Change of dynamic regimes in the population of species with short life cycles: Results of an analytical and numerical study

•Discrete-time model with density-dependent birth regulation.•Populations with short life cycle.•Multistability of dynamic regimes.•Fitting of time series on bank vole dynamics.

There is a phenomenon of multiregimism found in the elementary mathematical model of population dynamics, meaning the possibility for different dynamic regimes to exist under the same conditions, with transition to these regimes dependent on the initial numerical values. The effect in question comes into existence in the model which has several different limiting regimes (attractors): equilibrium, regular fluctuations, and chaotic attractor. The revealed phenomenon of multiregimism lets us explain the initiation of fluctuations as well as disappearance of fluctuations. Adequacy of the model's dynamic regimes is depicted by their correlation with the actual dynamics of population size of bank vole (Myodes glareolus). It is shown that the impact of climatic factors on a reproductive process of a population noticeably extends the range of possible dynamic regimes and, in fact, leads to random migration over attraction basins of these regimes.