Competitive-cooperative models with various diffusion strategies

TL;DR

This paper studies a generalized dispersal model for competing species, showing conditions for coexistence and the effects of different dispersal strategies and rates on survival, extending previous results to more general diffusion types.

Contribution

It introduces a new dispersal model with a space-dependent strategy function and analyzes stability and coexistence, extending prior work to more general dispersal mechanisms.

Findings

A stable coexistence equilibrium exists when species adopt a combined dispersal strategy.

Choosing the same dispersal strategy as the carrying capacity leads to specific effects of diffusion and growth rates.

The model generalizes previous diffusion results to a broader class of dispersal strategies.

Abstract

The paper is concerned with different types of dispersal chosen by competing species. We introduce a model with the diffusion-type term $\nabla \cdot \left[ a \nabla \left( u/P \right) \right]$ which includes some previously studied systems as special cases, where a positive space-dependent function $P$ can be interpreted as a chosen dispersal strategy. The well-known result that if the first species chooses $P$ proportional to the carrying capacity while the second does not then the first species will bring the second one to extinction, is also valid for this type of dispersal. However, we focus on the case when the ideal free distribution is attained as a combination of the two strategies adopted by the two species. Then there is a globally stable coexistence equilibrium, its uniqueness is justified. If both species choose the same dispersal strategy, non-proportional to the carrying capacity, then the influence of higher diffusion rates is negative, while of higher intrinsic growth rates is positive for survival in a competition. This extends the result of [J. Math. Biol. {\bf 37} (1) (1998), 61--83] for the regular diffusion to a more general type of dispersal.