Reaction-diffusion equations of two species competing for two complementary resources with internal storage (Q550016)

The authors examine a system of reaction-diffusion equation arising from a mathematical model of two microbial species competing for two complementary resources (nutrients) with internal storage in an unstirred chemostat. In a previous paper, the authors investigated a mathematical model of two microbial species competing for a single-limited nutrient with internal storage in an unstirred chemostat and provided the results on washout, one species survival and the other washout and coexistence. This paper is a continuation of the previous one and the authors start from the following system of partial differential equations: \[ \left.\begin{aligned} (u_i)_t& =d(u_i)_{xx}+ \min\left\{\mu_{Si}\left(\frac{U_{Si}}{u_i}\right), \mu _{Ri}\left(\frac{U_{Ri}}{u_i}\right)\right\}u_i\\ (U_{Si})_t &= d(U_{Si})_{xx}+ f_{Si}\left(z_S(x)- U_{S1}-U_{S2},\frac{U_{Si}}{u_i}\right)u_i\\ (U_{Ri})_t &= d(U_{Ri})_{xx}+ f_{Ri}\left(z_R(x)- U_{R1}-U_{R2},\frac{U_{Ri}}{u_i}\right)u_i\end{aligned}\right\} \quad i=1,2, \] in \((0,1)\times(0,\infty)\) with boundary conditions \[ \begin{alignedat}{2} (U_{Si})_x(0,t) &=0, &\qquad (U_{Si})_x(1,t)+\gamma U_{Si}(1,t) &= 0, \\ (U_{Ri})_x(0,t) &= 0, &\qquad (U_{Ri})_x(1,t)+\gamma U_{Ri}(1,t) &= 0,\\ (u_i) _x(0,t)&=0, &\qquad (u_i) _x(1,t)+\gamma u_i(1,t) &=0, \end{alignedat} \] and corresponding initial conditions. The authors determine the global dynamics of the system. One main technical difficulty in the analysis is the fact that the case \(U_{Ni}=0\) and \(u_i=0\) produces a singularity in the reaction term. To overcome this difficulty the authors construct upper-lower solutions with those components sufficient small, each of which has a singularity at zero, and replace the linearization tool by a combination of the constructed upper and lower solutions, maximum principle and the theory of monotone dynamical system. The paper is structured in three sections. After a generous introduction, the authors consider in Section 2 two invariant subsystems which describe the single population growth corresponding to the system. The results for the single population are almost sharp, either washout of the organism or survival of the organism occurs. The authors determine the conditions for both of the washout and survival of the organisms. In Section 3 the authors study a two competing species model. They prove the existence and coexistence for the model of two competing species. The main result is given in case both organisms are viable, and this is a persistence result requiring that each single-species population can be invaded by its competitors.