King-Yeung Lam

Concentration Phenomena of a Semilinear Elliptic Equation with Large Advection in an Ecological Model

We consider a reaction-diffusion-advection equation arising from a biological model of migrating species. The qualitative properties of the globally attracting solution are studied and in some cases the limiting profile is determined. In particular, a conjecture of Cantrell, Cosner and Lou on concentration phenomena is resolved under mild conditions. Applications to a related parabolic competition system is also discussed.

Uniqueness and complete dynamics in heterogeneous competition-diffusion systems

In this paper we study the interactions between diffusion and heterogeneity of the environment in the classical diffusive Lotka--Volterra competition systems. In the weak competition case, we establish the uniqueness, hence the global asymptotic stability, of coexistence steady states under various circumstances, and thereby we obtain a complete understanding of the change in dynamics when one of the interspecific competition coefficients is small.

Evolution of conditional dispersal: evolutionarily stable strategies in spatial models

We consider a two-species competition model in which the species have the same population dynamics but different dispersal strategies. Both species disperse by a combination of random diffusion and advection along environmental gradients, with the same random dispersal rates but different advection coefficients. Regarding these advection coefficients as movement strategies of the species, we investigate their course of evolution. By applying invasion analysis we find that if the spatial environmental variation is less than a critical value, there is a unique evolutionarily singular strategy, which is also evolutionarily stable. If the spatial environmental variation exceeds the critical value, there can be three or more evolutionarily singular strategies, one of which is not evolutionarily stable. Our results suggest that the evolution of conditional dispersal of organisms depends upon the spatial heterogeneity of the environment in a subtle way.

Evolution of dispersal in closed advective environments

We study a two-species competition model in a closed advective environment, where individuals are exposed to unidirectional flow (advection) but no individuals are lost through the boundary. The two species have the same growth and advection rates but different random dispersal rates. The linear stability analysis of the semi-trivial steady state suggests that, in contrast to the case without advection, slow dispersal is generally selected against in closed advective environments. We investigate the invasion exponent for various types of resource functions, and our analysis suggests that there might exist some intermediate dispersal rate that will be selected. When the diffusion and advection rates are small and comparable, we determine criteria for the existence and multiplicity of singular strategies and evolutionarily stable strategies. We further show that every singular strategy is convergent stable.

Evolutionarily Stable and Convergent Stable Strategies in Reaction–Diffusion Models for Conditional Dispersal

We consider a mathematical model of two competing species for the evolution of conditional dispersal in a spatially varying, but temporally constant environment. Two species are different only in their dispersal strategies, which are a combination of random dispersal and biased movement upward along the resource gradient. In the absence of biased movement or advection, Hastings showed that the mutant can invade when rare if and only if it has smaller random dispersal rate than the resident. When there is a small amount of biased movement or advection, we show that there is a positive random dispersal rate that is both locally evolutionarily stable and convergent stable. Our analysis of the model suggests that a balanced combination of random and biased movement might be a better habitat selection strategy for populations.

The Role of Advection in a Two-Species Competition Model: A Bifurcation Approach

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The Emergence of Range Limits in Advective Environments

In this paper, we study the asymptotic profile of the steady state of a reaction-diffusion-advection model in ecology proposed in [E. Pachepsky et al., Theoret. Popul. Biol., 67 (2005), pp. 61--73; D. Speirs and W. Gurney, Ecology, 82 (2001), pp. 1219--1237]. The model describes the population dynamics of a single species experiencing a unidirectional flow. We show the existence of one or more internal transition layers and determine their locations. Such locations can be understood as the upstream invasion limits of the species. It turns out that these invasion limits are connected to the upstream spreading speed of the species and are sometimes subject to the effect of migration from upstream source patches.

An integro-PDE model for evolution of random dispersal ☆

Abstract We consider an integro-PDE model for a population structured by the spatial variables and a trait variable which is the diffusion rate. Competition for resource is local in spatial variables, but nonlocal in the trait variable. We focus on the asymptotic profile of positive steady state solutions. Our result shows that in the limit of small mutation rate, the solution remains regular in the spatial variables and yet concentrates in the trait variable and forms a Dirac mass supported at the lowest diffusion rate. Hastings [16] and Dockery et al. [14] showed that for two competing species in spatially heterogeneous but temporally constant environment, the slower diffuser always prevails, if all other things are held equal. Our result suggests that their findings may well hold for arbitrarily many or even a continuum of traits.

Single species growth consuming inorganic carbon with internal storage in a poorly mixed habitat

This paper presents a PDE system modeling the growth of a single species population consuming inorganic carbon that is stored internally in a poorly mixed habitat. Inorganic carbon takes the forms of “CO2” (dissolved CO2 and carbonic acid) and “CARB” (bicarbonate and carbonate ions), which are substitutable in their effects on algal growth. We first establish a threshold type result on the extinction/persistence of the species in terms of the sign of a principal eigenvalue associated with a nonlinear eigenvalue problem. If the habitat is the unstirred chemostat, we add biologically relevant assumptions on the uptake functions and prove the uniqueness and global attractivity of the positive steady state when the species persists.

Dimorphism by Singularity Theory in a Model for River Ecology

Geritz, Gyllenberg, Jacobs, and Parvinen show that two similar species can coexist only if their strategies are in a sector of parameter space near a nondegenerate evolutionarily singular strategy. We show that the dimorphism region can be more general by using the unfolding theory of Wang and Golubitsky near a degenerate evolutionarily singular strategy. Specifically, we use a PDE model of river species as an example of this approach. Our finding shows that the dimorphism region can exhibit various different forms that are strikingly different from previously known results in adaptive dynamics.