Competitive coexistence and life cycle stages

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Cushing Competition is one of the most fundamental interactions occurringamong biological species. The investigators study carefully derived modelsin order to understand the mathematical and biological mechanisms thatpromote the stage-structure-mediated coexistence phenomenon that occursunder strong inter-specific competition. Special cases that allow adimensional reduction are particularly important in the study because thesecases are amenable to rigorous mathematical analysis using stability theoryand bifurcation methods. The robustness of the competitive coexistencephenomenon is investigated by studying a variety of other models, includingmodels allowing a large number of life stages, different kinds ofinter-stage competition scenarios, different types of nonlinearities, andcommunities of more than two competing species. The importance of the investigation is to study the underlyingprinciple in theoretical ecology that states coexistence among biologicalspecies requires some sort of niche separation that decreasesinter-specific competition. This project contributes to the understandingof ecological niche and competitive coexistence. Overall, it can lead tothe ability to understand and develop mechanisms to handle problems such asnatural resource management, introduction or re-introduction of speciesinto ecosystems, sustainable yield in the harvesting of ecosystems, andbiocontrol in pest management.