Numerical modeling of dynamics of a population system with time delay

Abstract

Mathematical models of interacting populations are often constructed as systems of differential equations, which describe how populations change with time. Below we study such a model connected to the nonlinear dynamics of a system of populations in presence of time delay. The consequence of the presence of the time delay is that the nonlinear dynamics of the studied system become more rich, eg, new orbits in the phase space of the system arise, which are dependent on the time‐delay parameters. In more detail, we introduce a time delay and generalize the model system of differential equations for the interaction of 3 populations based on generalized Volterra equations in which the growth rates and competition coefficients of populations depend on the number of members of all populations. Then we solve numerically the system with and without time delay. We use a modification of the method of Adams for the numerical solution of the system of model equations with time delay. By appropriate selection of the parameters and initial conditions, we show the impact of the delay time on the dynamics of the studied population system.