The dynamics of an intraguild predation model with prey switching

Abstract

Intraguild predation (IGP) is ubiquitous in nature. The IG predator feeds on the IG prey and shares the resource with the IG prey. In this paper, a mathematical model of a tri-trophic food web based on the Beddington-DeAnglis functional response with prey switching is considered. Prey switching describes the situation where the predator consumes disproportionately more of the most abundant prey. Numerical computation of bifurcation analysis is used to study the coexistence of all species, stabilization of population dynamics, and complex dynamics of the system. Numerical simulation performed on the model with/without prey switching shows that (i) prey switching can enhance the persistence of the IG predator and IG prey and promote species coexistence for a range of parameter values, (ii) prey switching can stabilize population dynamics, (iii) chaotic attractors exist in the model with prey switching.