title: Dynamics of a plant-herbivore model.
abstract: We formulate a simple host-parasite type model to study the interaction of certain plants and herbivores. Our two-dimensional discrete-time model utilizes leaf and herbivore biomass as state variables. The parameter space consists of the growth rate of the host population and a parameter describing the damage inflicted by herbivores. We present insightful bifurcation diagrams in that parameter space. Bistability and a crisis of a strange attractor suggest two control strategies: reducing the population of the herbivore under some threshold or increasing the growth rate of the plant leaves.
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics and Statistics, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kang
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Armbruster
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Kuang
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D060434:Herbivory; D006790:Host-Parasite Interactions; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D010944:Plants