Random dispersal vs. non-local dispersal (Q2268683)

Random dispersal which is essentially a local behavior describes the movement of organisms between adjacent spatial locations. However, the movements and interactions of some organisms can occur between non-adjacent spatial locations. To address the question about which dispersal strategy can convey some competitive advantage, the authors consider a mathematical model consisting of one reaction-diffusion equation and one integro-differential equation, in which two competing species have the same population dynamics but different dispersal strategies: the movement of one species is purely by random walk while the other species adopts a non-local dispersal strategy. For either hostile surroundings or spatially periodic and heterogeneous environments, it is shown that the species with random dispersal cannot invade when rare, while the species with non-local dispersal and small non-local interaction distance can invade when rare. These results suggest that for hostile surroundings or spatially periodic heterogeneous environments, non-local dispersal can be preferred over random dispersal. Nevertheless, for spatially heterogeneous environments if random dispersal strategy with zero Neumann boundary condition is compared with non-local dispersal strategy with hostile surroundings, each of the two species can invade when rare and both species can also coexist. Biologically, this result can be interpreted to mean that the zero-flux boundary condition can somehow help counterbalance the disadvantage caused by local dispersal. Numerical results are presented to complement the analytical results especially the global dynamics of the system for general values of non-local interaction distance. Finally, suggestions for future research directions are provided.