Existence and Stability of Localized Patterns in the Population Models with Large Advection and Strong Allee Effect

TL;DR

This paper investigates how large advection and the strong Allee effect influence the existence and stability of localized population patterns, revealing conditions for stable and unstable steady states through rigorous analysis and simulations.

Contribution

It provides the first rigorous proof of multiple localized solutions and their stability properties in population models with strong directed movement and Allee effects.

Findings

Existence of multiple localized solutions under strong advection.

Stable and unstable steady states identified through spectrum analysis.

Numerical simulations confirm theoretical stability results.

Abstract

The strong Allee effect plays an important role on the evolution of population in ecological systems. One important concept is the Allee threshold that determines the persistence or extinction of the population in a long time. In general, a small initial population size is harmful to the survival of a species since when the initial data is below the Allee threshold the population tends to extinction, rather than persistence. Another interesting feature of population evolution is that a species whose movement strategy follows a conditional dispersal strategy is more likely to persist. In other words, the biased movement can be a benefit for the persistence of the population. The coexistence of the above two conflicting mechanisms makes the dynamics rather intricate. However, some numerical results obtained by Cosner et. al. (SIAM J. Appl. Math., Vol. 81, No. 2, 2021) show that the directed movement can invalidate the strong Allee effect and help the population survive. To study this intriguing phenomenon, we consider the pattern formation and local dynamics for a class of single species population models of that is subject to the strong Allee effect. We first rigorously show the existence of multiple localized solutions when the directed movement is strong enough. Next, the spectrum analysis of the associated linear eigenvalue problem is established and used to investigate the stability properties of these interior spikes. This analysis proves that there exists not only unstable but also linear stable steady states. Then, we extend results of the single equation to coupled systems, and also construct several non-constant steady states and analyze their stability. Finally, numerical simulations are performed to illustrate the theoretical results.