The hidden costs of noise pollution: dynamics and stability in a size-structured population model

Anthropogenic noise pollution has emerged as a pervasive environmental stressor with profound implications for ecosystems and biodiversity. Despite growing evidence of its immediate effects, the long-term consequences for population stability and ecosystem functioning remain poorly understood. This study develops an integrated theoretical framework to investigate how noise pollution impacts the stability and dynamics of size-structured populations. We incorporate noise as an environmental stressor that disrupts four key life-history processes: feeding, energy expenditure, mortality, and reproductive output. Through rigorous analytical and numerical analyses, we identify critical stability boundaries in parameter space defined by resource carrying capacity and noise intensity. Our results reveal that reduced food intake represents the most destabilizing pathway, significantly increasing population collapse risk compared to other mechanisms. Furthermore, we demonstrate that noise pollution systematically alters population structure through disruption of energy-mediated life-history transitions, with context-dependent shifts in juvenile dominance that vary by affected life stage. Beyond examining long-term stability, we quantify system resilience through recovery time following stage-specific perturbations, uncovering a counterintuitive finding: systems exhibiting periodic oscillations consistently recover faster than those at steady state. This study advances ecological theory by providing a mechanistic understanding of how noise pollution reshapes population dynamics, offering critical insights for predicting and mitigating its long-term ecological consequences.