Efeitos da destruição do habitat sobre um sistema de presa-predador

Abstract

The destruction of habitats is one of the most important factors leading to species extinction and loss of diversity, which is one of the most studied issues in biological and conservation in recent years. Since the human intervention on ecosystems is growing, resulting in fragmentation and loss of habitats, it is important to analyze the effects of these changes in spatial configuration have on ecological processes. In this work we aimed to study the dynamics of a model in which a predator and prey interact in a homogeneous environment with spatial structure when a proportion of the system is destroyed. We conducted this analysis using techniques from computer simulations as well as analytical tools. We obtained three different regimes depending on the values of model parameters in which there is coexistence of prey and predator, extinction of the predator with survival of prey and the extinction of prey leading to the extinction of the predator. We also studied the effects of destruction of a proportion of habitat on the system, and compared the results with those obtained for the case without fragmentation. We observed that increasing the number of destroyed sites leads to a reduction of the population of predators. We also observed that for a destruction of more than 15% of the sites, the regime of extinction of two species is no longer observed.