Project Details
Abstract
Competition for resources is an important interaction between species, for which
mathematical theory has been successful in predicting the persistence and coexistence of
particular species based on their mechanisms of resource consumption. Several works have
now considered populations and resources that are distributed in spatially variable habitats. It
was found that even with one nutrient, coexistence of two competing species is possible for
competition in the flow reactor habitat, with transport of nutrient and organisms by both
advection and diffusion. The flow reactor model has been further included a hydraulic storage
zone, again with similar outcomes for persistence and coexistence of competing populations.
The flow reactor and its modifications are very important because they provide a simple
model for riverine reservoirs.
Many previous works provide useful results on competitive dynamics in spatially
variable habitats, but have neglected some important biological facts. First, they only
considered a single hydraulic storage zone in their systems. Models with multiple storage
zones have been proposed or discussed in the existing engineering literature. Second, they
have all assumed that consumption of nutrients and growth of populations are directly
proportional though a quota constant, representing the amount nutrient contained in one
individual. However, it is known that for many microorganisms the quota of nutrient per
individual varies dynamically, so that nutrient is stored internally within organisms. Due to
some difficulties, internal storage has been ignored in theoretical work for spatially variable
habitats. Finally, the production of toxins that act against competing species, known as
allelopathy, is also a crucial factor that potentially influences competitive outcomes. It will be
biologically and mathematically interesting if we can incorporate allelopathy with internal
storage of the nutrient in the dynamics of resource competition. To answer these three
questions just summarized, we shall propose and study several models described by
advection-dispersion-reaction systems or ordinary differential equations.
Project IDs
Project ID:PA10401-0867
External Project ID:MOST103-2115-M182-001-MY2
External Project ID:MOST103-2115-M182-001-MY2
Status | Finished |
---|---|
Effective start/end date | 01/08/15 → 31/07/16 |
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