Exploring the influence of refuges and additional foods on predator–prey interactions amidst environmental stochasticity and water level fluctuations

Abstract

By considering that the predators have some additional foods apart from the focal prey and the prey take refuge, a predator–prey model with the effect of seasonality in a fluctuating environment is investigated in this study. Gaussian white noises, created by random fluctuation of water level, are introduced on the prey’s growth rate and predator’s mortality rate. Both the deterministic and stochastic systems are analyzed mathematically as well as numerically. Our analytical findings show that the intensity of environmental noise, additional foods and prey refuge play significant roles in survival as well as extinction of both prey and predator populations in the aquatic system. Our numerical results show that the effectual level of additional foods, depending on water level, has positive as well as negative effects on the predator and prey populations. We find that both species strongly persist at certain water level and for the low intensity of noise. However, for an increased value of noise intensity, they persist weakly and then go to extinction. Overall, our findings show that the variations of water level together with additional food and white noise plays crucial roles in persistence and extinction of species in the ecosystem.