Direction and Stability of Bifurcating Periodic Solutions in a Delay-Induced Ecoepidemiological System

A SI-type ecoepidemiological model that incorporates reproduction delay of predator is studied. Considering delay as parameter, we investigate the effect of delay on the stability of the coexisting equilibrium. It is observed that there is stability switches, and Hopf bifurcation occurs when the delay crosses some critical value. By applying the normal form theory and the center manifold theorem, the explicit formulae which determine the stability and direction of the bifurcating periodic solutions are determined. Computer simulations have been carried out to illustrate different analytical findings. Results indicate that the Hopf bifurcation is supercritical and the bifurcating periodic solution is stable for the considered parameter values. It is also observed that the quantitative level of abundance of system populations depends crucially on the delay parameter if the reproduction period of predator exceeds the critical value.