On the evolution of slow dispersal in multi-species communities

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that in multi-species communities with identical ecological traits, specific diffusion rates can enable the slowest disperser to outcompete others, supporting a longstanding ecological conjecture.

Contribution

It shows the existence of diffusion rate choices allowing the slowest disperser to dominate, using advanced mathematical tools and providing evidence for a 1998 ecological conjecture.

Findings

Existence of diffusion rates enabling slowest disperser to exclude others

Open set of diffusion rates in Hausdorff topology for species dominance

Application of Morse decomposition and Floquet bundle theory

Abstract

For any $N \geq 2$, we show that there are choices of diffusion rates $\{d_i\}_{i=1}^N$ such that for $N$ competing species which are ecologically identical and having distinct diffusion rates, the slowest disperser is able to competitive exclude the remainder of the species. In fact, the choices of such diffusion rates is open in the Hausdorff topology. Our result provides some evidence in the affirmative direction regarding the conjecture by Dockery et al. in 1998. The main tools include Morse decomposition of the semiflow, as well as the theory of normalized principal Floquet bundle for linear parabolic equations. A critical step in the proof is to establish the smooth dependence of the Floquet bundle on diffusion rate and other coefficients, which may be of independent interest.