Appendix 1: Proof of proposition 4
With the specifications, given in subsection entitled “Periodic solutions”, one can compute
$$ G^{\prime } \left( X \right) = R\left( {1 - 2X} \right),\quad G^{\prime \prime } \left( X \right) = - 2R,\quad \phi_{u} \left( {u, \nu } \right) = \gamma u^{\gamma - 1} ,\quad \phi_{\nu } \left( {u, \nu } \right) = u^{\gamma } ,\quad C^{\prime } \left( u \right) = C,\quad A^{\prime } \left( \nu \right) = \nu^{\xi - 2} ,\quad D^{\prime } \left( X \right) = D,\quad \upsilon^{\prime } \left( X \right) = \upsilon $$
$$ \frac{{\partial H_{1} }}{\partial u} = 0 \Leftrightarrow \left( {1 - \lambda } \right)\phi_{u} \left( {u,\nu } \right) = C^{\prime}\left( u \right) \Leftrightarrow \left( {1 - \lambda } \right)\gamma u^{\gamma - 1} \nu = C $$
(45)
$$ \frac{{\partial H_{2} }}{\partial \nu } = 0 \Leftrightarrow A^{{\prime }} \left( \nu \right) = \mu \phi_{\nu } \left( {u,\nu } \right) \Leftrightarrow \mu u^{\gamma } = \nu^{\xi - 2} $$
(46)
Combining (45) and (46) the optimal strategies take the following forms
$$ u^{*} = \mu_{{}}^{{{{ - 1} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{ - 1} {\left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \gamma } \right)\left( {1 - \xi } \right)} \right]}}} \right. \kern-0pt} {\left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \gamma } \right)\left( {1 - \xi } \right)} \right]}}}} \left[ {\frac{C}{{\gamma \left( {1 - \lambda } \right)}}} \right]^{{{{\left( {\xi - 2} \right)} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{\left( {\xi - 2} \right)} {\left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \xi } \right)\left( {1 - \gamma } \right)} \right]}}} \right. \kern-0pt} {\left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \xi } \right)\left( {1 - \gamma } \right)} \right]}}}} $$
(47)
$$ \nu^{*} = \mu_{{}}^{{{{\left( {\gamma - 1} \right)} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{\left( {\gamma - 1} \right)} {\left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \gamma } \right)\left( {1 - \xi } \right)} \right]}}} \right. \kern-0pt} {\left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \gamma } \right)\left( {1 - \xi } \right)} \right]}}}} \left[ {\frac{C}{{\gamma \left( {1 - \lambda } \right)}}} \right]^{{{\gamma \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {\gamma {\left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \gamma } \right)\left( {1 - \xi } \right)} \right]}}} \right. \kern-0pt} {\left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \gamma } \right)\left( {1 - \xi } \right)} \right]}}}} $$
(48)
and the optimal environmental damage becomes
$$ \phi \left( {u^{*} ,\nu^{*} } \right) = \mu^{{{{ - 1} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{ - 1} {\left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \gamma } \right)\left( {1 - \xi } \right)} \right]}}} \right. \kern-0pt} {\left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \gamma } \right)\left( {1 - \xi } \right)} \right]}}}} \left[ {\frac{C}{{\gamma \left( {1 - \lambda } \right)}}} \right]^{{{{\gamma \left( {\xi - 1} \right)} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{\gamma \left( {\xi - 1} \right)} {\left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \gamma } \right)\left( {1 - \xi } \right)} \right]}}} \right. \kern-0pt} {\left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \gamma } \right)\left( {1 - \xi } \right)} \right]}}}} $$
(49)
with the following partial derivatives
$$ \begin{aligned} \frac{\partial \phi }{\partial \lambda } & = \frac{{\mu^{{{{ - 1} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{ - 1} {\left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \gamma } \right)\left( {1 - \xi } \right)} \right]}}} \right. \kern-0pt} {\left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \gamma } \right)\left( {1 - \xi } \right)} \right]}}}} \left[ {\frac{C}{{\gamma \left( {1 - \lambda } \right)}}} \right]^{{{{\gamma \left( {\xi - 1} \right)} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{\gamma \left( {\xi - 1} \right)} {\left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \gamma } \right)\left( {1 - \xi } \right)} \right]}}} \right. \kern-0pt} {\left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \gamma } \right)\left( {1 - \xi } \right)} \right]}}}} }}{{\left( {1 - \lambda } \right)}}\frac{{\gamma \left( {\xi - 1} \right)}}{{1 + \left( {1 - \xi } \right)\left( {1 - \gamma } \right)}} \\ & = \frac{{\phi \left( {u^{*} ,\nu^{*} } \right)}}{{\left( {1 - \lambda } \right)}}\frac{{\gamma \left( {\xi - 1} \right)}}{{1 + \left( {1 - \xi } \right)\left( {1 - \gamma } \right)}} \\ \end{aligned} $$
(50)
$$ \begin{aligned} \frac{\partial \phi }{\partial \mu } & = \frac{{\mu^{{{{ - 1} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{ - 1} {\left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \gamma } \right)\left( {1 - \xi } \right)} \right]}}} \right. \kern-0pt} {\left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \gamma } \right)\left( {1 - \xi } \right)} \right]}}}} \left[ {\frac{C}{{\gamma \left( {1 - \lambda } \right)}}} \right]^{{{{\gamma \left( {\xi - 1} \right)} \mathord{\left/ {\vphantom {{\gamma \left( {\xi - 1} \right)} {\left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \gamma } \right)\left( {1 - \xi } \right)} \right]}}} \right. \kern-0pt} {\left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \gamma } \right)\left( {1 - \xi } \right)} \right]}}}} }}{{\lambda_{2} }}\frac{ - 1}{{1 + \left( {1 - \xi } \right)\left( {1 - \gamma } \right)}} \\ & = \frac{{\phi \left( {u^{*} ,\nu^{*} } \right)}}{\mu }\frac{ - 1}{{1 + \left( {1 - \xi } \right)\left( {1 - \gamma } \right)}} \\ \end{aligned} $$
(51)
Both derivatives (50), (51) are negatives due to the assumptions on the parameters \( \gamma , \xi \in \left( {0,1} \right) \) and on the signs of the functions derivates, that is \( \phi_{u} > 0, \phi_{\nu } > 0, \upsilon^{{\prime }} \left( x \right) > 0, D^{{\prime }} \left( x \right) > 0 \), which ensures the positive sign of the adjoints \( \lambda , \mu \).
Bifurcation condition \( w = \frac{\det \left( J \right)}{{{\text{tr }}\left( J \right)}} \) now becomes
\( \rho_{1} \rho_{2} \left[ {\rho_{1} + \rho_{2} - 2G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right] = \lambda \rho_{1} G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)\frac{\partial \phi }{\partial \lambda } + \mu \rho_{2} G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)\frac{\partial \phi }{\partial \mu } \), which after substituting the values from (50), (51) and making the rest of algebraic manipulations, finally yields (at the steady states)
$$ \frac{{\phi \left( {u_{\infty } ,\nu_{\infty } } \right)G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)}}{{1 + \left( {1 - \xi } \right)\left( {1 - \gamma } \right)}}\left[ {\rho_{1} \gamma \left( {1 - \xi } \right)\frac{D}{{D + G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right) - \rho_{1} }} - \rho_{2} } \right] - \rho_{1} \rho_{2} \left[ {\rho_{1} + \rho_{2} - 2G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right] = 0 $$
(52)
Where we have set \( \frac{\lambda }{1 - \lambda } = \frac{D}{{\rho_{1} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right) - D}} \) stemming from the adjoint equation \( \dot{\lambda } = \lambda \left( {\rho_{1} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right) - D^{{\prime }} \left( X \right) \), which at the steady states reduces into \( \lambda = D^{\prime } \left( X \right)/D^{\prime } \left( X \right)\left( {\rho_{1} - G^{\prime } \left( X \right)} \right).\left( {\rho_{1} - G^{\prime } \left( X \right)} \right) \).
Condition w > 0 after substitution the values from (50), (51) becomes
$$ w = \rho_{1} \rho_{2} - \left[ {G^{\prime } \left( X \right)} \right]^{2} + \frac{{\phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)G^{\prime \prime } \left( X \right)}}{{1 + \left( {1 - \xi } \right)\left( {1 - \gamma } \right)}}\left[ {\gamma \left( {1 - \xi } \right)\frac{ - D}{{G^{\prime}\left( X \right) + D - \rho_{1} }} + 1} \right] > 0 $$
(53)
The division of (52) by ρ
1 yields
$$ \frac{{\phi \left( {u_{\infty } ,\nu_{\infty } } \right)G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)}}{{1 + \left( {1 - \xi } \right)\left( {1 - \gamma } \right)}}\left[ {\gamma \left( {1 - \xi } \right)\frac{D}{{D + G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right) - \rho_{1} }} - \frac{{\rho_{2} }}{{\rho_{1} }}} \right] - \rho_{2} \left[ {\rho_{1} + \rho_{2} - 2G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right] = 0 $$
(54)
The sum (53) + (54) must be positive, thus after simplifications and taking into account, at the steady state, that ϕ(u
∞, ν
∞) = G(X), we have:\( G\left( X \right)G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)\frac{{\rho_{1} - \rho_{2} }}{{\rho_{1} \left[ {1 + \left( {1 - \xi } \right)\left( {1 - \gamma } \right)} \right]}} > \left[ {\rho_{2} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]^{2} \) and the result ρ
2 > ρ
1 follows from the strict concavity of the logistic growth G″ < 0.
Appendix 2
Proof that the bifurcation condition \( w = \frac{\det \left( J \right)}{{{\text{tr}} \left( J \right)}} \) (56) can be written as:
$$ \rho_{1} \rho_{2} \left[ {\rho_{1} + \rho_{2} - 2G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right] = \frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \lambda }\left[ {\lambda G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + D^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right]\rho_{1} + \frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \mu }\left[ {\mu G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + \upsilon^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right]\rho_{2} $$
(55)
Until now we have:
$$ {\text{tr}} \left( J \right) = \rho_{1} + \rho_{2} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right) $$
(56)
$$ \begin{aligned} \det \left( J \right) & = G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)\left( {\rho_{1} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right)\left( {\rho_{2} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right) - \frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \lambda }\left( {\lambda G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + D^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right) \\ & \quad \left( {\rho_{2} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right) - \frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \mu }\left( {\mu G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + \upsilon^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right)\left( {\rho_{1} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right) \\ \end{aligned} $$
(57)
$$ w = \rho_{1} \rho_{2} - \left[ {G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]^{2} - \frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \lambda }\left[ {\lambda G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + D^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right] - \frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \mu }\left[ {\mu G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + \upsilon^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right] $$
(58)
First we multiply (56) by (58), and
$$ \begin{aligned} \left[ {\rho_{1} + \rho_{2} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right] \cdot \left[ {\rho_{1} \rho_{2} - \left[ {G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]^{2} - \frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \lambda }\left[ {\lambda G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + D^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right] - \frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \mu }\left[ {\mu G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + \upsilon^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right]} \right] \\ = \left[ {\rho_{1} + \rho_{2} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]\left[ {\rho_{1} \rho_{2} - \left[ {G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]^{2} } \right] - \left[ {\rho_{1} + \rho_{2} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]\frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \lambda }\left[ {\lambda G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + D^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right] - \left[ {\rho_{1} + \rho_{2} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]\frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \mu }\left[ {\mu G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + \upsilon^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right] \\ \end{aligned} $$
(59)
Equating (57) = (59)
$$ \begin{array}{l} G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)\left( {\rho_{1} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right)\left( {\rho_{2} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right) - \frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \lambda }\left( {\lambda G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + D^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right)\left( {\rho_{2} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right) \hfill \\ \quad - \frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \mu }\left( {\mu G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + \upsilon^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right)\left( {\rho_{1} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right) \hfill \\ = \left[ {\rho_{1} + \rho_{2} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]\left[ {\rho_{1} \rho_{2} - \left[ {G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]^{2} } \right] - \left[ {\rho_{1} + \rho_{2} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]\frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \lambda }\left[ {\lambda G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + D^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right] \hfill \\ \quad - \left[ {\rho_{1} + \rho_{2} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]\frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \mu }\left[ {\mu G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + \upsilon^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right] \hfill \\ \Leftrightarrow G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)\left[ {\rho_{1} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]\left[ {\rho_{2} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right] = \left[ {\rho_{1} + \rho_{2} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]\left[ {\rho_{1} \rho_{2} - \left[ {G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]^{2} } \right] \hfill \\ \quad - \rho_{1} \frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \lambda }\left[ {\lambda G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + D^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right] - \rho_{2} \frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \mu }\left[ {\mu G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + \upsilon^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right] \hfill \\ \Leftrightarrow \left[ {\rho_{1} + \rho_{2} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]\left[ {\rho_{1} \rho_{2} - \left[ {G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]^{2} } \right] - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)\left[ {\rho_{1} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]\left[ {\rho_{2} - G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right] \hfill \\ = \rho_{1} \frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \lambda }\left[ {\lambda G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + D^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right] + \rho_{2} \frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \mu }\left[ {\mu G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + \upsilon^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right] \hfill \\ \Leftrightarrow \left( {\rho_{1} + \rho_{2} } \right)\rho_{1} \rho_{2} - \left( {\rho_{1} + \rho_{2} } \right)\left[ {G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]^{2} - \rho_{1} \rho_{2} G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right) + \left[ {G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]^{3} \hfill \\ \quad - \rho_{1} \rho_{2} G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right) + \rho_{1} \left[ {G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]^{2} + \rho_{2} \left[ {G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]^{2} - \left[ {G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right]^{3} \hfill \\ = \rho_{1} \frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \lambda }\left[ {\lambda G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + D^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right] + \rho_{2} \frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \mu }\left[ {\mu G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + \upsilon^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right] \hfill \\ \Leftrightarrow \rho_{1} \rho_{2} \left( {\rho_{1} + \rho_{2} - 2G^{{\prime }} \left( X \right)} \right) = \rho_{1} \frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \lambda }\left[ {\lambda G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + D^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right] + \rho_{2} \frac{{\partial \phi \left( {u,\nu } \right)}}{\partial \mu }\left[ {\mu G^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right) + \upsilon^{{{\prime \prime }}} \left( X \right)} \right] \hfill \\ \end{array} $$
which is the condition for cyclical strategies mentioned in the main text.