Adaptation of species as response to climate change: Predator-prey mathematical model

Abstract

Most of the species currently threatened with extinction seem to be under the pressure of unsuitable environmental conditions; e.g., climate change, scarce food resource, habitat fragmentation. One should expect species to have forms of resilience against such extinction. The point here is to examine the effect of spatial gradients on species survival against increasing temperature arising from climate change. Therefore, we start with the question of whether, when faced with extinction stemming from climate change, a spatial gradient and a beachhead have the power to prevent extinction. This problem is addressed theoretically using a coupled reaction diffusion equation for a predator-prey system in which the prey experiences an Allee effect. It is demonstrated that there exists a relationship between the slope of the gradient and the beachhead at which the predator-prey system can stably survive. The tendency of the system can be defined by a function where the system includes the threshold point for extinction, that separates the areas of extinction and survival. The findings reveal that spatial gradient can be used as a precaution, when the species faces to extinction, for species to create new habitat and sustain its persistence. Therefore, in this paper, it is shown that, in theory, the recovery of species from unsuitable environmental conditions can be achieved. This can be possible by taking into account the spatial gradient to slow down the forthcoming ecological extinction, and thus extend the system a while as an adaptation mechanism.