Comparison of Two Approximation Methods in the Estimation of Growth Rate Distributions in Size-Structured Mosquitofish Populations

In an effort to protect the environment, biologists are using mosquitofish in the place of chemicals to control mosquito populations in rice fields. While they have used mosquitofish in the place of pesticides for some time, they have not completely understood the control of the growth of mosquitofish populations. Biologists would like to be able to predict the growth and decline of the mosquitofish populations in order to determine the optimal amount of mosquitofish to use for control purposes. We will present the Sinko-Streifer population model modified as in the Growth Rate Distribution model of Banks-Botsford-Kappel-Wang. We will also present and compare the results of a delta function approximation method and a spline based approximation method used in the inverse problem for estimation of distributions of growth rates in size-structured mosquitofish populations.