Positive periodic solution for non-autonomous competition Lotka--Volterra patch system with time delay (Q2572134)

Consider the two-species nonautonomous competitive Lotka-Volterra patch-system with time delay and diffusion \[ \left\{\begin{aligned} x'_1(t) & = x_1(t)\big[r_1(t)-a_1(t)x_1(t)-b_1(t)y(t)\big] + D_1(t) \big[x_2(t)-x_1(t)\big],\\ x'_2(t) & = x_2(t)\big[r_2(t)-a_2(t)x_2(t)\big] + D_2(t) \big[x_1(t)-x_2(t)\big],\\ y'(t) & = y(t) \Big[r_3(t) - a_3(t) x_1(t) - b_3(t) y(t) - \beta(t) \int_{-\tau}^0 k(s) y(t+s)ds\Big], \end{aligned}\right.\tag \(*\) \] where \(x_1(t)\) and \(y(t)\) are the population density of species \(x\) and \(y\), respectively, in patch 1, and \(x_2(t)\) is the density of species \(x\) in patch 2; species \(y\) is confined to patch 1, species \(x\) can diffuse between the two patches; \(\tau>0\) is a constant delay due to gestation; \(D_i(t)\) are strictly positive functions denoting the dispersal rate of species \(x\) in the \(i\)th patch, \(i=1,2\); and \(k(s)\geq 0\) is a piecewise continuous function which is normalized with \(\int_{-\tau}^0 k(s)ds = 1\). By using Mawhin's continuation theorem of coincidence degree theory and a priori estimates, a sufficient condition for the existence of a positive periodic solution of system \((*)\) is obtained.