The ideal free strategy with weak Allee effect (Q1937367)

This paper is related to the work \textit{R. S. Cantrell} et al. [Math. Biosci. Eng. 7, No. 1, 17--36 (2010; Zbl 1188.35102)] in which the following competition model is studied \[ \begin{cases} u_t=\mu\nabla\cdot[\nabla u-u\nabla P]+u(m-u-v) & \text{in } \Omega\times (0,\infty), \\ v_t=\nu\nabla\cdot[\nabla v-v\nabla Q]+v(m-u-v) & \text{in } \Omega\times (0,\infty), \\ (\nabla u-u\nabla P)\cdot n=(\nabla v-v\nabla Q)\cdot n=0 & \text{on } \partial \Omega\times (0,\infty). \end{cases} \] Here \(P(x)\) and \(Q(x)\) represent advective directions, \(m(x)\) is the intrinsic growth rate at location \(x\) and is assumed to be positive and non-constant in \(\Omega\). When \(P=\ln(m)\), the system has a semi-trivial steady-state \((m,0)\) which is shown to be globally asymptotically stable under appropriate assumptions in \textit{I. Averill} et al. [``On several conjectures from evolution of dispersal'', J. Biol. Dyn. 6, 117--130 (2012)]. The condition \(P=\ln(m)\), which is called the ``ideal free strategy'', allows the species \(u\) to drive the competitor to extinction. In the present paper, the reaction term \(u(m-u-v)\) is replaced by \(u^2(m-u-v)\) to employ the so-called weak Allee effect for \(u\). The movement strategies are set as \(P=\ln(m)\) and \(Q=\beta \ln(m)\) for \(\beta\geq 0\). This means that the advection of both species are directed toward resource maxima. The resulting model has the following form \[ \begin{cases} u_t=\mu\nabla\cdot[\nabla u-u\nabla \ln(m)]+u^2(m-u-v) & \text{in } \Omega\times (0,\infty), \\ v_t=\nu\nabla\cdot[\nabla v-\beta v\nabla \ln(m)]+v(m-u-v) & \text{in } \Omega\times (0,\infty), \\ (\nabla u-u\nabla \ln(m))\cdot n=(\nabla v-\beta v\nabla \ln(m))\cdot n=0 & \text{on } \partial \Omega\times (0,\infty). \end{cases} \] The main purpose of this paper is to answer the question: is the above principle of competitive exclusion still valid? The author was able to show that for small values of \(\beta\), \((m,0)\) is globally asymptotically stable while for large values of \(\beta\), the semi-trivial steady-state \((0,v^*)\) is unstable. This means that \(v\) can still be excluded if it utilizes very weak or very strong advection, despite having superior population dynamics. On the other hand, for intermediate values of \(\beta\), numerical simulation indicates that \((0,v^*)\) may be globally asymptotically stable or \(u, v\) can coexist. This means that there is a range of strategies for \(v\) to avoid invasion by an ideal free disperser.