Forced waves of a three species predator-prey system with a pair of weak-strong competing preys in a shifting environment

Abstract

In this paper, we investigate so-called forced wave solutions of a three components reaction-diffusion system from population dynamics. Our system involves three species that are respectively two competing preys and one predator; moreover, the competition between both preys is strong, i.e. in the absence of the predator, one prey is driven to extinction and the other survives. Furthermore, our problem includes a spatio-temporal heterogeneity in a moving variable that typically stands as a model for climate shift. In this context, forced waves are special stationary solutions which are expected to describe the large-time behavior of solutions, and in particular to provide criteria on the climate shift speed to allow survival of either of the three species. We will consider several types of forced waves to deal with various situations depending on which species are indigenous and which species are aboriginal.