Absolute stability in predator-prey models (Q1063549)

The author examines the effect of delay upon the stability of the non trivial stationary solution of a general predator-prey model. In its ordinary version, the model is the following: \[ dN/dt=NF(R)-NM(R),\quad dR/dt=B(R)-D(R)-NG(R). \] The purpose is to determine ecologically meaningful conditions on F,M,B,D,G and their derivatives, to ensure stability independently of the delays. This is called absolute stability, which should help in particular when considering distributed delays. The mathematical analysis is based on the study of the characteristic equation, in the following cases: delay due 1) to prey maturation; 2) to predator maturation; 3) to both predator and prey maturation (with a same delay in that case). In view of the complexity of such equations, only sufficient conditions can be drawn. The paper adds some numerical evidence to a recent observation concerning the way delays act on a model: distributed delays tend to be more stabilizing than discrete or random delays; short delays can be more destabilizing than longer ones.