| Autor: |
Eigentler, Lukas, Sherratt, Jonathan A. |
| Rok vydání: |
2019 |
| Předmět: |
|
| Zdroj: |
Bulletin of Mathematical Biology 81(7):2290-2322, 2019 |
| Druh dokumentu: |
Working Paper |
| DOI: |
10.1007/s11538-019-00606-z |
| Popis: |
Vegetation patterns are a ubiquitous feature of water-deprived ecosystems. Despite the competition for the same limiting resource, coexistence of several plant species is commonly observed. We propose a two-species reaction-diffusion model based on the single-species Klausmeier model, to analytically investigate the existence of states in which both species coexist. Ecologically, the study finds that coexistence is supported if there is a small difference in the plant species' average fitness, measured by the ratio of a species' capabilities to convert water into new biomass to its mortality rate. Mathematically, coexistence is not a stable solution of the system, but both spatially uniform and patterned coexistence states occur as metastable states. In this context, a metastable solution in which both species coexist corresponds to a long transient (exceeding $10^3$ years in dimensional parameters) to a stable one-species state. This behaviour is characterised by the small size of a positive eigenvalue which has the same order of magnitude as the average fitness difference between the two species. Two mechanisms causing the occurrence of metastable solutions are established: a spatially uniform unstable equilibrium and a stable one-species pattern which is unstable to the introduction of a competitor. We further discuss effects of asymmetric interspecific competition (e.g. shading) on the metastability property. |
| Databáze: |
arXiv |
| Externí odkaz: |
|
