Global asymptotic stability and the ideal free distribution in a starvation driven diffusion (Q2447554)

The dispersal strategies of biological organisms are key ingredients in their ecological evolution. Diffusion models and random dispersal and the constant diffusivity case have been intensively studied in the literature. However, the need of food or mating causes a huge lead in the motility of species and such a change is the key to understand the role of dispersal in the evolution. In this paper the authors analyze such a motility change for the simplest logistic model \(u_t=\Delta (\gamma(s)u) +k u (m(x)-u) \) with a non-uniform random dispersal in a Fokker-Planck-type law (but not in Fick's law), where \(u\) is the population density and \(m\) is the resource distribution. Several basic properties of the model are obtained including the global asymptotic stability and the acquisition of the ideal free distribution. The authors develop the mathematical theory much the same way as its linear diffusive counterpart, but the analysis is more sophisticated.