Stochastic resonance of abundance fluctuations and mean time to extinction in an ecological community.

Abstract

Periodic environmental changes are commonly observed in nature from the amount of daylight to seasonal temperature. These changes usually affect individuals' death or birth rates, dragging the system from its previous stable states. When the fluctuation of abundance is amplified due to such changes, extinction of species may be accelerated. To see this effect, we examine how the abundance and the mean time to extinction respond to the periodic environmental changes. We consider a population wherein two species coexist together implemented by three rules-birth, spontaneous death, and death from competitions. As the interspecific interaction strength is varied, we observe the resonance behavior in both fluctuations of abundances and the mean time to extinction. Our result suggests that neither too high nor too low competition rates make the system more susceptible to environmental changes.