Sensitivity to Predator Response Functions in the Chemostat

Abstract

Biological models of predator-prey interaction have been shown to have high sensitivity to the functional form of the predator response (see [3]). Chemo- stat models with competition have been shown to be robust under various forms of response function (see [15]). The fcus here is restricted to a simple chemostat model with predator-prey dynamics. Several functional responses of Holling Type II form are considered. The sensitivity of dynamics to our choice of functional form is demonstrated by way of bifurcation theory. These results should be a warning to modelers, since by data collection and curve- fitting alone it is impossible to determine the exact functional form of the predator response function.