Modeling the effect of pollution on biological species: A socio-ecological problem

Abstract

In this paper, a nonlinear spatial model is proposed and analyzed to study the effect of pollution on biological population. It is assumed that the pollutants enter into the environment not directly by the population but by a precursor produced by the population itself. It is further assumed that larger the population, faster the precursor is produced, and larger the precursor, faster the pollutant is produced. Criteria for nonlinear stability and instability for both spatial and non-spatial models are obtained. The various parameter ranges for stable homogeneous solutions are identified. By the simulation experiments, it is observed that by applying an appropriate effort F, the population density P can be maintained at a higher equilibrium level. It is also shown that the equilibrium level of the concentration of precursor pollutant, concentration of pollutant in the environment and in the population decrease due to the effort F.

Keywords

• precursor
• pollutant
• biological species
• stability
• conservation efforts