Stability and bifurcation in a two harmful phytoplankton–zooplankton system

In this paper, a mathematical model consisting of two harmful phytoplankton and zooplankton with discrete time delays is considered. We prove that a sequence of Hopf bifurcations occur at the interior equilibrium as the delay increases. Meanwhile, the phenomenon of stability switches is found under certain conditions. The direction of the Hopf bifurcations and the stability of the bifurcating periodic solutions are determined by using the theory of normal form and center manifold. Numerical simulations are given to support the theoretical results.     

Harvesting of a phytoplankton–zooplankton model

Considering that some phytoplankton and zooplankton are harvested for food, a phytoplankton–zooplankton model with harvesting is proposed and investigated. First, stability conditions of equilibria and existence conditions of a Hopf-bifurcation are established. Our results indicate that over exploitation would result in the extinction of the population and an appropriate harvesting strategy should ensure the sustainability of the population which is in line with reality. Furthermore, the existence of bionomic equilibria and the optimal harvesting policy are discussed. The present value of revenues is maximized by using Pontryagin’s maximum principle subject to the state equations and the control constraints. We discussed the case of optimal equilibrium solution. It is found that the shadow prices remain constant over time in optimal equilibrium when they satisfy the transversality condition. It is established that the zero discounting leads to the maximization of economic revenue and that an infinite discount rate leads to complete dissipation of economic rent. Finally, some numerical simulations are given to illustrate our results.     

Hopf bifurcation and bistability of a nutrient–phytoplankton–zooplankton model

In this paper we consider a nutrient–phytoplankton–zooplankton model in aquatic environment and study its global dynamics. The existence and stability of equilibria are analyzed. It is shown that the system is permanent as long as the coexisting equilibrium exists. The discontinuous Hopf and classical Hopf bifurcations of the model are analytically verified. It is shown that phytoplankton bloom may occur even if the input rate of nutrient is low. Numerical simulations reveal the existence of saddle-node bifurcation of nonhyperbolic periodic orbit and subcritical discontinuous Hopf bifurcation, which presents a bistable phenomenon (a stable equilibrium and a stable limit cycle).     

The dynamics of a zooplankton–fish system in aquatic habitats

Diel vertical migration is a common movement pattern of zooplankton in marine and freshwater habitats. In this paper, we use a temporally periodic reaction–diffusion–advection system to describe the dynamics of zooplankton and fish in aquatic habitats. Zooplankton live in both the surface water and the deep water, while fish only live in the surface water. Zooplankton undertake diel vertical migration to avoid predation by fish during the day and to consume sufficient food in the surface water during the night. We establish the persistence theory for both species as well as the existence of a time-periodic positive solution to investigate how zooplankton manage to maintain a balance with their predators via vertical migration. Numerical simulations discover the effects of migration strategy, advection rates, domain boundary conditions, as well as spatially varying growth rates, on persistence of the system.     

Hopf-transcritical bifurcation in toxic phytoplankton–zooplankton model with delay

In this paper, a phytoplankton–zooplankton model with toxic liberation delay is considered. Firstly, the critical values of Hopf bifurcation, transcritical bifurcation and Hopf-transcritical bifurcation are given, and to give more detailed information about the periodic oscillations, the direction and stability of Hopf bifurcation is studied by using the normal-form theory and center manifold theorem. Then, we give the detailed bifurcation set by calculating the universal unfoldings near the Hopf-transcritical bifurcation point. Finally, we show that the plankton system may exhibit quasi-periodic oscillations, which are verified both theoretically and numerically, and explain the experimental observed fluctuation phenomenon of plankton population.     

Novel dynamics of a predator–prey system with harvesting of the predator guided by its population

A predator–prey model was extended to include nonlinear harvesting of the predator guided by its population, such that harvesting is only implemented if the predator population exceeds an economic threshold. The proposed model is a nonsmooth dynamic system with switches between the original predator-prey model (free subsystem) and a model with nonlinear harvesting (harvesting subsystem). We initially examine the dynamics of both the free and the harvesting subsystems, and then we investigate the dynamics of the switching system using theories of nonsmooth systems. Theoretical results showed that the harvesting subsystem undergoes multiple bifurcations, including saddle-node, supercritical Hopf, Bogdanov–Takens and homoclinic bifurcations. The switching system not only retains all of the complex dynamics of the harvesting system but also exhibits much richer dynamics such as a sliding equilibrium, sliding cycle, boundary node (saddle point) bifurcation, boundary saddle-node bifurcation and buckling bifurcation. Both theoretical and numerical results showed that, by implementing predator population guided harvesting, the predator and prey population could coexist in more scenarios than those in which the predator may go extinct for the continuous harvesting regime. They could either stabilize at an equilibrium or oscillate periodically depending on the value of the economic threshold and the initial value of the system.     

Patterns in the predator–prey system with network connection and harvesting policy

A diffusive predator–prey system with the network connection and harvesting policy is investigated in the present paper. The global existence and boundedness of the positive solutions to the parabolic equations are analyzed. Hereafter, a priori estimates and non-existence of the non-constant steady states are investigated for the corresponding elliptic equation. Next, we focus on the network connect model. The stability of the positive equilibrium, the Hopf bifurcation, and the Turing instability of networked system are explored. By using the multiple time scale (MTS), the direction of the Hopf bifurcation is determined. It is found that the networked system may admit a supercritical or subcritical Hopf bifurcation. For the Turing instability, the positive equilibrium will change its stability from an unstable state to a stable one with the change of the connecting probability. That is not the case in the model without network structure. Theoretical results also show that the model can create rich dynamical behaviors and numerical simulations well verify the validity of the theoretical analysis.     

Discrete traveling waves in a relay system of Mackey–Glass equations with two delays

Theoretical and Mathematical Physics - We propose a model of a ring circuit of $$m$$ generators that is a relay analog of a circuit of Mackey–Glass generators. In this model, each of the...     

Long-term coexistence for a competitive system of spatially varying gradient reaction–diffusion equations

Spatial distribution of interacting chemical or biological species is usually described by a system of reaction–diffusion equations. In this work we consider a system of two reaction–diffusion equations with spatially varying diffusion coefficients which are different for different species and with forcing terms which are the gradient of a spatially varying potential. Such a system describes two competing biological species. We are interested in the possibility of long-term coexistence of the species in a bounded domain. Such long-term coexistence may be associated either with a periodic in time solution (usually associated with a Hopf bifurcation), or with time-independent solutions. We prove that no periodic solution exists for the system. We also consider some steady states (the time-independent solutions) and examine their stability and bifurcations.     

Four positive periodic solutions to a Lotka–Volterra cooperative system with harvesting terms

In this paper, we establish the existence of four positive periodic solutions for a Lotka–Volterra cooperative system with harvesting terms by using the continuation theorem of coincidence degree.     

Four positive periodic solutions to a periodic Lotka–Volterra predatory–prey system with harvesting terms

By using Mawhin’s continuation theorem of coincidence degree theory, we establish the existence of four positive periodic solutions for two species periodic Lotka–Volterra predatory–prey system with harvesting terms. An example is given to illustrate the effectiveness of our results.     

Optimal control of harvesting coupled with boundary control in a predator—prey system

We consider boundary control and control via harvesting in a parabolic predator—prey system for a bounded region. The boundary control depicts the relationship between the boundary environment and the possibly harmful species. In addition, a proportion of the predator is harvested for profit. We choose to maximize the objective functional which incorporates the amount of the prey and the revenue of harvesting of the predator less the economic cost of sustaining a satisfactory boundary habitat and the cost due to the harvesting component. Moreover, we characterize the unique optimal control in terms of the solution to the optimality system, which is the state system coupled with the adjoint system.     

Competitive exclusion in a nonlocal reaction–diffusion–advection model of phytoplankton populations

We continue our study on the global dynamics of a nonlocal reaction–diffusion–advection system modeling the population dynamics of two competing phytoplankton species in a eutrophic environment, where both populations depend solely on light for their metabolism. In our previous work, we proved that system (1.1) is a strongly monotone dynamical system with respect to a non-standard cone related to the cumulative distribution functions, and further determined the global dynamics when the species have either identical diffusion rate or identical advection rate. In this paper, we study the trade-off of diffusion and advection and their joint influence on the outcome of competition. Two critical curves for the local stability of two semi-trivial equilibria are analyzed, and some new competitive exclusion results are obtained. Our main tools, besides the theory of monotone dynamical system, include some new monotonicity results for the principal eigenvalues of elliptic operators in one-dimensional domains.     

Turing pattern formation in a predator–prey–mutualist system

In this paper, we develop a theoretical framework about spatial patterns in a three-species predator–prey–mutualist system with cross-diffusion. We concentrate on three aspects of Turing pattern formation: (1) what conditions enable the occurrence of Turing patterns? (2) what are the underlying mechanisms? (3) what are the corresponding configurations? For the first two questions, by use of the stability analysis for the positive uniform solution and the Leray–Schauder degree theory, we prove that under some conditions, the system admits at least a nonhomogeneous stationary solution. For the third question, we carry out numerical simulations for a Turing pattern, and we show that the configurations of Turing pattern are stable spotted patterns, which resemble a real ecosystem.     

Coinvasion–coexistence travelling wave solutions of an integro-difference competition system

This paper is concerned with the travelling wave solutions of an integro-difference competition system, of which the purpose is to model the coinvasion–coexistence process of two competitors with age structure. The existence of non-trivial travelling wave solutions is obtained by constructing generalized upper and lower solutions. The asymptotic and non-existence of travelling wave solutions are proved by combining the theory of asymptotic spreading with the idea of contracting rectangle.