Effort Dynamics with Selective Predator Harvesting of a Ratio-dependent Predator-Prey System

TL;DR

This paper analyzes a predator-prey model with ratio-dependent functional response and selective predator harvesting, exploring stability, bifurcations, and optimal harvesting strategies to ensure sustainability.

Contribution

It introduces a novel predator harvesting model with dynamic effort and ratio-dependence, analyzing stability, bifurcations, and optimal policies.

Findings

System may collapse under certain conditions.

Hopf bifurcation occurs with respect to harvesting fraction m.

Sustainable harvesting achievable via stable equilibrium or limit cycle.

Abstract

In this paper, the selective predator harvesting is considered in a predator prey system. The logistic growth of prey and ratio-dependent functional response is assumed. The dynamically varying effort is employed for selective harvesting of predator species using Michaelis-Menten type function The boundedness, positivity and persistence of the nonlinear dynamical system is established. The system being non-singular about origin, its dynamics is explored by transforming it to a regular system. It is observed that the system may collapse even with positive initial conditions attracted to one of the boundary points under certain conditions. The local stability of various other equilibrium states of the dynamic model is investigated. The region of attraction of interior equilibrium state is obtained using Lyapunov stability. The occurrence of hopf bifurcation about the coexistence equilibrium point with respect to the parameter m (fraction of predators available for harvesting) is established. The sustainable harvesting is possible in two ways firstly in the form of stable interior equilibrium state and secondly in the form of limit cycle. Considering the fraction m as a control variable, the optimal harvesting policy is obtained using Pontraygin's maximum principle. The two-parameter bifurcation diagram is obtained with respect to c and d (the cost of harvesting and the death rate of predators respectively). The two bi-stability regions of parameter space are identified. It is proved that for sustainable harvesting of predators the ratio of p to c (price to cost) should be greater than a certain threshold value dependent on predator density. The analytical results are illustrated numerically with different parametric values.