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The article presents the results of computer simulations aimed to assess the influence of tree spatial locations (planting schemes) on the productivity and the dynamics of soil fertility in forest plantations. The growth of aspen (Populus tremula L.) in plantations with short rotation (30 years) was simulated in the EFIMOD system of models with the soil and climatic data matching forested lands in the Mari El Republic. The outcome reveals that higher biomass rates, increase in soil organic matter stocks, and the minimal loss of soil nitrogen can be obtained when the distance between trees in the row equals 1–4 m and 4–6 м in aisles.

In this paper we consider a new modification of the discrete version of Mikhailov’s ‘power–society’ model, previously proposed by the author. This modification includes social-economical dynamics and corruption of the system similarly to continuous ‘power–society–economics–corruption’ model but is based on a stochastic cellular automaton describing the dynamics of power distribution in a hierarchy. This new version is founded on previously proposed ‘power–society’ system modeling cellular automaton, its cell state space enriched with variables corresponding to population, economic production, production assets volume and corruption level. The social-economical structure of the model is inherited from Solow and deterministic continuous ‘power–society–economics–corruption’ models. At the same time the new model is flexible, allowing to consider regional differentiation in all social and economical dynamics parameters, to use various production and demography models and to account for goods transit between the regions. A simulation system was built, including three power hierarchy levels, five regions and 100 municipalities. and a number of numerical experiments were carried out. This research yielded results showing specific changes of the dynamics in power distribution in hierarchy when corruption level increases. While corruption is zero (similar to the previous version of the model) the power distribution in hierarchy asymptotically tends to one of stationary states. If the corruption level increases substantially, volume of power in the system is subjected to irregular oscillations, and only much later tends to a stationary value. The meaning of these results can be interpreted as the fact that the stability of power hierarchy decreases when corruption level goes up.

The problem of harvest optimization remains a central challenge in mathematical biology. The concept of Maximum Sustainable Yield (MSY), widely used in optimal exploitation theory, proposes maintaining target populations at levels ensuring maximum reproduction, theoretically balancing economic benefits with resource conservation. While MSYbased management promotes population stability and system resilience, it faces significant limitations due to complex intrapopulation structures and nonlinear dynamics in exploited species. Of particular concern are the evolutionary consequences of harvesting, as artificial selection may drive changes divergent from natural selection pressures. Empirical evidence confirms that selective harvesting alters behavioral traits, reduces offspring quality, and modifies population gene pools. In contrast, the genetic impacts of non-selective harvesting remain poorly understood and require further investigation.

This study examines how non-selective harvesting with constant removal rates affects evolution in genetically heterogeneous populations. We model genetic diversity controlled by a single diallelic locus, where different genotypes dominate at high/low densities: r-strategists (high fecundity) versus K-strategists (resource-limited resilience). The classical ecological and genetic model with discrete time is considered. The model assumes that the fitness of each genotype linearly depends on the population size. By including the harvesting withdrawal coefficient, the model allows for linking the problem of optimizing harvest with the that of predicting genotype selection.

Analytical results demonstrate that under MSY harvesting the equilibrium genetic composition remains unchanged while population size halves. The type of genetic equilibrium may shift, as optimal harvest rates differ between equilibria. Natural K-strategist dominance may reverse toward r-strategists, whose high reproduction compensates for harvest losses. Critical harvesting thresholds triggering strategy shifts were identified.

These findings explain why exploited populations show slow recovery after harvesting cessation: exploitation reinforces adaptations beneficial under removal pressure but maladaptive in natural conditions. For instance, captive arctic foxes select for high-productivity genotypes, whereas wild populations favor lower-fecundity/higher-survival phenotypes. This underscores the necessity of incorporating genetic dynamics into sustainable harvesting management strategies, as MSY policies may inadvertently alter evolutionary trajectories through density-dependent selection processes. Recovery periods must account for genetic adaptation timescales in management frameworks.

The paper considers a method for studying panel data based on the use of agglomerative hierarchical clustering — grouping objects based on the similarities and differences in their features into a hierarchy of clusters nested into each other. We used 2 alternative methods for calculating Euclidean distances between objects — the distance between the values averaged over observation interval, and the distance using data for all considered years. Three alternative methods for calculating the distances between clusters were compared. In the first case, the distance between the nearest elements from two clusters is considered to be distance between these clusters, in the second — the average over pairs of elements, in the third — the distance between the most distant elements. The efficiency of using two clustering quality indices, the Dunn and Silhouette index, was studied to select the optimal number of clusters and evaluate the statistical significance of the obtained solutions. The method of assessing statistical reliability of cluster structure consisted in comparing the quality of clustering on a real sample with the quality of clustering on artificially generated samples of panel data with the same number of objects, features and lengths of time series. Generation was made from a fixed probability distribution. At the same time, simulation methods imitating Gaussian white noise and random walk were used. Calculations with the Silhouette index showed that a random walk is characterized not only by spurious regression, but also by “spurious clustering”. Clustering was considered reliable for a given number of selected clusters if the index value on the real sample turned out to be greater than the value of the 95% quantile for artificial data. A set of time series of indicators characterizing production in the regions of the Russian Federation was used as a sample of real data. For these data only Silhouette shows reliable clustering at the level p < 0.05. Calculations also showed that index values for real data are generally closer to values for random walks than for white noise, but it have significant differences from both. Since three-dimensional feature space is used, the quality of clustering was also evaluated visually. Visually, one can distinguish clusters of points located close to each other, also distinguished as clusters by the applied hierarchical clustering algorithm.

The article examines the impact of non-market actions of participants in oligopolistic markets on the market structure. The following actions of one of the market participants aimed at increasing its market share are analyzed: 1) price manipulation; 2) blocking investments of stronger oligopolists; 3) destruction of produced products and capacities of competitors. Linear dynamic games with a quadratic criterion are used to model the strategies of oligopolists. The expediency of their use is due to the possibility of both an adequate description of the evolution of markets and the implementation of two mutually complementary approaches to determining the strategies of oligopolists: 1) based on the representation of models in the state space and the solution of generalized Riccati equations; 2) based on the application of operational calculus methods (in the frequency domain) which owns the visibility necessary for economic analysis.

The article shows the equivalence of approaches to solving the problem with maximin criteria of oligopolists in the state space and in the frequency domain. The results of calculations are considered in relation to a duopoly, with indicators close to one of the duopolies in the microelectronic industry of the world. The second duopolist is less effective from the standpoint of costs, though more mobile. Its goal is to increase its market share by implementing the non-market methods listed above.

Calculations carried out with help of the game model, made it possible to construct dependencies that characterize the relationship between the relative increase in production volumes over a 25-year period of weak and strong duopolists under price manipulation. Constructed dependencies show that an increase in the price for the accepted linear demand function leads to a very small increase in the production of a strong duopolist, but, simultaneously, to a significant increase in this indicator for a weak one.

Calculations carried out with use of the other variants of the model, show that blocking investments, as well as destroying the products of a strong duopolist, leads to more significant increase in the production of marketable products for a weak duopolist than to a decrease in this indicator for a strong one.