Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Department of Biomedical Engineering, Department of Mathematical Sciences, Center for Bioinformatics and Computational Biology, University of Delaware, Newark, DE, United States of America.
PLoS One. 2022 Apr 12;17(4):e0265825. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0265825. eCollection 2022.
There is rich literature on using continuous-time and discrete-time models for studying population dynamics of consumer-resource interactions. A key focus of this contribution is to systematically compare between the two modeling formalisms the stabilizing/destabilizing impacts of diverse ecological processes that result in a density-dependent consumer attack rate. Inspired by the Nicholson-Bailey/Lotka-Volterra models in discrete-time/continuous-time, respectively, we consider host-parasitoid interactions with an arbitrary parasitoid attack rate that is a function of both the host/parasitoid population densities. Our analysis shows that a Type II functional response is stabilizing in both modeling frameworks only when combined with other mechanisms, such as mutual interference between parasitoids. A Type III functional response is by itself stabilizing, but the extent of attack-rate acceleration needed is much higher in the discrete-time framework, and its stability regime expands with increasing host reproduction. Finally, our results show that while mutual parasitoid interference can stabilize population dynamics, cooperation between parasitoids to handle hosts is destabilizing in both frameworks. In summary, our comparative analysis systematically characterizes diverse ecological processes driving stable population dynamics in discrete-time and continuous-time consumer-resource models.
关于使用连续时间和离散时间模型来研究消费者-资源相互作用的种群动态，已有丰富的文献。本研究的一个重点是系统地比较这两种建模形式，研究不同的生态过程对消费者攻击率的密度依赖性的稳定/失稳影响。受离散时间/连续时间中的 Nicholson-Bailey/Lotka-Volterra 模型的启发，我们考虑了具有任意寄生攻击率的宿主-寄生生物相互作用，该攻击率是宿主/寄生生物种群密度的函数。我们的分析表明，只有当与其他机制（例如寄生生物之间的相互干扰）结合时，II 型功能反应在两种建模框架中才是稳定的。III 型功能反应本身是稳定的，但在离散时间框架中需要更高的攻击率加速程度，并且其稳定性范围随着宿主繁殖的增加而扩大。最后，我们的结果表明，尽管寄生生物之间的相互干扰可以稳定种群动态，但在两种框架中，寄生生物之间合作处理宿主是不稳定的。总之，我们的比较分析系统地描述了离散时间和连续时间消费者-资源模型中驱动稳定种群动态的各种生态过程。
