The threshold of survival for system of two species in polluted environment (Q1179449)

The authors modify the classical Volterra model for two interacting species by subtracting time dependent, dynamically modeled, terms from the inherent growth rates of the species that account for the toxic effects of an environmental pollutant. Necessary and sufficient conditions for the persistence (in the mean) and for the extinction of each individual species are proved for predator-prey, competitive, and cooperative interactions that have a stable, coexistence equilibrium in the absence of the polluting toxin. These results are used to obtain persistence (in the mean) and extinction criteria based upon the parameters of the toxin dynamics (in particular, the exogenous input rate of toxin into the environment).