Bingtuan Li

Existence of traveling waves for integral recursions with nonmonotone growth functions.

A class of integral recursion models for the growth and spread of a synchronized single-species population is studied. It is well known that if there is no overcompensation in the fecundity function, the recursion has an asymptotic spreading speed c*, and that this speed can be characterized as the speed of the slowest non-constant traveling wave solution. A class of integral recursions with overcompensation which still have asymptotic spreading speeds can be found by using the ideas introduced by Thieme (J Reine Angew Math 306:94–121, 1979) for the study of space-time integral equation models for epidemics. The present work gives a large subclass of these models with overcompensation for which the spreading speed can still be characterized as the slowest speed of a non-constant traveling wave. To illustrate our results, we numerically simulate a series of traveling waves. The simulations indicate that, depending on the properties of the fecundity function, the tails of the waves may approach the carrying capacity monotonically, may approach the carrying capacity in an oscillatory manner, or may oscillate continually about the carrying capacity, with its values bounded above and below by computable positive numbers.

How Many Species Can Two Essential Resources Support

A chemostat model of n species of microorganisms competing for two perfectly complementary, growth-limiting nutrients is considered. Sufficient conditions are given for there to be a single winning species and for two species to coexist, driving the others to extinction. In the case when n=3, it is shown that every solution converges to one of the single-species or two-species steady states, and hence the dynamics of the model is completely determined. The results generalize those of Hsu, Cheng, and Hubbell [SIAM J. Appl. Math., 41 (1981), pp. 422--444] as well as Butler and Wolkowicz [ Math. Biosci., 83 (1987), pp. 1--48] who considered two species.

Global asymptotic behavior of a chemostat model with two perfectly complementary resources and distributed delay

A model of the chemostat involving two species of microorganisms competing for two perfectly complementary, growth-limiting nutrients is considered. The model incorporates distributed time delay in the form of integral differential equations in order to describe the time involved in converting nutrient to biomass. The delays are included in the nutrient and species concentrations simultaneously. A general class of monotone increasing functions is used to describe nutrient uptake. Sufficient conditions based on biologically meaningful parameters in the model are given that predict competitive exclusion for certain parameter ranges and coexistence for others. We prove that the global asymptotic attractivity of steady states of the model is similar to that of the corresponding model without time delays. However, our results indicate that when the inherent delays are in fact large, ignoring them may result in incorrect predictions.

HETEROCLINIC BIFURCATION IN THE MICHAELIS-MENTEN-TYPE RATIO-DEPENDENT PREDATOR-PREY SYSTEM ∗

The existence of a heteroclinic bifurcation for the Michaelis–Menten-type ratio-dependent predator-prey system is rigorously established. Limit cycles related to the heteroclinic bifurcation are also discussed. It is shown that the heteroclinic bifurcation is characterized by the collision of a stable limit cycle with the origin, and the bifurcation triggers a catastrophic shift from the state of large oscillations of predator and prey populations to the state of extinction of both populations. It is also shown that the limit cycles related to the heteroclinic bifurcation originally bifurcate from the Hopf bifurcation.

Competition in a turbidostat for an inhibitory nutrient

A model of competition in a turbidostat between two species for an inhibitory growth-limiting nutrient is considered. It is shown that the model has rich dynamics. A coexistence equilibrium and the washout equilibrium can be asymptotically stable simultaneously so that coexistence may depend on initial conditions. Under certain conditions, periodic coexistence of the two species occurs. There is a possibility that two species coexist, whereas one species dies out in the absence of its rival.

Periodic coexistence of four species competing for three essential resources

We show the existence of a periodic solution in which four species coexist in competition for three essential resources in the standard model of resource competition. By assuming that species i is limited by resource i for each i near the positive equilibrium, and that the matrix of contents of resources in species is a combination of cyclic matrix and a symmetric matrix, we obtain an asymptotically stable periodic solution of three species on three resources via Hopf bifurcation. A simple bifurcation argument is then employed which allows us to add a fourth species. In principle, the argument can be continued to obtain a periodic solution adding one new species at a time so long as asymptotic stability can be assured at each step. Numerical simulations are provided to illustrate our analytical results. The results of this paper suggest that competition can generate coexistence of species in the form of periodic cycles, and that the number of coexisting species can exceed the number of resources in a constant and homogeneous environment.

Periodic coexistence in the chemostat with three species competing for three essential resources

A chemostat model of three species of microorganisms competing for three essential, growth-limiting nutrients is considered. J. Husiman and F.J. Weissing [Nature 402 (1999) 407] show numerically that this model can generate periodic oscillations. The present contribution is concerned with rigorous analysis regarding the existence of periodic oscillations in this model. Our analysis is based on the following observation made by Huisman and Weissing: there is a cyclic replacement of species, if each species becomes limited by the resource for which it is the intermediate competitor. Using a permanence theory, an index theory, and a Poincaré-Bendixson theory for three-dimensional competitive systems, we analytically succeed to give sufficient conditions for the existence of periodic orbits in the limit sets in this model. The results in this paper suggest that with a wide range of parameter values, sustained periodic oscillations of species abundances for the model are possible, without involving external disturbances. Our results also suggest that competition is not necessarily destructive, i.e., in the case of existence of sustained periodic oscillations, if one of three competitors is absent, one of the other two rivals cannot survive.

Spreading speed, traveling waves, and minimal domain size in impulsive reaction-diffusion models.

How growth, mortality, and dispersal in a species affect the species’ spread and persistence constitutes a central problem in spatial ecology. We propose impulsive reaction–diffusion equation models for species with distinct reproductive and dispersal stages. These models can describe a seasonal birth pulse plus nonlinear mortality and dispersal throughout the year. Alternatively, they can describe seasonal harvesting, plus nonlinear birth and mortality as well as dispersal throughout the year. The population dynamics in the seasonal pulse is described by a discrete map that gives the density of the population at the end of a pulse as a possibly nonmonotone function of the density of the population at the beginning of the pulse. The dynamics in the dispersal stage is governed by a nonlinear reaction–diffusion equation in a bounded or unbounded domain. We develop a spatially explicit theoretical framework that links species vital rates (mortality or fecundity) and dispersal characteristics with species’ spreading speeds, traveling wave speeds, as well as minimal domain size for species persistence. We provide an explicit formula for the spreading speed in terms of model parameters, and show that the spreading speed can be characterized as the slowest speed of a class of traveling wave solutions. We also give an explicit formula for the minimal domain size using model parameters. Our results show how the diffusion coefficient, and the combination of discrete- and continuous-time growth and mortality determine the spread and persistence dynamics of the population in a wide variety of ecological scenarios. Numerical simulations are presented to demonstrate the theoretical results.

Success, failure, and spreading speeds for invasions on spatial gradients

We study a model that describes the spatial spread of a species along a habitat gradient on which the species’ growth increases. Mathematical analysis is provided to determine the spreading dynamics of the model. We demonstrate that the species may succeed or fail in local invasion depending on the species’ growth function and dispersal kernel. We delineate the conditions under which a spreading species may be stopped by poor quality habitat, and demonstrate how a species can escape a region of poor quality habitat by climbing a resource gradient to good quality habitat where it spreads at a constant spreading speed. We show that dispersal may take the species from a good quality region to a poor quality region where the species becomes extinct. We also provide formulas for spreading speeds for the model that are determined by the dispersal kernel and linearized growth rates in both directions.

Persistence and Spreading Speeds of Integro-Difference Equations with an Expanding or Contracting Habitat.

We study an integro-difference equation model that describes the spatial dynamics of a species in an expanding or contracting habitat. We give conditions under which the species disperses to a region of poor quality where the species eventually becomes extinct. We show that when the species persists in the habitat, the rightward and leftward spreading speeds are determined by c, the speed at which the habitat quality increases or decreases in time, as well as