Open AccessEffects of asymmetrical biotic interactions on multispecies dynamics
Author(s) -
J. O. Ojonubah,
Masratul Hawa Mohd
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
iop conference series. earth and environmental science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 1755-1307
pISSN - 1755-1315
DOI - 10.1088/1755-1315/380/1/012013
Subject(s) - abiotic component , ecology , competition (biology) , biotic component , range (aeronautics) , environmental science , biology , materials science , composite material
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.