A NONAUTONOMOUS MODEL FOR THE INTERACTIVE EFFECTS OF FEAR, REFUGE AND ADDITIONAL FOOD IN A PREY-PREDATOR SYSTEM

The importance of fear, refuge and additional food is being increasingly recognized in recent studies, but their combined effects need to be explored. In this paper, we investigate the joint effects of these three ecologically important factors in a prey-predator system with Crowly-Martin type functional response. We find that the fear of predator significantly affects the densities of prey and predator populations whereas the presence of prey refuge and additional food for predator are recognized to have potential impacts to sustain prey and predator in the habitat, respectively. The fear of predator induces limit cycle oscillations while an oscillatory system becomes stable on increasing the refuge. The system first undergoes a supercritical Hopf-bifurcation and then a subcritical Hopf-bifurcation on increasing either the growth rate of prey or growth rate of predator due to additional food. Increasing the quality/quantity of additional food after a certain value causes extinction of prey species and rapid incline in the predator population. An extension is made in the model by considering the seasonal variations in the cost of fear of predator, prey refuge and growth rate of predator due to additional food. The nonautonomous model is shown to exhibit globally attractive positive periodic solution. Moreover, complex dynamics such as higher periodic solutions and bursting patterns are observed due to seasonal variations in the rate parameters.

Automated summary

Recent studies have recognized the importance of fear, refuge, and additional food in ecological systems. An investigation of their combined effects in a prey-predator system with Crowly-Martin type functional response revealed significant impacts on population densities and system dynamics. The presence of prey refuge and additional food for predators were found to sustain populations in the habitat, but also potentially lead to extinction of prey species and rapid increases in predator populations. Additional complexity arises from considering seasonal variations in the cost of fear, refuge, and growth rates due to additional food.