Mathematical modeling of complex forest ecosystems: impacts of deforestation

Guillaume Cantin (1) , Nathalie Verdière (1)

1 LMAH - Laboratoire de Mathématiques Appliquées du Havre

We propose an innovative mathematical model for studying the dynamics of a complex network of forest ecosystems, in which two forest entities interact which each other through water exchanges. Our model reproduces a recently analyzed principle of constant precipitation quantity over densely forested areas. We perform a stability and bifurcation analysis and show that the distance separating two forest ecosystems can attract a part of the network to an extinction state. We incorporate a randomly generated perturbation modeling deforestation and investigate the effect of the level of deforestation on the equilibrium states of the network. We also exhibit a type of synchronization in the case of densely distributed forest ecosystems.

Mots clés: Mathematical modeling; forest ecosystem; complex network; ecology; dynamical system

Domaines: Biodiversité et Ecologie

Guillaume Cantin, Nathalie Verdière. Mathematical modeling of complex forest ecosystems: impacts of deforestation. 2020. ⟨hal-02496187⟩