Dynamical Behaviour Changes in Response to Various Functional Responses: Temporal and Spatial Plankton System

Abstract

In this paper, we focus on the comparison between ratio-dependent and Holling type-II functional response in the phytoplankton dynamics with the susceptible and infected populations with or without diffusion. The dynamics are investigated in terms of local stability using both the response function for the systems and the definition of the Hopf-bifurcation, which has been demonstrated to occur in the Holling type-II functional response using the half-saturation time (i.e. $$\alpha$$ ) as the bifurcation parameter. We observed that the system’s dynamical behaviour is affected by the response functions and the system is more stable in the case of the ratio-dependent functional response. Furthermore, the study of higher-order perturbation terms reveals the heterogeneity of in-homogeneous spatiotemporal perturbation around temporal steady state outside the linear regime. The system behaviours to both types of response functions are studied numerically in the temporal and spatiotemporal domain (i.e. pattern formation in the diffusive population). Numerical simulation is used to examine the results.