Interaction between water and plants: rich dynamics in a simple model (Q2356893)

The authors present a planar vector field as a model that describes the interaction of one plant species b and one resource w, such as water. This model contains four parameters, two of which measure rainfall and the water consumption rate of b, while the remaining two parameters determine the death rate of b which is a decreasing function of b. Depending on these parameters, there exist up to three nonnegative equilibria, and although the system looks rather simple, it exhibits an astonishing complexity of dynamical behavior. Using the Dulac criterion and the Poincare-Bendixson theorem, the authors prove nonexistence of periodic orbits for small and large rainfall, while for moderate rainfall they show the existence of transcritical bifurcations, saddle-node bifurcations of equilibria and of limit cycles, Hopf bifurcations ending in a second Hopf bifurcation or in a homoclinic bifurcation, and Bogdanov-Takens bifurcations. There also exist parameter regions with bistability of two equilibria as well as of an equilibrium and a limit cycle. Moreover, there are parameter regions with tristability, where two equilibria coexist with one limit cycle. Many of the results are confirmed by numerical simulations and accompanied by interesting diagrams.