# On the interplay of harvesting and various diffusion strategies for spatially heterogeneous populations

## TL;DR

This paper investigates how different harvesting strategies affect the competition outcomes of two species in a spatially heterogeneous environment, revealing conditions for coexistence and exclusion.

## Contribution

It introduces a model analyzing the combined effects of harvesting and diffusion strategies on species competition in heterogeneous habitats.

## Key findings

- Harvesting can ensure survival of non-harvested species.
- Coexistence is possible within certain harvesting rate ranges.
- Specific estimates relate harvesting levels to competition outcomes.

## Abstract

The paper explores the influence of harvesting (or culling) on the outcome of the competition of two species in a spatially heterogeneous environment. The harvesting effort is assumed to be proportional to the space-dependent intrinsic growth rate. The differences between the two populations are the diffusion strategy and the harvesting intensity. In the absence of harvesting, competing populations may either coexist, or one of them may bring the other to extinction. If the latter is the case, introduction of any level of harvesting to the successful species guarantees survival to its non-harvested competitor. In the former case, there is a strip of "close enough" to each other harvesting rates leading to preservation of the original coexistence. Some estimates are obtained for the relation of the harvesting levels providing either coexistence or competitive exclusion.