Forced waves for a three-species predator-prey system with nonlocal dispersal in a shifting environment

Abstract

We consider a three-species predator-prey system involving two competing predators and one prey. The species diffuse with nonlocal dispersal kernels with possibly non-compact support, and they interact in a heterogeneous environment moving with a positive forced speed such that the environment is favorable to the prey in the absence of predators far ahead of the shifting boundary and it is unfavorable far behind. Such systems arise in the modeling of population dynamics under the effect of a shifting environment, such as climate change. We show on the one hand the existence of waves connecting the trivial state to the unique constant positive co-existence state for any value of the forced speed. On the other hand, we show the existence of critical positive speeds for the existence of waves connecting the trivial state to the states corresponding to the absence of one or two predators.