Average growth and extinction in a competitive Lotka--Volterra system (Q2486635)

The authors consider the Lotka-Volterra system of differential equations \[ u_k'(t)=u_k(t)\left[a_k(t)-\sum_{i=1}^N b_{kl}u_l(t)\right],\quad k=1,2,\dots,N,\;N\geq1. \] They show that certain inequalities involving the interaction coefficients and averages of the growth rates imply that the system is persistent. However, reversing one of these inequalities implies that the \(N\)th species goes to extinction. They answer an earlier conjecture.