A heterogeneous diffusive logistic model of a single species population dynamics with predation and harvesting terms (Q2396833)

The authors study the existence and multiplicity of positive solutions of the heterogeneous diffusive logistic equation with predation and harvesting terms, \[ \begin{cases} -\Delta u = au-b(x)u^2-\frac{cu}{1+mu}-dh(x) & \text{ in }\Omega, \\ \frac{\partial u}{\partial \nu}=0 & \text{ on }\partial\Omega, \end{cases} \] where \(a,c,m\) and \(d\) are positive constants, \(\Omega\) is a bounded smooth domain in \(\mathbb{R}^n\) (\(n\geq 1\)), \(b(x)\) and \(h(x)\) are nonnegative functions on \(\overline{\Omega}\), and \(b(x)\) satisfies that the zero set of \(b\) is the closure of some regular sub-domain \(\Omega_0\), i.e. \[ \overline{\Omega}_0:=\{x:b(x)=0\}\neq \emptyset, \quad \Omega_0\Subset \Omega. \] These types of equations arise naturally in the study of steady states of some parabolic reaction-diffusion equations (or systems) used in modeling population dynamics of species. The authors study the existence and multiplicity results under the strong growth rate assumption, that is, \(a>\lambda_1^D(\Omega_0)\), where \(\lambda_1^D(\Omega_0)\) is the first Dirichlet eigenvalue of \(-\Delta\) in \(\Omega_0\). Similar questions in the case of weak growth rate \(a<\lambda_1^D(\Omega_0)\) has been considered in [\textit{S. Shabani}, J. Math. Anal. Appl. 410, No. 1, 69--482 (2014; Zbl 1307.92331)]. The authors show that there exists \(d_a>0\) such that for all \(0\leq d\leq d_a\), the equation has at least one positive solution. In addition, in the case \(c<a\) they prove some multiplicity results when \(m<m_0\) with \(m_0=\int_\Omega b(x) dx/(a|\Omega|)\). Compared with the existing literature, the novelty of the paper lies in the introduction of the so called harvesting term \(dh(x)\) to the equation. Due to the presence of this term, standard techniques (such as bifurcation and maximum principle arguments) are not directly applicable. To overcome this difficulty the authors combine variational techniques (the mountain pass lemma in the context of closed convex subsets of Banach spaces) with suitable continuity arguments.