Coexistence of competitors in deterministic and stochastic patchy environments

Abstract

The spatial component of ecological interactions plays an important role in shaping ecological communities. A crucial ecological question is how does habitat disturbance and fragmentation affect species persistence and diversity? In this paper, we develop a deterministic metapopulation model that takes into account a time-dependent patchy environment, thus our model and analysis take into account environmental changes. We investigate the effects that spatial variations have on persistence and coexistence of two competing species. In particular, we study the local behaviour of the model, and we provide a rigorous proof for the global analysis of our model. Also, we compare the results of the deterministic model with simulations of a stochastic version of the model.

Keywords:

• metapopulation
• patch dynamics
• species competition
• coexistence
• stochasticity

Acknowledgements

This work was started when the authors attended an AIM workshop, and the authors would like to thank AIM for the opportunity. The research by Feng is supported in part by the NSF grant DMS-0920828. The research by Qiu is supported by the NSFC grant 10801074 and by the Zijin Star Project of Excellence Plan of NJUST. Abdul-Aziz Yakubu is partially supported by the Department of Homeland Security and CCCiCADA of Rutgers University and NSF 0832782.