Effects of Immigration on the Dynamics of Simple Population Models

Many simple population models exhibit the period doubling route to chaos as a single parameter, commonly the growth rate, is increased. Here we examine the effect of an immigration process on such models and explain why in the case of one-dimensional (“single-humped”) maps, immigration often tends to suppress chaos and stabilise equiibrium behaviour or cyclical oscillations of long period. The conditions for which an increase of immigration “simplifies” population dynamics are examined.