Competition in periodic media: III -- Existence \& stability of segregated periodic coexistence states

TL;DR

This paper investigates the existence and stability of periodic coexistence states in strongly competitive reaction-diffusion systems with periodic coefficients, revealing conditions for stable non-constant solutions and ecological implications.

Contribution

It establishes the existence and stability of non-constant periodic solutions in strongly competitive reaction-diffusion models with large periods, extending prior results.

Findings

Stable non-constant solutions exist for large periods.

Comparison with previous non-existence results.

Ecological interpretation as resistance to invasion.

Abstract

In this paper we consider a system of parabolic reaction-diffusion equations with strong competition and two related scalar reaction-diffusion equations. We are mainly concerned with the case of periodic coefficients and periodic solutions. We show that, for sufficiently large periods, these models have stationary, non-constant, fully non-trivial and stable solutions. We compare our results with already known results about the existence and non-existence of such solutions. Finally, we provide ecological interpretations for these results in terms of resistance against an invasion.