On the net reproduction rate of continuous structured populations with distributed states at birth

Abstract

We consider a nonlinear structured population model with a distributed recruitment term. The question of the existence of non-trivial steady states can be treated (at least!) in three different ways. One approach is to study spectral properties of a parametrized family of unbounded operators. The alternative approach, on which we focus here, is based on the reformulation of the problem as an integral equation. In this context we introduce a density dependent net reproduction rate and discuss its relationship to a biologically meaningful quantity. Finally, we briefly discuss a third approach, which is based on the finite rank approximation of the recruitment operator.