Population abundance of two-patch competitive systems with asymmetric dispersal.

Abstract

This paper considers two-species competitive systems with two patches, in which one of the species can move between the patches. One patch is a source where each species can persist alone, but the other is a sink where the mobile species cannot survive. Based on rigorous analysis on the model, we show global stability of equilibria and bi-stability in the first octant Int[Formula: see text]. Then total population abundance of each species is explicitly expressed as a function of dispersal rates, and the function of the mobile species displays a distorted surface, which extends previous theory. A novel prediction of this work is that appropriate dispersal could make each competitor approach total population abundance larger than if non-dispersing, while the dispersal could reverse the competitive results in the absence of dispersal and promote coexistence of competitors. It is also shown that intermediate dispersal is favorable, large or small one is not good, while extremely large or small dispersal will result in extinction of species. These results are important in ecological conservation and management.