Species coexistence under resource competition with intraspecific and interspecific direct competition in a chemostat.
Competition theory has developed separately for direct competition and for exploitative competition. However, the combined effects of the two types of competition on species coexistence remain unclear. To examine how intraspecific and interspecific direct competition contributes to the coexistence of species competing for a single resource, we constructed a chemostat-type resource competition model. With general functions for intraspecific and interspecific direct competition, we derived necessary and sufficient conditions (except for a critical case that rarely occurs in a biological sense) that determine the number of stably coexisting species. From these conditions, we found that the number of coexisting species is determined just by the invasibility of each species into subcommunities with a smaller number of species. In addition, using a combination of rigorous mathematical theory and a simple graphical method, we can demonstrate how the stronger intraspecific direct competition facilitates species invasion, leading to a larger number of coexisting species.
Saito
Yasuhisa
Y
Department of Mathematics, Pusan National University, Pusan 609-735, Republic of Korea. saito.yasuhisa@gmail.com
Miki
Takeshi
T
D044822:Biodiversity; D003163:Competitive Behavior; D017753:Ecosystem; D005787:Gene Frequency / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D008957:Models, Genetic; D015233:Models, Statistical; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D011157:Population Dynamics; D012919:Social Behavior; D013045:Species Specificity