A two-patch prey-predator model with food-gathering activity

Abstract

In insect ecosystem, the dynamics of prey and predator is regulated by complex interactions between them. Insect pests are spatially aggregated in patches forming a spatial pattern in the environment. An efficient predator dynamically changes its strategies and time for its random search movements to concentrate on higher resource patches based on the benefit of assessment. This food-gathering activity of both prey and predator plays a major role in stabilizing the system by influencing the per unit food consumption. Extending Holling time-budget argument by migration, here we formulate a two patch prey-predator model and show that how several foraging parameters such as handling time, dispersal rate can have important consequences in stability of prey-predator system. Specifically, the ratio between timings that a predator remains mobile in searching and handling their food, is the most important one and simulation on this suggests that the stabilizing effect continues to operate when the dispersal process is modeled more realistically. Thus we conclude that the migration submodel is an important constituent of a spatial predator-prey system. These results are shown to have important implications for possible biological control.