Coexistence in chemostat-like models (Q2641250)

Competition models easily reflect the direct impact of one population upon the other; for example, one produces metabolic products that inhibit the growth of the other. The simplest form of competition is where two or more populations compete for the same resource, for example, the same food supply or the same growth limting nutrient. One can view the ``competitors'' as ``predators'' on the ``nutrient'', and this produces an entirely different type of behavior for the resulting dynamical system. Such systems have a tendency towards oscillation. In some of the simplest cases, however, there is a ``conservation law'' that enables one to reduce the system to the above competitive type. The lectures here survey a class of problems of this type with a view of determining when it is possible for all of the components of the model ecosystem to ``survive''. The basic model is the simple chemostat; from it, there are great many variations which lead to interesting mathematical questions.