CONTROL OF NONLINEAR DYNAMIC MODELS OF PREDATOR-PREY TYPE

Abstract

In the ecological context, a large class of population dynamics models can be written as dynamical systems of one or two variables, i.e., each variable represents a population density of a species. When one or more species is removed from the system (harvested), it is necessary to introduce a control (harvest policy) in order to avoid the extinction of species, due to harvesting. A threshold policy (TP) and a threshold policy with hysteresis (TPH) reviewed and discussed in this paper can be used to avoid the collapse of population densities, governed by predator-prey models. A threshold policy changes the dynamics of a predator-prey dynamical system in such a way that a stable positive equilibrium point is achieved. In other words, coexistence of both species occurs. A threshold policy with hysteresis changes the dynamics so that a limit cycle (bounded oscillation) is achieved, i.e., coexistence of species with a bounded oscillation in population densities occurs. This paper studies the continuous and discrete logistic model for one species and the Lotka-Volterra and Rosenzweig-MacArthur models for two species. The TP and TPH are seen to be versatile and useful in renewable resources management, being simple to design and implement, with some advantages in a situation of overexploitation, as well as in the presence of different types of uncertainties. The design of the policies is carried out by appropriate choice of virtual equilibria in a simple and intuitive manner, and the mathematics used is simple.