Abstract

We study how predator behavior influences community dynamics of predatorprey systems. It turns out that predator behavior plays a dominant role in community dynamics. The hybrid model studied in this paper reveals that period-doubling and period-doubling reversals can generate short-term recurrent chaos (STRC), which mimics chaotic dynamics observed in natural populations. STRC manifests itself when deterministic changes in a system parameter interrupt chaotic behavior at unpredictable intervals. Numerical results reinforce an earlier suggestion that period-doubling reversals could control chaotic dynamics in ecological models. In ecological terms, the prey and intermediate predator populations may go to extinction in the event of a catastrophe. The top predator is always a survivor. In contrast to this, this is not the case when the constituent populations are interacting through Holling type II functional response. Even this top predator can go to extinction in the event of such catastrophes.

Highlights

  • Understanding ecosystem’s dynamics is one of the most challenging tasks

  • It is clear from these figures that basin boundaries of the chaotic attractor are fractal which show the dynamical complexities of the hybrid model system (3)

  • The chaotic behavior is interrupted by non-chaotic dynamics at unpredictable intervals and we thought that a special kind of bifurcation process was responsible for short-term recurrent chaos (STRC) [10]

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Understanding ecosystem’s dynamics is one of the most challenging tasks. The biotic part of the ecosystem comprises living entities known as species. The population dynamic models are assembled by combining functional and numerical responses of predators in a suitably chosen scheme It is expected that natural food chains could be better represented by models, which incorporate both Holling type II and CM functional responses The latter assumes that the per capita feeding rate of the predators is a function of predator interference effects. Upadhyay and Rai [5] proposed and studied a hybrid food chain model to understand why deterministic chaos is rarely observed in natural populations. These models were designed by combining two formulations of predator-prey dynamics: Volterra and Leslie–Gower schemes. It would be beneficial if this approach, based on bifurcations of higher co-dimension as indicators of chaos, could be extended to food web architectures

Model system
Methodology
Numerical simulations
Discussion and conclusion

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.