Revisited Hastings and Powell model with omnivory and predator switching

Abstract

The effect of omnivory in predator–prey system is debatable regarding its stabilizing or destabilizing characteristics. Earlier theoretical studies predict that omnivory is stabilizing or destabilizing depending on the condition of the system. The effect of omnivory in the food chain system is not yet properly understood. In the present paper, we study the effect of omnivory in a tri-trophic food chain system on the famous Hastings and Powell model. Omnivory enhances the chance of predator switching between prey and middle predator. The novelty of this paper is to study the effect of predator switching of the top predator which is omnivorous in nature. Our results suggest that in the absence of switching, an increase of omnivory stabilizes the system from chaotic dynamics, however, if we further increase the strength of omnivory, the system becomes unstable and middle predator goes to extinction. It is also observed that the predator switching enhance the stability and persistence of all populations.