Invasion waves in the biochemical warfare between living organisms

S. A. Carvalho and M. L. Martins
Phys. Rev. E 97, 042403 – Published 3 April 2018

Abstract

Microorganisms and plants very commonly release toxic secondary chemical compounds (allelochemicals) that inhibit or kill sensitive strains or individuals from their own or other species. In this work we study a model that describes two species interacting through allelopathic suppression and competing for resources. Employing linear stability analysis, the conditions for coexistence or extinction of species in spatially homogeneous systems were determined. We found that the borders between the regimes of bistability, coexistence, and the extinction of the weaker by the stronger competitor, are altered by allelopathic interactions. In addition, traveling wave solutions for one species invasion were obtained considering the spatially explicit nature of the model. Our findings indicate that the minimum speed of the invasion wavefronts depends primarily on the competition coefficients and the parameters characterizing the species' functional responses to their allelochemicals. As a general rule, the species provided with the most effective chemical weapons dominates the population dynamics. Finally, we found a tristability at the coexistence region due to the combination of allelopathy and patchy population distributions in space. So, our model provides a distinct mechanism, independent of social behaviors, that produces such unexpected tristability impossible in classical competition models involving one-to-one individual interactions.

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  • Received 18 December 2017
  • Revised 12 February 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.97.042403

©2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

  1. Research Areas
Physics of Living Systems

Authors & Affiliations

S. A. Carvalho1,* and M. L. Martins1,2,†

  • 1Departamento de Física, Universidade Federal de Viçosa, 36570-900, Viçosa, Minas Gerais, Brazil
  • 2National Institute of Science and Technology for Complex Systems, Centro Brasileiro de Pesquisas Físicas, Rua Xavier Sigaud 150, 22290-180, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

  • *sylvestre.carvalho@ufv.br
  • mmartins@ufv.br

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Issue

Vol. 97, Iss. 4 — April 2018

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