The effect of demographic stochasticity on predatory-prey oscillations

Abstract

The ecological dynamics of interacting predator and prey populations can display sustained oscillations, as for instance predicted by the Rosenzweig-MacArthur predator-prey model. The presence of demographic stochasticity, due to the finiteness of population sizes, alters the amplitude and frequency of these oscillations. Here we present a method for characterizing the effects of demographic stochasticity on the limit cycle attractor of the Rosenzweig-MacArthur. We show that an angular Brownian motion well describes the frequency oscillations. In the vicinity of the bifurcation point, we obtain an analytical approximation for the angular diffusion constant. This approximation accurately captures the effect of demographic stochasticity across parameter values.