Dispersal, Individual Movement and Spatial Ecology

Abstract

The invasion of alien and displacement of indigenous species is a crucial ecological and economical problem of even increasing significance. Measures to control and perhaps to stop and reverse such invasive processes are urgently needed. Mathematical models are a suitable tool to preview the impact of control measures before utilizing them in nature. Here, a reaction-diffusion model is used to describe the competition and dispersal of invasive and native species. Not only the environment is changing but also growth, harvesting and dispersal of the two competitors vary in space and time. Extreme events such as fires or landslides or any other processes yielding bare re-invadable ground lead to temporary extinction of both species at a randomly chosen time and spatial range. The spatiotemporal dimension of these extreme fragmentation events, the ratio of the dispersal rates of the competing species as well as the selective removal of the invader turn out to be the crucial driving forces of the system dynamics. Finally, the controlling effect of a targeted infection of the invasive species with a specific pathogen is studied in an eco-epidemiological competition-diffusion model. © 2013 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.