Some competition models for size-structured populations (Q809929)

The author studies a model for m size-structured species competing for a single unstructured resource. The usual McKendrick-type birth and death dynamics are supplemented by relations connecting resource utilization with body length \(\ell\) and growth rate. In particular, the length component is a multiplicative term of form \(\ell^{\gamma}\), \(\gamma\) a constant and in this paper is either 2 or 3 (i.e. utilization is proportional to body surface-area or weight). Resource utilization also is proportional to a function \(u_ i(R)\) where R is the resource density. Time variation of R is governed by \(R'=k(R)-\sum u_ i(R)S_ i\) where k is resource growth rate in the absence of consumption and \(S_ i\) is the instantaneous total body area, or weight, of the i th species. The author sets up a system of ODE's for the \(S_ i\) and R and under certain conditions shows that solutions are always positive and that instantaneous average body areas, or weights, have a finite long term limit. His results are illustrated by an application to competition in a chemostat.