How many consumer levels can survive in a chemotactic food chain? (Q1034887)

A model for a food chain including chemotactic and transport effects is proposed: the basic assumption is that the food chain involves a nutrient with density \(S=u_0\) and \(m\) micro-organisms with densities \((u_i)_{1\leq i \leq m}\), the nutrient being consumed by the micro-organism of type \(1\) while the micro-organism of type \(i\in\{1,\dots, m-1\}\) is consumed by the micro-organism of type \(i+1\). The model then reads as: \[ \begin{aligned} \partial_t S & = d_0 \Delta S - b_0(x)\cdot \nabla S - u_1 f_1(S),\cr \partial_t u_i & = d_i \Delta u_i - b_i(x)\cdot \nabla u_i - \nabla\cdot(u_i \Phi_i(u_{i-1}) \nabla u_{i-1}) + u_i (f_i(u_{i-1}) - k_i) - u_{i+1} f_{i+1}(u_i),\cr \partial_t u_m & = d_m \Delta u_m - b_m(x)\cdot \nabla u_m - \nabla\cdot(u_m \Phi_i(u_{m-1}) \nabla u_{m-1}) + u_m (f_m(u_{m-1}) - k_m), \end{aligned} \] supplemented with suitable initial and boundary conditions. Here, the terms \(b_i(x)\cdot\nabla u_i\), \(\nabla\cdot(u_i \Phi_i(u_{i-1}) \nabla u_{i-1})\), and \(k_i u_i\) account for the transport by a flow, an enhanced motion of the ``predator'' \(i\) towards high gradients of the density of the ``prey'' \(i-1\), and a death term, respectively. Under some structural assumptions on \((b_i)\), \((\Phi_i)\), \((f_i)\), and the boundary conditions, conditions are given for the existence (and uniqueness) of a stationary state \((\widehat{S},\widehat{u}_1,\dots,\widehat{u}_m)\) with \(\widehat{S}>0\) and \(\widehat{u}_i>0\), \(1\leq i \leq m\), that is for which all the species coexist. A more detailed analysis is actually carried out when \(m=2\), showing the existence of two other steady states \((S^*,0,0)\) and \((\widetilde{S},\widetilde{u}_1,0)\) and studying their stability. The analysis is illustrated with numerical simulations.