Dynamical study of fractional order differential equations of predator‐pest models

To explore the impact of pest‐control strategy through a fractional derivative, we consider three predator‐prey systems by simple modification of Rosenzweig‐MacArthur model. First, we consider fractional‐order Rosenzweig‐MacArthur model. Allee threshold phenomena into pest population is considered for the second case. Finally, we consider additional food to the predator and harvesting in prey population. The main objective of the present investigation is to observe which model is most suitable for the pest control. To achieve this goal, we perform the local stability analysis of the equilibrium points and observe the basic dynamical properties of all the systems. We observe fractional‐order system has the ability to stabilize Rosenzweig‐MacArthur model with low pest density from oscillatory state. In the numerical simulations, we focus on the bistable regions of the second and third model, and we also observe the effect of the fractional order α throughout the stability region of the system. For the third model, we observe a saddle‐node bifurcation due to the additional food and Allee effect to the pest densities. Also, we numerically plot two parameter bifurcation diagram with respect to the harvesting parameter and fractional order of the system. We finally conclude that fractional‐order Rosenzweig‐MacArthur model and the modified Rosenzweig‐MacArthur model with additional food for the predator and harvested pest population are more suitable models for the pest management.     

Revisited Hastings and Powell model with omnivory and predator switching

The effect of omnivory in predator–prey system is debatable regarding its stabilizing or destabilizing characteristics. Earlier theoretical studies predict that omnivory is stabilizing or destabilizing depending on the condition of the system. The effect of omnivory in the food chain system is not yet properly understood. In the present paper, we study the effect of omnivory in a tri-trophic food chain system on the famous Hastings and Powell model. Omnivory enhances the chance of predator switching between prey and middle predator. The novelty of this paper is to study the effect of predator switching of the top predator which is omnivorous in nature. Our results suggest that in the absence of switching, an increase of omnivory stabilizes the system from chaotic dynamics, however, if we further increase the strength of omnivory, the system becomes unstable and middle predator goes to extinction. It is also observed that the predator switching enhance the stability and persistence of all populations.     

STABILITY ANALYSIS OF A TRITROPHIC FOOD CHAIN MODEL WITH AN ADAPTIVE PARAMETER FOR THE PREDATOR

Abstract The study of three‐species communities have become the focus of considerable attention, and because the studies of ecological communities start with their food web, we consider a tritrophic food chain model comprised of the prey, the predator, and the super‐predator. The classical assumption of the domino effect is supplemented with an adaptive parameter for the predator (in the absence of prey). Thus, the model exhibits an equilibrium with the predator‐top‐predator steady state, which is a saddle point. Dynamical behaviors such as boundedness, existence of periodic orbits, persistence, as well as stability are analyzed. The long‐term coexistence of the three interacting species is addressed, and the stability analysis of the model shows that the biologically most relevant equilibrium point is globally asymptotically stable whenever it satisfies a certain criterion. Practical implications are explored and related to real populations.     

Permanence for the Michaelis-Menten type discrete three-species ratio-dependent food chain model with delay

A discrete three trophic level food chain model with ratio-dependent Michaelis-Menten type functional response is investigated. It is shown that under some appropriate conditions the system is permanent. The results indicate that, to make the species coexist in the long run, it is a surefire strategy to keep the death rate of the predator and top predator rather small and the intrinsic growth rate of the prey relatively large.     

A ratio‐dependent eco‐epidemiological model of the Salton Sea

Ratio‐dependent models set up a challenging issue for their rich dynamics incomparison to prey‐dependent models. Little attention has been paid so far to describe the importance of transmissible disease in ecological situation by considering ratio‐dependent models. In this paper, by assuming the predator response function as ratio‐dependent, we consider a model of a system of three non‐linear differential equations describing the time evolution of susceptible and infected Tilapia fish population and their predator, the Pelican. Existence and stability analysis of different equilibria of the system lead to different realistic thresholds in terms of system parameters. The condition for extinction of the species is also worked out. Our analytical and numerical studies may be helpful to chalk out suitable control strategies for minimizing the extinction of the Pelicans. We also suggest that supply of alternative food source for predator population may be used as a possible solution to save the predator from their extinction. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effect of emergent carrying capacity in an eco‐epidemiological system

The paper explores an eco‐epidemiological model of a predator–prey type, where the prey population is subject to infection. The model is basically a combination of S‐I type model and a Rosenzweig–MacArthur predator–prey model. The novelty of this contribution is to consider different competition coefficients within the prey population, which leads to the emergent carrying capacity. We explicitly separate the competition between non‐infected and infected individuals. This emergent carrying capacity is markedly different to the explicit carrying capacities that have been considered in many eco‐epidemiological models. We observed that different intra‐class and inter‐class competition can facilitate the coexistence of susceptible prey‐infected prey–predator, which is impossible for the case of the explicit carrying capacity model. We also show that these findings are closely associated with bi‐stability. The present system undergoes bi‐stability in two different scenarios: (a) bi‐stability between the planner equilibria where susceptible prey co‐exists with predator or infected prey and (b) bi‐stability between co‐existence equilibrium and the planner equilibrium where susceptible prey coexists with infected prey; have been discussed. The conditions for which the system is to be permanent and the global stability of the system around disease‐free equilibrium are worked out. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Aggregation methods in food chains

The aim of this paper is to apply aggregation methods to food chains under batch and chemostat conditions. These predator-prey systems are modelled using ODEs, one for each trophic level. Because the models are based on mass conservation laws, they are conservative and this allows perfect aggregation. Furthermore, it is assumed that the ingestion rate of the predator is smaller than that of the prey. On this assumption, approximate aggregation can be performed, yielding further reduction of the dimension of the system. We will study a food chain often found in wastewater treatment plants. This food chain consists of sewage, bacteria, and worms. In order to show the feasibility of the aggregation methods, we will compare simulated results for the reduced and the full model of this food chain under chemostat conditions.     

Dynamics of predator–prey models with a strong Allee effect on the prey and predator-dependent trophic functions

The complex dynamics of a two-trophic chain are investigated. The chain is described by a general predator–prey system, in which the prey growth rate and the trophic interaction functions are defined only by some properties determining their shapes. To account for undercrowding phenomena, the prey growth function is assumed to model a strong Allee effect; to simulate the predator interference during the predation process, the trophic function is assumed predator-dependent. A stability analysis of the system is performed, using the predation efficiency and a measure of the predator interference as bifurcation parameters. The admissible scenarios are much richer than in the case of prey-dependent trophic functions, investigated in Buffoni et al. (2011). General conditions for the number of equilibria, for the existence and stability of extinction and coexistence equilibrium states are determined, and the bifurcations exhibited by the system are investigated. Numerical results illustrate the qualitative behaviours of the system, in particular the presence of limit cycles, of global bifurcations and of bistability situations.     

Challenges of living in the harsh environments: A mathematical modeling study

We propose and analyze a mathematical model, which mimics community dynamics of plants and animals in harsh environments. The mathematical model exploits type IV functional responses whose idiosyncrasies have been recognized only in recent years. The interaction of the middle predator with the top predator is cast into Leslie-Gower scheme. Linear and non-linear stability analyses are performed to get an idea of the stability behavior of the model food chain. It turns out that carrying capacity of the prey and the immunity parameter of the middle predator are two crucial parameters governing the model. Availability of alternative food options to the generalist predator also plays a key role in deciding the model dynamics.Simulation runs performed on this model provide insight into population dynamics of monkeys of macaque family found in northern Japan. These monkeys are social animals which reproduce sexually. The characteristic feature of the model dynamics is that the generalist predator (macaque monkeys) is able to avoid impending extinction frequently and recovers at a rate which falsify threats from exogenous external forces; extreme weather conditions, etc.     

Existence of limit cycles in a tritrophic food chain model with Holling functional responses of type II and III

We are interested in the coexistence of three species forming a tritrophic food chain model. Considering a linear grow for the lowest trophic species, Holling III and Holling II functional response for the predator and the top‐predator, respectively. We prove that this model has stable periodic orbits for adequate values of its parameters. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

ON THE MANAGEMENT OF INTERCONNECTED WILDLIFE POPULATIONS

Abstract Economic interdependency of wildlife or fish stocks is usually attributed to ecological interdependency, such as predator–prey and competitive relationships, or to density‐dependent migration of species between different areas. This paper provides another channel for economic interdependency of wildlife where density‐independent migration and market price interaction affect the management strategies among different landowners. Management is studied under three market conditions for selling hunting licenses: price taking behavior, monopoly market, and duopoly market. Harvesting of the Scandinavian moose is used as an example. The paper provides several results on how economic interdependency works through the migration pattern. When a duopoly market is introduced, hunting license price interaction among the landowners plays an additional role in determining the optimal harvesting strategy.     

A MICRO‐LEVEL ‘CONSUMER APPROACH’ TO SPECIES POPULATION DYNAMICS

ABSTRACT. In this paper we develop a micro ecosystem model whose basic entities are representative organisms which behave as if maximizing their net offspring under constraints. Net offspring is increasing in prey biomass intake, declining in the loss of own biomass to predators and Allee's law applies. The organism's constraint reflects its perception of how scarce its own biomass and the biomass of its prey is. In the short‐run periods prices (scarcity indicators) coordinate and determine all biomass transactions and net offspring which directly translates into population growth functions. We are able to explicitly determine these growth functions for a simple food web when specific parametric net offspring functions are chosen in the micro‐level ecosystem model. For the case of a single species our model is shown to yield the well‐known Verhulst‐Pearl logistic growth function. With two species in predator‐prey relationship, we derive differential equations whose dynamics are completely characterized and turn out to be similar to the predator‐prey model with Michaelis‐Menten type functional response. With two species competing for a single resource we find that coexistence is a knife‐edge feature confirming Tschirhart's [2002] result in a different but related model.     

Alternative prey source coupled with prey recovery enhance stability between migratory prey and their predator in the presence of disease

An eco-epidemiological model is considered where the prey population is migratory in nature. To incorporate the temporal pattern of the avian migration into the model, a time dependent recruitment rate was considered with a general functional response. In the numerical simulation we substitute the general functional response with Holling type-I and Holling type-II functional responses. It was observed that the qualitative behaviour of the system does not depend on the choice of the functional responses. The results showed that the system could be made disease free by either decreasing the contact rate or simultaneously increasing the predation and the recovery rate. Moreover, it was observed that the presence of an alternative food source for the predator population helps in the coexistence of all the species.     

A delayed prey–predator model with Crowley–Martin‐type functional response including prey refuge

In this paper, we have studied a prey–predator model living in a habitat that divided into two regions: an unreserved region and a reserved (refuge) region. The migration between these two regions is allowed. The interaction between unreserved prey and predator is Crowley–Martin‐type functional response. The local and global stability of the system is discussed. Further, the system is extended to incorporate the effect of time delay. Then the dynamical behavior of the system is analyzed, taking delay as a bifurcation parameter. The direction of Hopf bifurcation and the stability of the bifurcated periodic solution are determined with the help of normal form theory and centre manifold theorem. We have also discussed the influence of prey refuge on densities of prey and predator species. The analytical results are supplemented with numerical simulations. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Effects of prey over–undercrowding in predator–prey systems with prey-dependent trophic functions

The local dynamics of a two-trophic chain in the presence of both overcrowding and undercrowding effects on prey growth is investigated. The starting point is given by a general predator–prey system, in which the prey growth rate and the trophic interaction function are defined only by some properties determining their shapes; in particular, the prey growth function is assumed to model a strong Allee effect. A stability analysis of the system using the predation efficiency as bifurcation parameter is performed; conditions for the existence and stability of extinction and coexistence equilibrium states are determined, and peculiar features of the dynamics exhibited by the system are presented, with particular attention to limit cycles and bistability situations. Results are compared with those obtained when overcrowding and undercrowding effects are considered separately.     

Study of a Tritrophic Food Chain Model with Non-differentiable Functional Response

We study a model of three interacting species in a food chain composed by a prey, an specific predator and a generalist predator. The capture of the prey by the specific predator is modelled as a modified Holling-type II non-differentiable functional response. The other predatory interactions are both modelled as Holling-type I. Moreover, our model follows a Leslie-Gower approach, in which the function that models the growth of each predator is of logistic type, and the corresponding carrying capacities depend on the sizes of their associated available preys. The resulting model has the form of a set of nonlinear ordinary differential equations which includes a non-differentiable term. By means of topological equivalences and suitable changes of parameters, we find that there exists an Allee threshold for the survival of the prey population in the food chain, given, effectively, as a critical level for the generalist predator. The dynamics of the model is studied with analytical and computational tools for bifurcation theory. We present two-parameter bifurcation diagrams that contain both local phenomena (Hopf, saddle-node transcritical, cusp, Bogdanov-Takens bifurcations) and global events (homoclinic and heteroclinic connections). In particular, we find that two types of heteroclinic cycles can be formed, both of them containing connections to the origin. One of these cycles is planar involving the absence of the specific predator. In turn, the other heteroclinic cycle is formed by connections in the full three-dimensional phase space.

     

The role of top predator interference on the dynamics of a food chain model

In this paper, the effects of top predator interference on the dynamics of a food chain model involving an intermediate and a top predator are considered. It is assumed that the interaction between the prey and intermediate predator follows the Volterra scheme, while that between the top predator and its favorite food depends on Beddington–DeAngelis type of functional response. The boundedness of the system, existence of an attracting set, local and global stability of non-negative equilibrium points are established. Number of the bifurcation and Lyapunov exponent bifurcation diagrams is established. It is observed that, the model has different types of attracting sets including chaos. Moreover, increasing the top predator interference stabilizes the system, while increasing the normalization of the residual reduction in the top predator population destabilizes the system.     

A MICROFOUNDATION OF PREDATOR‐PREY DYNAMICS

ABSTRACT. Predator‐prey relationships account for an important part of all interactions betweenspecies. In this paper we provide a microfoundation for such predator‐prey relations in afood chain. Basic entities of our analysis are representative organisms of species modeled similar to economic households. With prices as indicators of scarcity, organisms are assumed to behave as if they maximize their net biomass subject to constraints which express the organisms' risk of being preyed upon during predation. Like consumers, organisms face a ‘budget constraint’ requiring their expenditure on prey biomass not to exceed their revenue from supplying own biomass. Short‐run ecosystem equilibria are defined and derived. The net biomass acquired by the representative organism in the short term determines the positive or negative population growth. Moving short‐run equilibria constitute the dynamics of the predator‐prey relations that are characterized in numerical analysis. The population dynamics derived here turn out to differ significantly from those assumed in the standard Lotka‐Volterra model.     

Dynamics and pattern formations in diffusive predator‐prey models with two prey‐taxis

A reaction‐diffusion two‐predator‐one‐prey system with prey‐taxis describes the spatial interaction and random movement of predator and prey species, as well as the spatial movement of predators pursuing preys. The global existence and boundedness of solutions of the system in bounded domains of arbitrary spatial dimension and any small prey‐taxis sensitivity coefficient are investigated by the semigroup theory. The spatial pattern formation induced by the prey‐taxis is characterized by the Turing type linear instability of homogeneous state; it is shown that prey‐taxis can both compress and prompt the spatial patterns produced through diffusion‐induced instability in two‐predator‐one‐prey systems.