As population cycles can lead to recurring outbreaks or increased extinction risk, many control methods aim at stabilizing fluctuations. Few of them, however, have been studied both empirically and theoretically. Here, we consider adaptive limiter control (ALC), a strategy recently proposed by Sah et al. and demonstrated in experimental fruit fly populations. The idea is to augment the population size whenever it falls below a certain fractions of its size in the previous generation. We thoroughly explain the mechanisms that allow ALC to reduce the magnitude of population fluctuations under certain conditions. While ALC is a control strategy with a number of useful properties, there are also some caveats that can turn ALC counterproductive and result in unintended outcomes.

This is joint work with Daniel Franco (UNED, Madrid).

References:

Franco D, Hilker FM (2013) Adaptive limiter control of unimodal population maps. Journal of Theoretical Biology 337, 161-173.

Franco D, Hilker FM (2014) Stabilizing populations with adaptive limiters: prospects and fallacies. SIAM Journal on Applied Dynamical Systems 13, 447-465.

Sah P, Salve JP, Dey S (2013) Stabilizing biological populations and metapopulations through Adaptive Limiter Control. Journal of Theoretical Biology 320, 113-123.