Speaker : Professor Samares Pal (University of Kalyani, India)
Title : Catastrophic regime shifts in coral reefs under invasion and overfishing
Time : 2014-05-19 (Mon) 15:30 - 16:30
Place : Seminar Room 714, Institute of Mathematics (NTU Campus)
Abstract: Macroalgae and corals compete for the available algal turf in coral reef ecosystem. While herbivorous reef-fishes play a beneficial role in decreasing the growth of macroalgae, in presence of invasive lionfish (Pteroisvolitans), there is a reduction in herbivory, leading to proliferation of macroalgae in coral reef ecosystem. Abundance of macroalgae changes the community structure from coral-dominated to macroalgae-dominated reef ecosystem. We investigate coral-macroalgal phase shift due to the effects of invasion by means of a continuous time model in a food chain. Conditions for local asymptotic stability of steady states are derived. Computer simulations have been carried out to illustrate different analytical results.