Lotka–Volterra equation & Competitive Lotka–Volterra equations

Lotka–Volterra equation

The  Lotka–Volterra equations , also known as the  predator–prey equations , are a pair of first-order,  non-linear ,  differential equations  frequently used to describe the  dynamics  of  biological systems  in which two species interact, one as a predator and the other as prey. The populations change through time according to the pair of equations:

where

• x is the number of prey (for example, rabbits);
• y is the number of some predator (for example, foxes);
•  and  represent the growth rates of the two populations over time;
• t represents time; and
• , ,  and  are parameters describing the interaction of the two species.

 Competitive Lotka–Volterra equations

The  competitive Lotka–Volterra equations  are a simple model of the  population dynamics  of species competing for some common resource. They can be further generalised  to include trophic interactions.

The form is similar to the Lotka–Volterra equations for predation in that the equation for each species has one term for self-interaction and one term for the interaction with other species. In the equations for predation, the base population model is exponential. For the competition equations, the logistic equationis the basis.

Given two populations, x₁ and x₂, with logistic dynamics, the Lotka–Volterra formulation adds an additional term to account for the species' interactions. Thus the competitive Lotka–Volterra equations are:

Reference:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotka%E2%80%93Volterra_equation

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Competitive_Lotka%E2%80%93Volterra_equations