EconPapers    
Economics at your fingertips  
 

Effect of population size in a predator–prey model

F. Campillo and C. Lobry

Ecological Modelling, 2012, vol. 246, issue C, 1-10

Abstract: We consider a hybrid version of the basic predator–prey differential equation model: a pure jump stochastic model for the prey variable x coupled with a differential equation model for the predator variable y. This hybrid model is derived from the classical birth and death process. The model contains a parameter ω which represents the number of individuals for one unit of prey: x=1 corresponds to ω individual prey. It is shown by the mean of simulations and explained by a mathematical analysis based on a result from the singular perturbation theory – the so-called theory of Canards – that qualitative properties of the model like persistence or extinction are dramatically sensitive to ω. For instance, in our example, if ω=107 we have extinction and if ω=108 we have persistence. This means that we must be very cautious when we use continuous variables in place of discrete ones in dynamic population modeling even when we use stochastic differential equations in place of deterministic ones.

Keywords: Predator–prey model; Ordinary differential equations; Diffusion equations; Gillespie algorithm; Birth and death processes (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2012
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (4)

Downloads: (external link)
http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0304380012003432
Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:246:y:2012:i:c:p:1-10

DOI: 10.1016/j.ecolmodel.2012.07.015

Access Statistics for this article

Ecological Modelling is currently edited by Brian D. Fath

More articles in Ecological Modelling from Elsevier
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Catherine Liu ().

 
Page updated 2025-03-19
Handle: RePEc:eee:ecomod:v:246:y:2012:i:c:p:1-10