Abstract: In this paper, we develop a global perturbation technique for the study of periodic orbits in three-dimensional, time dependent and independent, perturbations of generalized Hamiltonian differential equations defined on three-dimensional Poisson manifolds. We give existence, stability and bifurcation theorems and illustrate our results with a truncated spectral model of the forced, dissipative quasi-geostrophic flow on a cyclic β-plane.

Key words: Generalized Hamiltonian system, periodic orbit, Melnikov method