title: Chaos control via feeding switching in an omnivory system.
abstract: Tanabe and Namba (Ecology, 86, 3411-3414) studied a three species Lotka-Volterra model with omnivory and explored that omnivory can create chaos. It is well documented that predator switching is a similar biological phenomenon to omnivory and likely to occur simultaneously. In the present paper, the tri-trophic Lotka-Volterra food web model with omnivory and predator switching is re-investigated. We observe that if we incorporate predator switching in the system and the intensity of predator switching increases above a threshold value, then the system will be stable from chaotic dynamics. To study the global dynamics of the system extensive numerical simulations are performed. Our analytical and numerical results suggest that predator switching mechanism enhances the stability and the persistence of a food chain system.
authors.affiliation: Agricultural and Ecological Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, 203, B. T. Road, Kolkata 700108, India. Electronic address: joydev@isical.ac.in.
authors.forename: Joydev
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Chattopadhyay
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics, Visva-Bharati University, Santiniketan 731235, India.
authors.forename: Nikhil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Pal
authors.affiliation: Agricultural and Ecological Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, 203, B. T. Road, Kolkata 700108, India.
authors.forename: Sudip
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Samanta
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Matematica "Giuseppe Peano", Università di Torino, via Carlo Alberto 10, 10123 Torino, Italy. Electronic address: ezio.venturino@unito.it.
authors.forename: Ezio
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Venturino
authors.affiliation: Department of Mathematics and Statistics, College of Science, Sultan Qaboos University, P.O. Box 36 Al-Khod, Postal Code 123, Oman.
authors.forename: Q J A
authors.initials: QJ
authors.lastname: Khan
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D003198:Computer Simulation; D017753:Ecosystem; D005247:Feeding Behavior / Q000502:physiology*; D020387:Food Chain; D006801:Humans; D008954:Models, Biological; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D011157:Population Dynamics; D011235:Predatory Behavior / Q000502:physiology*
keywords: Chaos; Omnivory; Predator switching; Stability; Three-species Lotka–Volterra model