Complex dynamics modes in a simple model of prey-predator community: Bistability and multistability

The paper proposes and studies a two-component discrete-time model of the prey-predator community considering zooplankton and fish interactions and their development features. Discrete-time systems of equations allow us to take into account naturally the rhythm of many processes occurring in marine and freshwater communities, which are subject to cyclical fluctuations due to the daily and seasonal cycle. We describe the dynamics of fish and zooplankton populations constituting the community by Ricker’s model, which is well-studied and widely used in population modeling. To consider the species interaction, we use the Holling-II type response function taking into account predator saturation. We carried out the study of the proposed model. The system is shown to have from one to three non-trivial equilibria, which gives the existence of the complete community. In addition to the saddle-node bifurcation, which generates bistability of stationary dynamics, a nontrivial equilibrium loses its stability according to the Neimark–Sacker scenario with an increase in the reproductive potential of both predator and prey species, as a result of which the community exhibits long-period oscillations similar to those observed in experiments. With the higher bifurcation parameter, the reverse Neimark–Sacker bifurcation is shown to occur followed by the closed invariant curve collapses, and dynamics of the population stabilizes, later losing stability through a cascade of period-doubling bifurcations. Multistability complicates the birth and disappearance of the invariant curve in the phase space scenario by the emergence of another irregular dynamics in the system with the single unstable nontrivial fixed point. At fixed values of the model parameters and different initial conditions, the system considered is shown to demonstrate various quasi-periodic oscillations. Despite extreme simplicity, the proposed discrete-time model of community dynamics demonstrates a wide variety and variability of dynamic modes. It shows that the influence of environmental conditions can change the type and nature of the observed dynamics.