Abstract
The coffee berry borer (CBB), Hypothenemus hampei, is the most damaging pest in coffee agroecosystems worldwide, requiring effective and sustainable control strategies. In this work, we develop and analyze a piecewise-smooth dynamical system that models the interaction between biological control and threshold-activated ethological control. The model incorporates a discontinuous switching mechanism based on pest density, leading to non-smooth dynamics analyzed within the Filippov framework. We characterize pseudo-equilibria, tangent points, and sliding dynamics, and identify both codimension-one and codimension-two bifurcations that organize the system’s qualitative behavior in parameter space. Our results reveal that the interplay between the activation threshold and trapping intensity determines transitions between regimes of pest persistence, suppression, and low-density control. In particular, early activation of control combined with sufficient capture rates leads to regimes where pest populations are effectively contained or driven toward extinction within the model framework. This reveals novel dynamical regimes not captured by smooth models. These findings provide a rigorous dynamical foundation for threshold-based pest management strategies and highlight the relevance of discontinuity-induced phenomena in ecological systems.
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Acknowledgements
Gerard Olivar-Tost gratefully acknowledges the support of the Universidad Católica del Maule, Facultad de Ciencias Básicas, Departamento de Matemática, Física y Estadística, Talca, Chile. Deissy Milena Sotelo-Castelblanco is grateful to the National University of Colombia-FCEN, for its support in her sabbatical project, during which part of this work was completed.
Funding
Gerard Olivar Tost acknowledges partial financial support for this research from the Office of the Vice-Rector for Research and Graduate Studies, Universidad Católica del Maule, Talca, Chile.
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Trujillo-Salazar, C.A., Olivar-Tost, G. & Sotelo-Castelblanco, D.M. Bifurcation analysis in a piecewise-smooth dynamical system modeling the effects of biological and ethological controls on the coffee berry borer.
Sci Rep (2026). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-53596-z
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-026-53596-z
Keywords
- Coffee berry borer
- Nonhyperbolic equilibrium point
- Saddle-node bifurcation
- Piecewise-smooth dynamical systems
- Boundary equilibrium bifurcation
- Codimension two bifurcation
Source: Ecology - nature.com
