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In this paper, we consider a quartic family of planar vector fields corresponding to a rational Holling system which models the dynamics of the populations of predators and their prey in a given ecological or biomedical system and which is a variation on the classical Lotka–Volterra system. For the latter system, the change of the prey density per unit of time per predator called the response function is proportional to the prey density. This means that there is no saturation of the predator when the amount of available prey is large. However, it is more realistic to consider a nonlinear and bounded response function, and in fact different response functions have been used in the literature to model the predator response. After algebraic transformations, the rational Holling system can be written in the form of a quartic dynamical system. To investigate the character and distribution of the singular points in the phase plane of the quartic system, we use our method the sense of which is to obtain the simplest (well-known) system by vanishing some parameters (usually field rotation parameters) of the original system and then to input these parameters successively one by one studying the dynamics of the singular points (both finite and infinite) in the phase plane. Using the obtained information on singular points and applying our geometric approach to the qualitative analysis, we study the limit cycle bifurcations of the quartic system. To control all of the limit cycle bifurcations, especially, bifurcations of multiple limit cycles, it is necessary to know the properties and combine the effects of all of the rotation parameters. It can be done by means of the Wintner–Perko termination principle stating that the maximal one-parameter family of multiple limit cycles terminates either at a singular point which is typically of the same multiplicity (cyclicity) or on a separatrix cycle which is also typically of the same multiplicity (cyclicity). Applying this principle, we prove that the quartic system (and the corresponding rational Holling system) can have at most two limit cycles surrounding one singular point.

The paper contains the analysis of the domestic publications issued in 2013–2017 years and devoted to cellular automata. The most of them concern on mathematical modeling. Scientometric schedules for 1990–2017 years have proved relevance of subject. The review allows to allocate the main personalities and the scientific directions/schools in modern Russian science, to reveal their originality or secondness in comparison with world science. Due to the authors choice of national publications basis instead of world, the paper claims the completeness and the fact is that about 200 items from the checked 526 references have an importance for science.

In the Annex to the review provides preliminary information about CA — the Game of Life, a theorem about gardens of Eden, elementary CAs (together with the diagram of de Brujin), block Margolus’s CAs, alternating CAs. Attention is paid to three important for modeling semantic traditions of von Neumann, Zuse and Zetlin, as well as to the relationship with the concepts of neural networks and Petri nets. It is allocated conditional 10 works, which should be familiar to any specialist in CA. Some important works of the 1990s and later are listed in the Introduction.

Then the crowd of publications is divided into categories: the modification of the CA and other network models (29 %), Mathematical properties of the CA and the connection with mathematics (5 %), Hardware implementation (3 %), Software implementation (5 %), Data Processing, recognition and Cryptography (8 %), Mechanics, physics and chemistry (20 %), Biology, ecology and medicine (15 %), Economics, urban studies and sociology (15 %). In parentheses the share of subjects in the array are indicated. There is an increase in publications on CA in the humanitarian sphere, as well as the emergence of hybrid approaches, leading away from the classic CA definition.

In this paper, using our bifurcation-geometric approach, we study global dynamics and solve the problem of the maximum number and distribution of limit cycles (self-oscillating regimes corresponding to states of dynamical equilibrium) in a planar polynomial mechanical system of the Euler–Lagrange–Liйnard type. Such systems are also used to model electrical, ecological, biomedical and other systems, which greatly facilitates the study of the corresponding real processes and systems with complex internal dynamics. They are used, in particular, in mechanical systems with damping and stiffness. There are a number of examples of technical systems that are described using quadratic damping in second-order dynamical models. In robotics, for example, quadratic damping appears in direct-coupled control and in nonlinear devices, such as variable impedance (resistance) actuators. Variable impedance actuators are of particular interest to collaborative robotics. To study the character and location of singular points in the phase plane of the Euler–Lagrange–Liйnard polynomial system, we use our method the meaning of which is to obtain the simplest (well-known) system by vanishing some parameters (usually, field rotation parameters) of the original system and then to enter sequentially these parameters studying the dynamics of singular points in the phase plane. To study the singular points of the system, we use the classical Poincarй index theorems, as well as our original geometric approach based on the application of the Erugin twoisocline method which is especially effective in the study of infinite singularities. Using the obtained information on the singular points and applying canonical systems with field rotation parameters, as well as using the geometric properties of the spirals filling the internal and external regions of the limit cycles and applying our geometric approach to qualitative analysis, we study limit cycle bifurcations of the system under consideration.

This article is dedicated to applicability justification as well as advantages and disadvantages analysis of discrete models in population dynamics. Discretization is the process of transferring continuous functions, models, and equations into discrete counterparts. We consider how temporal, spatial and structural discretization can be applied for solving typical issues in mathematical ecology, and try to estimate corresponding models adequacy and applicability limitations.

In the paper the statistical relationships between the size and production characteristics of phytoplankton and zooplankton of the Vistula and Curonian lagoons, the Baltic Sea, were investigated. Research phytoplankton and zooplankton within the Russian part of the area of the Vistula and the Curonian lagoon was carried out on the monthly basis (from April to November) within the framework of long-term monitoring program on evaluating of ecological status of the lagoons. The size structure of plankton is the basis for understanding of the development of production processes, mechanisms of formation of the plankton species diversity and functioning of the lagoon ecosystems. As results of the work it was found that the maximum rate of photosynthesis and the integral value of the primary production with a change in cell volume of phytoplankton are changed according to a power law. The result shows that the smaller the size of algal cells in phytoplankton communities the more actively occur metabolism and the more effective they assimilate the solar energy. It is shown that the formation of plankton species diversity in ecosystems of lagoons is closely linked with the size structure of plankton communities and with features of development of the production processes. It is proposed the structure of a spatially homogenous mathematical model of the plankton food chain for the lagoon ecosystems taking into account the size spectrum and the characteristics of phytoplankton and zooplankton. The model parameters are the sizedependent indicators allometrically linked with average volumes of cells and organisms in different ranges of their sizes. In the model the algorithm for changes over time the coefficients of food preferences in the diet of zooplankton was proposed. Developed the size-dependent mathematical model of aquatic ecosystems allows to consider the impact of turbulent exchange on the size structure and temporal dynamics of the plankton food chain of the Vistula and Curonian lagoons. The model can be used to study the different regimes of dynamic behavior of plankton systems depending on the changes in the values of its parameters and external influences, as well as to quantify the redistribution of matter flows in ecosystems of the lagoons.

In various areas of science, technology, environment protection, construction, it is very important to study processes of porous materials interaction with different substances in different aggregation states. From the point of view of ecology and environmental protection it is particularly actual to investigate processes of porous materials interaction with water in liquid and gaseous phases. Since one mole of water contains 6.022140857 · 10²³ molecules of H₂O, macroscopic approaches considering the water vapor as continuum media in the framework of classical aerodynamics are mainly used to describe properties, for example properties of water vapor in the pore. In this paper we construct and use for simulation the macroscopic two-dimensional diffusion model [Bitsadze, Kalinichenko, 1980] describing the behavior of water vapor inside the isolated pore. Together with the macroscopic model it is proposed microscopic model of the behavior of water vapor inside the isolated pores. This microscopic model is built within the molecular dynamics approach [Gould et al., 2005]. In the microscopic model a description of each water molecule motion is based on Newton classical mechanics considering interactions with other molecules and pore walls. Time evolution of “water vapor – pore” system is explored. Depending on the external to the pore conditions the system evolves to various states of equilibrium, characterized by different values of the macroscopic characteristics such as temperature, density, pressure. Comparisons of results of molecular dynamic simulations with the results of calculations based on the macroscopic diffusion model and experimental data allow to conclude that the combination of macroscopic and microscopic approach could produce more adequate and more accurate description of processes of water vapor interaction with porous materials.

A new discrete ecological-evolutionary mathematical model is presented, in which the search mechanisms for evolutionarily stable migration routes of fish populations are implemented. The proposed adaptive designs have a small dimension, and therefore have high speed. This allows carrying out calculations on long-term perspective for an acceptable machine time. Both geometric approaches of nonlinear analysis and computer “asymptotic” methods were used in the study of stability. The migration dynamics of the fish population is described by a certain Markov matrix, which can change during evolution. The “basis” matrices are selected in the family of Markov matrices (of fixed dimension), which are used to generate migration routes of mutant. A promising direction of the evolution of the spatial behavior of fish is revealed for a given fishery and food supply, as a result of competition of the initial population with mutants. This model was applied to solve the problem of optimal catch for the long term, provided that the reservoir is divided into two parts, each of which has its own owner. Dynamic programming is used, based on the construction of the Bellman function, when solving optimization problems. A paradoxical strategy of “luring” was discovered, when one of the participants in the fishery temporarily reduces the catch in its water area. In this case, the migrating fish spends more time in this area (on condition of equal food supply). This route is evolutionarily fixes and does not change even after the resumption of fishing in the area. The second participant in the fishery can restore the status quo by applying “luring” to its part of the water area. Endless sequence of “luring” arises as a kind of game “giveaway”. A new effective concept has been introduced — the internal price of the fish population, depending on the zone of the reservoir. In fact, these prices are Bellman's private derivatives, and can be used as a tax on caught fish. In this case, the problem of long-term fishing is reduced to solving the problem of one-year optimization.

The review and systematization of current papers on the mathematical modeling of population dynamics allow us to conclude the key interests of authors are two or three main research lines related to the description and analysis of the dynamics of both local structured populations and systems of interacting homogeneous populations as ecological community in physical space. The paper reviews and systematizes scientific studies and results obtained within the framework of dynamics of structured and interacting populations to date. The paper describes the scientific idea progress in the direction of complicating models from the classical Malthus model to the modern models with various factors affecting population dynamics in the issues dealing with modeling the local population size dynamics. In particular, they consider the dynamic effects that arise as a result of taking into account the environmental capacity, density-dependent regulation, the Allee effect, complexity of an age and a stage structures. Particular attention is paid to the multistability of population dynamics. In addition, studies analyzing harvest effect on structured population dynamics and an appearance of the hydra effect are presented. The studies dealing with an appearance and development of spatial dissipative structures in both spatially separated populations and communities with migrations are discussed. Here, special attention is also paid to the frequency and phase multistability of population dynamics, as well as to an appearance of spatial clusters. During the systematization and review of articles on modeling the interacting population dynamics, the focus is on the “prey–predator” community. The key idea and approaches used in current mathematical biology to model a “prey–predator” system with community structure and harvesting are presented. The problems of an appearance and stability of the mosaic structure in communities distributed spatially and coupled by migration are also briefly discussed.

Investigation of logical deterministic cellular automata models of population dynamics allows to reveal detailed individual-based mechanisms. The search for such mechanisms is important in connection with ecological problems caused by overexploitation of natural resources, environmental pollution and climate change. Classical models of population dynamics have the phenomenological nature, as they are “black boxes”. Phenomenological models fundamentally complicate research of detailed mechanisms of ecosystem functioning. We have investigated the role of fecundity and duration of resources regeneration in mechanisms of population growth using four models of ecosystem with one species. These models are logical deterministic cellular automata and are based on physical axiomatics of excitable medium with regeneration. We have modeled catastrophic death of population arising from increasing of resources regeneration duration. It has been shown that greater fecundity accelerates population extinction. The investigated mechanisms are important for understanding mechanisms of sustainability of ecosystems and biodiversity conservation. Prospects of the presented modeling approach as a method of transparent multilevel modeling of complex systems are discussed.

Base long-term modern scenarios of hydrochemical and temperature regimes of the Sea of Azov were considered. New schemes of modeling mechanisms of algal adaptation to changes in the hydrochemical regime and temperature were proposed. In comparison to the traditional ecological-evolutionary schemes, these models have a relatively small dimension, high speed and allow carrying out various calculations on long-term perspective (evolutionally significant times). Based on the ecology-evolutionary model of the lower trophic levels the impact of these environmental factors on the dynamics and microevolution of algae in the Sea of Azov was estimated. In each scenario, the calculations were made for 100 years, with the final values of the variables and parameters not depending on the choice of the initial values. In the process of such asymptotic computer analysis, it was found that as a result of climate warming and temperature adaptation of organisms, the average annual biomass of thermophilic algae (Pyrrophyta and Cyanophyta) naturally increases. However, for a number of diatom algae (Bacillariophyta), even with their temperature adaptation, the average annual biomass may unexpectedly decrease. Probably, this phenomenon is associated with a toughening of competition between species with close temperature parameters of existence. The influence of the variation in the chemical composition of the Don River’s flow on the dynamics of nutrients and algae of the Sea of Azov was also investigated. It turned out that the ratio of organic forms of nitrogen and phosphorus in sea waters varies little. This stabilization phenomenon will take place for all high-productive reservoirs with low flow, due to autochthonous origin of larger part of organic matter in water bodies of this type.