On the formulation and analysis of general deterministic structured population models. II. Nonlinear theory (Q1349021)

[For part I of this paper see ibid. 36, 349-388 (1998; Zbl 0909.92023).] The authors develop a methodology to derive models for the dynamics of physiologically structured populations. Their goal is to obtain models for population level dynamics from the characteristics and behavior of the individuals making up the population. From the abstract: ``The key idea is to build a nonlinear model in two steps, by explicitly introducing the environmental condition via the requirement that individuals are independent from one another (and hence the equations are linear) when this condition is prescribed as a function of time.'' The authors show how one can define future population state operators from reproduction, development/growth, and survival properties of individuals from a population structured by physiological characteristics. This linear model becomes nonlinear when feedback laws are prescribed that describe how environmental conditions temporally depend on population size and composition. Mathematically, they formulate the model as a fixed point problem, which they solve by means of the contraction principle.