arXiv subjects

Hélène Leman

Publications and source records attributed to Hélène Leman.

7 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2025

Continuous limits of large plant-pollinator random networks and some applications

We study a stochastic individual-based model of interacting plant and pollinator species through a bipartite graph: each species is a node of the graph, an edge representing interactions between a pair of species. The dynamics of the system depends on the between- and within-species interactions: pollination by insects increases plant reproduction rate but has a cost which can increase plant death rate, depending on the densities of pollinators. Pollinators reproduction is increased by the resources harvested on plants. Each species is characterized by a trait corresponding to its degree of generalism. This trait determines the structure of the interaction graph and the quantities of resources exchanged between species. Our model includes in particular nested or modular networks. Deterministic approximations of the stochastic measure-valued process by systems of ordinary differential equations or integro-differential equations are established and studied, when the population is large or when the graph is dense and can be replaced with a graphon. The long-time behaviors of these limits are studied and central limit theorems are established to quantify the difference between the discrete stochastic individual-based model and the deterministic approximations. Finally, studying the continuous limits of the interaction network and the resulting PDEs, we show that nested plant-pollinator communities are expected to collapse towards a coexistence between a single pair of species of plants and pollinators.

math.PR↗

arXiv2025

Evolution of a trait distributed over a large fragmented population: Propagation of chaos meets adaptive dynamics

We consider a metapopulation made up of $K$ demes, each containing $N$ individuals bearing a heritable quantitative trait. Demes are connected by migration and undergo independent Moran processes with mutation and selection based on trait values. Mutation and migration rates are tuned so that each deme receives a migrant or a mutant in the same slow timescale and is thus essentially monomorphic at all times for the trait (adaptive dynamics). In the timescale of mutation/migration, the metapopulation can then be seen as a giant spatial Moran model with size $K$ that we characterize. As $K\to \infty$ and physical space becomes continuous, the empirical distribution of the trait (over the physical and trait spaces) evolves deterministically according to an integro-differential evolution equation. In this limit, the trait of every migrant is drawn from this global distribution, so that conditional on its initial state, traits from finitely many demes evolve independently (propagation of chaos). Under mean-field dispersal, the value $X_t$ of the trait at time $t$ and at any given location has a law denoted $μ_t$ and a jump kernel with two terms: a mutation-fixation term and a migration-fixation term involving $μ_{t-}$ (McKean-Vlasov equation). In the limit where mutations have small effects and migration is further slowed down accordingly, we obtain the convergence of $X$, in the new migration timescale, to the solution of a stochastic differential equation which can be referred to as a new canonical equation of adaptive dynamics. This equation includes an advection term representing selection, a diffusive term due to genetic drift, and a jump term, representing the effect of migration, to a state distributed according to its own law.

math.PR↗

arXiv2023

Site frequency spectrum of a rescued population under rare resistant mutations

The aim of this article is to study the impact of resistance acquisition on the distribution of neutral mutations in a cell population under therapeutic pressure. The cell population is modeled by a bi-type branching process. Initially, the cells all carry type 0, associated with a negative growth rate. Mutations towards type $1$ are assumed to be rare and random, and lead to the survival of cells under treatment, i.e. type $1$ is associated with a positive growth rate, and thus models the acquisition of a resistance. Cells also carry neutral mutations, acquired at birth and accumulated by inheritance, that do not affect their type. We describe the expectation of the "Site Frequency Spectrum" (SFS), which is an index of neutral mutation distribution in a population, under the asymptotic of rare events of resistance acquisition and of large initial population. Precisely, we give asymptotically-equivalent expressions of the expected number of neutral mutations shared by both a small and a large number of cells. To identify the influence of relatives on the SFS, our work also lead us to study in detail subcritical binary Galton-Watson trees, where each leaf is marked with a small probability. As a by-product of this study, we thus provide the law of the generation of a randomly chosen leaf in such a Galton-Watson tree conditioned on the number of marks.

math.PR↗

arXiv2019

Extinction and coming down from infinity of CB-processes with competition in a Lévy environment

In this note, we are interested on the event of extinction and the property of coming down from infinity of continuous state branching (or CB for short) processes with competition in a Lévy environment whose branching mechanism satisfies the so-called Grey's condition. In particular, we deduce, under the assumption that the Lévy environment does not drift towards infinity, that for any starting point the process becomes extinct in finite time a.s. Moreover if we impose an integrability condition on the competition mechanism, then the process comes down from infinity regardless the long term behaviour of the environment.

math.PR↗

arXiv2019

Extinction time of logistic branching processes in a Brownian environment

In this paper, we study the extinction time of logistic branching processes which are perturbed by an independent random environment driven by a Brownian motion. Our arguments use a Lamperti-type representation which is interesting on its own right and provides a one to one correspondence between the latter family of processes and the family of Feller diffusions which are perturbed by an independent spectrally positive Lévy process. When the independent random perturbation (of the Feller diffusion) is driven by a subordinator then the logistic branching processes in a Brownian environment converges to a specified distribution; otherwise, it becomes extinct a.s. In the latter scenario, and following a similar approach to Lambert (Lambert, Ann. Appl. Probab., 2005), we provide the expectation and the Laplace transform of the absorption time, as a functional of the solution to a Ricatti differential equation. In particular, the latter characterises the law of the process coming down from infinity.

math.PR↗

arXiv2017

A stochastic model for speciation by mating preferences

Mechanisms leading to speciation are a major focus in evolutionary biology. In this paper, we present and study a stochastic model of population where individuals, with type a or A, are equivalent from ecological, demographical and spatial points of view, and differ only by their mating preference: two individuals with the same genotype have a higher probability to mate and produce a viable offspring. The population is subdivided in several patches and individuals may migrate between them. We show that mating preferences by themselves, even if they are very small, are enough to entail reproductive isolation between patches, and we provide the time needed for this isolation to occur as a function of the population size. Our results rely on a fine study of the stochastic process and of its deterministic limit in large population, which is given by a system of coupled nonlinear differential equations. Besides, we propose several generalisations of our model, and prove that our findings are robust for those generalisations.

q-bio.PE↗

arXiv2014

Influence of a spatial structure on the long time behavior of a competitive Lotka-Volterra type system

To describe population dynamics, it is crucial to take into account jointly evolution mechanisms and spatial motion. However, the models which include these both aspects, are not still well-understood. Can we extend the existing results on type structured populations, to models of populations structured by type and space, considering diffusion and nonlocal competition between individuals? We study a nonlocal competitive Lotka-Volterra type system, describing a spatially structured population which can be either monomorphic or dimorphic. Considering spatial diffusion, intrinsic death and birth rates, together with death rates due to intraspecific and interspecific competition between the individuals, leading to some integral terms, we analyze the long time behavior of the solutions. We first prove existence of steady states and next determine the long time limits, depending on the competition rates and the principal eigenvalues of some operators, corresponding somehow to the strength of traits. Numerical computations illustrate that the introduction of a new mutant population can lead to the long time evolution of the spatial niche.

math.AP↗