Article Contents
Article Contents

Evolutionary branching patterns in predator-prey structured populations

• Predator-prey ecosystems represent, among others, a natural context where evolutionary branching patterns may arise. Moving from this observation, the paper deals with a class of integro-differential equations modeling the dynamics of two populations structured by a continuous phenotypic trait and related by predation. Predators and preys proliferate through asexual reproduction, compete for resources and undergo phenotypic changes. A positive parameter $\varepsilon$ is introduced to model the average size of such changes. The asymptotic behavior of the solution of the mathematical problem linked to the model is studied in the limit $\varepsilon \rightarrow 0$ (i.e., in the limit of small phenotypic changes). Analytical results are illustrated and extended by means of numerical simulations with the aim of showing how the present class of equations can mimic the formation of evolutionary branching patterns. All simulations highlight a chase-escape dynamics, where the preys try to evade predation while predators mimic, with a certain delay, the phenotypic profile of the preys.
Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary: 92D25; Secondary: 45K05.

 Citation:

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