The effect of costs associated with toxin production in a competitive system

Abstract

In this paper, we study a two-species competitive system where both the species produce toxin against each other at some cost to their growth rates. A much wider set of outcomes is possible for our system. These outcomes are important contrasts to competitive exclusion or bistable attractors that are often the outcomes for competitive systems. We show that toxin helps to gain an advantage in competition for toxic species whenever the cost of toxin production remains within some moderate value; otherwise it may result in the extinction of the species itself.

Keywords:

• allelopathy
• cost and benefit of toxin production
• competitive exclusion

Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to the referees for their extremely valuable comments and suggestion on the previous version of the manuscript.