Optimal Harvesting of Size-Structured Populations with Environmental Feedback and Fixed Recruitment Flux

Abstract

We study a nonlinear size-structured transport model with distributed harvesting and prescribed recruitment flux, where environmental feedback is determined by a scalar population functional. After establishing global well-posedness on $L^1$, we reduce stationary equilibria to a scalar closure equation. This reduction reveals that loss of equilibrium uniqueness occurs through a generic fold, mathematically characterizing critical population transitions. On uniformly nonresonant equilibrium branches, we prove the existence of optimal stationary harvesting policies via the direct method of the calculus of variations. We then derive a boundary-corrected adjoint equation and establish an identity equating equilibrium sensitivity with the adjoint loop gain. This relation yields explicit criteria for the persistence and creation of optimal harvesting thresholds. Collectively, these results provide a unified analytical framework connecting environmental feedback, equilibrium structure, and optimal harvesting.