Global Stability and Hopf Bifurcation for a Stage Structured Model with Competition for Food

Abstract

Considering the mature condition of any individual to have eaten a specific amount of food during the entire period that it can spend at its immature stage, we propose a size-structured model by a first-order quasi-linear partial differential equation. The model can be firstly reduced to a single state-dependent delay differential equation and then to a constant delay differential equation. The state-dependent delay represents intra-specific competition among individuals for limited food resources. A complete analysis of the global dynamics on the positivity and boundedness of solutions, global stability for each equilibrium and Hopf bifurcation is carried out. Our results imply that the delay leads to instability that is shown by a simple example of a certain structured population model.