Periodic solution for a diffusive predator-prey system with functional response (Q4457917)

The authors consider the problem of a two-patch system containing two species of predator and one species of prey. The predators are confined to one patch whereas the prey can defuse between the two patches. One presumes that there is some attraction for the prey in the patch infested with its predators. The rate parameters of the system are continuous positive functions of time with the same period, \(\omega \), so that one is not considering a catastrophic environment but one of a `seasonal' nature. The positivity of all of the functions makes it a difficult matter to include the realistic situation of a periodic reproduction/death rate which can become negative. One thinks for example of herbivores which concentrate the production of offspring to certain parts of the year -- a time of positive reproduction/death rate -- while the dying is more evenly distributed and so the rate negative for most of the year. The main result of the paper is that under certain conditions on the time-dependent coefficients the model has at least one (positive) solution of period \(\omega \). The demonstration is based on the continuation theorem of coincidence degree theory. This is truly a remarkable result! It is a great pity that the authors have not presented an example or two to show how the theorem does or does not work. This would not have added much to the length of the paper, but would enable the reader to see the potential utility of the results. In a similar spirit the reasons for the definition of the two projectors \(P \) and \(Q \) on page 269 with the property \(P(u) =Q(u)\) and for the critical importance of \(QN ({\mathbf u}) ^T \neq 0 \) (bottom of page 271) in the case of the presence or absence of solutions of the system (20) could have been briefly presented.