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. |