Competitive systems with stage structure of distributed-delay type (Q852740)

The authors study a stage-structured competitive model of Lotka-Volterra type with distributed delays (appearing in the adult recruitment terms), the adult members of which are in competition. This is an extension of both the discrete delayed stage-structured model studied by \textit{S. Liu}, \textit{L. Chen} and \textit{G. Luo} [Nonlinear Anal., Theory Methods Appl. 51, 1347--1361 (2002; Zbl 1021.34065)] and the two-species model of \textit{J. F. M. Al-Omari} and \textit{S. A. Gourley} [SIAM J. Appl. Math. 63, 2063--2086 (2003; Zbl 1058.92037)]. Global asymptotic stability criteria for the coexistence equilibrium as well as the axial equilibrium, where all but one species go extinct, are given. The result shows that large immature mortality rate can lead to extinction of these species. Also, the weighted average maturation time may have negative effect on the coexistence of the species. The main theorem in this paper generalizes sufficient conditions for the global asymptotic stability of the positive and coexistence equilibria of the previous studies mentioned above.