Bifurcation analysis of piecewise smooth ecological models.

The aim of this paper is the study of the long-term behavior of population communities described by piecewise smooth models (known as Filippov systems). Models of this kind are often used to describe populations with selective switching between alternative habitats or diets or to mimic the evolution of an exploited resource where harvesting is forbidden when the resource is below a prescribed threshold. The analysis is carried out by performing the bifurcation analysis of the model with respect to two parameters. A relatively simple method, called the puzzle method, is proposed to construct the complete bifurcation diagram step-by-step. The method is illustrated through four examples concerning the exploitation and protection of interacting populations.