Harvesting induced stability and instability in a tri-trophic food chain

Connectivity between two fishing sites can lead to an emergence phenomenon related to Maximum Sustainable Yield

In this study, we examine the effects of connectivity on the total catch of a fishery consisting of two fishing sites when the fish population is a predator of a larger prey-predator system. To this end, we analyze a prey-predator fish community model in a two-site environment and compute catch at Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY). We exhibit some emergence phenomenon: the total catch can be greater than the sum of the catch at two isolated sites due to connectivity. This result is obtained when the two sites are heterogeneous. We show that the increase in capture at MSY is maximal for a certain value of the carrying capacity of the second site, all other parameters remaining constant, including the carrying capacity of the first site. A stronger phenomenon can also be observed: even if none of the sites is viable for fishing, the entire system can be viable. We then study the effects of the heterogeneity of the sites and illustrate our results through simulations. It is shown that the excess yield at MSY can become very significant when the characteristics of the prey and predator in terms of potential growth are opposite at each site.

ROLE OF ALLEE EFFECT AND HARVESTING OF A FOOD-WEB SYSTEM IN THE PRESENCE OF SCAVENGERS

The role of scavengers, which consume the carcasses of predators along with predation of the prey, has been ignored in comparisons to herbivores and predators. It has now become a topic of high interest among researchers working with food-web systems of prey–predator interactions. The food-web considered in these works contains prey, predators, and scavengers as the third species. In this work, we attempt to study a food-web model of these species in the presence of the multiplicative Allee effect and harvesting. It is observed that this makes the model more complex in the form of multiple co-existing steady states. The conditions for the existence and local stability of all possible steady states of the proposed system are analyzed. The global stability of the steady state lying on the x-axis and the interior steady state have been discussed by choosing suitable Lyapunov functions. The existence conditions for saddle-node and Hopf bifurcations are derived analytically. The stability of Hopf bifurcating periodic solutions with respect to both Allee and harvesting constants is examined. It is also observed that multiple Hopf bifurcation thresholds occur for harvesting parameters in the case of two co-existing steady states, which indicates that the system may regain its stability. The proposed model is also studied beyond Hopf bifurcation thresholds, where we have observed that the model is capable of exhibiting period-doubling routes to chaos, which can be controlled by a suitable choice of Allee and harvesting parameters. The largest Lyapunov exponents and sensitivity to initial conditions are examined to ensure the chaotic nature of the system.

Stability switching and hydra effect in a predator-prey metapopulation model

A metapopulation model is investigated to explore how the spatial heterogeneity affects predator-prey interactions. A Rosenzweig-MacArthur (RM) predator-prey model with dispersal of both the prey and predator is formulated. We propose such a system as a well mixed spatial model. Here, partially mixed spatial models are defined in which the dispersal of only one of the communities (prey or predator) is considered. In our study, the spatial heterogeneity is induced by dissimilar (unbalanced) dispersal rates between the patches. A large difference between the predator dispersal rates may stabilize the unstable positive equilibrium of the model. The existence of two ecological phenomena are found under independent harvesting strategy: stability switching and hydra effect. When prey or predator is harvested in a heterogenious environment, a positive stable steady state becomes unstable with increasing the harvesting effort, and a further increase in the effort leads to a stable equilibrium. Thus, a stability switching happens. Furthermore, the predator biomass (at stable state) in both the patches (and hence total predator stock) increases when the patch with a higher predator density is harvested; resulting a hydra effect. These two phenomena do not occur in the non-spatial RM model. Hence, spatial heterogeneity induces stability switching and hydra effect.

Managing yield and resilience in a harvested tri-trophic food chain model

In this article, we compare the two ecological services known as yield and resilience, for a tri-trophic food chain model consisting of a prey, an intermediate predator and a top predator. For this comparison process, we use both analytical and numerical techniques. It is shown that a variety of patterns are possible based on the intensity of efforts distributed among different trophic levels. Thus we may suggest that fishing down the food chain, as suggested by Pauly et al. (1998) is not bound to happen. Our analysis also shows that balancing the harvest between prey, intermediate predator and top predator could give more yield and stabilizing the ecosystem, than the selective harvesting of any one species. This balanced harvesting may not be a win-win situation for yield and resilience, but it could be a most favourable strategy to balance them. This research would help to correlate resilience with yield and determines the desirable selection of two policies, resilience maximizing yield or maximum sustainable yield to safeguard ecological communities.