Abstract
In this paper a question of " how much overconsumption a renewable resource can tolerate" is addressed using a mathematical model, where individuals in a parametrically heterogeneous population not only compete for the common resource but can also contribute to its restoration. Through bifurcation analysis a threshold of system resistance to over-consumers (individuals that take more than they restore) was identified, as well as a series of transitional regimes that the population goes through before it exhausts the common resource and thus goes extinct itself, a phenomenon known as " the tragedy of the commons" It was also observed that (1) for some parameter domains a population can survive or go extinct depending on its initial conditions, (2) under the same set of initial conditions, a heterogeneous population survives longer than a homogeneous population and (3) when the natural decay rate of the common resource is high enough, the population can endure the presence of more aggressive over-consumers without going extinct.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 114-123 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Mathematical Biosciences |
Volume | 240 |
Issue number | 2 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Dec 2012 |
Keywords
- Resource overconsumption
- Tipping points
- Tragedy of the commons
- Transitional regimes
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Statistics and Probability
- Modeling and Simulation
- General Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology
- General Immunology and Microbiology
- General Agricultural and Biological Sciences
- Applied Mathematics