Impact of predator dormancy on prey-predator dynamics

The impact of predator dormancy on the population dynamics of phytoplankton-zooplankton in freshwater ecosystems is investigated using a simple model including dormancy, a strategy to avoid extinction. In addition to recently reported chaos-mediated mixed-mode oscillations, as the carrying capacity grows, we find surprisingly wide phases of nonchaos-mediated mixed-mode oscillations to be present well before the onset of chaos in the system. Nonchaos-mediated cascades display spike-adding sequences, while chaos-mediated cascades show spike-doubling. A host of braided periodic phases with exotic shapes is found embedded in a region of control parameters dominated by chaotic oscillations. We describe the organization of these complicated phases and show how they are interconnected and how their complexity unfolds as control parameters change. The novel nonchaos-mediated phases are found to be large and stable, even for low carrying capacity.