Effects of asymmetrical biotic interactions on multispecies dynamics

• Published in: IOP conference series. Earth and environmental science 2019-11, Vol.380 (1), p.12013
• Main Authors: Ojonubah, J O, Mohd, M H
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Abiotic factors; Asymmetry; Bifurcations; Climate change; Coexistence; Competition; Dominant species; Environment models; Environmental changes; Geographical distribution; Mathematical models; Spatial distribution
• ISSN: 1755-1307; 1755-1315
• DOI: 10.1088/1755-1315/380/1/012013

One of the key challenges in ecology is to predict multispecies spatial distributions in the future. The influence of biotic interactions in the form of competition and environmental change such as climate are thought to have significant impacts on the distribution of species. To ascertain this, we study a multispecies community assembly with asymmetrical competition across heterogeneous environments using mathematical modelling. With the aid of analytical and simulation analyses, we achieved the predictions of the species range margins (comprising the geographic boundary beyond which a species is not present). We also perform bifurcation analysis in order to understand the competitive dynamics across location. Our results show that the combined influence of the biotic and abiotic factors lead to coexistence of species when competition is relatively weak and existence of single dominant species territory during aggressive competitions. Also, the threshold values observed in the bifurcation analysis correspond to transcritical bifurcation points.