difficult problem. Invasive species control problems are always spatiotemporal, but much of the current theory about control strategies is either spatial or temporal. This article uses a deterministic spatiotemporal model of invasive species dynamics and identifies the optimal management strategy across a range of situations. The optimal solution points a principle of targeting the source of the population, which in many cases is the region of the landscape where the invader is most abundant. The analysis presented here is the first capable of solving for optimal strategies for invasive species over large and irregular environments. Thus, it is an important step forward for both the understanding of control strategies and the application to management scenarios.