Dynamical analysis of a diffusion plant-wrack model with delay

In this paper, in view of the senescence of plant and the decay of wrack, time delays are introduced into the plant-wrack model. The effects of wrack decay and time delay on the dynamical behaviors of the diffusive plant-wrack model are studied analytically and numerically. When the delay is zero, the wrack decay will induce the change of stability of the unique equilibrium point, further lead to the occurrence of the Hopf bifurcation and the Turing instability. When the delay is present, the conditions for the occurrence of the Hopf bifurcation are established. By comparing the results of the model without and with delay, it is found that the increases of delay may induce no stability switches, a single stability switch or multiple stability switches, when the value of wrack decay can stabilize model with zero delay. When the value of wrack decay can destabilize model with zero delay, numerical simulations show that the small delay may cause homogeneous distributions of vegetation, while the larger delay may cause the emergence of periodic oscillation of vegetation. The obtained results provide a basis for understanding the spatiotemporal evolution of such a plant-wrack model with delay.